Topics on the Page

 

• Overview

 

• Black Hawk Down and Somali 

 

• The passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993

 

• President Clinton’s welfare reform legislation and expansion of the earned income tax credit

 

• The first balanced budget in more than 25 years

 

• The election in 1994 of the first Republican majority in both the house and Senate in 40 years

 

• Tax credits for higher education

 

• Clinton in Ireland

 

• The causes and consequences of the impeachment of President Clinton in 1998

 

First Lady Hillary Clinton

 

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy

 

The West Wing Television Show

 

The 1995-96 Government Shutdown

 

Focus Question: What were the important policies and events of the Clinton Presidency?

 

Click here for an overview of the Clinton Presidency from American President: An Online Reference Resource from the Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia.

 

 William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas.

 

PBS Frontline documentary on the Clinton Presidency

 

PBS American Experience full-life documentary on Clinton from 2012.

 

Go here for the Clinton White House First Website (November 1995)

Timeline of Bill Clinton's Presidency

• For a source outlining the Clinton presidency, please check this PBS-Frontline link.

 

• For an informative interview with the former president, see Bill Clinton on the Golf Channel show Feherty (September 14, 2012).

 

• Here is a video from crash course on the Clinton presidency

  

• Here is an interesting video about how Ross Perot effected the 1992 election and the myth that he is the reason for the Clinton presidency

 

 

To read Bill Clinton's autobiography, click here.
 

 

Check out An Oral History of the First Presidential Campaign Websites in 1996 from The Wall Street Journal

 

Second helicopter to crash during the Battle of Mogadishu

 

Black Hawk Down

 

Click HERE to see a timeline of the U.S. Involvement in Somalia under President Clinton

 

Black Hawk Down: The Somali Battle That Changed US Policy in Africa

 

Black Hawk Down can be purchased HERE

 

 

 

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

 

North American Free Trade Agreement Flag

Preamble to NAFTA

Passed in 1993, NAFTA became one of the more controversial moves of the first year of the Clinton presidency. 

Under this agreement, Mexico, Canada, and the United States created a zone of free trade betwwen these North American nations

*Supporters argued it would strengthen the economies of all three nations
Here is a video and article from cnn explaining NAFTA and looking at its relevance today.

• To see a pro-NAFTA prospective, please check out the Economist of 2008.

 

• *Opponents held that jobs would be lost to Mexico and expressed concern about Mexico’s negligence concerning the environment, as explained by this video by Quartz.

 

To see a video showcasing dissatisfaction with NAFTA, click here.

 
Read this article to better understand NAFTA on the Mexican working class

Great website for facts and see how NAFTA has done since its existence click here

Plans are presently underway to expand NAFTA to become FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas), which is an enlarged version of NAFTA that covers 34 nations with the exception of Cuba.

For the full legacy of the Clinton Administration, click here.

President Clinton’s welfare reform

 

• Named the Personal Responsibility and Work Act, this 1996 piece of legislation completed a major 1992 campaign pledge of Clinton to end welfare as an entitlement program

 

• In this legislation, these changes included: (1) ending welfare as an entitlement, (2) mandating recipients receive a job within two years after induction, (3) placing a lifetime limit of 5 years to receive federal benefits, (4) encouraged two parent households and discouraged out-of-wedlock births, and (5) redoubled efforts to enforce child support 1996 bill proposed and passed to place limits on how long people could receive welfare benefits.

 

• Ended federal guarantee of welfare and gave states “block grants” set amounts of federal money to spend on welfare or other social needs.

 

To read the Bill Clinton Welfare Reform Radio Address from 1996, please click here.

To provide a human face to welfare reform, please check out this PBS-Frontline presentation called “Failure to Protect.” This website provides a number of videos, interviews, and interactive resources to help viewers better understand poverty in America. 

Balanced Budget

Pie chart of US Federal Government Expenditures 2000

 

• Clinton with Republicans agreed in 1997 on legislation to balance the budget by 2002.

 

• Spending cut & lowered taxes with simultaneous aims to give support to help children and improve health care.

 

• 1998 Clinton announced a government surplus

Great article on Clinton economics click here

• There is a statement on signing the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 by President Clinton.

 

• There is a White House press release from 1998 where President Clinton lauded the federal government for submitting the first balanced federal budget in 30 years.

Try to Balance the Budget
This is a link to a New York Times activity that allows people to attempt to balance the budget in their own way, while not greatly in-depth, can show student some of what issues the government faces.

Election of 1994 and the First Republican Party Majority in 40 Years

 

Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House, 2000

Election Results for U.S. Senate and U. S. House of Representatives

• With the economy not recovering fast enough for a number of Americans, voters redirected their anger at Washington in November 1994. In this year, Republicans promised to enter into a Contract with America pledging to add a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and digitize Congressional bills for the public at large to see and learn.

 

 

• In the election of 1994 the Republicans gained both houses of Congress. House Speaker, Newt Gingrich drafted a “Contract with America” which included a specific agenda that included congressional term limits, tax cuts, tougher crime laws & welfare reform. (Danzer, Klor, de Alva, 2007)

 

Watch Gingrich cover the 1994 Republican midterm platform here.

Tax cuts for higher education

• All at lower & middle class incomes get a tax deduction to pay for tuition and fees at the undergraduate or graduate level or job training.
• $1,500 tax credit for first 2 years of college
• lifetime learning credit
• cap on tax-exempt bonds is removed
• Student Loan interest deductions partially restored
• Undergraduate student tax benefits restored, but graduate tax benefits are not
• Penalty free IRA withdrawals allowed for education
• Tax-free treatment of loan forgiveness
• R & D tax credit extended (Smith, 1997)

 

Causes and Consequences of the Impeachment of President Clinton in 1998

 

 

 

Click here for primary documents and related materials on the impeachment trial from the Famous Trials website from Professor Douglas Lindor.

President Clinton's Statement on His Testimony Before the Grand Jury, August 17, 1998

· Bill Clinton was muddled with questions of extramarital affairs throughout his 1992 campaign

· In 1998, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr began to investigate the financial history of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Later, the investigation was expanded to include tampering with witnesses

· In turn, Starr turned up an inappropriate sexual relationship between a young White House intern named Monica Lewinsky and President Clinton 

· Though Clinton strongly denied lying about the affair, the House of Representative impeached Clinton on December 20, 1998 charged with perjury & obstruction of justice

· By February 1999, the Senate acquitted Clinton of all the charges. The Senate fell short of 67 votes (a 2/3 majority) required to convict him. He remained in office. (Danzer, Klor, de Alva, 2007

Here is a short video from CNN commemorating the 10 year anniversary of the Clinton impeachment 

• Timeline of the Lewinsky trial

 

• To better understand the impeachment trial, check out this classroom activity.

 

 

Clinton and Ireland

 

Click HERE to watch President Clinton's speech to Derry, Northern Ireland in 1995 at the end of the Troubles which was a 30 year Civil War between insurgent groups in Northenr Ireland.

 

Hillary Clinton

 

First Lady Hillary Clinton, 1998

 

In 2016 Hillary Clinton became the first Female to become the presumptive nominee for a major US political party.
here is a link to her official website
here is a link to the presidency project page on the 2016 election


Go here for a biography of Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton's History as First Lady from the New York Times
To read her most recent book, What Happened, click here.

Vice-President Bill Clinton?

Hillary Clinton served as the 67th Secretary of State

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy

 

Image from American Civil Liberties Union

Under President Clinton the United States military started their don't ask don't tell policy regarding gays in the military.

• Allowed closed gays to serve while prohibiting those who were openly gay from being in the military
• Here is a speech that preceded this change were President Clinton expressed his views.
• For a lesson plan on Clinton's policy surrounding this issue, click here.

History of Don't Ask, Don't Tell


Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S. Military: Historical Background, Gregory Here, University of California Davis

Repeal Day Memo, Department of Defense (September 20, 2011)

For perspectives on Don't Ask, Don't Tell, click here

President Obama on the Five Years Since Repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Archival Articles on Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy from the New York Times

The West Wing Television Show

In 1998, TV writer Aaron Sorkin debuted two TV shows, the first was a sitcom about a sports broadcasting show similar to Sports Center. The second show was The West Wing a behind the scenes look at the Senior staff of the fictional American President Josiah Bartlett.

• The show started off as a look mostly at the Senior Staff but eventually evolved into a show about the Bartlett Presidency. President Bartlett was modeled after Bill Clinton, a slightly left of center democrat when it came to economics but a very left of center democrat when it came to social issues.
• Members of his staff were modeled after members of the Clinton administration(the most famous being Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman being based off of Rahm Emmanuel).
• The show tackled many of the same issues that the Clinton administration had to deal with such as the Matthew Shepard incident, a government shutdown, unrest in the middle east, attempted terrorist attacks, etc. Following the election of George Bush however, the show developed into somewhat of a democratic escape, a "what-if" scenario delving into the question of whether or not the success achieved by the Bartlett administration could have been achieved by the Clinton administration had he not had the extra-marital affair albatross around his neck for the last two years.
• The show could very easily be used to show examples of what some of the big events of the Clinton administration may have looked like. An example comes from the episode "The Shutdown" which details the negotiations surrounding a budget dispute and subsequent government shutdown. Also it could be used to show students how politics work behind the scenes.

The 1995-96 Government Shutdown

Following the Republican upset in 1994, they immediately attempted to begin imposing their policies on the Clinton presidency. The big battle became with the debate over the federal budget of 1995. The previous fiscal year had ended in September and there was still no Budget agreement between the Republican controlled Congress and the Democratic President Bill Clinton. Following the end of a fiscal year if there is no budget, Congress and the President generally agree to a Continuing Resolution, which allows the Government to keep running while the two sides work on a budget. However in this budget battle, the Republicans had actually long been planning on attempting to force Clinton into accepting their budget, incorrectly assuming that Clinton would fold with sinking approval numbers and re-election coming the following fall. Yet Clinton was a lot stronger willed then they had expected.

The budget battle had been raging for months prior to the first shutdown, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich had said in May of 1995 to TIME magazine, that in regards to the President's threat to veto the Republican budget, he would threaten to shutdown the Government stating that Clinton would be more worried about no one showing up then he would be. President Clinton had actually been very reasonable and had taken a lot of money already out of different social programs and had acquiesced to the agreement to balance the budget within seven years, massive tax cuts, and spending cuts to social programs. Yet as the months of the budget debate wore on the Republicans continued to demand more and more money be cut from the social programs, this enraged Clinton as he had already sacrificed so much from his side of the budget yet the republicans wanted to cut more money from education, environmental controls, and the EITC, as well as limiting the growth of Medicare. So on December 16, the president and congress let the continuing resolution run out and the government was shut down.

Shutting down the Federal Government means that all "non-essential" personnel are sent home and are not allowed to work. This shutdown actually consisted of two separate shutdowns, the first lasted for five days from November 14-19 1995. This shutdown was ended when the Clinton Administration agreed to balance the budget withing seven years(which they accomplished before Clinton left the White House) However the government shutdown again on December 16, 1995 and wouldn't resume running until January 6th 1996, but there was a blizzard in Washington D.C. for the next few days, so the Government didn't really re-open for a few more days. The Republicans thought that the government shutdown would be beneficial to them. As previously stated they assumed Clinton would want the budget issue to end quickly and that he would capitulate to their demands. However prior to the November shutdown, in a private meeting between President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Representative Dick Armey, and Senator Bob Dole, Clinton showed to have a lot of back bone. When Armey stated that unless Clinton gave in, they would shut down the government and his presidency would be over. Clinton responded that he didn't care if his ratings dropped to five percent, he would never pass the budget while he was in office. Eventually the Republicans would lose all the credibility they had when it came to the fact that Newt Gingrich was quoted as saying that he had caused the shutdown because President Clinton had forced Gingrich and Dole to exit from the back of Air Force one when returning from the funeral of former Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin. The comment made the republicans seem petty, this along with Bob Dole wanting the budget crisis to be settled prior to his 1996 presidential run, led to the Republicans accepting a budget that was very similar to the one that Clinton had offered prior to the shut down. 

Following the shut down resolution, Clinton's numbers soared to their highest point yet. Riding the wave of popularity, Clinton demolished Bob Dole in the 1996 Presidential election winning the electoral college 379-159 while winning 49.2% of the popular vote. Eventually the Clinton administration would release the figures on what the government shutdown cost the American Tax Payers. It cost in simply furloughed payments to employees over 400 million dollars. Adding in factors such as the closing of all national parks and other institutions run by "non-essential" government employees the cost of the shutdown sky rocketed to what John McCain estimate as much as 750 million dollars.

Timeline full of articles about the events culminating in the government shut down

What was Bill Clinton's Presidential approval rating? Check out WSJ's interactive chart




Works Cited

[1] "Overview of the Clinton Presidency" Retrieved on April 17, 2010, from the University of Virginia: http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/clinton
[2] "The Clinton Presidency" Retrieved on April 17, 2010, from the PBS-Frontline: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/clinton/
[3] "NAFTA Preamble" Retrieved on April 17, 2010, from the OAS: http://www.sice.oas.org/Trade/NAFTA/PREAMBLE.ASP
[4] "Office of the United States Trade Representative Report" Retrieved on April 17, 2010, from the USTRR: http://www.medey.com/DeyTimes%202008/April/ustr%20nafta%20myth%20vs.%20fact.pdf
[5] "NAFTA Dissatisfaction" Retrieved on April 17, 2010, from the Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNLnBnTuxvU
[6] "Mexican Working Class" Retrieved on April 17, 2010, from the Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0425-30.htm
[7] "Welfare Reform Radio Address" Retrieved on April 17, 2010: http://www.milestonedocuments.com/documents/full-text/bill-clintons-radio-address-on-the-welfare-reform-act/
[8] "Women, Poverty and Welfare Reform" Retrieved on April 17, 2010, from the Common Dreams: http://www.socwomen.org/socactivism/factwelfare.pdf
[9] "Failure to Protect" Retrieved on April 17, 2010, from the PBS-Frontline: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/fostercare/
[10] "Balanced Budget Press Release" Retrieved on April 17, 2010, from the White House: http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/New/html/19980202-14467.html
[11] "Media Midterm Election Coverage" Retrieved on April 17, 2010, from Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7w15ecVVbo
[12] "Impeachment Primary Source Documents" Retrieved on April 17, 2010, from the University of Missouri: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/clinton/clintonhome.html
[13] "President Clinton's Statement to the Grand Jury" Retrieved on April 17, 2010, from the Miller Center: http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3931
[14] "10 Year Anniversary of President Clinton's Impeachment" Retrieved on April 17, 2010, from Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GgPo2cHFq0

Bibliography

Smith, Ellen (1997, September 5). Clinton Signs Two Bills Aiding Colleges and Students. Retrieved May 3, 2007, from Columbia University Record Web site: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/record/23/01/15.html

Danzer, Klor de Alva, et al., G, J.J (2007). The Americans: Reconstruction to the 21 st Century Oklahoma Teacher's Editio. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell.

Paul Boyer and Sterling Stuckey, The America Nation: Civil War to President (Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 2001)