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Clinton Domestic Affairs

Bill Clinton began his transition into the presidency promising to focus "like alaser beam" on the economic needs of the nation: unemployment, the runaway

deficit, the health care crisis, and welfare reform. On all fronts but one, healthcare reform, he succeeded significantly but not completely.

Fulfilling Campaign PromisesBy the end of his first year, Clinton had battled Congress to secure adoption ofan economic package that combined tax increases (which fell mainly on theupper class) and spending cuts (which hurt mainly impoverished Americans).His 1993 economic package passed without a single Republican vote in eitherchamber of Congress, and despite that party's dire predictions that it would resultin economic chaos. This economic policy lowered the deficit from $290 billion in

1992 to $203 billion by 1994.By 1999, surging tax revenues from a booming economy had generated asurplus of $124 billion -- a development few would have thought possible in1992. Surpluses amounting to $1.5 trillion were then projected for the firstdecade of the 21st century. Equally important were the pace of economic growthand low inflation. Combined with historically low interest and unemploymentrates, these factors positioned the American economy as the world's strongestand most robust.On some other issues, like passage of the North American Free TradeAgreement (NAFTA), which cleared Congress in 1993, Clinton essentiallyendorsed Republican programs and benefited from Republican support. On

others, like welfare reform, the Republican-controlled Congress acceptedClinton's lead in publicizing the issues, but dominated the writing of legislationcreating the actual programs. In the summer of 1996, Congress passed asweeping reform bill, fulfilling Clinton's 1992 campaign promise to "end welfareas we know it." The legislation replaced the long standing Aid to Families withDependent Children (AFDC) program with a system of block grants to individualstates. It also dropped the eligibility of legal immigrants for welfare assistanceduring the first five years of their residency. Clinton also won an increase in theminimum wage to $5.15 per hour. At the same time, the President blockedRepublican attempts to bar public education to children of illegal immigrants.During the 1992 presidential campaign, Clinton had also vowed to end theexclusion of homosexuals from military service. A federal court ruling just daysafter Clinton's election moved that controversial topic onto the public agenda,where it was difficult for the President to set it aside until a more convenient time.A political fight ensued with conservative members of Congress and theleadership of the armed forces. Clinton compromised by agreeing to delay adecision on gays in the military for six months. He ultimately proposed a policy of"don't ask, don't tell," meaning that the military services would not ask about thesexual orientation of service personnel and that these personnel, in turn, would

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not be required to divulge this information. The compromise seemed to satisfyfew people. Liberals and gays felt betrayed by the President, and conservativesoverrode the administration's executive directive by writing a more restrictivepolicy into law in a defense authorization bill. But the controversy knocked theadministration off balance politically at the very outset of the first term.

Clinton also looked weak and out of his depth when he withdrew the names oftwo female nominees for attorney general because they had legal problems withhired immigrant household help. The President's image problem took another hitwhen he retracted the nomination of Lani Guinier, an African-American lawprofessor and old personal friend, to head the Civil Rights Division of theDepartment of Justice. Guinier's nomination was jeopardized when criticsattacked her legal writings about representation as too radical.

Cabinet and Staff AppointmentsDuring his campaign in 1992, Clinton had promised to form a cabinet "that lookedlike America." Having lost two female candidates to early controversy, Clinton

finally settled on Florida prosecutor Janet Reno for attorney general.Clinton went on to name three other women to cabinet positions: Donna E.Shalala, who had been chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, assecretary of health and human services; Hazel O'Leary, an African-Americanwoman, as secretary of energy; and Madeleine K. Albright as secretary of state(she had previously served as Clinton's ambassador to the United Nations).The President also put women in several other important posts. His campaignmedia manager Dee Dee Myers was appointed press secretary and Californiaeconomist Laura D'Andrea Tyson became chair of the Council of EconomicAdvisers.Florida environmental official Carol Browner -- also Al Gore's one-time legislative

assistant -- was named to the top slot in the Environmental Protection Agency.Additionally, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, an African-American who was serving as theArkansas health director, became U.S. surgeon general. And when SupremeCourt justice Byron White retired in 1993, Clinton named Ruth Bader Ginsburg ashis replacement; Ginsburg was a federal appeals court judge who had taught atColumbia Law School and pioneered the litigation of cases involving sexdiscrimination.Clinton also named several African-American males to leading posts in theadministration. He tapped Democratic national chairman Ronald H. Brown assecretary of commerce; former Mississippi congressman Mike Espy as secretaryof agriculture; Jesse Brown, a disabled Marine veteran, who ran the Disabled

American Veterans office in Washington, as secretary of veterans affairs; andClifton Wharton, Jr., chairman of TIAA-CREF, as deputy secretary of state.Latinos were also appointed in more substantial numbers than in previousadministrations, with former San Antonio, Texas, mayor Henry G. Cisneros assecretary of housing and urban development and Federico Pea as secretary oftransportation.

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Health Care ReformAlong with the political scandals that plagued his presidency, Clinton failed torealize a major goal of his administration: affordable health care insurance forevery American.The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world without a universal

health care system, and Clinton felt passionately about the fact that 60 millionAmericans did not have adequate health insurance. In addition, health-care costshad skyrocketed since the 1970s, consuming, according to some estimates, oneseventh of the nation's goods and services -- a greater proportion than that ofany other industrialized country in the world.Winning a national health package would have provided Clinton with a lastinghistorical legacy, much as Franklin D. Roosevelt had achieved with SocialSecurity. In the minds of some, Clinton's health care program -- if realized --would have constituted the most important piece of social legislation in Americanhistory.The consequences of health care reform were enormous. If Clinton could control

health-care costs, he could remove a major drag on the economy. From apolitical standpoint, universal health care would link the middle-class and theworking-class to the Democratic Party for at least another generation.Republicans understood the implications of such a victory and were, with rareexceptions, united in their determination to deny Clinton on this issue. ManyAmericans, while wanting health insurance, worried, too, that national healthinsurance was socialistic, a step that would deny Americans the right to see adoctor of their choice while placing physicians in the service of a governmentbureaucracy.To push through a health-reform bill in his first hundred days in office, Clintonnamed his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, head of a task force to develop the

program, and Ira Magaziner as its director. Hillary Clinton, a hard-driving,forceful, and committed feminist with a distinguished legal career, was Clinton'sclosest political confidant -- his true partner in his political career. The Presidentappointed her to head the task force, which would be administered by Magaziner,because he knew that she cared deeply about the issue, and that "if anybody hada chance to do it, she had the best chance." Hillary had led a commission oneducation reform in Arkansas for her husband -- to critical acclaim -- and thePresident wanted her to do the same thing for health care nationally.

The First Lady and Health Care MistakeThe appointment of Hillary was a serious mistake. It immediately placed the FirstLady in a position of being a major policy and political power -- an appointmentthat deviated significantly from precedent, allowing critics to attack her as well asthe program.Moreover, her unique relationship with the President meant that other advisersreacted to her differently than they would to any other task-force head, notwanting to alienate the President's wife with difficult but well-intentioned criticism.

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The Republican RevolutionBy 1998, the Republican offensive that captured both houses of Congress in1994 had run out of steam. Not only did the Republicans lose the presidentialelection of 1996 but they also lost public support by overplaying their hands inthe impeachment of a popular President during times of prosperity.

As a result, the nation settled for compromise or deadlock for the last two yearsof the Clinton presidency. During this period, the administration decided that itcould best achieve some of its policy goals through executive order.For example, the President signed several proclamations in 2000 creatingnational monuments out of vast expanses of the American West. Of course, asthey were to discover in subsequent years, anything done by executive order canalso be undone that same way, if a succeeding President is so inclined.In one remaining area of executive authority, the President sparked a finalcontroversy. In the dwindling hours of his term, Clinton issued 140 presidentialpardons, several of which drew heated criticism not just from the President'susual opponents, but also from some supporters.

The most controversial was the pardon of international fugitive Marc Rich, whoseex-wife was a prominent Democratic fundraiser. Few questioned the President'sauthority to exercise this constitutional power, but many believed that theauthority had not been wisely used in several cases. Clinton thus left officedogged by charges of scandal that had been a staple of his time in the WhiteHouse.