Presidents Flashcards
Bill Clinton’s 3 major domestic policies
- economic growth
- affordable healthcare
- expanding civil rights
Bill Clinton Healthcare
Aim: wanted to achieve healthcare reforms
- was a failure
- clinton had no clear madate but had a united Congress but not for long. divided gov made it hard for reform.
- an error was putting hilary clinton (no congressional experience) in charge of reforms instead of Al Gore (VP)
-hilarys reforms were too divisive for the congressional democrats to unite around. Disagreements on the bureaucracy required to run the proposed healthcare system as well as cost to small businesses and she struggled to find consensus. committee chairs made competing proposals.
judgement: he could have been successful if he was organised and had better approach. biggest fail of his presidency! inexperience and overconfidence silly.
Bill Clinton Economic Growth
Aim: economy was in bad shape when he came to office so economic growth and reducing deficit were key.
- focused on balanced budgets. shrunk the size of the federal government and signed welfare reform bill that was harsher on its recipients than usual left wing dems
- policies successful economically + repositioning helped him rewin election in 1996.
- av. growth of 4% every year
- created 22.5 million new jobs + reduced unemployment to 30 year low of 4% in Nov 2000
- BUT gap between richest and poorest were widened + unemployment and poverty increased for ethnic minorities
Judgement: clinton can’t claim all credit as he enetered office when economy was already recovering. but policies helped and he’s remembered for a booming economy.
Bill clinton greater levels of representation and protection of civil rights
Aim: clinton aimed to increase levels of represenration for minority groups within gov + be all inclusive
- wanted to make ‘judiciary look like america’
- before him (1992) 10% of fed bench were from minorities and 11% women.
- appointed first female secretary of state Madeleine Albright
- appounted more black judges in his 2 terms than in the last 16 years and 3 times more females than reagan and george HW bush. + hispanics + disabled people
- ‘Don’t ask don’t tell’ policy allowing homosexuals to serve in military as long as they don’t disclose sexual orientation
Judgement: increased representstion of ethnics and women and advanced gay rights.
Bill Clinton Foreign Policy
Aim: main challenges were in russia, and Northern Ireland
- post Cold War russia was a dangerous unstable nuclear power. he helped stabilise the country and good terms with boris yeltsin. %1.6bil in aid to russia small scale but still significant
- clinton authorised use of US armed forces in NATO bombing of Yugoslavia 1998, was criticised but turns out serbian president was gonna commit genocide on croatians and muslims .
- helped out in Troubles (political conflict in NI). good friday agreement 1998 signed.
Judgement: clinton never faced much foregn policy challenge. was good at stabilising russia and deserve credit in good friday agreement
George W Bush ‘War on terror ‘ (after 9/11)
Aim: fighting the war on terror at home and abroad
- united gov helped him lead to war in Iraq. but justificstion for war was undermined when they found no weapons existed in iraq. USA struggled to establish an iraqi gov and justify people dying
- homeland security act 2002 increased security powers& patriot act (2001) bad surveillance stuff
Judgement: homeland security improved USA’s ability to defend. BUT guantanamo bay detention camp and patriot act was controversial. war on terror was financial flop and based on lies. made terrorism worse not better.
George W Bush Education Policy
Aim: improving education
- No child left behind 2002 expansion in fed gov role where states would annually test children
- some say it meant teachers would teach for the test
- National conference of state legislators said they had been a failure
judgement: was trying compassionate conservatism & was passionate about improving education but it didnt improve standards
George W Bush Major tax cuts
Aim: wanted to make tax cuts legislative priory
- republican majority in both houses so could introduce Economic Growth & Tax Relief Reconcilliation ACt (2001) + Jobs and Growth Tax Reconciliation act (2003) through congress
- tax cuts of 1.35 trillion
- left-wing (Kruse and Zelizer) said tax cuts would only benefit wealthy but Bush was like nah it stimulates economic growth
Judgement : successful in delivering tax cuts. they helped increase economic growth but could be argued that it was fiscally irresponsible to to squander economic benefits of clinton era (where military spending had increased and overall deficit was growing)
George W Bush Social Security Reform
Aim: 2004 social security reform was top priority. tried to change the system by allowing individuals to divert a proportion of their social security tax to personal retirement.
- young workers should get to build their nest and put aside money for retirement account.
- exisiting scheme guaranteed a set amount while scheme connected to stock market would need better planing.
judgement: Failed. Underestimated congress’ support and took it for granted.
Obama healthcare reform
AIm: affordable healthcare
- worked with dem house speaker nancy Pelosi
- Affordable care act 2010 insured way more adults
- obamacare had some problems though because it didnt help the poorest
Judgement: achievement even though not as radical.
Obama stimulating the economy
Aim: promised to solve economic crisis
- American Recovery reinvestment act 2009 gave 787 bil stimulus
- Dodd-Frank Wall street Reform consumer Protction Act 2010
Judgement: americsn recovery and reinvestment act stopped us economy going into depression. dodd frank judged for being too restrictive on banks but overall good success.
Obama Immigration Reform
Aim: policy promise of the DREAM Act which gave temporary conditional residency and right to work to immigrants who enetered as children.
- underestimated opposition and failed to pass DREAM
- executive order DAPA which allowed certain immigrants ‘deferred action status’. but order was struck down by SC in United States v Texas 2016
Judgement: defeats of us v texas shows immigration reforms were a failure for Obama. washington post said ti was th ebiggest legal defeat of his administration.
Obama ending war in Iraq
Aim: obama declared he woukd end the war
- successful in removing troops.
- hawkish foreign policy strategy was used but diplomacy was his first call, would not be scared to use force if it failed.
Judgement: he removed troops so yay. could be said it was too hawkish but he inherited bush’s war on terror.
3 key events in Trump’s
- BLM
- covid
- attack on capitol hill
Trump Tax Cuts
Aim: trump made tax cuts in individual & corporate taxation an election priority.
- Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed 2017 with the help of Paul Ryan (House Speaker) mainly
- passing was not straightforward for Trump though because he was inexperienced and arrogant
- the law slashed corporate tax cuts from 35% to 21% . did help to boom the economy but didnt increase GDP like Trump said.
- his law did help increase employment
Judgement: trump successful in passing act but was due to help of Paul Ryan and Mitch MConnel who used their congressional experience. tax cuts did contribute to booming US economy
