The United States Presidency of Bill Clinton, also known as the Clinton administration, was the executive branch of the federal government of the United States from January 20, 1993 to January 20, 2001. Clinton was the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second full term. Clinton was also the first president since FDR and the last until current President Barack Obama to have not served in the military in any capacity.
The administration faced political opposition in 1994 when Republicans took control of both houses of Congress but Clinton was reelected in 1996, after a failed attempt at health care reform. The administration had a mixed record on taxes but produced the first federal budget surpluses since 1969, for fiscal years 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001, leading to a decrease in the public debt (though the gross federal debt continued to increase). Clinton supported the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he signed into law in 1994. His presidency saw the passage of welfare reform in Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act which ended Aid to Families with Dependent Children and reduced the number of welfare programs, which received support from both political parties. He also signed the reversal of the Glass-Steagall Act which was designed to prevent financial institutions from getting too big to fail. He also signed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act which legalized over-the-counter derivatives. Clinton saw the escalation of the War on Drugs prompting a swell in the prison population from 1.4 to 2 million.
Socially, the administration began with efforts by Clinton to allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military, which culminated in a compromise known as "Don't ask, don't tell", theoretically allowing gays and lesbians to serve in the military if they did not disclose their sexual orientation (the policy was repealed in 2010). However Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, considered by many to be a blow to the LGBT rights movement. Various measures were also introduced to improve the effectiveness of the social safety net, including an increase in the number of child care places, a significant expansion of the EITC program, and the introduction of new programs such as SCHIP, and a child tax credit.
The administration took office less than two years after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the administration's foreign policy addressed conflicts in Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Haiti through militarism and economic exploitation. The Clinton presidency also saw the passage and signing of the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 which was a bipartisan measure expressing support for regime change in Iraq. On three separate occasions, in 1996, 1998, and 2000, the administration unsuccessfully attempted to capture or assassinate Osama Bin Laden, who was eventually killed by U.S. special operations forces in 2011.
Clinton considered himself a "New Democrat" and was a founding member of the Democratic Leadership Council, a centrist group of Democrats, who promoted moderate policies. Clinton left office with the highest end of office approval rating of any president since World War II, but he was the first US president to be impeached since Andrew Johnson, and only the second in US history, as a result of the Lewinsky scandal, though like Johnson, he was acquitted by the Senate.
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President Bill Clinton's State of the Union Addresses (1993-1996 Speeches) | |
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