Clinton Library 42: President Bill Clinton's Press Conference (March, 1994)

Source:Clinton Library- President William J. Clinton (Democrat, Arkansas) 42nd President of the United States (1993-2001)

Source:The New Democrat

As unpopular as the first two years of the Bill Clinton Administration were and how unpopular that Democratic Congress was, it was a very productive Congress and two years for President Clinton. And he actually managed unlike President Obama, to get support from Congressional Republicans on some of his initiatives. Like with two 1993 trade deals, NAFTA and GAT, Family and Medical Leave, the 1994 Crime Bill and few other things.

What cost President Clinton Congress in 1994, was not Congressional gridlock, or even his unpopularity. But really two bills that the President got out of Congress and one bill that President Clinton failed to get out of Congress. That Congressional Republicans in both the House and Senate were able to go to town with. The 1993 Deficit Reduction Act, that not a single Republican in Congress in either chamber voted for. That had a tax hike on the wealthy. The 1993 Crime Bill, that had a gun control provision. A background check before people could buy guns. And of course President Clinton’s failed attempt at comprehensive health care reform.

Whitewater, was a distraction for President Clinton and his administration, but as we know now and as President Clinton told the press over and over more than twenty years ago now, there was nothing there. As far as evidence of criminal behavior from either Bill, or Hillary Clinton. And the whole Whitewater investigation was an example of the problems with the so-called independent counsel law. Because the Whitewater investment happened in the late 1970s and early 1980s. More than ten years before Bill Clinton became President of the United States. If the Independent Counsel, was only allowed to investigate Federal officials and what might have gone on while they were employed by the Federal Government, a lot of the Bill Clinton Federal investigations never happen.

What you see here with the questioning in this press conference, is a press that seems to only be interested in supposed scandal and not what is actually going on in the country and what President Clinton and his administration is working on. Like as it relates to the crime bill, health care reform, relations with Congress with both parties, what is going on in foreign policy, like with North Korea, Somalia, the Middle East, China, North Korea, Russia, etc. This press conference looks like CNN of today, where they are overly scandal hungry. And where they’re looking for the next so-called OMG, or awesome story. That will drive ratings and they can spend all of their coverage on.
Source:Clinton Library

C-SPAN: 'President Bill Clinton's Welfare Reform Press Statement'

Source:C-SPAN- President William J. Clinton: after signing the 1996 Welfare to Work Law.

Source:The New Democrat

"A very brief statement from President Bill Clinton, about his signature of the 1996 Welfare to Work Law. That passed Congress with a bipartisan vote."

From C-SPAN

The 1996 Welfare to Work Law, I believe is the best part of the Clinton Presidency. Along with moving the Democratic Party back to the Center-Left and making it a national party again. That can win outside of Washington, New York City, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, the traditional McGovernite and more social democratic areas of the country. Because the Welfare to Work Law, gave millions of Americans who probably only knew Welfare as far as any income that was coming into their homes, the opportunity to go to work. To finish their education and get themselves a good job. Which is what Welfare to Work is really about.

The only way to cut poverty in America, is to empower people at the bottom and near-bottom to move up the economic ladder and become economically self-sufficient. That gets to things like education and job creation, as well as economic development and infrastructure in low-income communities. You can give someone on public assistance the biggest public assistance checks that you possibly can that American taxpayers are willing to subsidize. But as long as people on public assistance are collecting those checks and can’t support themselves without those checks, they’re on Welfare and living in poverty.

So to actually move people out of poverty, you have to empower them to get a good job. And tell them that they can’t stay on Welfare indefinitely and use that time to improve themselves and prepare to become members of the American workforce. That means childcare for their kids, requiring parents who are no longer involved in their kids lives to pay their child support payments. Encouraging employers to hire and train people who are on Welfare. And making education and job training available to people on Welfare so they can finish their education and get themselves a good job and get off of Welfare all together.

As President Clinton said many times, the Democratic Party should be the party that is about opportunity, empowerment, liberalization, liberation. Liberalization and liberation being my words, but that we should be a party that is about using government to empower people. Using a limited responsible government to empower people at the bottom and near-bottom who are struggling to work their way up the economic ladder and be able to live in freedom. Like most of the rest of the country. Not using government to make more people dependent. Or saying that people who are low-skilled and have kids can stay on public assistance indefinitely simply because they are low-skilled and have kids. As if they are disabled, or something for those reasons. Welfare to Work, is a big part of that.

President William Jefferson Clinton: Farewell Address (2001)

Source:American Rhetoric- President William J. Clinton (Democrat, Arkansas) 42nd President of the United States (1993-2001)

Source:FRS FreeState 

"My fellow citizens, tonight is my last opportunity to speak to you from the Oval Office as your President.

I am profoundly grateful to you for twice giving me the honor to serve, to work for you and with you to prepare our nation for the 21st century. And I'm grateful to Vice President Gore, to my Cabinet secretaries, and to all those who have served with me for the last eight years. This has been a time of dramatic transformation, and you have risen to every new challenge. You have made our social fabric stronger, our families healthier and safer, our people more prosperous.

You, the American people, have made our passage into the global information age an era of great American renewal. In all the work I have done as president, every decision I have made, every executive action I have taken, every bill I have proposed and signed, I've tried to give all Americans the tools and conditions to build the future of our dreams, in a good society, with a strong economy, a cleaner environment, and a freer, safer, more prosperous world. I have steered my course by our enduring values: opportunity for all, responsibility from all, a community of all Americans... 

You can read the rest at American Rhetoric 

"President William Jefferson Clinton's Farewell Address to the Nation. Delivered 18 January 2001. Audio corrected re-issue. Courtesy William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library. Complete transcript and audio at:American Rhetoric." 

From American Rhetoric

Before Bill Clinton became President of the United States, Liberal Democrats in America were seen as something we are not. We had all sorts of negative stereotypes about us, not all of them unfair because there are Democrats back then and today who meet these stereotypes, but they just aren’t Liberal Democrats. And there’s a different and accurate term that defines their politics. But they just aren’t liberal, even though they have some liberal views on social issues.

Pre-President Clinton, Liberal Democrats were seen as tax and spend, big government supporters, Socialists. Who are soft on crime, soft on defense, soft on welfare. That we just wanted to soak the rich in taxes to take care of the poor. And soak the middle class in taxes to take care of them as well. That we wouldn’t do what was necessary to protect the country. And that we see the U.S. Constitution a document to use for advice. But that it wasn’t enforceable.

By the time President Clinton left office in 2001, Democrats were more trusted on law enforcement, national security, foreign policy, the economy, fiscal responsibility then Republicans who use to own these issues. And this didn’t happen by accident. Just within the first two years of the Clinton Presidency, President Clinton got a deficit reduction package through Congress. That had deep budget cuts and a tax hike on the wealthy. 

President Clinton got two trade agreements through Congress as well. NAFA and GAT and got the 1994 Crime bill through Congress as well. That had the Brady bill on Handguns, meaning to buy a new handgun, you had to pass a background check. And new tough sentences on violent offenders. Including a Three Strikes Law, 25-Life for criminals convicted of violent felonies. 

Presidents are judged by what shape the country was in when they took over and what shape the country was in when they left office. President George H.W. Bush by a lot of measures was a successful President. Especially on foreign policy, but the country was just coming out of recession with high unemployment, low economic growth, high interest rates and Inflation and a large Federal debt and deficit. 

President Clinton also inherited a high crime rate when he took over in 1993 and all of those problems were either gone by 2001, or those problems were under control when he left office in 2001. And it didn’t happen by accident, because of the policies that the President got through Congress from 1993-95. But with also Welfare to Work in 1996, working with a Republican Congress.

President Clinton showed Americans that liberalism is not about being soft and irresponsible and that taxpayers will always cover the mistakes of others. That it was about individual liberty, the U.S. Constitution, and limited government. But that people also had to be held accountable for their decisions. And that America had to do what it takes within the U.S. Constitution to defend itself. And that government can help people who are down get on their feet and become self-sufficient. This is why President Clinton was such a successful President, the best President we’ve had since Harry Truman.

Remember This: 'The Truth Behind the Clinton White House'

Source: Remember This-

Source:The New Democrat 

The real story behind the Bill Clinton scandals was that most of them were bogus. The Lewinski affair and the China scandal from 1996 were the only real stories and so-called scandals for Bill Clinton as President, which is nothing compared with Ronald Reagan with Iran Contra and Richard Nixon with Watergate. Or go back to Lyndon Johnson lying to the country about America's involvement in the Vietnam War and the progress of the war.

The hatred towards Bill Clinton from the Far-Right and other hyper partisans in this country, except for the race factor, is not that much different from the hatred that Barack Obama has received as President. What they hate about Bill Clinton is what they hate about Barack Obama. Which is what they both represent, two New Democrats on the Left who represent the changing of America that we've been going through as a country since the 1960s. With all sorts of new Americans having their freedom in this country. No longer restricted to living a traditional way of life.

The Far-Right in America lives in the 1950s. The rest of the country lives in the 21st Century as far as how Americans live in this multi-culture and lifestyle country where all Americans are free to be themselves. And no longer having to feel the need to hide who they are or try to be someone else. And when someone from this part of the country rises to power and becomes not just powerful and not just the most powerful person in the country, but in the world, the Fa-Right goes nuts and accuses that person of trying to destroy their way of life and seeks out to destroy them.
Source:Remember This

Conan O'Brien: White House Correspondents Dinner Featuring President Bill Clinton (1995)

Source:Conan O'Brien-

Source:The New Democrat 

To write a blog about 1995 or even a satire about it I really have to go deep into my memory bank to remember what I think about that year. I was only nineteen at the time for most of that year. President Bill Clinton and Bill Maher touched on Vice President Al Gore's reinventing government program that looked to save money in the Federal budget by making programs work better and consolidation. The OJ Simpson murder trial of course was big and if you watched anything on cable news that year, you would think that was the only story that year.

House Republicans wanted to gut PBS which the President touched on by saying that "PBS could only afford to send Jim Leher and not Robert McNeil because of the budget cuts". They were the co-hosts of the PBS NewsHour in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. The 1996 presidential campaign was already going on with Bob Dole the Leader of the Senate already the GOP frontrunner for president. And the Leader proposing to move Congress's Senate sessions up to New Hampshire and Iowa so Leader Dole wouldn't have to fly back to Washington as much.

I could go into the government shutdown that happened in the fall of 1995, the Oklahoma City bombing that happened in April 1995, but those things happened after this dinner and the people who performed that night performed before those events happened, so I'm not going to go into that. But just the first few months of 1995 with a brand new Republican Congress the first one since 1953 and House Republicans donating their lives to passing their Contract For America, you knew this was going to be a fascinating year.
Source:Conan O'Brien

PBS: 'The Clinton Administration - Early Struggles'

Source:PBS- President William J. Clinton (Democrat, Arkansas ) 1993-2001.

Source:The New Democrat 

"From the PBS documentary series "The American Experience"

From E. Elder

The early days of the Clinton Administration were very rough for several reasons. One had to do with the White House staff that for the most part came from political backgrounds, instead of government backgrounds. So they were trying to govern for the first time ever together with not a lot of experience, at least in the Federal Government to begin with. Outside of Vice President Al Gore, OMB Director Leon Panetta and a few others.

They also had several controversies that they were dealing with. Like Gays in the military, Blackhawk Down in Somalia, a refugee crisis in Haiti and a few others. Like struggling to get their own deficit reduction plan and broader Federal budget proposal through a Democratic Congress that had a large majority in the House and a clear, but not super majority in the Senate. Which made President Clinton look like he couldn't govern, at least early on.

But despite all of the troubles that President Clinton had in 1993 and to a certain extent 1994 with the failure to reform health care the Clinton Administration and that Democratic Congress was very productive as far as the legislation they were able to pass. Like free trade with NAFTA and GAT, deficit reduction, gays in the military, the 1994 Crime Bill, Family and Medical Leave and a few other things. So they were very productive even early on even though they weren't very popular.

Clinton Library: President Clinton's 58th News Conference (1994)

Source:Clinton Library- President William J. Clinton (Democrat, Arkansas) 42nd President of the United States (1993-2001)

Source:The New Democrat 

President Bill Clinton's 58th press conference covering mostly foreign policy especially relating to China and Korea. The situation going on in between the North and South in Korea and what is called MFN or Most Favored Nation trading status with the People's Republic of China. President Clinton essentially making the case that trading and talking to the Communist Regime in China is a better path forward in how to deal with them instead of isolating them. I wish President Clinton had the same strategy with the Communist Republic of Cuba, but that is my take.
Source:Clinton Library

Clinton Library: 'President Clinton's Speech at Mason Temple Church (1993)'

Source:Clinton Library- President William J. Clinton (Democrat, Arkansas) 42nd President of the United States (1993-2001) 

"This is video footage of President William Jefferson Clinton speaking at the Church of God in Christ's Annual Convocation at the Mason Temple Church in Memphis, Tennessee.  Mason Temple Church was the site of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's final sermon deliverance before being assassinated.  This footage is official public record produced by the White House Television (WHTV) crew, provided by the Clinton Presidential Library.

NOTE: MT01388 has minor frame damage at the top of the screen.

Date: November 13, 1993

Location: Mason Temple Church.  Memphis, TN." 

From the Clinton Library

President Bill Clinton at the Memphis Church of God in 1993. One of, if not the best speeches that President Clinton ever gave, at least in his first term, because it's so honest.

Source:Pics Bud- President William J. Clinton (Democrat, Arkansas) 42nd President of the United States (1993-2001) 

I saw this speech last week when I was watching a documentary about President Clinton and his Presidency. I might have seen this speech before, but I simply can't remember, but I already believe it's probably the best speech he's ever given at least as President of the United States. Even better than his first inaugural, or his 1992 or 2000 Democratic Convention speeches. 

All great speeches if you are not familiar with them, I suggest you watch or read them even if you don't like Bill Clinton, but someone who likes listening to good speeches. What made this speech great was the time that it was given, twenty five years after Martin Luther King was assassinated, not the anniversary of that assassination, this was November, 1993 MLK was murdered April, 1968, but twenty-five years after he was murdered. 

What else made this speech great was the simple honesty of it. He was attempting to speak for MLK, no one of course can do that we are simply talking about perhaps the greatest speaker this country has ever produced. What President Clinton was attempting to do was to layout what MLK would think of America Aad the African-American community twenty-five years later and the progress that it has made. But the challenges that still remain and what he died for and what he didn't die for. He said that fewer African-Americans as a percentage of the country lives in poverty and more live in the middle class. And are well-educated but still too many live in poverty and so-forth. 

The line in this speech that hit me the hardest not in a bad way, was when President Clinton said attempting to speak for Martin King: "I did not die to stop the violence from white people onto black people only to see black people killing other black people. I did not die to see that." And if you are an African-American I believe that's got to hit home that yes they've made progress, but we are still not at the mountaintop where Reverend King wanted African-Americans to join him.

Clinton Library: 'The 1994 State of the Union (Address to a Joint Session of the Congress)'

Source:William J. Clinton Presidential Library- President William J. Clinton (Democrat, Arkansas) 42nd President of the United States (1993-2001)

"This is video footage of President William Jefferson Clinton delivering a address to a joint session of Congress (State of the Union address). This footage is official public record produced by the White House Television (WHTV) crew, provided by the Clinton Presidential Library."

Source:Clinton Library

ODN: 'Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky Scandal: Former US President's Denial, Grand Jury, and Admittance'

Source:ODN- President William J. Clinton: "I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

Source:The Daily Press

"Bill Clinton's presidency was rocked by the Monica Lewinsky scandal. We revisit the affair that dogged his terms in office. Monica Lewinsky, the onetime White House intern whose 1990s affair with Bill Clinton nearly brought down his presidency, broke a long silence on Tuesday, saying she regretted what happened. Writing in Vanity Fair magazine, the 40-year-old said she was made a "scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position." Ms Lewinsky added, "I, myself, deeply regret what happened between me and President Clinton. Let me say it again: I. Myself. Deeply. Regret. What. Happened." Report by Ashley Fudge."

From ODN

The person I blame most for the Monica Lewinsky White House intern scandal and perhaps the only person I blame, is President Bill Clinton for acting as irresponsible as he did, for getting involved romantically at all with an intern. Doesn't mean I believe he should've been impeached for it and definitely not convicted which the Senate didn't do. Independent Prosecutor Ken Starr and the House Republicans if anything acted more irresponsible than President Clinton. But the fact is this scandal doesn't happen without Bill Clinton.

And Clinton, gave the meat to the Confederate Republicans (that I now call them, not all Republicans, but the far-right in the party) who've been looking to kick Bill Clinton out of office since he became President back in 1993. And if anything were looking to kick Clinton out of the Governorship in Arkansas when he was Governor there in the 1980s. Clinton was a Baby Boom Liberal Democrat from the 1960s, who believed in things like civil rights, equal opportunity, reducing poverty. But who also believed in things like fiscal responsibility. And not someone they could label as a tax and spend Socialist and beat in an election. So the path for them to defeat Bill Clinton was much harder.

Bill Clinton, I believed scared the hell out of the Far-Right in America, because he reminded most of the country of John F. Kennedy. And someone who was part of the New Democratic Liberal coalition in the party. That had moved past the Roosevelt-LBJ Progressive Era. And someone who could communicate to a wide ray of Americans and had moved past the 1950s culturally. And understood that it was no longer the 1950s and that the country was becoming more diverse. Ethnically, racially, culturally, regionally. And Confederate Republicans hadn't moved past the 1950s yet. And we're still in that little box and weren't ready to see Americans that most of the country wasn't familiar with in the 1950s.

The Far-Right, or New-Right, isn't ready for a country that was becoming more liberal and libertarian culturally and socially. As well as economically and they saw Bill Clinton as a threat to their way of life and what they saw as Traditional America. And someone who had to be stopped. 

Without President Clinton's irresponsible behavior, this scandal and grand jury testimony never happens. President Clinton's behavior was the red meat that Confederate Republicans thought they needed to kick him out of office. Since the rest of the country wouldn't do it for them and they betted that the country with fall inline with them. To oust President Clinton from office, which of course didn't happen.  

James Miller Center: President Clinton- 'On Columbine and Gun Control

Source:James Miller Center- President William J. Clinton (Democrat, Arkansas) addressing a joint session of Congress, about the Columbine shootings.

"In his 2000 State of the Union address, President Clinton talks about the Columbine tragedy and gun control." 

From the James Miller Center

Whenever there's some type of tragedy, especially one involving kids being murdered and gun down especially in places where you would think they would be safe, gun control advocates use it as another opportunity to call for gun control. They don't even bother to mention that young people who had their whole lives ahead of them were murdered for no reason other than to use that tragedy to call for more gun control. 

What we should be doing in a time like this is taking life one day at a time if they can even do that. It's not gun control that I have a problem with, as long as its common sense gun control and its constitutional. It's the timing of people who make their advocacy. Especially people if they probably had their way would repeal the second amendment all together and outlaw guns in the hands of private citizens all together and completely leaving the power of guns in the hands of government. Which is a scary thought for anyone who believes in liberal democracy, because that type of thing happens in authoritarian states.

Do we have too many gun tragedies in America, of course we do and do we need better smarter regulations. As well as do a better job of enforcing the laws on our books, yes we do but this tragedy just happened on Friday. I'm writing this post on Saturday literally twenty four hours after this tragedy occurred. 

Imagine if you lost a relative to gun violence, especially a kid son or daughter who was at school of all places, what you would be thinking about twenty-four hours after your son or daughter was murdered, gun control, probably wouldn't be the thing you would be thinking about. You might still be in shock at this point or doing whatever you can to help law enforcement investigate this tragedy and find out exactly what happened. And if there's anything you can do to help them, there will be a time to take up gun control and deal. 

There are times to push for policy positions and politics, tragedies are not the best time to do that. Thats the time for the victims and again their friends and families to cope with the tragedy as best as they can. And for everyone else to do what they can to help those people through that tragedy, we are going to have. 

A brand new Congress in less then a month and a President who just won reelection to work with that Congress with a Democratic Senate that just added seats and with a Republican House that will have about ten more Democrats. Right now we still have the fiscal cliff to deal with, so before we start to address new issues, how about we finish what's left to do in the current Congress first.

C-SPAN: 'President Clinton 1993 Inaugural Address'

Source:CSPAN- President William J. Clinton (Democrat, Arkansas) delivering his first inaugural address.

"President Clinton delivered his first inaugural address on January 20, 1993."

From C-SPAN

Ronald Reagan had this test to decide if President's were successful, or that the Republican Party used up until 1992. And that test is laid out in a simple question: "Are you better off today than you were four years ago? Is your cost of living better, are you more secure in your job, do you have more economic security today than you had four years ago?" Etc, and he used that question in his closing moments of the third presidential debate with President Jimmy Carter in 1980. 

Americans by in-large clearly didn't feel better off  in 1980 than in 1976. Which is why they voted for Ron Reagan overwhelmingly with around 56% of the Popular Vote and giving him 44 states in that landslide election. And President Reagan used that question again in 1984 and in 1988, because the country was clearly better off as a whole in 1984 and in 1988 than it was in 1980. But in 1992 America started declining economically, especially.

The American economy was just starting to come out of the recession of 1990-91. High unemployment, interest and inflation rates, rising costs in health care, rising national debt and deficit. Similar economic conditions in 1992 than in 1980, which opened the door for a young Liberal Democrat from Arkansas the Governor of that state to give the Democratic Party the presidency and to transform the Democratic Party and get us away from the stereotypes that have kept us out of national office since 1981. 

I mention the Reagan Test because that's one way President's are judged in whether they were successful or not. Was the country as a whole better off when you left office than when you came into office. And it's a test that President Clinton gave in 1996 and in 2000. American President's are judged by how the country did compared with how it was doing before they became President. But also how President's dealt with situations as they come up. 

And one more thing I would add, were they able to transform the country, lay down a vision for it that remained in place after they left office. In other words were they able to start a political revolution and under those three tests President Clinton passes overwhelmingly, which is why he is considered not only successful, but I would add a great President. At least on those three scores. 

President Clinton had to deal with a lot. A weak economy, huge national debt and deficit, America looking like it may be declining as a world power, Somalia, Haiti, the Balkans, two American embassy's being blown up in East Africa. And when he left President with a 4.5% unemployment rate, booming economy, record low poverty rate, democracies emerging in the Balkans. The Democratic Party when President Clinton came into office was seen nationally as a Far-Left Social Democratic Party.

With a lot of negative stereotypes that were holding national Democrats back like tax and spenders, fiscally irresponsible, soft on crime, defense and Welfare, anti-private enterprise, anti-wealth and anti-success, etc. And he moved the party back to the democratic liberalism of where it was with President Kennedy in the early 1960s. A place that President Obama wants the Democratic Party to be at. Despite pressures from the Far-Left to move the party farther left.

Anytime Social Democrats try to move the party even farther left, they should look at the lesson of President Clinton. How the party was seen before he was President and it was seen after he left as President. And then look at how the party did in 1972, 1980, 1984 and 1988. Where they lost four landslide presidential elections out of five presidential elections. Including in 1980 losing so badly that it cost them control of the Senate for the first time since 1952. 

The Democratic Party needs to be a liberal party that believes in liberal democracy, that's why I'm a Democrat. But we can't be a pro-big government party that wants the Federal Government to do a lot more at the expense of individual liberty. But we have to be a pro-limited, good government party that believes in good government, in order to be successful now and into the future.

James Miller Center: President Bill Clinton- 1994 State of The Union Address: Health Care Reform

Source: James Miller Center- President William J. Clinton: 1994 speech to a joint session of Congress on health care reform.

"President Clinton applauds the successes in breaking gridlock, cutting the deficit, and passing the Brady law. He hopes to further reduce the budget; to update unemployment, welfare, and health care; and to support democracy throughout the world."

From James Miller Center

I'll give President Clinton a lot of credit for having the guts to take on health care reform, Welfare reform, crime, deficit reduction and free trade, all in his first two years as President. As well as Family Medical Leave and even gays in the military, before a lot of these issues were popular. He wasn't the first President to take on these issues, but perhaps the first to do them all around the same time. He could've easily of taken the safe route as President and gone with the status quo. Perhaps just concentrating on a few issues and cruised to reelection with an improving economy. But Bill Clinton was a Liberal Democrat and a Progressive and the status quo didn't impress him very much. And he also had a Democratic Congress to work with. So I'm guessing he was thinking this might be his best shot to accomplish what he wanted to reform. And if you look at his batting average as far as what he wanted to accomplish in his first two years as President, he got a lot done.

As far what President Clinton tried to push through Congress and what he got out of Congress, it's a pretty good record as far as modern times as well as historically. It's just health care reform and Welfare reform, that he was unsuccessful in pushing through Congress in his first two years which was a mammoth failure. And one of the main reasons why Democrats lost control of both chambers of Congress in the 1994 mid-terms. Bill Clinton even wanted to work with the Republican minority in Congress in both Chambers. But other than trade, the Republican Leadership made sure that never happened. Why did health care Reform fail in 1994, well several reasons. I'll give President Clinton credit for having the political guts to at least write a health care reform plan and sending it to Congress, unlike President Obama. I believe President Clinton had a very good idea what he wanted to do in health care reform.

I believe President Clinton's ideas was to have  a system thats built on freedom of choice in health care, where all Americans would decide for themselves where they would get their health insurance and health care through the private sector and help the people who can't afford health insurance on their own, purchase health insurance. As well as small business's who want to provide health insurance to their employees, but can't afford to pay for it. As well as having a Patients Bill of Rights in his legislation. If you look at what President Clinton attempted to pass and what President Obama finally got out of Congress in 2010 the Affordable Care Act, it's very similar. Just that 111th Democratic Congress as well as President Obama understood the mistakes of President Clinton and the 103rd Democratic Congress. Because a lot of them served in both Congress's and new not to repeat them. As much as Congressional Republicans claimed the Clinton health care plan was Canadian or British style "socialized medicine".

Where the Federal Government would take over at least health insurance in America if not health care in general. As brilliantly as they communicated that with their communication and advertising and their members expressing that in committee, or on the House and Senate floors, it wasn't. It was a brilliant con job on the GOP part, that they took to winning control on Congress in 1994. Also as sound as President Clinton's plan was in the beginning, he made it more complicated than it had to be. Thinking that he needed to please as many people as possible to get a health care bill out of Congress and made the bill so big at the end, that no one understood it. I'll give President and the 103rd Democratic Congress a lot of credit for what they set out to accomplish and did accomplish in 1993-94. But they failed to communicate it to the American people and paid a heavy price for that. That as a party were still paying for today, because the Republican Party won the communications war. And Democrats are still dealing with those stereotypes today. Of tax and spend and socialized medicine today.