President Bill Clinton's Legacy

[TreeStarsForever]

Last edited Sat Jun 9, 2018, 08:51 PM - Edit history (4)

With President Clinton on his new book tour, we will inevitably start to hear all of the common criticisms of him and his Presidency. So let us remember why Bill Clinton left office with a 66% approval rating:

—Surplus
—22 million new jobs
—4-balanced budgets due to the superb compromising ability of Bill Clinton
—7 million fewer Americans living in poverty
—Minimum wage up 20%
—Assault Weapons Ban
—Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act
—Campaign Against Teen Pregnancy: all-time low abortion rates
—Office on Violence Against Women
—Violence Against Women Act
—Children’s Health Insurance Program: 8.9 million children insured
—Family and Medical Leave Act
—Incomes rising at all income levels

Debunking criticisms:

—NAFTA was negotiated and put together by Bush Senior — Bill simply oversaw the implementation of NAFTA due to denying Bush a second term.
—The ‘94 crime bill was a bipartisan bill that even Bernie Sanders voted for.
—Welfare reform was due to 6 years of a GOP dominated Congress.
—Repealing Glass-Steagall had nothing to do with the ‘07 crash according to fact-checking websites — look it up!

Too bad so many Americans forgot about the net-positive record of the 1990s and drank the anti-Clinton kool-aid. The right-wing machine has been smearing Bill and Hillary for decades. Truly a “vast right-wing conspiracy.”

To be honest, we could really use two extremely intelligent pragmatists in the White House. “Compromise” is not a dirty word and leads to actual progress. Hyper-partisanship on both sides leads to zero progress.

Instead of declaring “Clintionism” dead, Americans should remember how much compromise, corporation, and broad-based prosperity occurred during the 1990s when two pragmatists (and policy wonks) occupied the White House. Minimum wage was up 20%! We had a surplus!

When people speak ill of President Bill Clinton, I think they have forgotten that he was a true pragmatist that was willing to compromise for the sake of progress. That is exactly the kind of person I want as President. Not someone like Bernie who would forfeit progress for purity.

Though the ‘90s weren’t progressive compared to today’s standards, we must remember — the Clintons were a breathe of fresh air after the “Reagan Revolution.” If not for Bill Clinton rebranding the Democratic Party, we would have been stuck with another 4 disastrous years of Bush Senior continuing Reaganomics.

During the ‘90s, Hillary helped create the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP — 8.9 million children insured) and was instrumental in all of Bill’s policy decisions. Many said Hillary was the one who actually ran the White House during the prosperous 1990s.

The Clintons will always be political icons and legends. Two-time winners that won the popular vote for a 3rd straight time.

Thanks for leaving our country in such great shape! The 1990s were great. Wish we could have continued our progress with Vice President Al Gore (thanks Nader — the original Bernie).

Never forget the truth about the Clinton Foundation (11.5 million people treated for HIV/AIDS, higher charity rating than the Red Cross), or the success of the 1990s (22 million new jobs, 7 million fewer Americans in poverty, minimum wage up 20%, incomes rising at all levels, 4 balanced-budgets, and a surplus!)

We could use a pragmatist who is willing to compromise. Polarization on both the far-left and the far-right will destroy our country.

So let us remember our last great era of peace and prosperity — the pragmatic 1990s. And never stop recognizing the continued good work the Clintons are doing for the world:

The Clinton Foundation was given a higher charity rating than the Red Cross and provides 11.5 million people with HIV/AIDS medication — that’s more than half of all those affected by the virus worldwide.

Commentator #1 @ 1:50 (when they do a close-up on Hillary):
“Hillary Clinton. The first First Lady with a post-graduate degree.”

Commentator #2:
“She has a law degree.”

President-elect Bill Clinton @ 4:33:
“I want to begin this night by thanking my family. My wife, without whom I would not be here tonight. And who I believe will be one of the greatest First Lady’s in the history of this Republic.”

:::Crowd goes wild. Bill smiles and looks at Hillary. Grabs her hand and holds it in the air. Crowd starts going even more wild and starts chanting: “HILLARY!” HILLARY!” “HILLARY!”:::

Bill endearingly says with a smile, “You can cheer for her.”

Commentator towards the end @ 29:31:
“Going to say, that both Governor and Misses Clinton, in this campaign, you know, they were hit with everything short of a tire-iron. They took an awful lot during the campaign. Everybody who ran in this race took a lot. But no more than those two people who are weaving and waving, right now, as the victors.”

Bill’s Father died at an early age, which resulted in Bill having to live with his Grandparents. His Grandfather ran a small country store. Eventually, though, Bill’s Mother was able to take control of her own life as a result of our country investing in her through education and healthcare — healthcare that saved his Mother’s life from cancer.

“That’s why I’m so committed to make sure every American gets the healthcare that saved my Mother’s life. And that women’s healthcare gets the same attention as men’s.”
~Bill Clinton

That isn’t a “hand-out” according to Bill. That was our country empowering its people and giving its people the tools they need to take control of their own lives. Ladders of oppurtunity that allowed for a man named Bill Clinton, born into a poor, widowed household, to become President of the United States. The very embodiment of the American dream. How our country *SHOULD* be operating.

After graduating Yale Law School, people thought Hillary was crazy to follow this Bill Clinton fellow to Arkansas, especially considering a promising legal career was waiting for her in Washington. But after falling in love with this strong, kind-hearted man from “Hope” Arkansas, she insisted she had met the next President of the United States. She knew they could change the world. Together. Side-by-side. Two kids working their way from the very bottom to the very top.

“I noticed that he kept looking over at me. He had been doing that a lot. So I stood up from the desk, walked over to him and said, ‘If you’re going to keep looking at me, and I’m going to keep looking back, we might as well be introduced. I’m Hillary Rodham.’ That was it. The way Bill tells the story, he couldn’t remember his own name.“
~Hillary Rodham Clinton

Hillary followed Bill to Arkansas, becoming the breadwinner of their family so Bill could run for Governor. Once Bill became Governor, as First Lady of Arkansas, Hillary reformed education, healthcare, the foster care system, worked for the Children’s Defense Fund, provided legal services to poor and underprivileged families, and taught parents how to be their children’s first advocates.

The joke in Arkansas was that they “hired the wrong Clinton.”

Hillary knew the importance of investing in women and children due to her Mother being abandoned by her parents at an early age. And Bill’s personal story regarding his widowed Mother is proof of Hillary’s larger point, a point she has been making ever since her days as First Lady of Arkansas: children’s issues and women’s issues are critical to the health and success of our nation. And none other than her husband, President Bill Clinton, is the proof.

Bill Clinton:

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself for jumping on my wife Hillary!”

“Jerry comes here with his family wealth and fifteen hundred dollar suit.”

“When I first met her 30 years ago, she already had an abiding passion to help children. She’s pursued it ever since. Her first job was with the Children’s Defense Fund. Every year I was Governor she took lots of time away from her law practice to work for better schools, children’s health and jobs for parents who lived in poor areas. When I became President she became a full- time advocate for her lifetime cause. What a job she’s done. She championed the Family Leave law, children’s health insurance, and increased support for foster children and adoptions. She wrote a best–selling book about caring for our children, and then she took care of them by giving all the profits to children’s charities. For thirty years, she’s been there for all our kids. She’s been a great First Lady. She’s always been there for our family. And she’ll always be there for the families of New York and America.”
~President Bill Clinton

VIDEO @ 11:17:

“I learned a lot from another person too: a person who for more than 20 years has worked hard to help our children, paying the price of time to make sure our schools don't fail them. Someone who traveled our state for a year, studying, learning, listening, going to PTA meetings, school board meetings, town hall meetings, putting together a package of school reforms recognized around the Nation, and doing it all while building a distinguished legal career and being a wonderful, loving mother.

That person is my wife.

Hillary taught me. She taught me that all children can learn and that each of us has a duty to help them do it.

So if you want to know why I care so much about our children, and our future, it all started with Hillary. I love you.”
~Bill Clinton

[dem4decades]

1. Thank You.

[TreeStarsForever]

4. You are most welcome.

I hope one day a book is written debunking all the criticisms of the Clintons and also points out all the good they have done for America.

How quickly we forget

[mcar]

2. Thank you!

[oasis]

3. William Jefferson Clinton is high on my list as one of the greatest

American presidents of the 20th Century.

[BigmanPigman]

5. Well done!

You are preaching to the choir here though.

[TreeStarsForever]

6. Gotta make sure everyone has the talking-points ;)

[Eko]

14. 3,2,1,,,

[radical noodle]

7. Great post!

Thank you! I've always loved the Clintons.

[lunamagica]

8. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this!

I remember the Clinton era fondly. Those were good years, and I miss them.

[apkhgp]

9. Seeing this made my day

Honestly, going back through the history of what actually happened during the Clinton Presidency. Not some Right Wing distortion meant to sway my opinion away from saying Bill Clinton is one of the greatest Presidents ever. IMHO the dirtbag in the White House right now should see this kind of stuff everyday.

[TreeStarsForever]

30. There needs to be a campaign to spread all the good the Clintons have done.

Americans need a refresher.

[nolabear]

10. Boy I miss when this country was doing well.

DAMN the GOP.

[TreeStarsForever]

12. For the majority of Americans, the 1990s was our last great era

Gas prices were under a dollar!!!!

[brer cat]

11. Outstanding OP, TreeStars!

Thank you.

[TreeStarsForever]

31. You are most welcome!!

[EffieBlack]

13. Excellent - a must read!

[TreeStarsForever]

16. Why does the media ignore this amazing record? Ugh...

I wish we could spread these points far and wide...

[SunSeeker]

15. K & R & bookmarked!

[Stinky The Clown]

17. Yup!

All of it.

[R B Garr]

18. Love this! Thank you for reminding us how triumphant

Bill C was in beating the GOP at their own games. He showed them who the fiscally responsible party really is. That surplus was supposed to go to the climate change expert—Al Gore, a man decades ahead of his time.

Love this!

[TreeStarsForever]

33. The GOP has forever hated the Clintons because the Clintons ended the Reagan/Bush Era

Without the Clintons, we would have been stuck with Bush Senior continuing Reaganomics for another 4 years.

[R B Garr]

35. Exactly. There really is no excuse for this superficial Clinton bashing

meant to prop up one man. It is never in context, and I’m glad you emphasized that. When Bill took office, Hillary’s health care proposals and Al Gore’s climate change focus were daring and decades ahead of their time. Imagine what Gore could have done with Clinton’s surplus.

[malchickiwick]

19. Great Post -- Thank You!

How easy it is for the mouthbreathers to disparage the Clinton presidency. As someone who raised three young kids through the 1990s, I can tell you we working families sure appreciated the HELL outta him!

[TreeStarsForever]

38. I love being a '90s kid. I felt safe back then.

[oasis]

20. K and R

[aka-chmeee]

21. Many thanks for the reminder (I didn't need it; but many do)

Best by far in my "short" life.

[StevieM]

22. The attacks on the Clinton Foundation are particularly evil. Shame on the people who lied about it.

Especially Joe and Mika.

[betsuni]

23. I remember the 90s as a time of optimism and help wanted signs.

Thank you!

[TreeStarsForever]

32. Clinton Era nostalgia is a winning strategy I swear!!

[Nac Mac Feegle]

24. If there had been a 25 year smear campaign against bacon

Like there has been against the Clintons,
The biggest fight would be whether to convert to Judism or Islam.

[Catherine Vincent]

25. Love it!

Thank you.

[TreeStarsForever]

28. I wish everyone remembered the peace and prosperity during the Clinton Era

Americans have short memories...

[shanny]

26. Lol

Bill only "implemented" NAFTA? He signed it--which he didn't have to do since it did not pass with a veto proof majority.

As for Glass-Steagall, repeal was definitely a mistake and contributed greatly to the disaster in 2008, a mere 9 years later.

https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/10-years-later-looking-at-repeal-of-glass-steagall

And we can't blame welfare reform of 1996 entirely on the Rs, since Bill campaigned in '92 on "ending welfare as we know it." The crime bill was a draconian disaster, and I think you omitted de-regulation of the media.

If you want to list Clinton's accomplishments you should include the ones that didn't turn out so well--otherwise the portrait is not an accurate one. We shouldn't be rewriting history to suit ourselves.

[TreeStarsForever]

27. I have addressed the negatives of Bill's Presidency. But I'll do so again:

1. NAFTA was widely popular among both political parties. Bill Clinton campaigned on it to get elected. He promised to implement it because it was already on its way to being passed. That’s part of the continuity of American power: keeping our word to our allies (Mexico and Canada).

NAFTA was a bipartisan bill that both political parties agreed with.

Did NAFTA have unintended consequences? Yes. But at the end of the day, it was an agreement that both sides wanted. Not just Bill Clinton.

The problem is that people like Trump use NAFTA against Clinton to hurt Democrats among working-class voters. But when one looks at history, it wasn’t a Democrat or Republican agreement. It was a bipartisan agreement that began under Bush Senior. It was also popular with the public.

People forget that NAFTA began under Bush Senior. They assume it was all Bill Clinton’s idea. That’s historically false. Pointing out that it began under Bush Senior is both necessary and accurate. Bill doesn’t deserve all the blame for it. Not by a long shot.

Hindsight is 20/20.

No one could have foreseen the unintended consequences of NAFTA. But if we had elected Al Gore in 2000, we could have replaced many of those jobs with green energy jobs of the future. Sadly, Nader (the original Bernie) gave us Bush instead of Gore.

Despite NAFTA, the Clinton Era still produced 22 million jobs (not all of which were in the tech industry). Incomes were rising at all income levels (Clinton even passed the chid tax credit to help working families), and minimum wage was also up 20%.

NAFTA is a bipartisan blemish; not a Bill Clinton blemish. It began under Bush Senior. Both parties wanted NAFTA. Historical context is important.

2. If Bernie gets to use the Violence Against Women Act as his excuse for voting for the crime bill, so does Bill Clinton. Consistency is important.

But yet again — context and history is important. Crime rates were at an all-time high during the early 1990s. Leaders in the African American communities were desperate to rid their communities of violence. Interestingly, a majority of black members of Congress and black leaders also supported the crime bill.

But again — the 3 strikes bill had unintended consequences. It wasn’t passed to purposely harm the African American community. But it did. Unintentionally. That’s why Bill Clinton has since apologized for it.

You aren’t going to get everything right during 8 years in the White House. But if you look back at history, many in the African American community supported these same policies. They wanted to rid their communities of violence. Hindsight is 20/20.

Point is — Bernie voted for the crime bill. You can come up with as many excuses as you want, but he voted for it, too. If he gets to use the Violence Against Women Act as his excuse, so does Bill. You are also ignoring the support for this bill among the African American community.

3. What Bill Clinton said in 1992 had no relevance by the time welfare reform passed in the late ‘90s. If Democrats had controlled Congress, the bill would have been much different. Sure, Bill Clinton wanted to reform welfare (because again — historical context shows us that welfare was out of balance back then). But if Democrats had controlled Congress, the bill wouldn’t have been nearly as extreme.

However, as we know, Bill Clinton was a true pragmatist. He was willing to compromise. He was willing to get things done with Republicans. Was his record 100% perfect? No. It wasn’t. But it was still a net-positive result for the American people.

4. Glass-Steagall fact-check:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/aug/19/bill-clinton/bill-clinton-glass-steagall-had-nothing-do-financi/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hindsight is 20/20.

But none of Bill’s mistakes erase his net-positive record for the American people:

—Surplus
—22 million new jobs
—4-balanced budgets due to the superb compromising ability of Bill Clinton
—7 million fewer Americans living in poverty
—Minimum wage up 20%
—Assault Weapons Ban
—Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act
—Campaign Against Teen Pregnancy: all-time low abortion rates
—Office on Violence Against Women
—Violence Against Women Act
—Children’s Health Insurance Program: 8.9 million children insured
—Family and Medical Leave Act
—Incomes rising at all income levels

The Clintons were a NET-POSITIVE for the American people.

[Garrett78]

29. Bernie was also wrong to support that hideous crime bill.

Pointing out that Bernie (who is often misguided) supported the bill doesn't somehow negate what an awful thing it was. One shouldn't assume all of those who were/are critical of the Bill Clinton Administration are Bernie Sanders people. I'm a counterexample. Even if one is a Bernie Sanders supporter, criticism of the crime bill (and all who supported it) would still be warranted.

And many people foresaw the negative consequences of NAFTA, which Clinton did not have to sign into law. Nor did he have to push the notion that "big government" is evil. Nor did he have to "reform" welfare in such a way that caused a great deal of harm (the fact that it had bipartisan support doesn't change that).

Lastly, from your own link:

We also contacted Barry Ritholtz, a wealth management expert and commentator, who said Glass-Steagall would have done nothing to stop the financial crisis, but not having it made the crisis worse. It encouraged banks to get bigger and to take on riskier investments, so the ripple effects of the crisis were bigger than they would have been otherwise, he said, adding that it wasn’t just the headline-making banks that struggled.

But Clinton’s hands aren’t clean of the financial crisis, because his administration played no small part in the longer term deregulatory trend. Clinton and his administration did not make an earnest attempt to maintain oversight over the big, hybrid banks created by the demise of Glass-Steagall, Day said. Additionally, the administration’s firm decision not to regulate other aspects of the financial market played a meaningful role in the crisis -- for example, the absence of regulations regarding over-the-counter derivatives, which were becoming increasingly prevalent, despite internal warnings.

Clinton’s claim "might be technically true, but it’s a sin of omission," Day said.

[R B Garr]

36. Thanks again for the important context that some just refuse

to acknowledge.

I always thought Bernie’s attacks on NAFTA were his way of attacking Bill Clinton without being direct.

I remember Bill Clinton also followed through with the Republican Bush’s plans to shutter military bases. Not everything a previous administration did was scrapped. In the context of the time, the Reagan/Tip O’Neill legacy was still strong and I think was a big influence in Bill C after beating Pappy Bush.

So tired of the futile distortions about the Clintons’. Thanks for your excellent reminders.

[R B Garr]

34. Parroting Bernie's failed platform does not diminish Clinton's

success. Do we get to spam Bernie’s failures ad nauseum, or is this a one-way street? I bet it’s a one-way street.

As usual, the stale attacks from Bernie fans mirror his own stubborn refusal to put any issues into context. How convenient, but a huge fail. There’s a reason Bernie passed on 11 Presidential elections since he turned 35. So sick of this useless Clinton bashing. What’s the excuse for turning on Gore?? Describe how Bush was a better President for you than Gore.

This has gotten out of hand. Endless hostility towards successful Democrats is just beyond stupid.

[TreeStarsForever]

37. Democrats never get any credit for their success.

Time to start correcting the record.

[oberliner]

39. His election victory was an exciting moment

I will never forget it.