The Clinton Years AP US History

American Disillusion with Politics U.S. Term Limits, Inc vs Thornton - states couldn’t rule on federal officeholders 27th Amendment - Congressional Pay

Election of 1992 -Republican - incumbent George HW Bush -Democrat - Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton -Independent - H. Ross Perot

Perot -Texas billionaire -Anti-Washington, Anti-deficit -20% of pop vote

1992 Campaign Issues -Bush - “No New Taxes”? Clinton - Vietnam, Marijuana, the “Character Issue” (Gennifer Flowers) “It’s the economy, stupid!”

Democrat Victory Democrats win again in both houses of Congress

Clinton’s First Term Goals -Campaign Finance Reform -Environmental Reform -Economic Stimulus -Health Care Reform -Military Discrimination -Republican Filibusters

Early Successes -Family and Medical Leave Act -”Motor Voter” law -Brady Bill

NAFTA -Canada - U.S. - Mexico Free Trade Zone -Perot - “That great sucking sound” -

Republican Takeover -1994 Congressional Elections -controlled both houses for first time since 1954 -”Contract with America” -Government Shutdowns

Anti-Government Extremists -Waco, Texas - 1993 -David Koresh -Oklahoma City 1995 -Timothy McVeigh

1990s Terrorism 1993 - World Trade Center 1998 - Kenya and Tanzania Embassies 2000 - USS Cole

Balanced Budget -1996 - compromise budget - left Medicare and SS benefits intact, limited welfare to five years, curbed some immigration, raised minimum wage, balanced budget -first federal surplus since 1969

Election of 1996 -Clinton-Gore (Democrat) - 379/49.2 -Dole-Kemp (Republican) - 159/40.8 -Perot - Reform

1996 -First Democrat incumbent to win since FDR -First time Republicans retained both houses since 1920s

Technology Boom “E-commerce” -Apple -Intel -Microsoft -Amazon -AOL -Yahoo -Google -inflation rate below 3% -1 in 14 households worth $1 million or more -first lower-income gains in real income since 1973

Dot-com bubble -boom of 1990s peaked in 2000, over by 2002

Clinton’s Second Term -What to do with the surplus? -Republicans - tax cuts -Democrats - support Social Security, expand Medicare, reduce debt

Investigations of Clinton -Whitewater -Troopergate -Travelgate -Filegate -Vince Foster’s Death

Lewinsky -Former White House intern -Kenneth Starr, Paula Jones

Impeachment -December 1998 - House voted to impeach on two counts -fall elections - Democrats gained seats in House -Feb 1999 - formal trial in Senate - not even majority to impeach

Clinton’s Foreign Policy -First Sec of State - Warren Christopher -low-key -1997 - Sec of State - Madeleine Albright - first woman -more assertive

Peacekeeping Missions -Somalia - 1993 -Haiti - 1994 -Slobodan Milosevic -Bosnia/Kosovo -India/Pakistan -North Korea -Israel/West Bank

Globalization -World Trade Organization (WTO) - 1994 -International Monetary Fund (IMF) -G-8

Immigration Reform -failed to stop illegal entry -criticized by some for amnesty

Graying of America -Baby-boomers get older -future of social security?

Changing Families Number of families headed by single women rises single women headed 47.2% of black families in 2000 similar trend among white and Hispanic families

Income and Wealth -US was richest country in world -largest gap between highest and lowest paid workers Gilded Age repeating itself?