2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumSander's Harsh Criticism of Bill Clinton's 90s Policies Legitimate
Last edited Mon Mar 14, 2016, 06:22 AM - Edit history (1)
Former President Clinton claims his domestic policies passed during his presidency were successful. But defining policy success can only be done if President Clinton's policies withstood the test of time. Within 10 years of his presidency ending those policies have failed miserably. His biggest legislative achievements the crime bill, welfare reform, deregulation, trade all have failed to stand the test of time.
The 1994 crime bill has been blamed (rightly so) for the reason why the US has the highest prison population in the world. And the crime bill can be blamed for the harsh punitive attitude our criminal justice system has evolved into. It pushed the courts to punish people more severely regardless of circumstance as it stripped away a judges ability to tailor a prison sentence according to all the facts and circumstances of the case. And as the data shows minorities bore the brunt of this harsh law. The law was such a failure that President Clinton, the man who pushed and signed this bill into law, apologized for it and stated it only worsened the country's criminal justice system.
Another failure was the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. BIll Clinton famously saying he was going to eliminate welfare as we have come to know it. The bill came in the form of block grants given to the states. This gave the states the ability to design their own programs. And many states created a system which had a racial bias to it by targeting minorities. For example tougher penalties and more stringent requirements for welfare eligibility were mainly reserved for people of color. The Welfare Reform act also produced a huge spike in extreme poverty. The poverty rate now is at a level higher than in 1996, when the bill was signed.
Deregulation is yet another area that former President Clinton thought was a good idea at the time. President Clinton pushed and signed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act. The Glass-Steagal Act was put into effect during the Great Depression and it's function was to separate investment and commercial banking activities. The repeal of the law led to the rise of several very large banks in the United States with business lines that cut across both commercial lending and securities business, particularly Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. Robert Rubin, the Treasury Secretary during Bill Clinton's' second term led the way in getting the act repealed. In the 1990s Citigroup and Travelers Group announced their intention to go into a merger. However, the Glass-Steagall Act stood in their way. Robert Rubin pushed for the repeal of Glass-Steagall and succeeded in getting President Clinton to repeal the law. When Rubin resigned as Treasury Secretary he immediately went to work at Citigroup as the, well no one knows exactly what position he had, although he was often referred to as a senior adviser. He basically ruined the company and he walked away with $126 million.
President Clinton also deregulated derivatives with the Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000. This act exempted credit-default swaps from regulation. We all know what happened because of this Act, the 2008 financial crisis. Although, there is plenty of blame to go around former President Clinton carries a large portion of responsibility for the financial crisis of 2008. The financial crisis wiped out many of the gains and assets people built up during the boom of the 1990s. I say Clinton does not deserve much credit for the booming economy of the 1990s because success should be defined by Americans being able to hold onto those gains they made in the 1990s. All the assets Americans built up were lost within a decade due to the direct results of President Clinton's deregulation of Wall Street. Today, President Clinton has basically absolved himself of responsibility by blaming the republicans for Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000.
Another success that Clinton likes to tout is NAFTA. The facts are in and have been in for quite a while. NAFTA killed hundreds of thousands of American jobs. It led the way for the many future trade agreements that have decimated the United States manufacturing base. I might add all trade agreements candidate Hillary Clinton championed and lobbied for.
So as far as the facts are concerned Bill Clinton's biggest achievements during his tenure as President have been colossal failures. Fifteen years after leaving office has given us enough time to evaluate and pass judgment on his policies. And his policies get a failing grade, a gigantic F. Bernie should criticize and point out these failures because the Hillary campaign is basically calling for a return to the way of thinking that dominated the 1990s.
merrily
(45,251 posts)Third Way Democrats. They do stuff Republicans want done and traditional Democrats fight. Republicans won't criticize them for doing things Republicans want and Democrats will refrain from criticizing them out of loyalty. Result, repeated screwing of peons about which no one complains until something dreadful happens--and even then.....
It works the other way as well, as when Reagan raised a lot of fees. They gave him a pass, but denied Poppy "Read my lips: No New Taxes" a second term after he raised taxes.
aintitfunny
(1,421 posts)Clinton's Statement: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=52289
Considering that six corporations now control 90% of our media, this concern about not allowing "undue concentration in the mass media," was heifer dust.
This is from the FCC site:
Section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires the Commission to review its ownership rules every four years and determine whether they are in the public interest as the result of competition. Under Section 202(h), the Commission shall repeal or modify any regulation it determines is no longer in the public interest.
The Commission's current ownership rules can be found in the Code of Federal Regulations.
I think we can thank Bill Clinton, for his contribution to the demise of the US Media.
hootinholler
(26,449 posts)Skwmom
(12,685 posts)djean111
(14,255 posts)Bill playing the saxophone on TV. Hope I am wrong. Bookmarking this, sending the link to my grandson. Excellent summation, thank you!!!!
ibegurpard
(16,685 posts)One of the biggest impediments to fair elections that we now face.