Bill Clinton as President

A regular reader recently asked me to sum up thoughts on Bill Clinton as President. In short, I was not yet old enough to vote in 1992, and I voted for Dole in 1996. So you know which way I am going.

Clinton took office Jan. 20, 1993 and left office Jan 20, 2001. During that time, many people attribute much success to him. Fact is that most of the economic success came via balanced budgets and holding steady on taxes via bills passed by a Republican controlled House and Senate in the mid and late 1990's. Another source of the economic boom was consumer debt.

Failure #1: Terrorism
America was attacked on its own soil in 2001 by Islamic extremists. Emboldened by Clinton's lax policy on dealing with violent radicals, these terrorists felt that we as Americans were soft. After all, we had elected and re-elected a soft leader in Clinton.

Fact is, there were several terrorist attacks that went unanswered during the Clinton administration, and this is what gave the terrorists on 9/11/2001 the guts to attack us:
-World Trade Center in 1993.
- Fuel truck bomb in Saudi Arabia in 1996.
- US Embassy bombed in Kenya in 1998.
- Last, but not least was the attack on the USS Cole in 2000.

Failure #2 - NAFTA
Ever notice lately how bad our unemployment is? Can you imagine how much better the US Economy would be if we had about, say, 1,000,000 more manufacturing jobs? Well, thank NAFTA - the "free trade" bill signed into law by Clinton. It was feared in 1992 that such a bill would cripple the US Economy. Sadly, the predictions were true. Even current President Obama was critical of the move in 2008 when he was running against Bill Clinton's wife.

But, if you like sending all our jobs overseas, then you wouldn't understand this criticism.

Failure #3: Socialized Health Care
Nobody wants it now, and nobody wanted it in 1993. Difference was that in 1993, enough politicians were frightened enough to actually not vote for it.


Failure #4: Social Security and Medicare
It is no secret that Social Security and Medicare are out of control. But they weren't always. Back in 1993, the Omnibus Act passed, and removed spending caps. That's all we needed - prevent the government from having any spending limits on something... anything. Jeesh.

Failure #5: Brady Bill
Passed in 1993, this bill required a waiting period on handgun purchases. To date, it has not prevented a single crime. What it was is an attempt to control guns a bit more and take a step toward the removal of the 2nd Amendment. Thankfully, in 1998, an online background checking system became possible, and the asinine law had its sunset.

This law also made it difficult and sometimes impossible for US citizens to purchase surplus firearms from other countries, like the SKS. It was this precedent that is attributed to part of current President Obama's "rationale" for banning the US from taking delivery of our own M1's and M1 Carbines that we had lent South Korea. 

Failure #6: "Assault" weapons ban:
Enacted in 1994, as part of this silly law made illegal certain "deadly features" on common use rifles, pistols, and shotguns. Of note, the "deadly features" included magazines that hold over 10 rounds of ammunition, pistol grips, collapsible stocks, flash hiders, bayonet lugs, and muzzle devices that allow for attachment of grenade launchers.

One really silly provision was "semiautomatic versions of automatic weapons." Replicas, in other words.

Thankfully, this law also had a sunset clause, and expired in 2004. However, the damage had been done. Americans wanted freedom - not governmental restrictions. So a Republican majority in Congress was elected later that year.


Failure #7: "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
Tell me one thing this did. For gays, or for those who oppose gays in the military.