1992 Election
George Bush takes on William J. Clinton
Clinton promises reform of the budget, defense cuts, equal rights, more funding for programs to help needy, and a reform of social security.
Bush asked the American people to give him another chance.
A new face appears. Ross Perot runs as a reform party candidate. He promises to run the country like a business. He uses charts and graphs to show what types of improvements he could make on the economy.
On the night of the election, Perot drops out and urges all of his supporters to vote for Clinton.
Bush loses the election.
The Clinton Administration
Clinton promised to reform health care, the budget, and slow the rise in crime across the nation
* Hillary Rodham Clinton steps out as a First Lady and takes Health Care reform to Congress. After much debate and planning, Republicans refused to vote on the proposed changes. Health Care Reform died.
*Clinton balances the budget and gives the nation a surplus for the first time in 30 years. The surplus was used to pay off some of the 5.5 trillion dollar deficit.
· Clinton reformed welfare by only giving states certain amounts of money to spend on welfare. This helped to ease welfare fraud and forced Americans to get jobs.
· 1993- Osama Bin Laden bombs the World Trade Center with a truck bomb. Much damage is done. Clinton responds by investigating Bin Laden and orders air strikes against Al Qaeda training camps in Sudan.
· Clinton sends troops to the former country of Yugoslavia to halt ethnic violence.
· Clinton sends troops to Somalia to regulate UN relief efforts and halt crime lords from hoarding the food.
US troops are forced to withdraw after several failed attempts to bring order to the area.
· Clinton creates NAFTA= North American Free Trade Agreement. This pact with Canada and Mexico would lower trade restrictions and promote trade among the three nations. NAFTA however caused jobs to leave the US and go to Mexico. Many Americans lost their jobs.
Attacking the President
Newt Gingrich, a congressman, began a Republican movement to slow down Clinton’s reforms. Republicans won a majority of Congressional seats in 1994. They fought Clinton to a deadlock. For several days all federal jobs halted work. The entire government shut down.
1996 Clinton wins reelection against Senator Bob Dole despite growing rumors of Clinton’s possible involvement in scandals.
White water scandal= supposed illegal real estate investments in Arkansas.
Monica Lewinski Scandal= Clinton supposedly had an affair with a White House intern. Clinton under oath denies involvement. However, testimony proved he lied. Congress files 2 counts of impeachment, however failed to get enough votes to convict the president.
Clinton apologizes for his actions on national TV.
2000 Election
VP Al Gore runs against George W. Bush. The two men fight a tight race and tie in electoral votes. Florida would break the tie. However, due to out-dated ballot procedures, controversy arose over the actual ballot count. Bush won by 500 votes. Al Gore asks the Supreme Court to force a recount of the votes. The Republicans moved to sue in order to stop the recounts. The court sided with the Republicans and Bush won. Many voters argued that had a recount been allowed, Gore would have really won.
Bush tackles a weakening economy and a growing social security crisis. His solution is to privatize retirement by having people save for their own retirement and not use social security. He also pushed a trillion dollar tax cut.
9/11/2001
After the attacks on Sept. 11th, Bush passes an Anti-terrorism bill. The bill gave the government power to detain terrorists and created the Dept. of Homeland Security.
Bush announces the invasion of Afghanistan to depose the Taliban and hunt for Bin Laden.
In 2003, after poor intelligence, Bush launches a war against Saddam Hussein of Iraq. He assumes that Hussein is sponsoring terrorism and is harboring weapons of mass destruction. After the main war ends in late 2003, it is proven that Hussein was not sponsoring terrorism and had no weapons of mass destruction.
Bush was left with a ruined Iraqi nation and a mess to clean up. Also, what do we do with Saddam?
Saddam is handed over to the Iraqi people for trial. He is convicted of crimes against humanity and the murder of hundreds of Iraqi people. He is sentenced to death after a long trial. He is executed in 2006.
2004 Bush wins reelection despite losing much of the public’s support due to the long drawn out war in Iraq. Senator John Kerry ran to oppose Bush however fell short of the required votes to take the presidency.