After two years of fighting, government shutdowns and little to no agreement on anything except welfare reform in 1996, President Clinton was re-elected and decided it was time for compromise.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
But I think what happened was that Clinton knew how to fight back. And the way he fought back was on the issues - being tough in staying on the things that mattered to people in their lives.
Don't Ask, Don't Tell was a successful compromise in 1993; and so that compromise should remain.
I opposed Clinton's budget deal in 1997 because he brought in $115 billion cut in Medicare that created greater pressure for providers not to participate.
Clinton took very tough decisions on the economy.
In 1996, Bill Clinton declared the era of big government over in the State of the Union address.
What Clinton severed with his welfare reform was the obligation of the federal government to step in when the states failed and to monitor these programs.
In his final year in office, Clinton decided that his contribution to Middle East peace would lie not in the removal of Saddam Hussein but in a grand attempt to resolve the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel. With this, he missed his last chance to deal forcefully with the man he was publicly committed to overthrowing.
In 1996, Republicans used reconciliation to pass major legislation that ended six decades of welfare policy.
Throughout his presidency, Clinton made a point of getting close - physically and emotionally - to the people whose problems his administration was working to solve.
Clinton passed his first budget without a single Republican vote in either the House or the Senate. Before it led to the longest economic expansion in U.S. history, it led to a Democratic defeat in the 1994 midterms.