The Clinton-Gore Record, 1993-2000s

This shameful reminder compiled by Casey Peters with input from many others.

Please send additions/corrections/footnotes to kcpeters@ix.netcom.com

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In this revised edition, we acknowledge some positive things done by the Clinton-Gore Administration:

  1. Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act, previously vetoed by George Bush;
  2. Clinton-Gore established AmeriCorps to allow college graduates to work off their student loans by providing needed public service; and
  3. Clinton recognized the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (which, due to corporate pressure, Bush might well have done in a second term). There must be some other progressive accomplishments in seven and a half years of Democrats in the White House. Just can't think of any.

First, the oft-cited matter of Supreme Court appointments. Or should we say disappointments? The fact of the matter is that the Democrats, including Clinton, have appointed mainstream corporate lawyers to the bench, not defenders of civil rights and liberties. Isn't it ironic that Republicans such as Eisenhower and Nixon have named some of the more liberal jurists to the Supreme Court? Bill Clinton's appointees have been to the right politically of the justices they replaced. In other words, having a Democrat in the White House has only moved the Supreme Court further right, into the hands of pro-corporate, anti-worker, authoritarian ideologues in the 1990s.

Clinton-Gore policy has kept military spending at Reaganesque levels instead of delivering the promised Peace Dividend after the end of the Cold War.

Clinton-Gore's approach to foreign policy has been consistent reliance on coercion, force and violence, with virtually no attention to diplomacy.

In domestic policy, Clinton-Gore destroyed "welfare as we know it", and forced innumerable poor people into living on the streets and sleeping on park benches and under bridges. Democrats not only failed to address the homelessness generated by Reaganism, they have exacerbated it.

Under the Clinton-Gore Administration, corporate mergers and take-overs in nearly every sector of the economy have reached a fevered pitch dwarfing the record levels reached under Reagan-Bush. The Microsoft case was used as a decoy while allowing absolutely unprecedented free reign for concentration of wealth and power.

Clinton signed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which allows banks and insurance companies to consolidate.

Like any good Republican, Clinton has used existing anti-union statutes to stop labor strikes in the airline industry, and force strikers back to work.

The Clinton-Gore Administration began in 1993 by stripping all Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual members of the armed forces of the same First Amendment Right to free speech as heterosexuals enjoy, with its duplicitous "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. Homosexuals have been expelled from the military at a higher rate under Clinton-Gore than under Reagan-Bush.

Clinton signed the "Defense of Marriage Act" which promotes homophobia and denies equal treatment under the law to all gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender and single Americans.

Clinton-Gore did nothing to revive legislative efforts toward constitutional protection for women - the Equal Rights Amendment.

Bill Clinton hid behind Janet Reno's skirts in the investigation following the federal government's mass murder of a Waco, Texas, church group. The 80+ incinerated church members, including many children, had NOT been convicted of any crime.

Clinton-Gore are vocal advocates of capital punishment, despite international protests against the United States being alone among industrial nations as a practitioner of the death penalty.

President Clinton stabbed his friend Lani Guinier in the back, withdrawing her nomination as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, claiming that her electoral reform ideas were "undemocratic" while admitting that he had not actually read them. In doing so, he deprived all United States citizens of the chance to hear Guinier defend the concept of real democracy in a Senate committee hearing. This presidential act of cowardice and betrayal set the tone for the Clinton-Gore Administration.

Clinton-Gore fundraiser Charlie Trie pled guilty to committing campaign finance violations for funneling illegal contributions to the Democratic National Committee.

Among numerous Clinton officials investigated for corruption were: Interior Secretary Bruce Babbit; HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros; Labor Secretary Alexis Herman; .

Gore's "Reinventing Government" public relations campaign masked the reality of massive layoffs of federal employees and cutting back on social services.

When they campaigned in 1992, Clinton-Gore promised the people in an Ohio community that the toxic waste disposal facility that was being built there would never be allowed to open. But as soon as they were elected, they actually facilitated approval of the facility through the EPA.

As for abiding by agreements to reduce "greenhouse gases", Clinton-Gore has produced only hot air and interminable stalling.

Clinton-Gore presided over the biggest federal land giveaway in history, to oil companies for exploration in Alaska.

Bill and Hillary Clinton derailed the movement for Universal Health Care with their 1993 hearings which gave insurance industry executives control of our national political dialogue.

Despite promising the Women's movement that they would support legislation (or a Constitutional Amendment) to protect abortion rights, Clinton-Gore have helped erode this right by asserting that there are "too many" abortions in the US, and by preaching sexual abstinence as the primary way of avoiding pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Clinton-Gore dumped popular Surgeon-General Jocelyn Elders for her efforts to slow the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

In 1992 Clinton-Gore had promised to get RU-486 (aka mifeprestone, "the morning-after pill") on the market right away. Eight years later., the current proposal by the FDA is to allow only doctors who already perform abortions to prescribe it, and only if they practice medicine within one hour of a hospital.

President Clinton embarrassed all Americans by being the only national leader in the world who refused to sign the Landmine Ban Treaty after the death of England's Princess Diana.

Clinton-Gore also refused to sign on to a treaty to form a World Court last year, fearing that Americans might actually be subject to international legal jurisdiction.

In 1996, Clinton promoted and signed the "Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act" which, with its anti-civil liberties and anti-immigrant provisions, is one of he most reactionary pieces of legislation since the McCarthy era.

Clinton-Gore supported the mis-named Communication Decency Act, as well as the Clipper Chip (another intrusion on our civil liberties).

White House Office of National Drug Control Policy tried to "preview" scripts for network television broadcasters and is now attempting to influence (censor) the content of feature films.

Clinton-Gore officials are using federal drug laws to foil states' rights to make marijuana legal for medical purposes.

Clinton-Gore invaded the island nation of Saint Vincent to destroy their economic backbone, marijuana, as "a training mission for U.S. Marines" and Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

Clinton-Gore is using the "drug war" to involve the U.S. military in a Vietnam-style civil war in Columbia. A 1.6 Billion bill proposed by Clinton-Gore includes funds to spray genetically-modified herbicide to defoliate mountainous regions of Columbia.

Clinton-Gore used the "drug war" as an excuse to provide weaponry to the murderous military junta of Myanmar (Burma).

Gore is a major stockholder in Occidental Petroleum, which does business with Myanmar's military rulers and which is forcing the U'wa people off of their traditional tribal territory in Columbia.

Upon taking office, the Clinton-Gore Administration ordered massive bombing of population centers in Iraq, as if to prove that they could be as "tough" and cold-blooded as Bush-Quayle.

While Russia was conducting an unpopular war against Chechnya's independence, Clinton visited Boris Yeltsin without making any criticism of the unnecessary brutality.

Clinton-Gore ignored massive human suffering in Rwanda, Somalia, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Clinton applauded Turkey's cross-border raids into northern Iraq to slaughter Kurds (U.S. Gulf War allies) who want recognition of their own homeland, Kurdustan.

Clinton-Gore conducted a massive bombing of Kosovo and Serbia, based on faked photos of nonexistent "mass graves". Their air war destroyed ancient landmarks and industrial infrastructure, and killed many civilians. They also bombed the embassy of China which opposed the US-Kosovar War.

Clinton-Gore retaliated for the Kenya embassy bombing by attacking unrelated targets in Sudan and Afghanistan.

Clinton-Gore honored General Suharto of Indonesia at a White House dinner while his military was massacring East Timorese and other people. The Administration supported Suharto's dictatorship until a few days before it was overthrown in 1999.

Former President Carter had to intervene to get Clinton to back down from his nuclear saber rattling against North Korea.

Clinton-Gore turned a blind eye to massacres of human rights activists by U.S. military puppets in Guatemala and elsewhere.

When they campaigned in 1992, Clinton-Gore accused George Bush of an inhumane policy regarding Haitian refugees, in which they were being moved to internment camps at Guantanamo Bay, and being returned to Haiti where they faced possible execution. As soon as Clinton-Gore were elected, they announced that they would continue Bush's policy instead of implementing a different, more humane policy.

Clinton-Gore delayed action to restore the elected government of Haiti until President Aristide's term of office had nearly expired.

Clinton-Gore have continued the four-decade embargo of Cuba, refusing to consider "constructive engagement".

Clinton-Gore pushed through annual "most favored nation" status for human-rights violator China, finally achieving permanent Chinese membership in WTO over the objections of the AFL-CIO.

Clinton-Gore used international trade law to force Europe to drop its ban against American hormone-tainted beef.

Clinton and Gore have been the main proponents of anti-labor, anti-environment, anti-democracy NAFTA, GATT and WTO treaties.

Under Clinton-Gore, the Pentagon retains its sample of Smallpox virus, defying the World Health Organization.

Clinton-Gore has continued nuclear weapons testing and production despite the end of the Arms Race. The administration only approved the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty after negotiating (arm-twisting) to get exceptions for the U.S. Clinton-Gore refuse to respond to repeated calls for a global disarmament conference.

Clinton-Gore has left the Veterans' Administration hospital system in shambles.

President Clinton signed a bill, effective in 2001, which will double the salary for President of the United States to 400,000 a year and will increase the salaries of the Vice President, Cabinet members, Senators and Members of Congress.

The Clinton-Gore Administration got away with things Reagan-Bush could only dream about. But the flimsy leadership of unions, environmental and civil rights groups let them get away with it because they're so wedded to the Democrats. Shameful.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in an analysis of the Congressional Budget Office income figures for the past 22 years found that in 1999, more than sixty percent of Americans were worse off than they were in 1977. Here is the CBPP's table representing the growing income disparity in the USA:

Household Groups Share of all income Average of After-tax income Change

v
1977 vs. 1999 1977 vs. 1999
Lowest One-fifth 5.7% 4.2% 10,000 8,800 - 12.0%
Next One-fifth 11.5% 9.7% 22,100 20,000 - 9.5%
Middle One-fifth 16.4 % 14.7% 32,400 31,400 - 3.1%
Next One-fifth 22.8% 21.3% 42,600 45,100 + 5.9%
Highest One-fifth 44.2% 50.4% 74,000 102,300 + 38.2%
The 1% highest 7.3% 12.9% 234,700 515,600 +119.7%

Lowest One-fifth 5.7% 4.2% $ 10,000 $ 8,800 - 12.0%
Next One-fifth 11.5% 9.7% $ 22,100 $ 20,000 - 9.5%
Middle One-fifth 16.4 % 14.7% $ 32,400 $ 31,400 - 3.1%
Next One-fifth 22.8% 21.3% $ 42,600 $ 45,100 + 5.9%
Highest One-fifth 44.2% 50.4% $ 74,000 $102,300 + 38.2%
The 1% highest 7.3% 12.9% $234,700 $515,600 +119.7%

These figures mean that sixty percent of the American people earned twenty-eight percent of all income. Close to seventy-two percent of all income is earned by forty percent of households. The wealthiest 2.7 million have as much to spend as the poorest 100 million people.v