Bill Clonton's Economic Policy
Bill Clinton’s Economic Policy One of President Bill Clinton’s biggest accomplishments during his presidential term is his policy to stimulate the American economy. In 1993, Clinton and his vice president Gore released the economic strategy for their term. Most believed it wouldn’t do much to spur our economy but in 1997 positive outcomes began to surface as the national deficit began to shrink. (Schaller, Anderson, and Schulzinger 514) Clinton faced a high unemployment rate, record deficits, and rising inflation left by previous administrations. In response he created a booming economy through establishing fiscal discipline, keeping interest rates low, investing in government programs that spurred educational growth, and opened our foreign trade market in order to stabilize the United State’s budget. In 1992 the national debt quadrupled since 1982, that created a national deficit of $290 billion that was predicted to be $455 billion by 2000. Clinton’s unpopular economic policy resulted in an eight-year deficit reduction to become America’s first experienced fiscal improvement. (Historic Economic Growth) Vice President Gore brought the new three-part Budget Reconciliation to congress on August 6, 1993 in order to reverse the trickle down economic strategy that had been in place the previous 12 years. Without receiving a single Republican vote in Congress, Clinton signed the bill into law four days later. One of these parts was establishing fiscal discipline that aided in the largest budget surplus in United States history. The economic plan that passed in 1993 had a projected $500 billion deficit cut for the first five years. Prior to the 1997 Balanced Budget Agreement, Clinton and Gore cut the deficit by 92 percent. (Clinton and Gore Economic Plan) The Balance Budget Agreement of 1997 was a bipartisan agreement that would eliminate the national deficit completely. Along with eliminating the deficit, plans for economic growth and investment into education and
Cited: "Bill Clinton on Education." OnTheIssues.org - Candidates on the Issues. 08 Aug. 2000. Web. 16 Nov. 2010. <http://www.ontheissues.org/celeb/bill_clinton_education.htm>. Clinton, Bill. Between Hope and History: Meeting America 's Challenges for the 21st Century. New York: Times , Random House, 1996. Print. "Archived: August 5, 2000 -- Fact Sheet on the Clinton and Gore Economic Plan." U.S. Department of Education. 08 Aug. 2000. Web. 16 Nov. 2010. <http://www2.ed.gov/PressReleases/08-2000/wh-0805.html>. "Bill Clinton on Budget & Economy." OnTheIssues.org - Candidates on the Issues. 10 Feb. 2010. Web. 16 Nov. 2010. <http://www.ontheissues.org/celeb/Bill_Clinton_Budget__Economy.htm>. "The Clinton Presidency: Historic Economic Growth." Welcome To The White House. Web. 16 Nov. 2010. <http://clinton5.nara.gov/WH/Accomplishments/eightyears-03.html>. Schaller, Michael, Karen Anderson, and Robert D. Schulzinger. Present Tense the United States since 1945. Third Edition ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. Print.