Presidency and Congress

¶ … Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations and their support from Congress. With Barack Obama the first Democratic president since Bill Clinton, there are bound to be comparisons between the two administrations. They have some commonalities, such as a desire for health care reform, that are difficult to ignore. What the Obama administration manages to accomplish remains to be seen, but comparisons to their first year in office can now be analyzed for similarities and differences.

The Clinton administration ran on a platform of being "outsiders" in Washington D.C., and they believed they could clean up Washington and give the government back to the people. Unfortunately, that did not happen. The Clinton administration was extremely controversial, especially because of the sex scandals and the Whitewater Scandal that turned up during the first year of Clinton's presidency. He may be most remembered for the Monica Lewinsky affair, but he did accomplish many things during his administration, including sweeping tax reform that revived the economy. One writer notes, "In 1993, Bill Clinton pushed through the most progressive legislation the U.S. has had since the Johnson Administration. It was called, prosaically, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act" (Editors, 2009). This bill raised taxes on corporations and the wealthiest taxpayers, reduced taxes for the working poor, and generally helped fuel economic growth.

Clinton faced other problems in his administration from the start. He had a very loyal and eager staff, but they were inexperienced. One author notes, "He filled key White House staff and cabinet posts with FOB's (Friends of Bill's) from Arkansas" (Dickinson, 1998, p. 768). This made it very difficult to accomplish many of the things he wanted to accomplish, and he ended up replacing many staff members with more experienced personnel as his administration continued.

Overall, the Clinton administration had lofty goals in many areas, such as health care reform and economic policy. However, they faced many hurdles throughout their administration. Two authors continue, "The transition hazards of newness, haste, hubris, and naivete can be found at various points in the Clinton presidency. There was haste in the formulation of the economic stimulus package, which was later defeated by Congress" (Eksterowicz & Hastedt, 1998). He was a moderate Democrat, who wanted to reduce military spending, increase social welfare programs, and get the economy back on track. When he left office, there was a $236.2 billion surplus in the nation's budget (Carroll, 2009), and the economy was dramatically improved. He did not manage to pass health care reform, he did not manage to allow openly gay soldiers to acknowledge their beliefs to the military, and he did not accomplish all he set out to accomplish. However, his administration handled many problems effectively, altered some foreign policy, and left the country in good fiscal shape when he left office.

Each administration faces challenges when they enter the White House, because it is unfamiliar territory, and they are starting with a brand new staff. Clinton was no exception, and he entered the White House with little support from Congress, with a Republican majority. Two experts note, "The Clinton congressional coattails were nonexistent. Ten House seats were lost in the 1992 election and this left Clinton with 258 Democrats in the House and 57 in the Senate, the lowest margin since 1966" (Eksterowicz & Hastedt, 1998). This is one reason that he was unable to pass much of the legislation he had promised in his campaign, especially in his first year in office. Besides the fact that he faced an uphill battle in Congress, he often refused to make concessions that would have allowed bills to pass. Another author notes, "Instead, he vowed in his 1994 State of the Union speech to veto any compromise bill, thus effectively ending the chance to pass any health care reform bills" (Dickinson, 1998, p. 768). This plagued him throughout his administration, and doomed many bills to failure. Dickinson maintains that a modified bill, with many of the elements of the original, would have passed in Congress, leading to much needed health care reform more than a decade before the current administration's current attempt to change it.

In contrast, the Obama administration enjoys the support of a Democratic Congress, but the Congress is severely divided along party lines, and the Democrats are split in many of their opinions, so Obama has faced problems with his Congressional support. He accomplished quite a bit in his first year on the job. He shut down Guantanamo Bay and put a stop to controversial torture practices, he tackled the economic crisis and drafted legislation to bail out companies and get the country back on track, he added laws to limit lobbying in the White House, and he expanded health care for children. His approach has been to work with Congress, rather than alienate them, in direct contrast with the Clinton administration, who did not work well with Congress and did not back down. He also appointed his first Supreme Court nominee, the first Hispanic judge, and has made several other decisions with the support of Congress.

Both Clinton and Obama promised large-scale health care reform. Clinton's failed miserably, while Obama's is under consideration and modification in Congress. "The cornerstone of Clinton's first-term legislative agenda was fundamental health care reform. Aided and abetted by aides inexperienced in government, however, Clinton adopted a political strategy that almost guaranteed his proposed Health Security Act would not make it through Congress" (Dickinson, 1998, p. 768). He put his wife and another inexperienced staffer in charge of the legislation, and then refused to make any compromises. The bill failed, and there were no attempts to revive it. Obama, on the other hand, has been willing to work with members of Congress, but has made it clear that he will not give up on health care reform, it was one of the platforms of his campaign, and he will get it done, even if he has to veto a bill and ask Congress to start over.