Quit Yer Bitchin' 'Bout Bill

My very good friend, Jimmy, put a post on his blog about Bill Clinton's recent interview on Fox News. While I love Jimmy dearly, I despise his views on Clinton. For so long, Clinton has been bashed and battered repeatedly for reasons I don't completely understand. From my humble perspective, my life was incredibly prosperous during the Clinton era. In fact, during the eight years Bill was the leader of our country, I think a lot of people's lives were incredibly prosperous, much more than they are now. Did he make mistakes? Sure he did. He's human after all. Yet, I can't understand the readiness with which people will attack him. Let us not forget all the positive accomplishments he achieved during his Presidency. I certainly won't.

From www.mikehersh.com:

• 15 million working families enjoyed tax relief under President Clinton's expanded Earned Income Tax Credit. Thanks to Clinton, the EITC lifted 4.3 million people out of poverty in 1998 alone.
• 1.5 million children benefited when Clinton more than doubled federal funding for child care.
• Clinton increased funding for the Head Start program by 90 percent in FY 2000 so 880,000 children had a better chance to learn and grow.
• Clinton forced the minimum wage up from $4.25 to $5.15 per hour and demanded an increase to $6.15.
• Clinton's Workforce Investment Act reformed the nation's employment and training system.
• Clinton's AmeriCorps gave 150,000 young people the opportunity to serve in their communities while earning money for college or skills training.
• President Clinton's One America initiatives challenged us to respect others' differences and embrace the common values that unite us. "[T]o close the opportunity gaps that exist for minorities and the underserved in this country."
• The poverty rate fell from 15.1 percent in 1993 to 12.7 percent in 1998. That's the lowest poverty rate since 1979 and the largest five-year drop in poverty in nearly 30 years (1965-1970). The African-American poverty rate dropped from 33.1 percent in 1993 to 26.1 percent in 1998 -- the lowest level ever recorded and the largest five-year drop in African-American poverty in more than a quarter century (1967-1972). The poverty rate for Hispanics fell to the lowest level since 1979, and dropped to 25.6 percent in 1998.
  
• African-American unemployment fell from 14.2 percent in 1992 to 7.3 percent in March 2000 -- the lowest rate on record. The unemployment rate for Hispanics fell from 11.6 percent in 1992 to 6.3 percent in March 2000 -- and in the last year has been at the lowest rate on record. For women, the unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in March 2000, nearly the lowest since 1953 [when few women sought employment outside the home].
• In 1999, the homeownership rate was 66.8 percent -- the highest ever recorded. Minority homeownership rates were also the highest ever recorded.
• Under President Clinton and Vice President Gore, child poverty declined from 22.7 percent in 1993 to 18.9 percent in 1998 -- the biggest five-year drop in nearly 30 years. The poverty rate for African-American children fell from 46.1 percent in 1993 to 36.7 percent in 1998 -- the lowest level in 20 years and the biggest five-year drop on record. The rate also fell for Hispanic children, from 36.8 percent to 34.4 percent - and is now 6.5 percentage points lower than it was in 1993.
  

Other accomplishments to tout:

• The strongest economy in a generation. In February 2000, the United States entered the 107th consecutive month of economic expansion -- the longest economic expansion in U.S. history.
• In 1992, the deficit was $290 billion, a record high. In 2000, we had a projected budget surplus of $167 billion -- the largest dollar surplus on record (even after adjusting for inflation) and the largest as a share of our economy since 1951. This is the first time we have had three surpluses in a row in more than a half century.
• 21.2 million new jobs were created from 1993-2000, the most jobs ever created under a single Administration -- and more new jobs than Presidents Reagan and Bush created during their three terms. 92 percent (19.4 million) of the new jobs were created in the private sector, the highest percentage in 50 years.
• Under President Clinton and Vice President Gore, the economy has added an average of 248,000 jobs per month, the highest under any President. This compares to 52,000 per month under President Bush and 167,000 per month under President Reagan.
• The United States had five consecutive years of real wage growth -- the longest consecutive increase since the 1960s. Since 1993, real wages are up 6.8 percent, after declining 4.3 percent during the Reagan and Bush years.
• 15 million additional working families received additional tax relief because of the President�s expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit. In 1998, the EITC lifted 4.3 million people out of poverty - double the number lifted out of poverty by the EITC in 1993.
• President Clinton proposed expanding FMLA to allow workers to take up to 24 unpaid hours off each year for school and early childhood education activities, routine family medical care, and caring for an elderly relative.
• Americans with disabilities often become ineligible for Medicaid or Medicare if they work, forcing a choice between health care and employment. The Work Incentives Improvement Act, signed by Clinton, keeps people with disabilities from losing their Medicare or Medicaid health coverage when they go to work.
• The Adoption and Safe Families Act, which was based in large part on the recommendations of the Clinton-Gore Administration's Adoption 2002 report, made sweeping changes in adoption law so that thousands of children in foster care move more quickly into safe and permanent homes. In 1998, 36,000 children in foster care were adopted, up from 28,000 in 1996. This was the first significant increase in adoption since the national foster care program was established nearly 20 years earlier.
• Nearly 20,000 young people leave foster care each year when they reach age 18. They leave the system without having an adoptive family or other guardian. The Foster Care Independence Act ensures that those young people will get the tools they need to make the most of their lives by providing them better educational opportunities, access to health care, training, housing assistance, counseling, and other services.
  
• The President and Vice President developed and implemented the first-ever plan to protect our children from tobacco and end tobacco marketing targeted to young people. They also required the installation of V-chips in all new televisions, and encouraged schools to adopt school uniform policies to deter school violence and promote discipline.
• In 1997, President Clinton proposed and passed the HOPE Scholarships and Lifetime Learning tax credits to provide tax relief to nearly 13 million Americans each year who are struggling to pay for college.
• The Clinton-Gore Administration cut student fees and interest rates on all loans, expanded repayment options including income contingent repayment, and improved service through the Direct Loan Program. As of 2000, students saved $8.7 billion since 1993 through the reduction in loan fees and interest rates.
• The Clinton-Gore Administration won a second installment of $1.3 billion for the President's plan to hire an additional 100,000 well-prepared teachers to reduce class size in the early grades, when children learn to read and master the basic skills.
• 11 million low-income students in 13,000 school districts now benefit from higher expectations and a challenging curriculum geared to higher standards through Title I-Aid to Disadvantaged Students. The FY 2000 budget provided a $134 million accountability fund to help turn around the worst performing schools and hold them accountable for results through such measures as overhauling curriculum, improving staffing, or even closing schools and reopening them as charter schools.
• The Clinton-Gore Administration worked to expand public school choice and support the growth of public charter schools, which have increased from one public charter school in the nation when the President was first elected to more than 1,700. More than 250,000 students nationwide are now enrolled in charter schools in 30 states and the District of Columbia.
• The President challenged Americans to unite to be sure that every child can read well and independently by the third grade -- 1,400 colleges and universities took up his challenge, and in the year 2000, over 25,000 college work-study students now serve as reading tutors to help every child to read well and independently by the third grade.
• The President and Vice President created the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund to help connect every school to the Internet, increase the number of multimedia computers in the classroom and provide technology training for teachers. They increased overall investments in educational technology from $23 million in 1993 to $769 million in FY 2000, and tripled funding for Community Technology Centers to reach at least 120 low-income communities.
• The President and Vice President expanded Head Start funding by 90 percent from 1993-2000. Head Start helped approximately 880,000 low-income children in FY 2000. The Administration also created Early Head Start, bringing Head Start's successful comprehensive services to families with children ages zero to three, and set high quality standards for both programs.
• Under the Clinton-Gore Administration, America experienced the longest and continuous drop in crime on record. The overall crime rate is the lowest in 25 years.
• In 1999, ahead of schedule and under budget, the Clinton-Gore Administration met its commitment to fund an additional 100,000 police officers for our communities. As a part of the COPS Program, the President announced new grants to increase community policing in high-crime and underserved neighborhoods. To help keep crime at record lows, the President won funding for the first installment toward his goal to hire up to 50,000 more officers by 2005.
• Since the President signed the Brady Bill into law, more than 500,000 felons, fugitives and domestic abusers have been prevented from purchasing guns. And the historic 1994 Crime Bill banned 19 of the deadliest assault weapons and their copies, keeping assault weapons off our streets.
• The President enacted the Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act in 1994. He held the historic White House Conference on Hate Crimes, where he called for passage of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act -- bipartisan legislation which would strengthen hate crimes laws and make it clear that America will not tolerate acts of violence based on race, color, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or disability.
  
• Protecting children from sex offenders, President Clinton signed Megan's Law and the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, requiring states to set up sex offender registration systems and require community notification when sex offenders are released from prison.
• During the Clinton era, the number of Americans on welfare was at its lowest level since 1969 as record numbers of people moved from welfare to work. Between 1993-2000, the welfare rolls fell by more than half, from 14.1 million to 6.9 million.
• The 1997 Balanced Budget Act signed by President Clinton included $3 billion to move long-term welfare recipients and low-income non-custodial fathers into jobs.
  
• President Clinton secured over 110,000 new housing vouchers to help welfare recipients and hard-pressed working families move closer to job opportunities. The Welfare-to-Work Tax Credit provides tax incentives to encourage businesses to hire long-term welfare recipients.
• President Clinton signed into law the toughest child support crackdown in history. Federal and state child support programs broke new records in 1999, collecting $15.5 billion -- nearly double the amount collected in 1992. The number of paternities established rose to nearly 1.5 million in 1998 - more than triple the number from 516,000 in 1992. The number of child support cases with collections rose 59 percent, from 2.8 million 1992 to 4.5 million in 1998.
• The teen birth rate has fallen seven years in a row, by 18 percent from 1991 to 1998. The teen pregnancy rate is now the lowest rate on record.
• The Clinton-Gore Administration created 31 rural and urban Empowerment Zones and more than 100 Enterprise Communities that have created new jobs, new opportunities and stronger communities.
• In the 1997 Balanced Budget, the Clinton-Gore Administration protected, modernized and extended the life of the Medicare Trust Fund while offering new options for patient choice and preventive care. However, when President Clinton and Vice President Gore took office, Medicare was expected to run out of money in 1999.
• The five year, $24 billion State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) will provide health care coverage for up to five million children.
• The President signed into law the Kennedy-Kassebaum Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which helps individuals keep health insurance when they change jobs, guarantees renewability of coverage, and ensures access to health insurance for small businesses.
• The President signed into law the 1997 FDA Modernization Act that includes important measures to modernize and streamline the regulation of biological products; increase patient access to experimental drugs and medical devices; and accelerate review of important new medications.
• To help eliminate discrimination against individuals with mental illnesses, the President signed into law mental health parity provisions to prohibit health plans from establishing separate lifetime and annual limits for mental health coverage.
  
• President Clinton signed into law common sense legislation that requires health plans to allow new mothers to remain in the hospital for at least 48 hours following most normal deliveries and 96 hours after a Cesarean section, eliminating previously-common drive-thru deliveries.
• The Clinton-Gore Administration has issued the toughest nursing home regulations in the history of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, including increased monitoring of nursing homes to ensure that they are in compliance; requiring states to crack down on nursing homes that repeatedly violate health and safety requirements; and changing the inspection process to increase the focus on preventing bedsores, malnutrition and resident abuse.
• Childhood immunization coverage rates in 1998 were the highest ever recorded. 90 percent of toddlers in 1996, 1997 and 1998 received the most critical doses of each of the routinely recommended vaccines, surpassing the President's 1993 goal.
  
• The President unveiled a historic new FDA regulation that, for the first time, requires over-the-counter drug products to use a new product label with larger print and clearer language, making it easier for consumers to understand product warnings and comply with dosage guidance.
  
• The Clinton-Gore Administration took strong steps to protect a woman's right to choose and to promote safe reproductive health services for women. The President provided contraceptive coverage to more than a million women covered by federal health plans; provided family planning services to low income women through the Medicaid program; and stood up against attempts to prohibit the FDA from approving RU-486.
• The Clinton-Gore Administration protected tens of millions of acres, from the red rock canyons of Utah to the Florida everglades. The Administration reached agreements to protect Yellowstone from mining and save the ancient redwoods of California's Headwaters Forest.
  
• In the FY 2000 budget, the President and Vice President won $651 million (a 42 percent increase) for Lands Legacy, a historic initiative to strengthen federal efforts to preserve national treasures and provides communities with new resources to protect local green spaces.
• The Clinton-Gore Administration created four new national monuments: Grand Staircase-Escalante, protecting spectacular red rock canyonlands in Utah; Grand Canyon-Parashant, protecting deep canyons, mountains and buttes on the north rim of the Grand Canyon; Agua Fria, protecting extensive prehistoric ruins in Arizona; the California Coastal monument, protecting thousands of islands, rocks and reefs along the California coast. The Administration also expanded Pinnacles National Monument in California to better protect the area's unusual rock formations.
• The President directed the National Forest Service to develop and propose regulations to provide long-term protection for 40 million acres of roadless areas within national forests and ensure that future generations will be able to enjoy the pristine wilderness.
• The Clinton-Gore Administration has completed clean up at 525 Superfund sites, more than three times as many as completed in the previous twelve years.
• The President proposed and signed legislation to strengthen the Safe Drinking Water Act to ensure that our families have healthy, clean tap water. The Clinton-Gore Administration has required America's 55,000 water utilities to provide regular reports to their customers on the quality of their drinking water.
• The Administration also proposed new rule to reduce dirty runoff and strengthen protections for 20,000 rivers, lakes and other waterways too polluted for swimming and fishing. Ninety-one percent of America's tap water from community drinking water systems now meets all federal standards.
• The President and Vice President adopted the toughest standards ever on soot and smog. They proposed significant reductions in tailpipe emissions from cars, light trucks and SUVs, and launched long-term effort to restore pristine skies over our national parks and wilderness areas. Since 1993, the number of Americans living in communities that meet federal air quality standards has grown by over 43 million.
• The Clinton-Gore Administration negotiated an international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an environmentally strong and economically sound way. The President and Vice President secured $1.1 billion in FY 2000 for research and development of energy efficiency and clean energy technologies, and set a goal of tripling U.S. use of bio-energy and bio-products by 2010.
  
• The President issued an Executive Order directing agencies to dramatically improve energy efficiency in federal buildings, saving taxpayers over $750 million a year.
• The President called for an increase of almost 50 percent over 5 years in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget as part of his Research for America Fund. Since that time, the NIH budget has increased by over $4.3 billion. As a result, NIH now supports the highest levels of research ever on nearly all types of disease and health conditions, making new breakthroughs possible in vaccine development and use, the treatment of chronic disease, and prevention and treatment of diseases such as diabetes, osteoporosis, heart disease, cancer, and neurological diseases like Alzheimers and Parkinsons.
• The Clinton-Gore Administration won increased investment of $13.65 billion for NASA in FY 2000.
• 16,000 pages of Federal regulations have been eliminated by President Clinton and Vice President Gore as part of the Vice President's National Performance Review.
• In 2000, there were 375,000 fewer employees in the Federal government workforce than in 1993, the smallest Federal workforce since the Kennedy Administration.
• Also in 2000, at 18.7 percent, Federal Government spending as a share of the Gross Domestic Product was at its lowest level since 1974.
• President Clinton signed the National Voter Registration Act during his first year in office -- making voting easier for millions more Americans, and leading to the registration of more than 28 million new voters.
• Ended a decade of repression and reversed ethnic cleansing in Kosovo by leading the NATO alliance to victory in a 79-day air war against Serb forces, forcing their withdrawal and ushering in international peacekeepers.
• Advancing the Middle East peace process by brokering peace agreements between Israel and its neighbors; negotiating the Wye River Accords; and supporting the launch of final settlement negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.
• Restarted Israel-Syria track of Middle East peace process by holding first high-level meeting between the two former adversaries in Washington after months of behind-the-scenes Presidential diplomacy, and following that meeting with formal talks in January.
• Brokered the Good Friday Peace Accord in Northern Ireland, ending decades of bloodshed.
• Restored democracy in Haiti, ending military dictatorship and stopping refugee flows.
• Supported transition to democracy in Nigeria and mediating peace efforts in Sierra Leone and Ethiopia-Eritrea.
• Ended violence and protected democracy in East Timor by leading diplomatic efforts and supporting international peacekeeping mission.
• Helped settle Peru-Ecuador border dispute and end civil war in Guatemala.
• Pressed for human rights and religious freedom worldwide, including in China, Burma, Sudan.
• Protected Americans from weapons of mass destruction by reducing Russian nuclear arsenals, easing nuclear tensions between India and Pakistan and ratifying the Chemical Weapons Convention.
• Combated terrorism by developing a national counterterrorism strategy and striking terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan.
• Reduced North Korean threat through deterrence, diplomacy, and non-proliferation.
• Contained Saddam Hussein through diplomacy, economic sanctions and military force.
• Addressed new threats by protecting America's critical infrastructure from cyber-terrorism and biological and chemical weapons.
• Improved military readiness through increased defense spending, with the first long-term sustained increase in defense funding in 15 years.
  
• Built a more constructive relationship with China through engagement and frank dialogue on human rights, security and trade.
• Deepened security alliances with Japan and South Korea.
• Opened markets for U.S. exports abroad and created American jobs through NAFTA, GATT and more than 270 other free and fair trade agreements.
• Integrated China into the world economy through landmark trade agreement that opened markets to U.S. exports, slashed Chinese tariffs, and protected American workers from dumping.
• Established World Trade Organization to reduce tariffs, settle trade disputes, and enforce rules.
• Prevented Asian financial crisis from undermining America's prosperity by promoting sound monetary policies, urging banking reforms and fighting corruption.
• Saved Mexico from currency crisis by providing financial relief.

Whew! It's a long list of worthwhile accomplishments. There are more achievements that could have been included, but I think by now, if you've read the entire list, you get the idea.

Some will still argue that President Clinton was a horrible president because he got a blow job. Some will say that he was a horrible president because he lied about getting a blow job. To them, I say:

I would have blown him, too. Only I would have kept my mouth shut afterwards.

What is the big deal about a blow job? What is the big deal about the lie? It's funny to me because Clinton can lie about a cum stain on Monica's dress and the country is up in arms calling for an impeachment. Bush can lie about weapons of mass destruction, take thousands of men and women into a senseless and purposeless war, defend his actions even as thousands of soldiers are killed, and the country lauds him. Incredible.

PS - I still love ya, Jimmy. :)