Clinton Essay, Research Paper

Introduction

How far do we look down the road of our children’s future? Do we see them living in a hostile country with no morals or living within a society with a corrupt government? If I as a teenager can see and understand that America will face many problems with Clinton as President surely the adults will open their eyes and see what a costly mistake voting for Clinton would make. Although re-electing President Clinton would give us an experienced leader in the office, we should not re-elect him because he would break more promises, legalize abortion, and he would not cut down on the drug problems in Oklahoma.

Admittedly, I must say President Clinton is an experienced leader and has done some good things the last couple of years in office. He has helped the homeless, promoted world peace, and has cracked down on crime. President Clinton has helped the homeless out in many ways. He has transferred government control of some federal housing to local community groups for housing the homeless; and he has ordered some closed military bases to be used to house the homeless, especially homeless veterans. Another thing Clinton has done is the promotion of World Peace. President Clinton has supported talks that led to the Israeli-PLO peace settlement, increased loans to Israel to help resettle Jews from the former Soviet Union, worked towards a comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and continued Bush’s policy of allowing 50,000 refugees from the former Soviet Union to resettle in America each year. Clinton has done more for World Peace than any other President in history. He has also managed to aid families. He signed the Family Preservation and Services Act that established a program to help disadvantage parents work with their children, and he fully funded the Ryan White Care Act. Finally, President Clinton has cracked down on crime by asking for 100,000 police officers in his crime legislation, and worked to stiffen penalties for white-collar crimes.

However, when Bill Clinton was a candidate for president in 1992, he promised the voters he would accomplish two major things if elected: balance the budget, and cut taxes for the middle class. He never kept those promises. In stark contrast, Republicans campaigned in 1994 on those same promises and kept their word. Not only has Bill Clinton failed to keep his promises, he has vetoed the bills passed by congressional Republicans that would have converted his promises into law. One of the biggest deceptions of the Clinton Administrations is that he presented a seven-year plan to balance the budget which in return left an $80 billion deficit. Since becoming president, Clinton has done nothing to live up to his pledge to “end welfare as we know it.” Clinton did not even submit a welfare reform proposal until June, 1994, 18 months after he took office. That plan proposed billions of dollars in new welfare spending with no caps or safeguards to control the growth of future spending.

Secondly, Clinton has no intention of keeping his word on cutting taxes, for the middle class. Four years ago, he made a middle-class tax cut the centerpiece of his campaign for the White House. But once he got there, he instead crammed the largest tax increase in history down the American people’s throats, without a single Republican vote. When Republicans were elected to Congressional majorities in 1994, they passed a $500 per-child tax credit that would bring immediate and lasting relief to 29 million American families. Bill Clinton vetoed it. He vetoed his own promise. His higher education tax credit proposal is not even available to most families. And rather than paying for the highest education tax credit by cutting wasteful government spending, the Clinton administration “made sure government spending was accompanied by other tax increases.” (The New York Times, June 9, 1996) The American people have learned too well that what Bill Clinton says usually has nothing in common with what he does, but there is one thing we can count on: as long as Bill Clinton is president, there will be no real tax relief for America’s working families.

Bill Clinton is the say anything, do nothing president. He obviously hopes the American people and the media are so accustomed to his flip-flops, fables and broken promises, that we will not notice that he has broken the most important promises of his campaign. Our job this year is not just to point out the difference between Bob Dole and Bill Clinton, between Republicans and Democrats. Our job is also to point out the many differences between Bill Clinton and Bill Clinton. Let us make sure the American people know that, despite his promises, another four years of Bill Clinton would mean no balanced budget and higher taxes.

Also, Clinton tried to convince voters of his position on abortion early in his administration, saying he simply supported a woman’s right to choose and wanted abortions to be “safe, legal, but rare.” But Bill Clinton’s record on abortion distinctively shows he is not pro-choice; he is pro-abortion. Clinton supports abortion on demand for any reason or no reason at any time in pregnancy with no limitation or regulation by the states whatsoever, and paid for by the taxpayers if necessary. As with many other issues, what Bill Clinton says about abortion is different from what Bill Clinton actually does. As governor of Arkansas, he was on record as actually opposing abortion: “I am opposed to abortion and to government funding of abortions. We should not spend state funds on abortions because so many people believe abortion is wrong.” (Bill Clinton on a letter to Arkansas Right to Life 86). Today, Bill Clinton not only supports abortion rights, but as his White House record obviously shows, he has made abortion available on demand. Now, Bill Clinton has threatened to veto a measure with broad bipartisan support that would ban abortion occurring up to the last month of pregnancy. That’s right Bill Clinton wants to ensure abortions are legal, unrestricted and available on demand even in the ninth month of pregnancy. Throughout his presidency, Bill Clinton has taken no steps to ensure abortions are “rare.” Clinton’s record shows he supports abortion on demand! As former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania Robert Casey observed: “President Clinton says he wants abortion to be safe, legal and rare, but he’s helped make it safe. legal and everywhere” (The Washington Times 95). As with countless other issues, Bill Clinton’s record on abortion shows his knack for saying one thing, but doing another.

Final, Clinton has done a poor job in stopping drugs among the youth of Oklahoma. Under his administration, youth drug use has skyrocketed. Shortly after taking office, President Clinton cut staffing for the “Drug Czar’s” Office by 80%. He cut drug interdiction funding, and his U.S. Attorney in San Diego set an official policy that allowed hundreds of captured drug smugglers to go free. It is time to elect a President who will crack down on drug use, increase interdiction, and use the White House as a bully pulpit to tell the young people that drugs are illegal, dangerous, and wrong. With Clinton back in office for another four years, the drug use in Oklahoma among youth would rise and the teens would have even more access to any drugs they desire. Now do we want that to happen?

Well, I can only hope what I have said will soak into the heads of whomever reads this. If President Clinton gets re-elected our country will face many problems. Although, Clinton is an experienced leader, he is not the man for the job.