2008-01-07 We Forget What It Was Really Like Under the Clintons

2008-01-07 David Morris AlterNet \Clinton-Gore administration http://www.alternet.org/story/72336/?page=entire We Forget What It Was Really Like Under the Clintons We Forget What It Was Really Like Under the Clintons  But then, astonishingly, in his 7,000-word piece, Bai does not describe the many legislative initiatives Clinton undertook to reverse the New Deal and the Great Society.

Clinton himself summed up the principle guiding his initiatives in his famous declaration, "The era of big government is over."

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the first major overhaul of United States telecommunications law in nearly 62 years. The broadcasting industry couldn't get the legislation through under Reagan or George H.W. Bush, but it succeeded under Clinton. The day he signed the bill into law, Clinton boasted, "Landmark legislation fulfills my administration's promise to reform our telecommunications laws in a manner that leads to competition and private investment, promotes universal service and provides for flexible government regulation."

The Act removed the legal barriers to local and long distance phone companies acquiring each other. The results were immediate and massive. In 1996 there were eight major U.S. companies providing local telephone service and five significant long-distance companies. By 1999, these 13 companies had merged into five telecommunications giants, in a series of record-breaking merger deals.

Prior to this law, tightly regulated broadcasters could own just 40 stations nationally, and only two in a given market. Suddenly, without the FCC's input or any public hearings, ownership limits on radio stations was eliminated and a feeding frenzy took place. The article raises the following criticisms of Clinton:
 * The 1996 Telecommunications Act
 * The 1999 Financial Services Modernization Act (Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act) which overturned the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act -- a longtime Republican agenda item
 * generally "aggressive" deregulation -- a major Republican agenda item
 * The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act -- a cornerstone of the Republican Contract With America
 * The North American Free Trade Agreement, spearheaded in the US by Bush I but signed by Clinton in 1993, who introduced clauses intended to protect American workers and which required US partners to adhere to environmental practices and regulations similar to those in the US
 * Morris does at least mention the Republican connection: "Two-thirds of House Republicans voted in favor while 60 percent of House Democrats voted against. In the Senate, Republicans voted 4-1 in favor while a slim majority of Democrats voted against." Ironically, railing against NAFTA later became a Republican rallying point.
 * Failure to push for single-payer healthcare reform, substituting instead Hillary Clinton's idea of a much more limited system

The article comes across as an anti-Clinton hit-piece, but the evidence presented points more toward the idea that Clinton's willingness to compromise with Republicans was a bad decision. It finishes up by concluding that Clinton caved in whenever "the powerful" objected -- but really, the evidence presented makes it pretty clear that the Republicans were on the wrong side of justice every time, and Clinton's only mistake was in trying to include them in the consensus.

&ldquo;NAFTA failures; deregulation of banking and ENRON's rise; "Welfare Reform" that led to more poor people. This and more is what the Clintons gave us.&rdquo;   