Presidency of Bill Clinton

The United States Presidency of Bill Clinton, also known as the Clinton administration, was the executive branch of the federal government of the United States from January 20, 1993 to January 20, 2001. Clinton was the first president elected after the end of the Cold War, the first Baby Boomer president, and the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to serve two full terms.

Overview

In the 1992 presidential election, Clinton defeated incumbent Republican president George H.W. Bush to become the first Democratic president since Jimmy Carter left office in 1981. Clinton took office with Democratic majorities in both houses, and attempted to pass an ambitious health care reform bill. Republicans took control of both houses of Congress in 1994 and retained that control throughout Clinton's presidency, but Clinton won reelection in 1996. The administration had a mixed record on taxes but produced the first federal budget surpluses since 1969, for fiscal years 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001, leading to a decrease in the public debt (though the gross federal debt continued to increase). Clinton supported the North American Free Trade Agreement, a major free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, and he signed the agreement into law in 1994. His presidency saw the passage of welfare reform in Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act which ended Aid to Families with Dependent Children and reduced the number of welfare programs, which received support from both political parties. He also signed the reversal of the Glass-Steagall Act, an act which was designed to prevent financial institutions from getting too big to fail. He also signed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act which legalized over-the-counter derivatives.