A tax cut is a reduction in taxes. The immediate effects of a tax cut are a decrease in the real income of the government and an increase in the real income of those whose tax rate has been lowered. In the longer term, however, the loss of government income may be mitigated, depending on the response that tax-payers make. Depending on the original tax rate, tax cuts may provide individuals and corporations with an incentive for investments which stimulate economic activity. It has been theorized that this can generate additional taxable income which could generate more revenue than the was collected at the higher rate. The longer term macroeconomic effects of a tax cut are not predictable in general, because they depend on how the taxpayers use their additional income and how the government adjusts to its reduced income.

Economics

Keynesian view

After tax income and the incentive to increase income will decline as income grows. Thus, a decline in taxes when taxes are already high may have a larger stimulative effect than if taxes were decreased by the same amount from a low rate.

If government does reduce its expenditure to accommodate tax cuts, there must necessarily be reductions in government services, and there may also be a reduction of the government's capacity to redistribute income to reduce income inequalities. Critics of tax cuts argue that this leads to a fall in overall economic welfare because the effects fall disproportionately on those with the lowest incomes.

Tax cuts in the United States

In recent decades, most "supply-siders" in the United States have been Republicans (though a significant individual tax cut was proposed by President John F. Kennedy from the Democratic Party and passed by a Democrat led congress) with the belief that cutting the tax rate would stimulate investment and spending, with overall beneficial effects (including replenishment of some lost tax revenues). President Ronald Reagan signed tax cuts into law, which some believe stimulated a doubling in total tax revenues (from five hundred billion to one trillion dollars) during the period from 1980 to 1990. However, during this period the deficit and national debt more than tripled (from $908 billion in 1980 to $3.2 trillion in 1990) because government spending rose even faster than increases in tax revenue. As a result, income tax receipts as a percent of GDP fell from 11.3% in 1981 to 9.3% in 1984 and did not to revert back to original levels until the late 1990s, even though overall revenue skyrocketed in terms of real dollars. Some supply-siders like Don Lambro of the Washington Times credit the Reagan tax cuts with the eventual surpluses of the late 1990s. Others doubt this claim however and instead believe the surpluses were a result of a combination of a decrease in government spending, the passing of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (which dictated several tax increases), and the use of the PAYGO (pay-as-you-go) system. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and President’s Council of Economic Advisers argues that tax cuts do not pay for themselves stating that the "large reductions in income tax rates in 1981 were followed by abnormally slow growth in income tax receipts". President George W. Bush signed two major tax cuts into law; one in 2001 and one in 2003. These are often collectively referred to as the "Bush Tax Cuts". while the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities states that the tax cuts have conferred the "largest benefits,by far on the highest income households." Bush is criticized for giving tax cuts to the rich with capital gains tax breaks, but some benefit extended to middle and lower income brackets as well. Bush has claimed that the tax cuts have paid for themselves but critics argue that this is false. At the state level, Democratic Governor Bill Richardson in recent years has supported tax cuts to spur economic growth.

Capital gains tax

Much discussion has occurred regarding the optimum capital gains tax rate, with some advocates calling for tax cuts in the belief that a lower rate (e.g., under 25%) will provide an incentive to investors to sell old stocks and invest in new stocks—which supply siders maintain encourages the creation of new jobs, reduces unemployment, and has the paradoxical effect of increasing tax revenues more or less immediately, an idea first proposed by economist Arthur Laffer while an advisor to Ronald Reagan (See Laffer curve). In addition, a recent report issued by the Cato Institute argues that the burden of capital gains tax is felt by the poor much more than the rich. The report quotes a painting contractor as saying: "You're looking at a poor man who thinks the capital gains tax cut is the best thing that could happen to this country, because that's when the work will come back. People say capital gains are for the rich, but I've never been hired by a poor man."

See also

Laffer curve

Rahn curve

Reaganomics

Starve the beast

Trickle-down economics

S corporation

Notes

External links

Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding U.S. tax cuts

Cato Policy Analysis No. 242: The ABCs of the Capital Gains Tax

Larry Kudlow on the Bush 2003 Tax Cuts and the U.S. Private Business Boom

Category:Taxation

Name	Rick Scott
Order	45th
Office	Governor of Florida
Lieutenant	Jennifer Carroll
Term start	January 4, 2011
Predecessor	Charlie Crist
Birth date	December 01, 1952
Birth place	Bloomington, Illinois
Party	Republican Party
Spouse	Ann Scott
Children	Jordan Allison
Residence	People's House
Alma mater	University of Missouri, Kansas City Southern Methodist University
Profession	Business executive
Religion	Methodist
Website	Official website
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Navy
Serviceyears	1971–1974
Rank	Petty Officer Third Class
Unit	USS Glover

Richard Lynn "Rick" Scott (born December 1, 1952) is an American politician who is the 45th and current Governor of the U.S. state of Florida.

Scott served in the U.S. Navy and then went into business. He earned a business degree and law degree and joined a Dallas firm where he became partner. In 1987 he helped found the Columbia Hospital Corporation with two business partners; this merged with Hospital Corporation of America in 1989 to form Columbia/HCA and eventually became the largest private for-profit health care company in the U.S. He was forced to resign as Chief Executive of Columbia/HCA in 1997 amid a scandal over the company's business and Medicare billing practices; the company ultimately admitted to fourteen felonies and agreed to pay the federal government over $600 million. Scott later became a venture capitalist, and entered into politics in 2010, when he announced his intention to run for Governor of Florida. Having defeated Bill McCollum in the Republican primary election, Scott defeated Democrat Alex Sink in a close race in the 2010 Florida gubernatorial election.

Early life and education

Rick Scott was born in Bloomington, Illinois, and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, where his father was a truck driver and his mother worked as a clerk at J.C. Penney, among other jobs. With financing from Citicorp conditional on acquisition of HCA, the proposed holding company offered $3.85 billion for 80 million shares at $47 each, intending to assume an additional $1.2 billion in debt, for a total $5 billion deal. However, HCA declined the offer, and the bid was withdrawn.

In 1988, Scott and Richard Rainwater, a multimillionaire financier from Fort Worth, each put up $125,000 in working capital in their new company, Columbia Hospital Corporation, and borrowed the remaining money needed to purchase two struggling hospitals in El Paso for $60 million. At the time, Galen had approximately 90 hospitals. After the purchase, Galen stockholders had 82 percent of the stock in the combined company, with Scott still running the company.

In 1994, Columbia purchased Scott's former acquisition target, HCA, which had approximately 100 hospitals. In 1995, Columbia purchased Healthtrust, which had approximately 80 hospitals, primarily in rural communities. By 1997, Columbia/HCA had become the world's largest health care provider with more than 340 hospitals, 130 surgery centers, and 550 home health locations in 38 states and two foreign countries. With annual revenues in excess of $23 billion, the company employed more than 285,000 people, making it the 7th largest U.S. employer and the 12th largest employer worldwide. Based on market capitalization, Columbia ranked in the top 50 companies in America and top 100 worldwide. That same year, the company was recognized by Business Week magazine as one of the 50 Best Performing Companies of the S&P; 500.

Columbia/HCA fraud case details

On March 19, 1997, investigators from the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Health and Human Services served search warrants at Columbia/HCA facilities in El Paso and on dozens of doctors with suspected ties to the company.

Following the raids, the Columbia/HCA board of directors forced Scott to resign as Chairman and CEO. He was paid $9.88 million in a settlement. He also left owning 10 million shares of stock worth over $350 million.

In 1999, Columbia/HCA changed its name back to HCA, Inc.

In settlements reached in 2000 and 2002, Columbia/HCA plead guilty to 14 felonies and agreed to a $600+ million fine in the largest fraud settlement in US history. Columbia/HCA admitted systematically overcharging the government by claiming marketing costs as reimbursable, by striking illegal deals with home care agencies, and by filing false data about use of hospital space. They also admitted fraudulently billing Medicare and other health programs by inflating the seriousness of diagnoses and to giving doctors partnerships in company hospitals as a kickback for the doctors referring patients to HCA. They filed false cost reports, fraudulently billing Medicare for home health care workers, and paid kickbacks in the sale of home health agencies and to doctors to refer patients. In addition, they gave doctors "loans" never intending to be repaid, free rent, free office furniture, and free drugs from hospital pharmacies. In all, civil law suits cost HCA more than $2 billion to settle, by far the largest fraud settlement in US history.

Venture capitalist

After the forced departure from Columbia/HCA in 1997, Scott launched Richard L. Scott Investments, based in Naples, Florida (originally in Stamford, Connecticut), which has stakes in health care, manufacturing and technology companies.

Between 1998 and 2001, Scott purchased 50% of CyberGuard Corporation for approximately $10 million. Amongst his investors was Metro Nashville finance director David Manning. The company was founded with his daughter Allison.

The Health Network

In July 1997, Columbia/HCA Healthcare purchased controlling interest in America's Health Network (AHN), the first 24-hour health care cable channel, Columbia HCA never purchased AHN. They pulled out of the deal on the day of the closing because Scott and Vanderwater were terminate. This caused the immediate layoff of over 250 people in Orlando. Later in 1997, Scott became majority owner of AHN. In 1998, Scott and former Columbia/HCA Healthcare President David Vandewater were the leaders in a group of investors that gave AHN a major infusion of cash so that the company could continue to operate.

In mid-1999 AHN merged with Fit TV, a subsidiary of Fox Networks; the combination was renamed The Health Network. Later in 1999, in a deal between News Corp., Fox Network's owner, and WebMD, the latter received half-ownership of The Health Network. WebMD planned to relaunch The Health Network as WebMD Television in the fall of 2000, with new programming, but that company announced cutbacks and restructuring in September 2000, and in January 2001, Fox regained 100% ownership. In September 2001, The Fox Cable Networks Group sold The Health Network to its main rival, the Discovery Health Channel, for $155 million in cash plus a 10 percent equity stake in Discovery Health.

Solantic

Solantic, based in Jacksonville, Florida, was co-founded in 2001 by Scott and Karen Bowling, a former television anchor whom Scott met after Columbia bought what is now Memorial Hospital Jacksonville in 1995. Solantic opened its first urgent care center in 2002. It provides urgent care services, immunizations, physicals, drug screening, and care for injured workers. The corporation attracts patients who do not have insurance, cannot get appointments with their primary care physicians, or do not have primary care physicians. Solantic is intended to be an alternative to the emergency room care that these types of patients often seek, or for not seeing a doctor at all.

In 2006, Scott said that his plans for Solantic were to establish a national brand of medical clinics. As of March 2009, Solantic had 24 centers, all located in Florida.

Solantic has been the target of numerous employment discrimination suits, including one that settled with 7 plaintiffs for an undisclosed sum on May 23, 2007. These suits allegedly stem from a Scott-directed policy to not hire elderly or overweight applicants, preferring 'mainstream' candidates.

Pharmaca

In 2003, Scott invested $5.5 million in Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacies, which operates drugstores/pharmacies that offer vitamins, herbal medicine, skin products, homeopathic medicines, and prescriptions. Other investors in Pharmaca include Tom Stemberg, founder and former CEO of Staples, and Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot.

Other work

In the 1990s, Scott was a partner of George W. Bush in ownership of the Texas Rangers.

Political career

Conservatives for Patients' Rights

In February 2009, Scott founded Conservatives for Patients' Rights (CPR), which he said was intended to put pressure on U.S. Democrats to enact health care legislation based on free-market principles. As of March, Scott had given about $5 million for a planned $20 million ad campaign by CPR. CPR opposes the broad outlines of President Obama's health-care plans and has hired Creative Response Concepts, a public relations firm which previously worked with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth among others.

2010 Florida gubernatorial campaign

Scott ran against Democratic nominee Alex Sink.

On April 9, 2010, Scott announced his candidacy for the 2010 Republican Party nomination for Governor of Florida. Susie Wiles, former communications chief to Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton, serves as his campaign manager, and Tony Fabrizio is his chief pollster. It was reported on May 7 that Scott's campaign has already spent $4.7 million on television and radio ads. Scott's first video advertisement was released to YouTube on April 13.

During the primary campaign, Scott's opponent, Bill McCollum, made an issue of Scott's role at Columbia/HCA. Scott countered that the FBI never targeted him. Marc Caputo of Miami Herald contended that a 1998 bill sponsored by McCollum would have made it more difficult to prosecute Medicare fraud cases, and is counter to his current view and allegation. Scott won the August primary with approximately 47% percent of the vote, compared to 43% voting for McCollum, with McCollum conceding the race after midnight.

By the October 25, 2010 Tampa debate between Scott and Alex Sink, Scott had spent $60 million of his own money on the campaign compared to Democratic opponent Alex Sink's $28 million. The Fort Myers News Press quoted Rick Scott as saying in total he spent $78 million of his own money on the campaign.

Rick Scott ultimately won in the general election for Governor of Florida, defeating Alex Sink by around 68,000 votes, or 1.29%.

Florida Governor

Rick Scott assumed office as the 45th Governor of Florida on January 4, 2011.

Election History

2010 Florida Gubernatorial Race

Source: Florida Division of Elections

Other

Member of the National Board of the United Way, 1997 to 2003. Time Magazine, America's 25 Most Influential People, June 1996 Financial World magazine, silver award for the CEO of the Year, 1995

References

External links

Richard L. Scott Investments, LLC

|- |- |- }} |-

Category:1952 births Category:American businesspeople Category:Florida Republicans Category:Governors of Florida Category:Living people Category:Southern Methodist University alumni Category:United States Navy sailors Category:University of Missouri–Kansas City alumni

Name	Bill Clinton
Order	42nd
Office	President of the United States
Term start	January 20, 1993
Term end	January 20, 2001
Vicepresident	Al Gore
Predecessor	George H. W. Bush
Successor	George W. Bush
Order2	40th and 42nd
Office2	Governor of Arkansas
Term start2	January 9, 1979
Term end2	January 19, 1981
Lieutenant2	Joe Purcell
Predecessor2	Joe Purcell (Acting)
Successor2	Frank D. White
Term start3	January 11, 1983
Term end3	December 12, 1992
Lieutenant3	Winston Bryant (1983-1991) Jim Guy Tucker (1991-1992)
Predecessor3	Frank D. White
Successor3	Jim Guy Tucker
Order4	50th
Office4	Arkansas Attorney General
Term start4	January 3, 1977
Term end4	January 9, 1979
Predecessor4	Jim Guy Tucker
Successor4	Steve Clark
Birth date	August 19, 1946
Birth place	Hope, Arkansas
Birthname	William Jefferson Blythe III
Party	Democratic
Spouse	Hillary Rodham Clinton
Children	Chelsea Clinton (b. 1980)
Profession	Lawyer
Alma mater	Georgetown University (B.S.) University College, Oxford Yale Law School (J.D.)
Religion	Baptist
Signature	Signature of Bill Clinton.svg
Signature alt	Cursive signature in ink
Website	William J. Clinton Presidential Library

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III, August 19, 1946) served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. At 46 he was the third-youngest president. He became president at the end of the Cold War, and was the first baby boomer president. His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is currently the United States Secretary of State. Each received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Yale Law School.

Clinton has been described as a New Democrat. Some of his policies, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and welfare reform, have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance, while on other issues his stance was left of center. Clinton presided over the continuation of an economic expansion that would later become the longest period of peace-time economic expansion in American history. The Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus in 2000, the last full year of Clinton's presidency. After a failed attempt at health care reform, Republicans won control of the House of Representatives in 1994, for the first time in forty years. Two years later, in 1996, Clinton was re-elected and became the first member of the Democratic Party since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second full term as president. Later he was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with a scandal involving a White House intern, but was subsequently acquitted by the U.S. Senate.

Clinton left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U.S. president since World War II. Clinton created the William J. Clinton Foundation to promote and address international causes such as treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS and global warming.

In 2004, he released his autobiography My Life, and was involved in his wife Hillary's 2008 presidential campaign and subsequently in that of President Barack Obama. In 2009, he was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti. In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Clinton teamed with George W. Bush to form the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

Early life and career

.]] in Washington, D.C., receiving a degree in 1968, during which he ran for President of the Student Council.]]

Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe, III, in Hope, Arkansas. His father, William Jefferson Blythe, Jr., was a traveling salesman who died in an automobile accident three months before Bill was born. The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950.

Although he assumed use of his stepfather's surname, it was not until Billy (as he was known then) turned fourteen that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward his stepfather.

In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. John's Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School - where he was an active student leader, avid reader, and musician.

With the aid of scholarships, Clinton attended the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., receiving a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service (B.S.) degree in 1968. He spent the summer of 1967, the summer before his senior year, interning for Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright. He is a member of Kappa Kappa Psi's National Honorary Band Fraternity, Inc.

Upon graduation, he won a Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics, though as a result of switching programs and leaving early for Yale, he did not obtain a degree there. He developed an interest in rugby union, playing at Oxford and later for the Little Rock Rugby club in Arkansas. While at Oxford he also participated in Vietnam War protests, including organizing an October 1969 Moratorium event.

Clinton's political opponents charge that to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War during his college years, he used the political influence of a U.S. Senator, who employed him as an aide. Col. Eugene Holmes, an Army officer who was involved in Clinton's case, issued a notarized statement during the 1992 presidential campaign: "...I was informed by the draft board that it was of interest to Senator Fullbright's office that Bill Clinton, a Rhodes Scholar, should be admitted to the ROTC program... I believe that he purposely deceived me, using the possibility of joining the ROTC as a ploy to work with the draft board to delay his induction and get a new draft classification."

Clinton did not join the ROTC program, but the temporary ROTC status prevented him from being drafted. This was not illegal, but it became a source of criticism from conservatives and some Vietnam veterans.

After Oxford, Clinton attended Yale Law School and obtained a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1973.

The Clintons' personal and business affairs during the 1980s included transactions which became the basis of the Whitewater investigation which dogged his later presidential administration. After extensive investigation over several years, no indictments were made against the Clintons related to the years in Arkansas.

He defeated a total of four Republican candidates for governor: Lowe (1978), White (1982 and 1986), and businessmen Woody Freeman of Jonesboro, (1984) and Sheffield Nelson of Little Rock (1990).

Democratic presidential primaries of 1988

with President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan, 1987.]] In 1987 there was media speculation Clinton would enter the race after then-New York Governor Mario Cuomo declined to run and Democratic front-runner Gary Hart withdrew owing to revelations of marital infidelity. Clinton decided to remain as Arkansas governor (following consideration for the potential candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton for governor, initially favored – but ultimately vetoed – by the First Lady). For the nomination, Clinton endorsed Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. However, he did give the opening night address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, which was nationally televised, but it was criticized for length. Presenting himself as a moderate and a member of the New Democrat wing of the Democratic Party, he headed the moderate Democratic Leadership Council in 1990 and 1991.

1992 presidential campaign

Due to his youthful appearance, he was often called the "Boy Governor". In the first contest, the Iowa caucus, he finished a very distant third to Iowa Senator Tom Harkin. During the campaign for the New Hampshire Primary reports of an extramarital affair with Gennifer Flowers surfaced. As Clinton fell far behind former Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas in the New Hampshire polls, Finally, conservatives were previously united by anti-communism, but with the end of the Cold War, the party lacked a uniting issue. When Pat Buchanan and Pat Robertson addressed Christian themes at the Republican National Convention – with Bush criticizing Democrats for omitting God from their platform – many moderates were alienated. Clinton then pointed to his moderate, "New Democrat" record as governor of Arkansas, though some on the more liberal side of the party remained suspicious. Many Democrats who had supported Ronald Reagan and Bush in previous elections switched their allegiance to Clinton.

Clinton's election ended twelve years of Republican rule of the White House and twenty of the previous twenty-four years. The election gave Democrats full control of the United States Congress. Further concern arose when Bill Clinton announced that, with Hillary, voters would be getting two presidents "for the price of one".

Presidency, 1993–2001

During his presidency, Clinton advocated for a wide variety of legislation and programs, much of which was enacted into law and/or was implemented by the executive branch. At the very end of his presidency, Clinton moved to New York and helped his wife get elected to the U.S. Senate there.

First term, 1993–1997

during his 1993 presidential inauguration.]]

Clinton was inaugurated as the 42nd President of the United States on January 20, 1993. In his inaugural address he declared:

}}

Clinton in his first address to the nation on February 15, 1993, announced his intention to raise taxes to cap the budget deficit.

On February 17, 1993, in a nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress, Clinton unveiled his economic plan. The plan focused on deficit reduction rather than a middle-class tax cut, which had been high on his campaign agenda. (Clinton was pressured by his advisers, including Robert Rubin formerly of Goldman Sachs, to raise taxes on the theory that a smaller federal budget deficit would reduce bond interest rates.) (In December 2010, Clinton defended President Barack Obama’s compromise with the Republican congressional leadership, extending the George W. Bush’s era tax cuts, which many Democrats felt unfairly favored the wealthy.)

Shortly after taking office, Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which required large employers to allow employees to take unpaid leave for pregnancy or a serious medical condition. While this action was popular, Clinton's attempt to fulfill another campaign promise of allowing openly homosexual men and women to serve in the armed forces garnered criticism from the left (for being too tentative in promoting gay rights) and from the right (who opposed any effort to allow homosexuals to serve). After much debate, Congress implemented the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, stating as long as homosexuals keep their sexuality secret, they may serve in the military. Some gay rights advocates criticized Clinton for not going far enough and accused him of making his campaign promise to get votes and contributions. These advocates feel Clinton should have integrated the military by executive order, noting President Harry Truman used executive order to racially desegregate the armed forces. Clinton's defenders argue an executive order might have prompted the Democratic Senate to write the exclusion of homosexuals into law, potentially making it harder to integrate the military in the future.

The Clinton administration launched the first official White House website on October 21, 1994. It was followed by three more versions, resulting in the final edition launched in 2000. The White House website was part of a wider movement of the Clinton administration toward web-based communication. According to Robert Longley, "Clinton and Gore were responsible for pressing almost all federal agencies, the U.S. court system and the U.S. military onto the Internet, thus opening up America's government to more of America's citizens than ever before. On July 17, 1996, Clinton issued Executive Order 13011 - Federal Information Technology, ordering the heads of all federal agencies to fully utilize information technology to make the information of the agency easily accessible to the public."

who negotiated lifting the remaining sanctions on South Africa.]] Also in 1993, Clinton controversially supported ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement by the U.S. Senate. Clinton, along with most of his Democratic Leadership Committee allies, strongly supported free trade measures; there remained, however, strong intra-party disagreement. Opposition came chiefly from anti-trade Republicans, protectionist Democrats and supporters of Ross Perot. The bill passed the house with 234 votes against 200 opposed (132 Republicans and 102 Democrats voting in favor; 156 Democrats, 43 Republicans, and 1 independent against). The treaty was then ratified by the Senate and signed into law by the President on January 1, 1994.

On November 30, 1993, Clinton signed into law the Brady Bill, which imposed a five-day waiting period on handgun purchases. He also expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, a subsidy for low-income workers. In 1999, Clinton signed the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, a bank deregulation bill that repealed a Depression-era law known as Glass-Steagall.

One of the most prominent items on Clinton's legislative agenda was the result of a taskforce headed by Hillary Clinton, which was a health care reform plan aimed at achieving universal coverage via a national health care plan. Though initially well-received in political circles, it was ultimately doomed by well-organized opposition from conservatives, the American Medical Association, and the health insurance industry. However, John F. Harris, a biographer of Clinton's, states the program failed because of a lack of co-ordination within the White House. and raised taxes on the wealthiest 1.2% of taxpayers. Additionally, through the implementation of spending restraints, it mandated the budget be balanced over a number of years.

As part of a 1996 initiative to curb illegal immigration, Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). Appointed by Clinton, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform called for reducing legal immigration to about 550,000 a year. The proposals drew criticism from a wide range of business, ethnic and religious groups.

Senators Ted Kennedy – a Democrat – and Orrin Hatch, a Republican, teamed up with Hillary Rodham Clinton and her staff in 1997 and succeeded in passing legislation forming the Children's Health Insurance Program, the largest (successful) health care reform in the years of the Clinton Presidency. That same year Hillary Clinton shepherded through Congress the Adoption and Safe Families Act and two years later Rodham Clinton succeeded in helping pass the Foster Care Independence Act. President Bill Clinton supported both bills as well, and signed both of them into law.

Travelgate controversy

Clinton fired seven employees of the White House Travel Office in May 1993, giving rise to a controversy, though the Travel Office staff served at the pleasure of the President, and could be dismissed without cause. The White House responded to the controversy by claiming that the firings were done because of financial improprieties that had been revealed by a brief FBI investigation. Critics contended the firings had been done to allow friends of the Clintons to take over the travel business and that the involvement of the FBI was unwarranted.

White House FBI files controversy

The White House FBI-files controversy of June 1996 arose concerning improper access by the White House to FBI security-clearance documents. Craig Livingstone, head of the White House Office of Personnel Security, improperly requested, and received from the FBI, background report files without asking permission of the subject individuals; many of these were employees of former Republican administrations. In March 2000, Independent Counsel Robert Ray determined that there was no credible evidence of any criminal activity. Ray's report further stated "there was no substantial and credible evidence that any senior White House official was involved" in seeking the files.

Death penalty

The application of the federal death penalty was expanded to include crimes not resulting in death – such as running a large-scale drug enterprise – by Clinton's 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill. During Clinton's re-election campaign he said, "My 1994 crime bill expanded the death penalty for drug kingpins, murderers of federal law enforcement officers, and nearly 60 additional categories of violent felons."

While campaigning for U.S. President, the then Governor Clinton returned to Arkansas to see that Ricky Ray Rector would be executed. After killing a police officer and a civilian, Rector shot himself in the head, leading to what his lawyers said was a state where he could still talk but didn't understand the concept of death. According to Arkansas state and Federal law, a seriously mentally impaired inmate cannot be executed. The courts disagreed with the allegation of grave mental impairment and allowed the execution. Clinton's return to Arkansas for the execution was framed in a New York Times article as a possible political move to counter "soft on crime" accusations.

According to some sources, Clinton was in his early years a death penalty opponent who switched positions. During Clinton's term, Arkansas performed its first executions since 1964 (the death penalty was re-enacted on March 23, 1973). As Governor, he oversaw four executions: one by electric chair and three by lethal injection. However, Clinton was the first President to pardon a death-row inmate since the federal death penalty was reintroduced in 1988. Federal executions were resumed under his successor George W. Bush.

Assassination attempt

Law professor Ken Gromley's book The Death of American Virtue reveals that Clinton escaped a 1996 assassination attempt in the Philippines by terrorists working for Osama bin Laden. During his visit to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Manila in 1996, he was saved shortly before his car was due to drive over a bridge where a bomb had been planted. Gromley said he was told the details of the bomb plot by Louis Merletti, a former director of the Secret Service. Clinton was scheduled to visit a local politician in central Manila, when secret service officers intercepted a message suggesting that an attack was imminent. A transmission used the words "bridge" and "wedding", supposedly a terrorist's code words for assassination. The motorcade was re-routed and the US agents later discovered a bomb planted under the bridge. The report said the subsequent US investigation into the plot "revealed that it was masterminded by a Saudi terrorist living in Afghanistan named Osama bin Laden". Gromley said "It remained top secret except to select members of the US intelligence community. At the time, there were media reports about the discovery of two bombs, one at Manila airport and another at the venue for the leaders' meeting".

Second term, 1997–2001

for his work toward European integration.]] Cohen presents President Clinton the DoD Medal for Distinguished Public Service.]]

In the 1996 presidential election, Clinton was re-elected, receiving 49.2% of the popular vote over Republican Bob Dole (40.7% of the popular vote) and Reform candidate Ross Perot (8.4% of the popular vote), becoming the first Democratic incumbent since Lyndon Johnson to be elected to a second term and the first Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt to be elected President more than once. The Republicans lost a few seats in the House and gained a few in the Senate, but retained control of both. Clinton received 379, or over 70% of the Electoral College votes, with Dole receiving 159 electoral votes.

Lewinsky scandal

Clinton's sexual relationship with a 22-year-old White House intern named Monica Lewinsky led to the Lewinsky scandal. the House began impeachment hearings before the mid-term elections. Although the mid-term elections held in November 1998 were at the 6-year point in an 8-year presidency (a time in the electoral cycle where the party holding the White House usually loses Congressional seats), the Democratic Party gained several seats. To hold impeachment proceedings, the Republican leadership called a lame duck session in December 1998.

presiding.]]

While the House Judiciary Committee hearings ended in a straight-party-line vote, there was lively debate on the House floor. The two charges passed in the House (largely on the basis of Republican support, but with a handful of Democratic votes as well) were for perjury and obstruction of justice. The perjury charge arose from Clinton's testimony about his relationship to Monica Lewinsky during a sexual harassment lawsuit (later dismissed, appealed and settled for $850,000) brought by former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones. The obstruction charge was based on his actions during the subsequent investigation of that testimony. The Senate later voted to acquit Clinton on both charges. The Senate refused to convene to hold an impeachment trial before the end of the old term, so the trial was held over until the next Congress. Clinton was represented by Washington law firm Williams & Connolly.

The Senate concluded a twenty-one day trial on February 12, 1999, with the vote on both counts falling short of the Constitutional two-thirds majority requirement to convict and remove an office holder. The final vote was generally along party lines, with no Democrats voting guilty. Some Republicans voted not guilty for both charges. On the perjury charge, fifty-five senators voted to acquit, including ten Republicans, and forty-five voted to convict; on the obstruction charge the Senate voted 50-50.

Law license suspension

In 2000 the Arkansas Supreme Court's Committee on Professional Conduct called for Clinton's disbarment, saying he lied about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

In January 2001 Clinton reached an agreement under which he was ordered to pay $25,000 in fines to Arkansas state's bar officials and his Arkansas law license was suspended for five years. The agreement came on the condition that Whitewater prosecutors would not pursue federal perjury charges against him. Clinton was suspended by the Supreme Court in October 2001, and, facing disbarment from that court, Clinton resigned from the Supreme Court bar in November.

Military and foreign events

Paul Fletcher, USAF, before boarding Air Force One, November 4, 1999.]] Numerous military events occurred during Clinton's presidency. The Battle of Mogadishu also occurred in Somalia in 1993. During the operation, two U.S. MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters were shot down by rocket-propelled grenade attacks to their tail rotors, trapping soldiers behind enemy lines. This resulted in an urban battle that killed 18 American soldiers, wounded 73 others, and one was taken prisoner. There were many more Somali casualties. Some of the American bodies were dragged through the streets – a spectacle broadcast on television news programs. In response, U.S. forces were withdrawn from Somalia and later conflicts were approached with fewer soldiers on the ground.

In 1995 U.S. and NATO aircraft attacked Bosnian Serb targets to halt attacks on U.N. safe zones and to pressure them into a peace accord. Clinton deployed U.S. peacekeepers to Bosnia in late 1995 to uphold the subsequent Dayton Agreement.

In response to the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed a dozen Americans and hundreds of Africans, Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes on terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan. He was subsequently criticized when it turned out that a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan (originally alleged to be a chemical warfare plant) had been destroyed. , May 5, 1999.]] To stop the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Albanians by nationalist Serbians in the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's province of Kosovo, Clinton authorized the use of American troops in a NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999, named Operation Allied Force. General Wesley Clark was Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and oversaw the mission. With United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, the bombing campaign ended on June 10, 1999. The resolution placed Kosovo under UN administration and authorized a peacekeeping force. NATO announced that its forces had suffered zero combat deaths, and two deaths from an Apache helicopter crash. Opinions in the popular press criticized pre-war genocide statements by the Clinton administration as greatly exaggerated. A U.N. Court ruled genocide did not take place, but recognized, "a systematic campaign of terror, including murders, rapes, arsons and severe maltreatments". The term "ethnic cleansing" was used as an alternative to "genocide" to denote not just ethnically motivated murder but also displacement, though critics charge there is no difference. Slobodan Milošević, the President of Yugoslavia at the time, was eventually charged with the "murders of about 600 individually identified ethnic Albanians" and "crimes against humanity."

In Clinton's 1998 State of the Union Address, he warned Congress of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's possible pursuit of nuclear weapons: }}

holding a joint press conference at the White House, October 29, 1997.]]

To weaken Saddam Hussein's grip of power, Clinton signed H.R. 4655 into law on October 31, 1998, which instituted a policy of "regime change" against Iraq, though it explicitly stated it did not speak to the use of American military forces. The administration then launched a four-day bombing campaign named Operation Desert Fox, lasting from December 16 to December 19, 1998. For the last two years of Clinton's presidency U.S. aircraft routinely attacked hostile Iraqi anti-air installations inside the Iraqi no-fly zones.

Clinton's November 2000 visit to Vietnam was the first by a U.S. President since the end of the Vietnam War. Clinton remained popular with the public throughout his two terms as President, ending his presidential career with a 65% approval rating, the highest end-of-term approval rating of any President since Dwight D. Eisenhower. Further, the Clinton administration signed over 270 trade liberalization pacts with other countries during its tenure. On October 10, 2000, Clinton signed into law the U.S.–China Relations Act of 2000, which granted PNTR trade status to People's Republic of China. The president asserted that free trade would gradually open China to democratic reform. Clinton also oversaw a boom of the U.S. economy. Under Clinton, the United States had a projected federal budget surplus for the first time since 1969.

After initial successes such as the Oslo accords of the early 1990s, Clinton attempted to address the Arab-Israeli conflict. Clinton brought Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat together at Camp David. The situation broke down completely with the start of the Second Intifada.

A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation did result in convictions against the McDougals for their role in the Whitewater project, but the Clintons themselves were never charged, and Clinton maintains innocence in the affair.

Attempted capture of Osama bin Laden

Capturing Osama bin Laden has been an objective of the United States government since the presidency of Bill Clinton. It has been asserted that in 1996 while the Clinton Administration had begun pursuit of the policy, the Sudanese government allegedly offered to arrest and extradite Bin Laden as well as to provide the United States detailed intelligence information about growing militant organizations in the region, including Hezbollah and Hamas, and that U.S. authorities allegedly rejected each offer, despite knowing of bin Laden's involvement in bombings on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

In 1998, two years after the warning, the Clinton administration ordered several military missions to capture or kill bin Laden that failed.

Troopergate

Troopergate is the popular name of a scandal involving allegations by two Arkansas state troopers that they arranged sexual liaisons for then-Governor Bill Clinton. The allegations by state troopers Larry Patterson and Roger Perry were first reported by David Brock in the American Spectator in 1993, then confirmed the next day in The Los Angeles Times. The story mentioned a woman named Paula, a reference to Paula Jones. Brock later apologized to Clinton, saying the article was politically motivated "bad journalism" and that "the troopers were greedy and had slimy motives."

Pardons and campaign finance

Clinton issued 141 pardons and 36 commutations on his last day in office on January 20, 2001. Most of the controversy surrounded Marc Rich and allegations that Hillary Clinton's brother, Hugh Rodham, accepted payments in return for influencing the president's decision-making regarding the pardons. Some of Clinton's pardons remain a point of controversy.

The 1996 United States campaign-finance controversy was an alleged effort by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to influence the domestic policies of the United States, prior to and during the Clinton administration, and also involved the fundraising practices of the administration itself.

Judicial appointments

Clinton appointed the following justices to the Supreme Court: Ruth Bader Ginsburg - 1993 Stephen Breyer - 1994

In addition to his two Supreme Court appointments, Clinton appointed 66 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals, and 305 judges to the United States district courts. His total of 373 judicial appointments is second in American history, behind Ronald Reagan's. Clinton also experienced a number of judicial appointment controversies, as 24 nominees to 20 different federal appellate judgeships were not processed by the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee.

Public opinion

throughout his presidential career.]]

Clinton's job approval rating ranged from 36% in mid-1993 to 64% in late 1993 and early 1994. In his second term, his rating consistently ranged from the high-50s to the high-60s. After his impeachment proceedings in 1998 and 1999, Clinton's rating reached its highest point at 73% approval. He finished with an approval rating of 68%, which matched those of Ronald Reagan and Franklin D. Roosevelt as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era.

As he was leaving office, a CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup poll revealed 45% said they would miss him. While 55% thought he "would have something worthwhile to contribute and should remain active in public life", 68% thought he would be remembered for his "involvement in personal scandal", and 58% answered "No" to the question "Do you generally think Bill Clinton is honest and trustworthy?". 47% of the respondents identified themselves as being Clinton supporters. 47% said he would be remembered as either "outstanding" or "above average" as a president while 22% said he would be remembered as "below average" or "poor".

The Gallup Organization published a poll in February 2007 asking respondents to name the greatest president in U.S. history; Clinton came in fourth place, capturing 13% of the vote. In a 2006 Quinnipiac University poll asking respondents to name the best president since World War II, Clinton ranked 3% behind Ronald Reagan to place second with 25% of the vote. However, in the same poll, when respondents were asked to name the worst president since World War II, Clinton placed 1% behind Richard Nixon and 18% behind George W. Bush to come in third with 16% of the vote.

In May 2006, a CNN poll comparing Clinton's job performance with that of his successor, George W. Bush, found that a strong majority of respondents said Clinton outperformed Bush in six different areas questioned. ABC News characterized public consensus on Clinton as, "You can't trust him, he's got weak morals and ethics and he's done a heck of a good job." Clinton's 66% Gallup Poll approval rating was also the highest Gallup approval rating of any postwar President leaving office, three points ahead of Reagan.

In March 2010, a Newsmax/Zogby poll asking Americans which of the current living former presidents they think is best equipped to deal with the problems the country faces today, found that a wide margin of respondents would pick Bill Clinton. Clinton received 41% of the vote, while former President George W. Bush received 15%, former President George H. W. Bush received 7%, and former President Jimmy Carter received 5%. Although 26% chose "none", and 5% were not sure, Clinton maintained the highest percentage.

Public image

As the first baby boomer president, Clinton was the first president in a half-century not to have been shaped by World War II. Authors Martin Walker and Bob Woodward state Clinton's innovative use of soundbite-ready dialogue, personal charisma, and public perception-oriented campaigning was a major factor in his high public approval ratings. When Clinton played the saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show, he was described by some religious conservatives as "the MTV president." Standing at a height of 6'2" (1.88 m), Clinton is tied with five others as the fourth-tallest president in the nation's history.

Clinton drew strong support from the African American community and made improving race relations a major theme of his presidency. In 1998, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison in The New Yorker called Clinton "the first Black president", saying, "Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas", and comparing Clinton's sex life, scrutinized despite his career accomplishments, to the stereotyping and double standards that blacks typically endure.

In 2008, Morrison's sentiments were raised anew as Barack Obama, who would later become the country's first African-American President, ran for the presidency. After endorsing Obama, Morrison distanced herself from her 1998 remark about Clinton, saying that it was misunderstood. She noted that she has "no idea what his real instincts are, in terms of race" and said she was only describing the way he was being treated during the impeachment trial as an equivalent to a poor black person living in the ghetto. Obama himself, when asked in a Democratic debate about Morrison's declaration of Clinton as "black", replied that Clinton had an enormous "affinity" with the black community, but joked he would need to see Clinton's dancing ability before judging "accurately [...] whether he was, in fact, a brother".

Sexual misconduct allegations

Throughout his career, Clinton has been subject to various allegations of sexual misconduct, though only his extramarital relationships with Monica Lewinsky and Gennifer Flowers have been admitted by him.

For alleged misconduct during his governorship Paula Jones brought a sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton while he was president. Clinton argued that as a sitting president, he should not be vulnerable to a civil suit of this nature. The case landed in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court held that "Deferral of this litigation until petitioner's Presidency ends is not constitutionally required."

However, a U.S. judge in Arkansas, Susan Webber Wright, ruled that since Jones had not suffered any damages, the case should be dismissed. On April 2, 1998, Judge Susan Webber Wright dismissed Jones' lawsuit. On July 31, 1998, Jones appealed the dismissal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

During the deposition for the Jones lawsuit which was held at the White House, Clinton denied having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky a denial that became the basis for the impeachment charge of perjury.

On November 18, 1998, Clinton agreed to an out-of-court settlement, and agreed to pay Jones and her attorneys a sum of $850,000.00. Clinton, however, still offered no apology to Jones and still denied ever engaging in a sexual affair with her. Gennifer Flowers, Elizabeth Ward Gracen, Sally Perdue, and Dolly Kyle Browning each have reported having adulterous sexual relations with Clinton during or before his service as governor. Gracen later apologized to Hillary Clinton.

Dolly Kyle Browning alleged that she and Clinton engaged in a long sexual affair. Browning began writing a "semi-autobiographical novel" about the affair. In the publication process, Browning asserted that Clinton did everything in his power to prohibit and undermine publication. Browning sued Clinton for damages, but the US Court of Appeals denied her appeal.

Post-presidential career

, dedicated in 2004.]] in January 2005.]] , Laura Bush, George H. W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Andrew Card pay their respects to Pope John Paul II before the pope's funeral in April 2005.]]

Just as Clinton was leaving elective office, his wife was entering it, as a U.S. Senator from New York. Bill Clinton proceeded to give speeches around the world, often for over $100,000 a speech. Altogether, Clinton has spoken at the last six Democratic National Conventions, dating back to 1988.

Activities up until 2008 campaign

In 2002 Clinton warned that pre-emptive military action against Iraq may have unwelcome consequences. In 2005, Clinton criticized the Bush administration for its handling of emissions control, while speaking at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Montreal.

The William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas was dedicated in 2004. Clinton released an autobiography, My Life in 2004. In 2007, he released, which became a bestseller and garnered positive reviews.

In the aftermath of the 2005 Asian tsunami, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Clinton to head a relief effort. After Hurricane Katrina, Clinton established, with fellow former President George H. W. Bush, the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund and Bush-Clinton Tsunami Fund. As part of the tsunami effort, these two ex-presidents appeared in a Super Bowl XXXIX pre-game show, and traveled to the affected areas. They also spoke together at the funeral of Boris Yeltsin.

The William J. Clinton Foundation includes the Clinton Foundation HIV and AIDS Initiative (CHAI), which strives to combat that disease, and has worked with the Australian government toward that end. The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), begun by the Clinton Foundation in 2005, attempts to address world problems such as global public health, poverty alleviation and religious and ethnic conflict. In 2005, Clinton announced through his foundation an agreement with manufacturers to stop selling sugared beverages in schools. Clinton's foundation joined with the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group in 2006 to improve cooperation among those cities, and he met with foreign leaders to promote this initiative. He also spoke in favor of California Proposition 87 on alternative energy, which was voted down.

The foundation has received donations from a number of governments in the Middle East. In 2008, Mr. Clinton travelled to Kazakhstan with Canadian mining magnate Frank Giustra who then won three lucrative uranium mining contracts from the Kazakh government, and Giustra donated $US31 million to Mr. Clinton's charity. Many were especially critical of him following his remarks in the South Carolina primary, which Obama won. Later in the 2008 primaries, there was some infighting between Bill and Hillary's staffs, especially in Pennsylvania. Based on Bill's remarks, many thought that he couldn't rally Hillary supporters behind Obama after Obama won the primary. Such remarks lead to apprehension that the party would be split to the detriment of Obama's election. Fears were allayed August 27, 2008 when Clinton enthusiastically endorsed Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, saying that all his experience as president assures him that Obama is "ready to lead".

After 2008 election

In 2009, Clinton travelled to North Korea on behalf of two American journalists imprisoned in North Korea. Euna Lee and Laura Ling had been imprisoned for illegally entering the country from China. Jimmy Carter had made a similar visit in 1994.

Also in 2009, Clinton was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti.

In 2010, Clinton announced support and delivered the keynote address for the inauguration of NTR, Ireland's first ever environmental foundation.

Post-presidential health concerns

In September 2004, Clinton received a quadruple bypass surgery. In March 2005 he underwent surgery for a partially collapsed lung. On February 11, 2010, he was rushed to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City after complaining of chest pains, and had two coronary stents implanted in his heart. As a guest on the final show of Larry King Live, King awkwardly stated that they were both members of the "zipper club". King later explained that he was referring to the zipper chest scar from open heart surgery, to which Clinton responded, "I'm glad you clarified that, Larry". It has been widely reported that Clinton has become a vegan for health reasons, but he still occasionally eats fish.

Honors and accolades

Clinton has received many honorary degrees. Schools have been named for him, and statues do homage him. He has been honored in various other ways, in countries that include the Czech Republic, New Guinea, Germany, and Kosovo. U.S. states where he has been honored include Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and New York.

In 1993 Clinton was selected as Time Magazine's "Man of the Year", and again in 1998, along with Ken Starr.

From a poll conducted of the American people in December 1999, Clinton was among eighteen included in Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th century.

In 2004, he received a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for narrating the Russian National Orchestra's album Wolf Tracks and Peter and the Wolf (along with Mikhail Gorbachev and Sophia Loren) and 2005 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for My Life. In 2005, he received the J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding, and 2007 TED Prize (named for the confluence of technology, entertainment and design).

On June 2, 2007, Clinton, along with former president George H.W. Bush, received the International Freedom Conductor Award, for their help with the fund raising following the tsunami that devastated South Asia in 2004. On June 13, 2007, Clinton was honored by the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria alongside eight multinational-companies for his work to defeat HIV/AIDS.

On September 9, 2008, Bill Clinton was named as the next chairman of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His term began January 1, 2009 and he succeeded Fmr. President George H. W. Bush.

In December 2010 Bill Clinton was named PETA's 2010 person of the year for using his influence "to promote the benefits of following a vegan diet."

References

Further reading

Primary sources

Clinton, Bill. My Life. (2004). ISBN 0-375-41457-6.

--- (with Al Gore). Science in the National Interest. Washington, D.C.: The White House, August 1994.

--- (with Al Gore). The Climate Change Action Plan. Washington, D.C.: The White House, October 1993.

--- (with Al Gore). Technology for America's economic growth, a new direction to build economic strength. Washington, D.C.: The White House, February 22, 1993.

Sidney Blumenthal The Clinton Wars. (2003). ISBN 0-374-12502-3

Taylor Branch The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President. (2009) Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781416543336

Kenneth Starr The Starr Report: The Findings of Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr on President Clinton and the Lewinsky Affair (1998) ISBN 1-891620-24-X

George Stephanopoulos All Too Human: A Political Education (1998) ISBN 0-316-92919-0

S. Daniel Abraham Peace is Possible, foreword by Bill Clinton

Popular books

Peter Baker The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton (2000) ISBN 0-684-86813-X

James Bovard Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years (2000) ISBN 0-312-23082-6

Joe Conason and Gene Lyons The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton (2003) ISBN 0-312-27319-3

Elizabeth Drew On the Edge: The Clinton Presidency (1994) ISBN 0-671-87147-1

David Gergen Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership. (2000) ISBN 0-684-82663-1

Nigel Hamilton Bill Clinton: An American Journey (2003) ISBN 0-375-50610-1

John F. Harris The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House (2005) ISBN 0-375-50847-3

Christopher Hitchens No One Left to Lie to: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton (1999) ISBN 1-85984-736-6

Michael Isikoff Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story (1999) ISBN 0-609-60393-0

Mark Katz Clinton and Me: A Real-Life Political Comedy (2004) ISBN 978-0-7868-6949-7

Joe Klein The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton (2003) ISBN 0-7679-1412-0

David Maraniss First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton (1996) ISBN 0-684-81890-6

David Maraniss The Clinton Enigma: A Four and a Half Minute Speech Reveals This President's Entire Life (1998) ISBN 0-684-86296-4

Dick Morris with Eileen McGann Because He Could (2004) ISBN 0-06-078415-6

Roger Morris (American writer) Partners in Power: The Clintons and Their America (1996) ISBN 0-89526-302-5

Richard A. Posner An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton (1999) ISBN 0-674-00080-3

Mark J. Rozell The Clinton Scandal and the Future of American Government (2000) ISBN 0-87840-777-4

Michael Waldman POTUS Speaks: Finding the Words That Defined the Clinton Presidency (2000) ISBN 0-7432-0020-9

Ivory Tower Publishing Company (1995) ISBN 0-88032-748-0

Academic studies

Cohen; Jeffrey E. "The Polls: Change and Stability in Public Assessments of Personal Traits, Bill Clinton, 1993-99" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 31, 2001

Cronin, Thomas E. and Michael A. Genovese; "President Clinton and Character Questions" Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 28, 1998

Davis; John. "The Evolution of American Grand Strategy and the War on Terrorism: Clinton and Bush Perspectives" White House Studies, Vol. 3, 2003

Edwards; George C. "Bill Clinton and His Crisis of Governance" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998

Fisher; Patrick. "Clinton's Greatest Legislative Achievement? the Success of the 1993 Budget Reconciliation Bill" White House Studies, Vol. 1, 2001

Glad; Betty. "Evaluating Presidential Character" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998

Gormley, Kenneth, The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs Starr. Crown. (2010) ISBN 9780307409447

Harris, John F. The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House. (2005) ISBN 0-375-50847-3, biography

William G. Hyland. Clinton's World: Remaking American Foreign Policy (1999) ISBN 0-275-96396-9

Jewett, Aubrey W. and Marc D. Turetzky; " Stability and Change in President Clinton's Foreign Policy Beliefs, 1993-96" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998

Johnson, Fard. "Politics, Propaganda and Public Opinion: The Influence of Race and Class on the 1993 - 1994 Health Care Reform Debate." (2004). ISBN 1-4116-6345-4

Laham, Nicholas, A Lost Cause: Bill Clinton's Campaign for National Health Insurance (1996)

Lanoue, David J. and Craig F. Emmert; "Voting in the Glare of the Spotlight: Representatives' Votes on the Impeachment of President Clinton" Polity, Vol. 32, 1999

Livingston, C. Don, Kenneth A. Wink; "The Passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in the U.S. House of Representatives: Presidential Leadership or Presidential Luck?" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 27, 1997

Maurer; Paul J. "Media Feeding Frenzies: Press Behavior during Two Clinton Scandals" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 29, 1999

Nie; Martin A. "'It's the Environment, Stupid!': Clinton and the Environment" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 27, 1997

O'Connor; Brendon. "Policies, Principles, and Polls: Bill Clinton's Third Way Welfare Politics 1992-1996" The Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol. 48, 2002

Poveda; Tony G. "Clinton, Crime, and the Justice Department" Social Justice, Vol. 21, 1994

Renshon; Stanley A. The Clinton Presidency: Campaigning, Governing, and the Psychology of Leadership Westview Press, 1995

Renshon; Stanley A. "The Polls: The Public's Response to the Clinton Scandals, Part 1: Inconsistent Theories, Contradictory Evidence" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 32, 2002

Rushefsky, Mark E. and Kant Patel. Politics, Power & Policy Making: The Case of Health Care Reform in the 1990s (1998) ISBN 1-56324-956-1

Schantz, Harvey L. Politics in an Era of Divided Government: Elections and Governance in the Second Clinton Administration (2001) ISBN 0-8153-3583-0

Wattenberg; Martin P. "The Democrats' Decline in the House during the Clinton Presidency: An Analysis of Partisan Swings" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 29, 1999

Wattier; Mark J. "The Clinton Factor: The Effects of Clinton's Personal Image in 2000 Presidential Primaries and in the General Election" White House Studies, Vol. 4, 2004

Smithers, Luken J. "The Miracle Whip"

External links

;Official

White House biography

Clinton Presidential Materials Project Archive of press releases and speech transcripts from the administration.

Clinton Presidential Library official website

Clinton School of Public Service

;Organizations

William J. Clinton Foundation official website

Clinton Global Initiative official website

;Talks and interviews

Oral History Interview with Bill Clinton from Oral Histories of the American South

TED Prize Wish: Bill Clinton on rebuilding Rwanda at TED in 2007

President Clinton: The Youtube Interview

The Wanderer- A profile of Clinton in The New Yorker, September 18, 2006, the most extensive interview in his post-presidency

;Articles

Full audio of a number of Clinton speeches via the Miller Center of Public Affairs (UVa)

Extensive essays on Bill Clinton and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs

Armigerous American Presidents Series article from the American Heraldry Society.

Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture entry: Bill Clinton

;Books and movies

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Name	Austan Goolsbee
Imagesize	160px
Office	26th Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers
President	Barack Obama
Term start	September 9, 2010
Predecessor	Christina Romer
Birth date	August 18, 1969
Birth place	Waco, Texas
Party	Democratic Party
Alma mater	Yale University Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Austan Dean Goolsbee (born August 18, 1969) is an American economist, currently serving as the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and the youngest member of the cabinet of President Barack Obama . Goolsbee is on leave from the University of Chicago where he is the Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics at the Booth School of Business.

Early life and education

Goolsbee was born in Waco, Texas, the son of Linda Catherine (née Dean) and Arthur Leon Goolsbee. He was raised primarily in Whittier, California.

He graduated from Milton Academy and received both his B.A. summa cum laude and M.A. in economics from Yale University in 1991 and went on to receive his Ph.D. in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1995. He was an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow (2000–02) and Fulbright Scholar (2006–07).

At Yale, Goolsbee was a member of the Yale Political Union, the improv comedy troupe Just Add Water, Skull and Bones, and the Yale Debate Association. He and partner David Gray were named the APDA National Debate Team of the Year in 1991. He and partner Dahlia Lithwick were runners up for the award in 1990. As a high school student, Goolsbee won the national championship in extemporaneous speaking in 1987.

Academic and public service

Goolsbee has been a Research Fellow at the American Bar Foundation, Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a member of the Panel of Economic Advisors to the Congressional Budget Office. He served as Senior Economist to the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI). He has been Barack Obama's economic advisor since Obama's successful U.S. Senate campaign in Illinois. He advised Barack Obama in his 2004 Senate race and was the senior economic advisor to the 2008 Obama presidential campaign.

Goolsbee's academic research focuses on the Internet, the new economy, government policy, and taxes. He taught a class on economics and policy in the telecom, media and technology industries. He is known in political circles as a centrist and in academic circles as an empirical economist. He focuses on human activity in natural settings to find economic explanations for how people behave.

Meeting with Canadian officials during Obama campaign

While serving as economic advisor to the 2008 Obama presidential campaign, Goolsbee was the subject of substantial media coverage in Canada and later the United States in late February and early March. CTV and The Associated Press obtained copies of a diplomatic memo from Canadian officials in Chicago to Ottawa which described a January meeting between consular officials and Goolsbee. The memo stated that Goolsbee had told Canadian officials that Obama's positions on the North American Free Trade Agreement were "more reflective of political maneuvering than policy." Obama's opponent for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton, and the presumptive nominee of the Republicans, John McCain, used this revelation to attack Obama. The Obama campaign claimed that the memo mischaracterized Goolsbee's comments to the Canadians and that he had met the Canadians at their request as a courtesy.

Recognition

Over the years he has been named one of the 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, one of the six "Gurus of the Future" by the Financial Times, one of the 40 Under 40 by Crain's Chicago Business, and one of the 30 Under 30 by the Chicago Sun-Times. He topped The New Yorker's list of the Ten Most Intriguing Political Personalities of 2010. Salon.com named him to its list of the 15 Sexiest Men of 2010.

Press profiles of him include those done by the New York Times, NPR, George Will, the Financial Times, Reuters TV, the Chicago Tribune,Crain's Chicago Business, Politico, and the Abilene Reporter-News.

Publications and media appearances

Goolsbee is the former host of the television show History's Business on the History Channel, and he appeared frequently as a surrogate for the Obama presidential campaign and as a leading spokesperson for the administration. His skill on television has been widely noted in the media.

On August 11, 2009, February 1, 2010, and October 25, 2010, Goolsbee appeared as a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He also appeared in Daily Show segments on November 11, 2009 where he was interviewed by Josh Gad about whether the Cash for Clunkers program had ruined demolition derby and on March 17, 2009 where he said that executives at AIG deserved the "Nobel prize for evil". Jon Stewart described him as "Eliot Ness meets Milton Friedman". In 2009, he was voted the Funniest Celebrity in Washington. His latest practical joke was giving the departing White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel a dead fish. Emanuel has been known to give dead fish to political opponents. On June 15, 2009, he appeared as a guest on The Colbert Report. He made a second appearance on the Colbert Report on October, 13, 2010 where he defended Obama's tax cut policies which would allow tax breaks to expire for Americans earning more than $250,000 per year. Goolsbee's main arguments were that 98% of Americans would still receive a tax break under the Obama proposal and that the country would have to borrow money to fund tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans if all tax breaks were extended.

Goolsbee was an award winning journalist before coming into the administration. In April 2006, Goolsbee began writing for the Economic Scene column in The New York Times. This column was later moved to Sundays and renamed the Economic View. Prior to this, he wrote the "Dismal Science" column for Slate.com, for which he won the 2006 Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism. He has published scores of papers in various peer-reviewed journals and books. He also said that the Obama administration wanted to "juice" the economy to speed up the recovery.

Personal life

Goolsbee married Robin Winters on November 1, 1997. She was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company at the time and earlier the director of business development at MTV International. They have a daughter and two sons.

References

External links

Staff Director and Chief Economist Austan Goolsbee at the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board

Austan Goolsbee profile at the University of Chicago Experts panel

Austan Goolsbee, "Democratizing Capitalism", July 22, 2006, and "Why Deficits Still Matter", April 30, 2007 at the Democratic Leadership Committee

Category:1969 births Category:American academics Category:American economists Category:American economics writers Category:Fulbright Scholars Category:Living people Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Category:Milton Academy alumni Category:Obama Administration personnel Category:People from Waco, Texas Category:People from Whittier, California Category:Sloan Fellowship Category:University of Chicago faculty Category:Yale University alumni

Image name	Alan Grayson high res.jpg
Imagesize	210px
Name	Alan Grayson
State	Florida
District	8th
Term start	January 3, 2009
Term end	January 3, 2011
Preceded	Ric Keller
Succeeded	Daniel Webster
Party	Democratic Party
Date of birth	March 13, 1958
Place of birth	New York City, New York
Alma mater	Harvard College (A.B.)
Profession	Attorney
Residence	Orlando, Florida
Spouse	Lolita Grayson
Website	www.Grayson.House.gov
Religion	Judaism

Alan Mark Grayson (born March 13, 1958) is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 2009 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

The district includes just over half of Orlando, including Downtown, Winter Park, significant portions of unincorporated Orange County, as well as Celebration, Walt Disney World and parts of Lake County, Marion County and Ocala. Grayson was defeated for re-election in 2010.

Early life and education

Grayson was born in the Bronx, New York. He graduated from Bronx High School of Science and worked his way through Harvard University as a janitor and nightwatchman, graduating summa cum laude in three years. He was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He returned to Harvard for graduate studies. Within four years, he earned a law degree with honors from Harvard Law School, a master's in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and completed the course work and passed the general exams for a Ph.D. in government.

Law career

Grayson was employed as a law clerk at the Colorado Supreme Court in 1983, and at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals from 1984 to 1985, where he worked with such judges as Abner Mikva, Robert Bork, and two judges who later joined the U.S. Supreme Court: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. He was an associate at the Washington D.C. firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson for five years, where he specialized in contract law.

Grayson wrote his masters thesis on gerontology and in 1986, he helped found the Alliance for Aging Research (AAR), and served as an officer of the organization for more than twenty years. AAR is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. that was founded to promote medical research to improve the human experience of aging.

In 1991 he founded the law firm Grayson, Kubli which concentrated on government contract law. He was a lecturer at the George Washington University government contracts program and a frequent speaker on the topic.

In the 2000s, he worked as a plaintiffs' attorney specializing in whistleblower fraud cases aimed at Iraq war contractors. One contractor, Custer Battles, employed individuals who were found guilty of making fraudulent statements and submitting fraudulent invoices on two contracts in 2003 the company had with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. On behalf of his clients, Grayson filed suit under the False Claims Act and its qui tam provisions.

U.S. House of Representatives

Grayson is considered a liberal Democrat and represented a district that was historically Republican but supported Barack Obama in 2008. He was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, of which he was vice-chairman.

Committee assignments

Committee on Financial Services

*Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government-Sponsored Enterprises

Committee on Science and Technology

*Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight

*Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics

Legislation head sponsored by Grayson

Pay For Performance Act (H.R. 1664)

Public Option Act (H.R. 4789)

War Is Making You Poor Act (H.R. 5353)

Shareholder Protection Act (H.R. 4790)

Paid Vacation Act of 2009 (H.R. 2564)

Political positions

Federal Reserve transparency

During his first term in office, Grayson supported Ron Paul's Audit the Fed legislation. Grayson gained attention for exchanges with Federal Reserve System Vice Chairman Donald Kohn and Inspector General Elizabeth A. Coleman. The 5-minute examination of Coleman in the House Financial Services Committee was posted on the Congressman's official Youtube page. As of December 2010, it has been viewed more than 3.4 million times.

In March 2009, following the AIG bonus payments controversy, Grayson joined with fellow freshman Democrat Jim Himes of Connecticut to introduce the Grayson-Himes Pay for Performance Act, legislation to require that all bonuses paid by companies that had received funds under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 be "based on performance". The bill was co-sponsored by eight other members of the House. On March 26, the bill was approved by the House Financial Services Committee by a vote of 38-22 and on April 1, the bill was passed by the full House of Representatives by a vote of 247-171.

Grayson was a co-sponsor of the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, which would provide additional provisions to audit the Federal Reserve, including removing several key exemptions.

Mandatory Foreclosure Mediation

Congressman Grayson's Orlando-based 8th Congressional District was hit hard by the foreclosure crisis. The Congressman received many complaints from constituents about the refusal of lenders to work out a solution to avoid foreclosures. In response, Grayson wrote a letter to Chief Judge Belvin Perry on February 12, 2009, requesting the implementation of a mandatory mediation program. Judge Perry issued an administrative order two weeks later. The program requires mortgage lenders to negotiate in good faith within 45 days of a homeowner's request for mediation. The order requires the mortgage lender to cover the cost of the mediation, up to $500. On December 28, 2009, the Florida Supreme Court ordered managed mediation in all foreclosure cases in the state.

Economic stimulus

Grayson made it a priority to increase the amount of federal money coming back to the 8th Congressional District. He often said that people in the 8th District have been "exporting taxes and importing debt." During his first year in office, the amount of federal grant dollars returning to the district nearly doubled (98% increase). The Congressman established a grant notification system. The system notifies subscribers immediately when a federal grant opportunity in their areas of interest becomes available. He also hired a full-time grants coordinator, who focused solely on helping people navigate the federal grants process.

Congressman Grayson twice broke ranks with Democratic leadership and joined Republicans to oppose the raising of the federal debt limit (Roll no. 46, 2/4/10, Roll no. 988 12/16/09). He said at the time of the February vote, "We need to live within our means. We need to eliminate wasteful spending. If we did those two simple things, we would not need to raise the debt limit."

Grayson supported the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and has been outspoken in favor of extending unemployment benefits for Americans who have lost their jobs. The Congressman argues that the government has never cut off unemployment insurance when the unemployment rate was higher than eight percent. Grayson also voted for the FDA Oversight of Tobacco Products, which gives the FDA power to regulate tobacco products.

Health care

In response to Republican arguments that the Obama administration's preferred health care bill was too long and complicated, Grayson on March 9, 2010, introduced H.R. 4789, the Public Option Act (sometimes called the Medicare You Can Buy Into Act), a short four-page bill which would allow all citizens and permanent residents of the United States to buy into the public Medicare program at cost. The bill immediately attracted high praise from the progressive blogosphere, and even critics of public health care plans conceded its "nearly irresistible" simplicity. The bill attracted 82 co-sponsors and was referred to the Ways and Means Committee.

Grayson later voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. He voted in support of Eliminating Adjustments of Medicare Rates of Payment. He also voted against Republican substitutes for the health care amendment and insurance law amendments.

Civil rights

Grayson voted in support of the Hate Crimes Expansion Act, which expands the definition of hate crimes and strengthens enforcement of hate crime laws. He also voted for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Grayson supported the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that allows victims of wage discrimination to sue for punitive damages.

Environment

Grayson voted for the House's 2009 American Clean Energy and Security Act (also known as the Cap and Trade Bill). A main reason he supported it was the promise from the White House and the Speaker of the House for a $50 million "Hurricane Research Center" in Central Florida, paid for with research dollars set aside in the bill. Grayson noted after the passage of the ACES Act his concern about our dependence on foreign oil, the need to promote green technologies and renewable energy sources, and the job creation from the bill (an estimated 95,000 jobs in Florida). "This bill unleashes American ingenuity to solve the energy crisis. It lets us solve our problems by being Americans and thinking our way out of it. We will become an international energy power," he said in a news release.

The BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico affected Florida's number one industry, which is tourism. The lack of a relief well prevented company officials from shutting down the leak immediately. Instead, it took months to drill a new relief well, while millions of gallons of oil gushed into the Gulf each week. In response, Grayson introduced the Emergency Relief Well Act (H.R. 5666). It requires that an emergency relief well be drilled at the same time as any new exploratory well.

Defense

Congressman Grayson has been an outspoken critic of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In May of 2010, he introduced the "War Is Making You Poor Act" (H.R. 5353). The bill requires the President to fund the wars from the Department of Defense's FY '11 base budget of $550 billion. It uses the $159 billion in "supplemental funding" to eliminate federal income taxes for everyone's first $35,000 a year. The bill does not necessitate an end to the wars or mandate a cut-off date. In addition to the tax cuts, the bill cuts the federal deficit by $15.9 billion.

The Congressman tried to combat wasteful spending by government defense contractors by introducing his "Gold Plating Amendment." The amendment requires that cost or price account for half of the evaluation of bids for defense contracts. The law at the time allowed for cost to account for only one percent of the evaluation. The amendment passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 2647) in June of 2009. However, the language was stripped from the final bill during the conference committee between Senate and House leaders. Congressman Grayson worked successfully to get the amendment inserted into the IMPROVE Acquistion Act, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives on April 28, 2010.

Grayson voted for the 2009-2010 Defense Appropriations, which authorizes $681 billion of appropriations for the Department of Defense. He also supported the 2009-2010 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Authorizations, which provided $46.18 billion in appropriations for 2009-2010.

Combating Federal Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

Grayson worked hard to combat federal waste, fraud, and abuse both before and after being elected to office. In the September 6, 2009 edition of The New York Times, columnist Gretchen Morgenson thanked Congressman Grayson for uncovering the fact that, due to the federal bailout of mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae, taxpayer money had been funding the legal defense fees for former top executives at the institution. Grayson requested information about these legal costs after a June 2009 hearing of the House Financial Services Committee. The Congressman’s work uncovered that, between September 6, 2008 and July 21, 2009, taxpayers spent $6.3 million defending Fannie Mae executives Franklin Raines, J. Timothy Howard, and Leanne Spencer. Taxpayers paid an additional $16.8 million to cover legal expenses of workers at the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, Fannie’s former regulator.

In September 2009, Congressman Grayson used a parliamentary maneuver called an “extension of remarks” to provide crucial instruction on H.R. 3221, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009, a bill that, among other things, included a provision that prohibited funding for ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). Grayson’s extension of remarks directed that the legislation defund any organization that cheats the federal government, not just ACORN. The defunding measure passed the House with a final vote of 253-171. Grayson also encouraged the public to report companies covered by the bill and set up a method to report offending companies via his Congressional web site.

“Teach the Constitution Week”

On September 14, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed Congressman Grayson’s “Teach the Constitution Week” resolution (H.Res. 686). The bill urged high schools to spend one week each September teaching the United States Constitution to high school seniors and also encouraged students to petition the government on an issue of personal importance to them to demonstrate their understanding of their rights and responsibilities as citizens of the United States. The non-partisan resolution was passed by a voice vote and featured 222 co-sponsors.

New Frontier Congressional Gold Medal Act

On the 40th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, the U.S. House of Representatives passed Congressman Grayson’s New Frontier Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2009 (H.R. 2245). The bill asked the President to present Congress’s highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, to Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins, as well as John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. Only about 200 medals have ever been awarded in the country’s 233-year history. The New Frontier Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2009 passed the House unanimously on July 20, 2009.

Controversial public remarks

Grayson quickly gained a reputation as an elected official who was "not shy about his opinions." He was unrestrained in his criticism of right-wing positions, politicians, and pundits, particularly those employed by and/or frequently appearing on Fox News Channel. His sharp characterizations in public remarks earned him national attention both positive and negative.

Health care

In September 2009, during the debates leading to the passage of the Affordable Health Care for America Act by the House in November, Grayson summed up the "Republican health care plan" as "'Don't get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.'" His remarks were widely condemned by Republican politicians but, according to Grayson, were well received by his constituents. Grayson reported that his comments resulted in over 5,000 campaign contributions and that the positive emails he received outnumbered the negative ones by a four-to-one margin; Grayson raised $347,000 for his reelection campaign during the third quarter, much of it attributed to his remarks.

He defended his comment and in a House Floor speech stated, “I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted sooner to end this holocaust in America." Grayson, who is Jewish by birth, apologized to the Anti-defamation League for those offended by his generic use of "holocaust". He also maintained that Congressional Republicans have failed to offer a feasible plan. In October 2009 he launched www.NamesOfTheDead.com, a website to "memorialize Americans who die because they don’t have health insurance." He subsequently read stories of the dead submitted through the Names of the Dead site on the House floor.

Linda Robertson

On a September 2009 Alex Jones Show segment, Grayson criticized Federal Reserve Chair Bernanke's senior adviser Linda Robertson, saying "Here I am the only member of Congress who actually worked as an economist, this lobbyist, this K-Street whore, is trying to teach me about economics!" Robertson had previously worked as a lobbyist for Enron. and Grayson apologized.

Glenn Beck rally

During an appearance on The Stephanie Miller Show on September 2, 2010, Grayson referred to people attending Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally the previous weekend by saying “These are people who were wearing sheets over their heads 25 years ago.” He also said: “You only have three friends in life: God, your mama, and the Democratic Party.”

Political campaigns

Grayson is the second Democrat to represent this district since its formation after the 1970 census (it was the 5th District from 1973 to 1993 and has been the 8th District since 1993). The only other Democrat to represent this district, Bill Gunter, gave it up after only one term to run for the United States Senate in 1974.

2006

In 2006, Grayson first entered into electoral politics, losing the 2006 Democratic primary for Florida's 8th Congressional District to Charlie Stuart, a prominent local businessman and center-right Democrat. Stuart went on to lose the general election to incumbent Republican Congressman Ric Keller. In late 2007, Grayson announced that he would run again for the 8th District seat, and again faced Stuart in the primary. During the primary, his campaign retained the services of Bill Hillsman.

2008

In the August 26, 2008 Democratic primary, Grayson prevailed, receiving 48.5% of the vote. Stuart trailed with 27.5%, with three other candidates splitting the remaining 24%. During the general election campaign, Grayson maintained a consistent lead over Keller, who had barely eked out renomination in the Republican primary over attorney Todd Long. On Election Day, Grayson received 172,854 votes, or 52%, to Keller's 159,490 votes, or 48%. Although Keller won three out of four counties in the district, Grayson won by a margin of 55% to 45% in Orange County, home to Orlando and by far the largest county in the district. Grayson was also helped by a massive voter registration drive by the Democratic Party in the 8th District that gave Democrats a slight edge in registered voters.

2010

Grayson was challenged by Republican nominee Daniel Webster, Florida TEA Party nominee Peg Dunmire, Independent candidate George Metcalfe, and write-in Florida Whig Party candidate Steve Gerritzen.

Grayson ran a September 2010, commercial calling Webster a "draft-dodger," (Webster had received student deferments and a draft classification as medically unfit for service), and a later 30-second commercial calling Webster "Taliban Dan" and warning viewers that "Religious fanatics try to take away our freedom, in Afghanistan, in Iran and right here in Central Florida." Grayson's ads were criticized for editing video mid-sentence to make Webster appear to be saying things he did not say. Grayson released a toned-down version without the edited video or Taliban references in early October.

Grayson was targeted by conservatives and conservative groups in commercials and the media, and on the Internet. On Glenn Beck's radio show, Sarah Palin agreed with a co-host's remark, "It’s okay if the Republicans lose every seat in the Senate and the House except for one. As long as that one is Alan Grayson losing." Conservative Newsweek columnist George Will called Grayson "America's worst politician." Grayson was also heavily targeted in attack ads funded by groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the 60 Plus Association. The Chamber of Commerce ads were in turn criticized by Grayson and his supporters as "deeply dishonest".

Grayson was endorsed by 8th District resident, former Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder (D-CO), who characterized Webster as having "13th-century views" on women's issues. Former DNC Chair and Vermont governor Howard Dean called Grayson a "healthcare hero." Grayson received more votes for "progressive hero" from Democracy for America than any other candidate in the country. Moveon.org, in an appeal to its members, termed Grayson "a populist hero who's never afraid to call out the pernicious corporate influence in Washington." The week before the election, Vice-President Joe Biden visited the 8th District on Grayson's behalf.

Grayson conceded the race on the evening of November 2 after Webster showed a clear lead.

Personal life

Grayson was ranked as the 11th-wealthiest member of Congress in 2010, based on financial disclosure forms with a minimum net worth of $31.41 million, according to Roll Call. Grayson disclosed his attorney fees and costs for the war contractor case exceeded $4 million.

While pursuing the whistleblower cases, Grayson worked from a home office in Orlando, where he lives with his wife and five children.

References

External links

Alan Grayson for U.S. Congress official campaign site

Alan Grayson: "Bipartisanship Has Become Code Word for Appeasement" - video report by Democracy Now!

Category:1958 births Category:American businesspeople Category:Bronx High School of Science alumni Category:Florida Democrats Category:Florida lawyers Category:Harvard Law School alumni Category:Jewish members of the United States House of Representatives Category:John F. Kennedy School of Government alumni Category:Living people Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Florida Category:People from the Bronx Category:Whistleblowing Category:American health activists