Clinton first used his executive authority to strengthen the Supreme Court majority in favor of upholding the landmark case of Roe v. Wade. The majority included three conservative justices who had been appointed by Reagan and Bush. Clinton appointed Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a judge known to believe that abortion was constitutional. Clinton indicated that he would veto any bill limiting abortion rights. He also reversed important Bush policies by signing a revived family leave bill into law and by authorizing the use of fetal tissue for research purposes.
The first major test of the president’s will came when he submitted his first budget to Congress. He hoped to reduce the deficit by roughly $500 billion in five years, half by spending cuts, half by new taxes. The proposal for a tax increase raised a storm of protest. A number of congressional Democrats refused to go along with Clinton’s budget, and since the Republicans in Congress voted solidly against any increase in taxes, the president was forced to accept major changes. Even so, the final bill passed by the narrowest of margins. Clinton rightly claimed a victory.
He then turned to his long-awaited proposal to reform the nation’s expensive and incomplete health insurance system. A committee headed by his wife had been working for months with no indication that a plan acceptable to the medical profession, the health insurance industry, and ordinary citizens was likely to come from its deliberations. The plan that finally emerged seemed even more complicated and possibly more costly than the existing system. It never came to a vote in Congress.
View the Image Bill Clinton and Al Gore on the South Lawn of the White House, 1993 at Www. myhistorylab. com
LifiWatch the Video Bill Clinton First Inauguration at Www. myhistorylab. com
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