George Walker Bush and William Jefferson Clinton

George Walker Bush and William Jefferson Clinton

Introduction

This research paper does discuss George Walker Bush and William Jefferson Clinton. George Walker Bush was the forty-third president of the United States of America. His tenure as a president started in 2001 and ended in 2009. During this period, there were numerous issues, which had to be faced, namely, hurricanes, which caused massive damage, deadly attacks by terrorists in the USA, as well as two wars. Despite this above challenges, there were enormous development initiatives, which were executed. William Jefferson Clinton, on the other hand, was the forty-second president of the United States of America. His tenure commenced in 1993 and ended in 2001. As per the USA election trends, he was the first candidate from the democratic wing to win reelection. Despite being impeached, scholars argue that his economic policies contributed to the economic growth of the United States of America for the following decades.

This paper will look into the contributions of the two former presidents in the growth and development of the USA and the rest of the world. Additionally, the negative issues, which occurred during their tenure, will be focused on. Finally, the author will make his final comments based on the analysis.

Objective

The main objective of this paper is to highlight the achievement, contributions as well as failures of George Walker Bush and William Jefferson Clinton during their tenures as presidents of the United States of America. Conclusions will then be drawn from the facts presented.

Contributions of George Walker Bush

During his campaign for the presidency, Bush promised conservatism, compassionate as well as return to morality. This was due to impeachment, which has happened to his predecessor. The electoral process was very competitive; Bush, however, defeated Al Gore by five votes during the electoral college votes (Campbell 13). President Bush authorized the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation in 2001. The package was to counter the economic recession that had caused the unemployment rate to rise by 5.7% in the United States, by jump-starting consumer habits of spending (Kiefer et al. 90)  The impact EGTRRA was however not felt as it was interrupted by 9/11 attack.  The president in 2003 enacted Jacobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act. The JGTRRA was aimed at motivating the employers to hire by reducing the rates of tax on capital gains that were long term as well as dividends by fifteen per cent. The same year, the Medicare Prescription Drug was passed by Congress. This policy directed Medicare to pay for drug bills up to the specified percentage in Part D of the prescription. The remaining section was catered for by senior citizens. This scheme was nickname “doughnut hole”-for those seniors whose cost of drugs was high (Oliver et al. 290).

The Katrina hurricane of 2005 in New Orleans caused damage that was approximated to be one sixty one billion dollars. Additionally, the economic growth of the USA was noted to slow by 1.7%.  Thirty-three billion U.S. dollars were injected into the commercial in 2006 financial year to aid in cleaning up. The extra money was attained by expanding the budget (“Emergency Supplementals”).

President Bush administration authorized the 2001 war against Afghanistan. This was in response to 9/11 attacks in U.S. soil. American troops were set to annihilate Osama Bin Landen. Because the acts of Osama Bin Landen were supported by Taliban leadership, they were overthrown and replaced by Hamid Karzai (“A Timeline Of The U.S. War In Afghanistan”). The homeland security act of 2002 enabled Bush to set up agencies which were to handle domestic security including terrorism on U.S. soil. Iraq was also approved by Congress in 2002. The war commenced in 2003 march 19^th. Saddam Hussein was captured in December the same year. The unearthing of torture photos in 2004 caused in war levels in Iraq. However, in January 2007, the U.S. sent more troops to aid in the transition of power in Iraq (Stevens and Gina).

In their bid to prevent easy defaulting of bank loans, Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act was enacted in 2005. This motion protected the business from collapsing.  However, there were issues which rose that affected the consumers and later banks due to these laws. Bush tax rebates were approved in January 2008 by Congress. One hundred and sixty-eight U.S. dollars package was offered to recipients of social security as well as families. This limit for loans was, however, raised, on the other hand, for mortgage agencies (Jenks 893).  The deal to save Investment bank from collapsing was brokered in March 2008. Freddie and Fannie were taken during the summer period by the government. The collapse of Lehman brother in September 2008 forced President Bush to consent on the proposals of Hank Peterson who was the secretary to the treasury. The banking system was allocated seven hundred billion dollars as a bailout. Additionally, the Troubled Asset Relief Program was set up (Mizen and Paul). The accomplishments of George Walker Bush as the president of the United States of America are summarized in the table below.

Table 1: Contributions of George Walker Bush to U.S. economy

Contributions of William Jefferson Clinton

When he was elected as the president of the United States of America, Clinton initial move was to raise the levels of taxes through the 1993 Omnibus Budget Reconciliatory Act. The contractionary fiscal policy raised the levels of high-income earners from twenty (Canova and Timothy). The increase was applicable for all corporations whose income exceeded ten million dollars by two per cent from thirty-four per cent (“Bill Clinton – Pros & Cons – Procon.Org”). The corporations making at least one hundred and fifteen million dollars the tax was raised from eight per cent to thirty-six per cent. The companies with a revenue of 250 million dollars were charged 39% tax. Besides, Clinton reformed the aid offered for the needy families, he enacted the Personal responsibility and Work Opportunity reconciliation act in 1996. This led to the reduction of the number under TANF by two thirds in ten years, from the initial 12.2 million (Hook). The signing of the North America Free Trade Agreement created a platform for trade growth between the USA, Canada and Mexico. The economic policies of President Clinton plus his plan on cutting spending creation a surplus base for the USA as illustrated in the table below (“Bill Clinton – Pros & Cons – Procon.Org”)

Clinton also signed several laws which were beneficial to the growth of the U.S. economy, namely Briley act, Commodity Future Modernization Act, as well as Community housing rules Act revision in 1995. The amending of the community Reinvestment Act especially enabled the low-income neighbourhoods to access loans. It is estimated that twenty-two million jobs were created during the tenure of Clinton. As a result, the levels of unemployment dropped to 4% by 2000 November (“The Clinton Presidency: Key Accomplishments”).

In the health care system, Clinton established two laws in the health care system. The Accountability act and health insurance portability, which were enacted in 1996 permitted workers in the USA, to enjoy the health benefits courtesy of their employer up to eighteen months on being terminated. Additionally, the insurance for children was subsidized for the families who could not afford the Medicaid (“The Clinton Presidency: Key Accomplishments”).

In the education sector, the variety of school choice, as well as investment in training, were doubled. The financial aid for college students was also increased, leading to increased numbers of college students to one million. Learning tax credits as well as scholarships offered by the Clinton administration enabled the students to enrol for work-study programs. Finally, it is estimated that during his tenure, ninety-five per cent of the schools were connected to the internet (“The Clinton Presidency: Key Accomplishments”).

Failures of George Washington Bush

The Afghani and Iraq war increased the levels of involvement of the USA with the Middle East. It was expected this would increase her influence in the continent and foster growth of democratic space. It was noted that the democratic space, nonconventional proliferation, as well as counterterrorism measures, were not instilled by the U.S. security system. As a result, many other countries were attacked by terror groups. Moreover, there was an emergence of a new generation and formations of terror movements in Afghanistan, Iraq, as well as other nations in the Middle East. The primary reason behind the failure was due to over-reliance on military force. There was little use of diplomacy. Moreover, the existing policy contradictions which were causing conflicts were not addressed. Finally, the total disregard of empiricism caused them to fail (Pressman and Jeremy 160).

The Bush administration also failed to secure the trade between USA and China. In 2003, China deliberately maintained the exchange rate of her currency at lower levels artificially. This enabled the exporters of Chinese goods to have a competitive advantage. Moreover, Beijing put in place institutions that were tasked to ensure the efficiency and productivity of giant enterprises, which were owned by the state. The institutions also enforced the policies put in place, approved investments, and allocated subsidies. The Institutions also put measures and procedures, which made it hard for foreign-based companies to operate in China. The sluggish action by the administration led to the outbreak of the global financial crisis that exposed the defects in the economic model (Haverty et al.).

Despite the increased levels of literacy in the U.S., scientific literacy levels stood at 20% BY 2007. Consequently, there was no authentic data on environmental challenges as well as public awareness on ways of conserving the biodiversity. The extreme reliance on the fossils fuels to power machines in agribusiness was releasing toxic fumes to the atmosphere.  Despite the few policies, which were enacted to protect the endangered species, there was still no valid method of assessing the capability of the citizens to respond to environmental challenges (Saylan et al.).

Failures of William Jefferson Clinton

The reign of Clinton was marred with constant scandals. Clinton is recorded as the first president to testify on his conduct to a grand jury. This occurred when Paula Jones accused him of harassing her sexually.  Later Clinton was accused of having an affair with Monica Lewinsky that was the basis of his motion of impeachment. Additionally, it was noted the prisoners in the federal prisoners doubled in the reign of Clinton. Approximately fifty-eight per cent of those imprisoned were because of offences related to drugs. This was because the allocation of resources targeted incarceration (“Bill Clinton – Pros & Cons – Procon.Org”).

Thirdly, there was the failure by Clinton to repeal the homosexuality ban for those who were serving in the military. Instead, adopted a policy that was for compromise where no one was expected to ask or tell his or her sexual inclination. Moreover, despite the economic growth that was experienced in the reign of Clinton, he failed to regulate the marketers of financial services. This led to bad lending as well as frauds in Wall Street, which contributed, to the crisis in the banking sector that occurred in 2007. Finally, Clinton failed to attain quality education standards as he compromised the oversight process in passing the program. This led to variation in the quality of education from one state to another (“Bill Clinton – Pros & Cons – Procon.Org”).

Conclusion

The analysis above of George Walker Bush and William Jefferson Clinton portrays two great American leaders who were committed to enabling America to overcome her challenges. However, each leader was faced with different tasks and had their unique shortcomings. Based on the two George W Bush appears to have handled both internal and external challenges better than Clinton. The reign of Clinton was characterized with external stability save for 9/11. Bush, however, rose to counter the terrorism pressures in the U.S. and the foreign soil. Additionally, he set forth measures to grow the economy of the U.S.

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