Reply #101: I wouldn't give Clinton too much credit [View All]

To be honest, I think his welfare reform policies were the worst thing he did as president. He took a system that didn't need reform, and because of political pressure, he basicly gave a slap in the face to Americans who couldn't make it in the gleaming city on the hill. True, the economic prosperity at the time blunted the impact, but I believe we are starting to feel the full force of welfare reform as homelessness and poverty starts to edge upward. We have no idea just how many disemployed people there are out there; the government really doesn't track that down.

Welfare reform was also a real union busting move. "Discipline the working classes" by pulling the net out from under them.

Clinton was not a bad president but he had good fortune going for him. To be honest George Bush Sr. helped set alot of that in motion by governing the country in a relatively modest manner (this is the guy that mocked "voodoo economics", and had the guts to raise taxes when it was necessary).