Flip this House: The 1994 Republican Revolution
Since childhood, Bill Paxon was a die hard Republican – a Nixon fanboy who watched House Republicans lose midterm elections for decades.
Then he became a member of Congress. And he was finally in a position to help them get the 42 seats they needed to win

 

 

 

 

 

Bill Paxon member of the United States House of Representatives from New York from 1989-1993. 

In 1992, He was elected to chair the National Republican Congressional Committee.

 

 

 

BIGGEST UPSET:

Joe  Prather (D)  vs Ron Lewis (R)  special election for  U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky's 2nd district . 

The district was thought to be a safe Democratic Party seat. Everyone elected since 1865 were Democrats.

 

 

 

 

BIGGEST WIN: 

Washington’s 5th District. In a humiliating defeat, Democratic
Speaker of the House Tom Foley lost his reelection bid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1994 election, Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress.  Contract with America called for tax reductions, changes in federal spending, and other promises. 

 

 

 

The Republicans, led by whip Newt Gingrich, captured the majority of seats in the House for the first time in forty years and the majority of seats in the Senate for the first time in eight years.  Gingrich became Speaker of the House, while Bob Dole elevated to Senate Majority leader.

 

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On the first day of their majority in the House, the Republicans promised to bring up for vote, eight major reforms:

 

1. require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress;

2. select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;

3. cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;

4. limit the terms of all committee chairs;

5. ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;

6. require committee meetings to be open to the public;

7. require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;

8. guarantee an honest accounting of the Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.

 

 

 

The Contract had promised to bring to floor debate and votes 10 bills that would implement major reform of the federal government. When the 104th Congress assembled in January 1995, the Republican majority sought to implement the Contract.

 

 

 

 

The Fiscal Responsibility Act

An amendment to the Constitution that would require a balanced budget unless sanctioned by a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress 

 

The Taking Back Our Streets Act

An anti-crime package including stronger truth in sentencing, , funding prison construction and additional law enforcement 

 

The Personal Responsibility Act

An act to discourage illegitimacy and teen pregnancy by reforming and cutting cash welfare and related programs. This would be achieved by prohibiting welfare to mothers under 18 years of age, denying increased Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) for additional children while on welfare, and enacting a two-years-and-out provision with work requirements to promote individual responsibility.

 

The Act was vetoed by President Clinton, but the alternative Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act which offered many of the same policies was enacted August 22, 1996.

 

The American Dream Restoration Act

An act to create a $500-per-child tax credit, add a tax credit for couples who pay more taxes in aggregate if they are married than if they were single (but keep in place the fiction of Earned Income Splitting), and creation of American Dream Savings Accounts to provide middle-class tax relief. 

 

The National Security Restoration Act

An act to prevent U.S. troops from serving under United Nations command unless the President determines it is necessary for the purposes of national security, to cut U.S. payments for UN peacekeeping operations, and to help establish guidelines for the voluntary integration of former Warsaw Pact nations into NATO. 

 

The Common Sense Legal Reform Act

An act to institute "loser pays" laws to prevent what the bill considered frivolous litigation

 

The Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act

A package of measures to act as small-business incentives: capital-gains cuts and indexation

 

Other sections of the Contract

Other sections of the Contract include a proposed Family Reinforcement Act (tax incentives for adoption, strengthening the powers of parents in their children's education, stronger child pornography laws, and elderly dependent care tax credit) and the Senior Citizens Fairness Act (raise the Social Security earnings limit, repeal the 1993 tax hikes on Social Security benefits and provide tax incentives for private long-term care insurance).

 

 

 

1994 The Whitewater Scandal: The Whitewater Scandal broke in March 1992 involved the failed real estate investments in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed business venture in the 1970s and 1980s. Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates, Jim and Susan McDougal were accused of fraud. A grand jury subpoena to the President  was issued  in May 1994

 

 

 

1995  The Oklahoma City federal building Terrorist bombing on April 19, 1995 was a truck-bomb explosion that killed 168 people and left hundreds more injured. The blast was set off by anti-government militant Timothy McVeigh and his co-conspirator Terry Nichols

 

1995    President Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin meet in New York on October 23, 1995 to discuss improving relations between their two nations, especially with regard to the issue of nuclear arms.

 

The Yugoslav Wars (continues...)  Serbs and Bosnians in Bosnia-Heregovina were involved in a civil war.  President Clinton and the United Nations called for a cease-fire and sent a peace-keeping force.  In 1995, President Clinton sent troops to Bosnia to ensure the cease-fire and protect civilian lives.

 

 

 

 

 

1996    The Whitewater Scandal: The Senate Special Whitewater Committee issued a report on June 18, 1996, which only hinted at one possible improper action by President Clinton, but spoke of the "American presidency misused its power, circumvented the limits on its authority and attempted to manipulate the truth."

 

 

 

 

The Election of 1996

Clinton could campaign as champion of peace, prosperity, and national well-being.

 

 In spring and summer of 1996, Congress passed several important bills.

 

- Raised minimum wage for first time in more that a decade.

- Passed welfare reform bill.

- Ended fifty-year federal guarantee of assistance to families with dependent children and turned most of responsibility for funds to states.

- It shifted bulk of benefits away from those without jobs and toward support for low-wage workers.

 

 

Clinton Triumphant and Embattled

Bill Clinton was first Democratic president to win two terms as president since Franklin Roosevelt.

 

Clinton had been bedeviled by alleged scandals almost from first weeks in office:

 

Whitewater Scandal

 

Charges of corruption leveled against members of cabinet and staff

 

Accusations of illegalities in financing 1996 campaign

 

Civil suit for sexual harassment by former state employee in Arkansas, Paula Jones.  Paula Jones case led to charges that president had sexual relationship with White House intern

 

 

 

1998 The Lewinsky Scandal: A scandal erupts regarding President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern. On January 20, 1998 Bill Clinton strenuously denies the allegations "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky"

 

1988 In December, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein balked at agreements he signed at end of the Gulf War and refused to permit international inspectors to examine military sites in country. - Clinton ordered a series of American bombing strikes at military targets in Iraq.

 

1999 The War in former Yugoslavia Ends: The Yugoslav Wars (31 March 1991 – 21 June 1999) between Serbs on one side and Croats and Bosnians on the other finally end

 

 

 

1998 The Impeachment of President Bill Clinton: The House of Representatives vote to impeach President Bill Clinton on December 19, 1998 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

 

 

1999   In January  NATO and the U.S bombing campaign against Serbia begins. It's aimed at preventing ethnic cleansing of Albanians. After 79 days of bombing Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic signs NATO's agreement to withdraw his forces from Kosovo. But he does not give up power. 

 

2000 In October the USS Cole, a naval destroyer, is bombed in the waters off the coast of Yemen.

           

2000 Twenty-five years after the war that killed 58,000 Americans and about three million Vietnamese, Clinton arrives in Vietnam for a three-day trip. His visit is the first for a U.S. president since the Vietnam war, which Clinton opposed.