Bill Clinton-
accomplishments-
NAFTA was passed into law
Family and Medical Leave Act
-required large employers to allow employees to take unpaid leave for pregnancy or a serious medical condition
lowered taxes for low income families and raised taxes for the wealthiest Americans
Under Clinton, the US had a federal budget surplus for the first time since 1969
Brady Bill- started federal background checks on firearm purchasers in the US
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
Defense of Marriage Act
defines marriage for federal purposes as the legal union of one man and one woman
allowed individual states to refuse to recognize gay marriages performed in other states
Scandals-
Lewinsky scandal- Clinton was impeached because of lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky
failed to get his universal health care plan passed
Paula Jones scandal
Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia
Osama Bin Laden-al-Qaeda bombings in Africa
Kosovo Crisis in Yugoslavia
Bombed Iraq(Saddam Hussein) frequently from 1998-2001
George W. Bush
father was 41st president
Governor of Texas
went to Yale and Harvard
in the oil business
Co-owner of the Texas Rangers 1989-94
was an alcoholic
elections
2000- Bush barely won the electoral vote but he lost the popular vote
500 votes in Florida basically decided who would be the president
2004 Bush won both the electoral and the popular vote
Bush Tax Cuts
passed after US gov't had three straight years of budget surpluses
No Child Left Behind Act
aimed to measure and close the gap between rich and poor student performance
provide options to parents with students in low-performing students
target more federal funding to low-income schools
9-11-2001
Bin Laden led Al-Qaeda members hijacked 4 planes
1 plane crashed into the Pentagon, two into the world trade center, and one crashed before it could hit the white house
this terrorist act united the country
we went to war with Iraq, which was led by the Taliban
US forces took the Taliban and Al-Qaeda out of Iraq
US rebuilt Iraqi infrastructure
Bush focused on Iraq
Obama ended the war in Iraq and pushed more troops into Afghanistan
2003 go to war in Iraq because Bush thinks that Saddam Hussein has WMD
Saddam is removed from power, eventually captured, and then executed by his own people
a democracy was set up in Iraq
US was fighting Al-Qaeda while there was an Iraqi civil war going on
Bush started the Surge-putting 20,000 more troops into Iraq
this worked perfectly
Obama decided to pull troops out of Iraq(that war is over, and Iraq is still unstable) and move them to Afghanistan
Bush got into a lot of trouble for water boarding techniques
Hurricane Katrina happened during Bush presidency
Bank Bailout- Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
the struggling US economy
Stem Cell Research
Immigration
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