Democratic Socialists of America 409 Butternut St NW Washington, DC 20012-1925

Grading The Clinton Administration

Overall 1997 Grade: C-

President Clinton's State of the Union address marks an important moment for the American people to take stock of the President and his Administration. The organizations releasing this report card were, by and large, enthusiastic about President Clinton's victory in 1992. The manifesto of that campaign, PuttingPeople First, along with a number of campaign speeches, suggested an activist presidency that would invest in people, jobs, justice, and environmental sustainability.

This was not to be. In real policy terms (rather than public relations appearances), no single year of Clinton's Administration has been so dismal as 1997. This was a year during which Clinton put corporations and the military first and people a distant second. While the public worried about stagnating wages, inadequate health care, schools that are literally falling apart, and widening inequalities everywhere, the Administration seemed far more focused on the misplaced goals of rewarding footloose global corporations with more free trade agreements and balancing the budget by cutting social spending. And, during 1997, it followed a guns without butter policy by championing subsidies for arms exporters while dismantling welfare programs for the needy.

The basis for our grading of Clinton is the original set of principles of decency, fairness, peace, and justice that he and his advisors articulated so well in PuttingPeople First and which were instrumental in his 1992 election. (The groups which participated in this report card are joining with close to 100 other groups on January 27 in releasing a "Fairness Agenda for America" which picks up on many of Clinton's original themes and develops them into an 8-point program for the nation.)

The overall grade of "C-" is based on a careful look at Clinton's record in eight areas, each of which receives an individual grade. In this era of grade inflation, we note that a "C-" is not a grade which inspires great confidence. Still, Clinton did best in the few areas where he did not veer from the public interest, namely equality (where he used the bully pulpit of the presidency to focus the nation's attention on the vital issue of race) and social security (where he continued to show strong support). His Administration did the worst in those areas where it failed entirely to deliver on past promises (campaign finance), it implemented cruel policies (so-called "welfare reform"), or it succumbed to narrow corporate interests (the pursuit of "free trade" agreements). These three areas signify Clinton's incapacity to lead on the fundamental public interest issues that are eating away at the structure of the American political system.

This report card also analyzes the voting records of the Republican leadership and the 58-member Congressional Progressive Caucus in 1997. Viewed against the PuttingPeople First criteria to which we subjected the Clinton Administration, the Republican leadership scores an "F" and the Progressive Caucus an "A-."

The authors of this report watch with interest in January 1998 as a seemingly reinvigorated President Clinton returns to proposing new policy initiatives on an almost daily basis, everything from expand ing Medicare to new money for education to ideas for retraining workers. We hope that the Administration will turn words into action; if it does, his grade should improve this year. However, thus far, his pronouncements are only words, words that mean less in an Administration that has so disappointingly hiled to deliver on often lofty and admirable promises.

Analysis of the Clinton Administration's Grades

1. Budget
Goal: Enact a Fairness Budget for America
Grade: C-
(Compiled by the Institute for Policy Studies and Democratic Socialists of America)

Recent budget negotiations between the Clinton Administration and the GOP leadership have focused on balancing the budget with no attention to the substance or social implications of the budget or to the rising human needs that go unmet because of mistaken priorities. Progressive voices have been left out of these negotiations. The result is a federal budget that is far from fair: tax cuts have largely benefited the already wealthy and spending cuts have hurt working Americans. Little attention was paid to rebuilding the decaying physical plant of the United States, while the defense budget remained close to Cold War levels. Under the influence of a Republican-dominated Congress, national and international problems were swept under the rug in favor of policies reminiscent of the 1920s when the federal government believed its business was business. The Clinton Administration caved in on virtually all of the issues important to progressives: it supported tax cuts for the wealthy and further changes in tax law that resulted in a less progressive system. It cut spending on social programs and increased spending for military and law enforcement. There were some examples where the Administration did negotiate progressive programs such as the children's health insurance program, yet it paid little attention to such issues as the needs of working parents for adequate childcare.

2. Jobs
Goal: Ensure Jobs, Living Wages, Benefits & Worker Rights for All
Grade: C-
(Compiled by the Democratic Socialists of America)

On the surface, the employment picture looks more positive now than at any time in the recent past. Unemployment is low as is inflation. Yet beneath this rosy veneer, there are pockets of high unemployment. Underemployment, as represented by part-time and temporary workers, and those who have given up looking for work, is high. Wages have not kept pace with productivity or profits and CEO salaries have skyrocketed while the average person's salary is stagnant. Benefits provided by employers are down and numbers of sweatshops here and abroad are up. The Administration supported increasing the minimum wage, but has also backed reappointment of Alan Greenspan, whose policies as chair of the Federal Reserve have resulted in real wage declines for American workers. Clinton's support for welfare to work programs also puts him at odds with the interests of America's working people.

3. Equality
Goal: Ensure Equality for All
Grade: B-
(Compiled by Gray Panthers, DSA, and IPS)

While the last two decades have resulted in progress for women, people of color, gays, lesbians, people with disabilities and others, much remains to be done. Women's wages are still only about three-fourths those of men and people of color are still clustered in low-paying jobs. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in jobs, housing and public accommodations is still legal in most states. Older people and people with disabilities also face discrimination in such areas. Women have few high-ranking positions in international decision making. Development programs, international trade and other changes in the global economy continue to benefit men more than women, whites more than people of color, North more than South. Little attention has been paid to the lack of an overall economic rights program for the many.

The Administration has taken a stronger stand on many equality-related issues than he has on others. The President's support for reproductive rights and afffirmative action are a welcome change from recent administrations. The Administration's overall record on issues affecting older people has been relatively positive. The President has continued to maintain support for the two most important programs to older people Ñ Medicare and social security Ñ against the assaults by the right, but has lagged somewhat in finding solutions to their long-term viability. On race, the Administration verbally acknowledged that race and racism are core issues of national concern. He launched the President's Initiative on Race led by noted historian John Hope Franklin. Yet, the initiative is centered on the erroneous notion that the country's race problems can be solved primarily through dialogue. The initiative stops short of addressing the deep structural problems, including economic structures, which keep the nation divided by race. The President's support for gay and lesbian rights is a milestone, although his "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy and his signing of the Defense of Marriage Act seriously compromised his defense of gender rights and privacy.

4. Global Economy
Goal: Promote a Just and Sustainable Global Economy
Grade: F
(Compiled by IPS, 5O Years is Enough Network and the International Labor Rights Fund)

In 1997 the Clinton Administration undertook three major initiatives on the global economy: its renewal of China's "most favored nation" trade status as the centerpiece of its "constructive engagement" policy with that nation, its failed attempt to secure "fast track" trade authority from Congress, and the development of bailout packages for Asian economies. In all three areas the Administration's policies were dismal failures with respect to fairness.

The fast track battle formally began in September when the Administration teamed up with the Republican leadership to recommend language for the renewal of Congressional authority to negotiate trade agreements. The recommended language would have greatly reduced the ability of the President to include enforceable labor rights and environmenul standards in trade agreements. The language was intended to win over most House Republicans while holding on to 60-70 House Democrats. Yet, such a ploy demonstrated that the Administration fails completely to understand the need to craft new rules for the global economy that protect workers, the environment, and communities against the ability of global firms to bargain down wages, working conditions and living standards in the United States and around the world. The Administration's strategy failed when a strong coalition of labor, environmental, farm and consumer organizations mobilized the majority of public opinion and Congress against fast track.

On China the Administration demonstrated the same inability to face up to the challenge of China's rapid integration into global markets with a workforce that is prohibited from organizing independent unions and where wages remain a fraction of those in the United States. Rather than negotiate common rights and standards as part of China's continued preferential access to US markets as well as China's proposed membership in the World Trade Organization, the Administration caved in to Boeing and other corporations that export to China and pursued the same failed "constructive engagement" policy that previous administrations used with South Africa in the 1980s.

The bailouts of Asian economies, fully supported and facilitated by the Clinton Administration, are both unjust and economically risky initiatives. Under the terms of the bailouts, public funds will end up helping a few dozen banks escape losses from risky loans, while imposing austerity programs on the people of South Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia that will drive their economies into recession, increase unemployment, slash wages, cut social spending, and increase taxes on the working people and the poor. The Administration has also failed to comply with the express requirements of the 1994 Sanders-Frank Amendment, a law which mandates that the U.S. Treasury "use the voice and vote of the United States to urge the respective institutions (the World Bank and the IMF) to adopt policies to encourage borrowing countries to guarantee internationally recognized worker rights."

5. Foreign Policy
Goal: Support Demilitarization, Human Rights & a New Internationalism
Grade: D+
(Compiled by Demilitarization for Democracy, Institute for Policy Studies and the National Commission for Economic Conversion and Disarmament, with input from the Federation of American Scientists, Friends Committee on National Legislation, and Church World Service/Lutheran World Relief)

Military Expenditures Sub-grade: D
The Clinton Administration has exhibited no leadership in bringing down military spending. It plans to add more than $50 billion to the Pentagon's budget over the next 5 years, despite the absence of a major adversary. Its support of conversion to a post-Cold War economy has been meager. It has left military force structure and strategy, as well as intelligence bureaucracy, essentially unchanged. The Administration did make some progress on narrowing the gap between military and civilian R&D priorities. However, the Administration increased support for U.S. arms exports, including lifting a 20-year-old ban on hi-tech weapons sales to Latin America.

Weapons of Mass Destruction Sub-grade: C
On the positive side, the Administration worked hard to get the Chemical Weapons Convention ratified and managed to beat back efforts in the House to cut appropriations to help former Soviet states dismantle their weapons of mass destruction. However, the Administration undermined its professed allegiance to nuclear disarmament by committing to proceed with the development of new nuclear technology and expanding the countries targeted by nuclear weapons beyond the nuclear states to include any country with chemical and biological weapons.

Conventional Arms Control Sub-grade: F
While destroying U.S. stockpiles of landmines, the Administration stood nearly alone among nations in failing to sign the international treaty banning landmines. The Administration actively opposed amendments to cut funding for the School of the Americas, despite the school's history of training Latin American dictators and human rights abusers. It also opposed passage of a Code of Conduct on Arms Transfers Act which conditions arms exports on democracy and human rights standards.

United Nations/Multilateral Security Sub-grade: C-
ln Bosnia, the Administration has acted responsibly in paying for the international civil police but has continued to rely on NATO forces, undermining the potential for more truly multilateral UN intervention. While the Administration claimed to support paying some of its back dues, tragically, it has made NATO expansion a centerpiece of its foreign policy agenda, taking precedence over support for the UN.

Foreign Assistance Sub-grade: B
The appointment of Secreury Madeline Albright brought more Administration attention to foreign affairs and some modest improvement in foreign aid policy and funding.

6. Environment
Goal: Guarantee Sustainable Communities & Environmental Justice
Grade: C
(Compiled by the Institute for Policy Studies)

Sustainable Communities Sub-grade: C+
The Clinton Administration's record in promoting susuinable communities and environmental justice has been decidedly mixed. On the positive side, the Department of Housing and Urban Development pushed forward several modest initiatives to expand low-income housing and banking, and the President himself sided with EPA Administrator Carol Browner in toughening clean air standards. But, the Administration approved no major new financial support for America's cities, while continuing to place new responsibilities on them Ñ most notably welfare. Worse, the Administration's push for fast track trading authority and for the Multilateral Agreement on Investment threaten to strip community powers to clean up the environment and to promote economic self-reliance.

Global Environment Sub-grade: C-
The U.S. is the number one greenhouse gas emitter, producing almost one-quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions globally. In mid-1997, Clinton showed uncharacteristic leadership on this critical international issue. But unfortunately, by fall, Clinton had caved in under pressure from Congress, who, in turn was being heavily lobbied by the "Carbon Club," and proposed a weak agreement at the Kyoto climate conference. After chiding former President Bush for his failure to commit in 1992 to reduce U.S. emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000, Clinton decided to postpone any action on climate change until 2006. Equally ironic was the hct that the U.S. nearly scuttled any possibility of agreement by insisting that developing countries be included in the Kyoto Protocol; yet the U.S. virtually ensures that developing countries pursue a fossil fuel-driven development path by pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into the coffers of multilateral and bilateral funding agencies, like the World Bank, who in turn spend a disproportionate amount of their resources subsidizing the operations of oil, gas and coal projects in developing countries.

Within the U.S., the situation is much the same: with a few notable exceptions, such as rangeland reform and the last minute protection of the Headwaters Forest of northern California from clearcutting, corporate influence overrides environmental concerns with below-cost timber sales to the timber industry, pesticide subsidies, and government subsidies for the oil, gas and nuclear power industries.

7. Social Investment
Goal: Provide Adequate Social Investment
Grade: C-

Welfare Reform (Compiled by the Coalition on Human Needs) Sub-grade: D
For America's poor, the State of the Union is not good. While the U.S. economy continues to grow, so too does the demand at soup kitchens. Clinton's federal welfare "reform" dismantled the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), eliminating the entitlement and creating a block grant in the form of the Temporary Assisunce to Needy Families (TANF) program. States now receive a lump sum that will not increase in periods of economic downturn. States are also permitted to limit continuous eligibility to TANF to any time under two years, and limit life-long eligibility to any time under five years. As a direct result of President Clinton's signature on the welfare bill, close to a million legal immigrants were cut off food stamps and an estimated 500,000 adults aged 18 to 50 without dependent children have been cut off food stamps after their three months eligibility expired. The Urban Institute estimated, just prior to the bill's signing, that over one million children will be forced into poverty as a direct result of the bill passed by the Republican Congress and signed by the President. Because of his efforts to restore Supplemental Security Insurance eligibility to legal immigrants, President Clinton does not receive a failing grade. However, because he signed the bill in the first place, he does not deserve a satisfactory grade.

Social Security (Compiled by the Gray Panthers) Sub-grade: B
President Clinton's strong grade in this area was due to his continued strong support for Social Security. Still, the Administration has lagged somewhat in finding solutions to the program's long-term viability. That is a critical issue right now, and the lack of such a plan provides an opportunity for opponents of the program to undermine it by suggesting that it will not be available for future workers. The financial problems of social security are manageable and can be corrected in a manner that is consistent with the basic principles of social insurance. The Administration should be taking the lead in publicizing and supporting them. Steps might include some combination of an increase in the payroll tax, bringing more state and local employees into the social security system, lifting the cap on earned income subject to the social security tax, among a number of possibilities. It should also be taking more of a lead in educating the public as to the intergenerational importance of Medicare and social security. Most Americans are unaware of how these programs either directly or indirectly benefit middle aged and young people, as well as children.

Health care (Compiled by Neighbor to Neighbor) Sub-grade: C-
ln 1997 the Clinton Administration achieved two modest health care objectives Ñ extend Medicare's short term solvency and provide access to coverage for some uninsured children. In the context of balanced budget negotiations, the White House allowed the Republican leadership to cut Medicare spending by $115 billion over 5 years by lowering payments to doctors and hospitals. The Clinton Administration did stand firm against the harshest GOP proposals that would have hurt low-income seniors and seriously undermine Medicare's structure. The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is the largest amount of new money for expanding health coverage in 30 years, yet no individual child is entitled to receive benefits. Bowing to pressure from Governors and the GOP leadership, the White House agreed to give states enormous flexibility to design their own programs. As few as 200,000 of the 10 million uninsured children may benefit from the new program.

8. Campaign Finance
Goal: Limit Private Money in Politics
Grade: F
(Compiled by IPS, with input from Public Campaign)

While the Administration has talked a great deal about the need to enact campaign finance reform in the 105th Congress, it has taken little action to make this pledge a reality, contrary to the wishes of the public. According to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, the public believes by a huge margin of 77% to 18% that campaign finance reform is needed because "there is too much money being spent on political campaigns, which leads to excessive influence by special interests an wealthy individuals at the expense of average people." Moreover, a New York Times poll revealed that an astounding 91% of the public was in favor of fundamental transformation of the existing campaign finance system, not just measures that ban soft money or improve disclosure. Unlike the all-out effort waged by the Administration to pass "fast track," the Administration did not take comparable steps to mobilize Congress to enact even modest campaign finance reform measures.

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