Domestic Concerns of the 1990s

Learning Objectives

  • Describe the major domestic concerns and challenges of the 1990s
In addition to shifting the Democratic Party to the moderate center on economic issues, Clinton tried to break new ground on a number of domestic issues and make good on traditional Democratic commitments to the disadvantaged, minority groups, and women. At the same time, he faced the challenge of domestic terrorism when a federal building in Oklahoma City was bombed, killing 168 people and injuring hundreds more.

Healthcare Reform

A photograph shows C. Everett Koop and Hillary Clinton in profile. They sit beside one another; Clinton speaks and gestures with her hands.

Figure 1. C. Everett Koop, who had served as surgeon general under Ronald Reagan and was a strong advocate of healthcare reform, helped First Lady Hillary Clinton promote the Health Security Act in the fall of 1993.

An important and popular part of Clinton’s domestic agenda was healthcare reform that would make universal healthcare a reality. When the plan was announced in September of the president’s first year in office, pollsters and commentators both assumed it would sail through. Many were unhappy with the way the system worked in the United States, where the cost of health insurance seemed increasingly unaffordable for the middle class. Clinton appointed his wife, Hillary Clinton, a Yale Law School graduate and accomplished attorney, to head his Task Force on National Health Care Reform in 1993. The 1,342-page Health Security Act presented to Congress that year sought to offer universal coverage. All Americans were to be covered by a healthcare plan that could not reject them based on pre-existing medical conditions. Employers would be required to provide healthcare for their employees. Limits would be placed on the amount that people would have to pay for services; the poor would not have to pay at all.

The outlook for the plan looked good in 1993; it had the support of a number of institutions like the American Medical Association and the Health Insurance Association of America. But in relatively short order, the political winds changed. As budget battles distracted the administration and the midterm elections of 1994 approached, Republicans began to recognize the strategic benefits of opposing reform. Soon they were mounting fierce opposition to the bill. Moderate conservatives dubbed the reform proposals “Hillarycare” and argued that the bill was an unwarranted expansion of the powers of the federal government that would interfere with people’s ability to choose the healthcare provider they wanted. Those further to the right argued that healthcare reform was part of a larger and nefarious plot to control the public.

To rally Republican opposition to Clinton and the Democrats, Newt Gingrich and Richard “Dick” Armey, two of the leaders of the Republican minority in the House of Representatives, prepared a document entitled Contract with America, signed by all but two of the Republican representatives. It listed eight specific legislative reforms or initiatives the Republicans would enact if they gained a majority in Congress in the 1994 midterm elections.

Link to Learning

View the Contract with America that the Republican Party drafted to continue the conservative shift begun by Ronald Reagan, which promised to cut waste and spend taxpayer money responsibly.

Lacking support on both sides, the healthcare bill was never passed and died in Congress. The reform effort finally ended in September 1994. Dislike of the proposed healthcare plan on the part of conservatives and the bold strategy laid out in the Contract with America enabled the Republican Party to win seven Senate seats and fifty-two House seats in the November elections. The Republicans then used their power to push for conservative reforms. One such piece of legislation was the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, signed into law in August 1996. The act set time limits on welfare benefits and required most recipients to begin working within two years of receiving assistance.

Domestic Terrorism

Photograph (a) shows the bombed federal building in Oklahoma City. Photograph (b) shows the siege of the Waco compound; flames shoot from the top of the Mount Carmel center.

Figure 2. The remains of automobiles stand in front of the bombed federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995 (a). More than three hundred nearby buildings were damaged by the blast, an attack perpetrated at least partly to avenge the Waco siege (b) exactly two years earlier.

The fears of those who saw government as little more than a necessary evil appeared to be confirmed in the spring of 1993, when federal and state law enforcement authorities laid siege to the compound of a religious sect called the Branch Davidians near Waco, Texas. The group, which believed the end of world was approaching, was suspected of weapons violations and resisted search-and-arrest warrants with deadly force. A standoff developed that lasted nearly two months and was captured on television each day. A final assault on the compound was made on April 19, and seventy-six men, women, and children died in a fire probably set by members of the sect. Many others committed suicide or were killed by fellow sect members.

During the siege, many antigovernment and militia types came to satisfy their curiosity or show support for those inside. One was Timothy McVeigh, a former U.S. Army infantry soldier. McVeigh had served in Operation Desert Storm in Iraq, earning a bronze star, but he became disillusioned with the military and the government when he was deemed psychologically unfit for the Army Special Forces. He was convinced that the Branch Davidians were victims of government terrorism, and he and his coconspirator, Terry Nichols, determined to avenge them.

Two years later, on the anniversary of the day that the Waco compound burned to the ground, McVeigh parked a rented truck full of explosives in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and blew it up. More than 600 people were injured in the attack and 168 died, including nineteen children at the daycare center inside. McVeigh hoped that his actions would spark a revolution against government control. He and Nichols were both arrested and tried, and McVeigh was executed on June 11, 2001, for the worst act of terrorism committed on American soil. Just a few months later, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 broke that dark record.

Try It

Racial Tensions in America

Racial tensions overflowed in 1992, George H.W. Bush’s final year in office, leaving the Clinton Administration to deal with the fallout. The key event was the Los Angeles Riots in April 1992 following the acquittal of police officers accused of beating Rodney King, an African American man. Rioting began on April 29, 1992 as Black Americans vented their rage at the police, Whites Americans and Asian Americans. Many Korean-American shops and stores were destroyed during this event.

Los Angeles, 1992

Here is a video about the 1992 LA Riots.

You can view the transcript for “A Dangerous Night In L.A. | LA 92” here (opens in new window).

The 1992 Riots quickly became a popular topic for music, including Hip Hip: click here for an article describing that topic.

The military jumping off of a truck to begin fighting.

Figure 3. The National Guard was deployed to Los Angeles during the Rodney King riots in 1992.

This incident was also filmed and broadcast nationally. Other uprisings occurred across the nation in cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Atlanta. In the midst of the carnage, on May 1, 1992, Rodney King made a memorable appearance on local television where he appealed to rioters to calm down: “I just want to say—you know—can we all get along? Can we, can we get along? Can we stop making it horrible for the older people and the kids. . . . it’s just not right—it’s not right.”

While a Democratic presidential candidate, Bill Clinton said in 1992 that the violence in Los Angeles resulted from the breakdown of economic opportunities and social institutions in the inner city. He also berated both major political parties for failing to address urban issues, especially the Republican Administration for its presiding over “more than a decade of urban decay” generated by their spending cuts.[1] He also maintained that the King verdicts could not be avenged by the “savage behavior” of “lawless vandals” and stated that people “are looting because … [t]hey do not share our values, and their children are growing up in a culture alien from ours, without family, without neighborhood, without church, without support.”[2]

As President, Clinton endeavored to address deep-seated racial tensions with the One America Initiative, established in 1997 by Executive Order 13050. The main thrust of the effort was convening and encouraging community dialogue throughout the country. The Advisory Board’s principal legacy was the collection and publication of best practices for racial reconciliation and dialogue guidelines designed to help communities discuss how to address racial and ethnic divisions in mutually productive ways.

Link to Learning

Read about the One America Initiative established by President Clinton with Executive Order 13050 in 1997 to address racial issues in America.

Environmental Justice

As people became more aware of environmental concerns during the 1990s, there was also a growing movement pushing for environmental justice. The environmental justice movement (growing out of the civil rights movement) first took shape in 1982 with protest demonstrations against the decision to locate a toxic waste landfill in a majority African-American area in Warren County, North Carolina. Studies found a significant correlation between non-White residents and the likelihood that a noxious site would be located in a given area, leading to the term environmental racism to describe this unequal and unfair practice.

The Origins of the Environmental Justice Movement

The founding goals of Environmental Justice were laid out in the 17 Principles statement of the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit held on October 24-27, 1991 in Washington, D.C.  The following year, 1992, the United Nations held an international conference on sustainable development and environmental policy in Rio De Janeiro, at which they approved 27 Principles.

As you read selected Principles from the Principles of the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit and the Rio Summit , reflect on how they are similar to or different from each other.

Selected Principles from the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, 1991. 

Environmental justice:

  • Demands public policy be based on mutual respect and justice for all peoples.
  • Affirms the fundamental right to political, economic, cultural, and environmental self-determination.
  • Demands accountability and cessation of the production of all toxins.
  • Recognizes a special legal and natural relationship of Native Peoples to the U.S. government.

Selected Principles of Sustainable Development from the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development from June 3-14, 1992.[3]

  • Human beings are at the center of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.
  •  Environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens.
  • States shall develop national law regarding liability and compensation for the victims of pollution and other environmental damage.
  •  Indigenous people and their communities and other local communities have a vital role in environmental management and development because of their knowledge and traditional practices.

Try It

Review Question

What were some of the foreign policy successes of the Clinton administration?

Glossary

Contract with America: a list of eight specific legislative reforms or initiatives that Republican representatives promised to enact if they gained a majority in Congress in the 1994 midterm elections

Universal Healthcare: universal healthcare is a health care system in which all residents of a particular country or region are assured access to health care. It is generally organized around providing either all residents or only those who cannot afford on their own, with either health services or the means to acquire them, with the end goal of improving health outcomes. President Bill Clinton’s proposed 1993 healthcare reform package was not implemented.

environmental justice: environmental justice is a social movement seeking to achieve the fair and equitable distribution of environmental benefits and burdens associated with economic production. The environmental justice movement began in the United States as an outgrowth of the civil rights movement.

  1. Brownstein, Ronald (May 3, 1992). "A City in Crisis : Clinton: Parties Fail to Attack Race Divisions : Politics: The Democratic presidential candidate will visit Los Angeles to talk about the crisis with community leaders and civic officials". Los Angeles Times. ↵
  2. "A City in Crisis : Clinton: Parties Fail to Attack Race Divisions : Politics: The Democratic presidential candidate will visit Los Angeles to talk about the crisis with community leaders and civic officials". Los Angeles Times. ↵
  3. United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992. ↵