Week 17

• Bill Clinton's presidential successes

  • NAFTA
  • Higher taxes for the wealthy
  • Economic stimulus package
• Bill Clinton's main concern


  Health care, which failed
• Clinton's Attempt at Health Care Reform

  Clinton's biggest presidential goal was to create a nationwide healthcare program, but it failed because of the fear of the cost it would have on the government
• Contract with America


  List of conservative promises in response to the supposed liberalism of the Clinton administration; drafted by Congressional Republicans as a campaign tactic for the 1994 midterm elections
• PRWOA


  Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act; signed by Clinton to limit the amount of government unemployment aid and encourage recipients to find jobs
• New Economy


  Period of sustained economic prosperity during the nineties marked by federal budget surpluses, the explosion of dot-com industries, low inflation, and low unemployment
• Globalization


  Process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale
• Balkan Intervention


  Clinton sends supplies, weapons, and NATO Peace-keeping troops to stop the attack on Muslims in Bosnia, ends in divide of Bosnia into two sections one being Bosnian-Serb and one Muslim-Croat; problems returned so the US led NATO into an air strike
• Ethnic Cleansing


  The systematic removal of an ethnic group from a territory through violence or intimidation in order to create a homogeneous society; the term was popularized by the Yugoslav policy brutally targeting Albanian Muslims in Kosovo
• 2000 Election


  This election came down to the state of Florida, between George W. Bush and Al Gore. George Bush won the Presidency by a Supreme Court vote.
• George W. Bush


  Promised tax cuts, an increase in military spending, and opposed environmental regulations, had to deal with sputtering economy, falling stock market, terrorism, and hurricane katrina
• Enhanced Interrogation Techniques


  Vice President Cheney and other advisors convinced Bush to authorize the use of torture in CIA and FBI treatment of captures terrorist suspects
• Patriot Act


  Gave government agencies the right to eavesdrop on inmate's confidential conversations with their lawyers and permitted suspected terrorists be tried in secret military courts
• Bush Doctrine


  National security policy launched in 2002 by which the Bush administration claimed the right to launch preemptive military attacks against perceived enemies, particularly outlaw nations or terrorist organizations believed to possess weapons of mass destruction
• Operation Iraqi Freedom


  An invasion led by the United States in 2003 to stop the development of nuclear weapons by Iraq
• Invasion of Afghanistan


  October 2001, the United States began bombing Taliban centers in Afghanistan in response to the attack on 9/11
• Hurricane Katrina


  Killer hurricane that turned into a political crisis, Bush takes the blame for US unpreparedness, ruined many homes and killed hundreds
• Surge in Iraq


  When Bush sent in more troops to Iraq in order to try to keep peace. Helped, but only so long as they stayed. On top of this, the Taliban was taking back Afghanistan.
• Great Recession (2007-2009)


  Massive, prolonged economic downturn sparked by the collapse of the housing market and the financial institutions holding unpaid mortgages; resulted in 9 million Americans losing their jobs
• Barack Obama


  First African American President, he was an inspiring speaker and well educated republican
• Unipolar World


  A world that is militarily dominated by one superpower, as is the case with the United States today
• NAFTA


  North American Free Trade Agreement; allows open trade with the US, Mexico, and Canada.
• 9/11 Attacks


  The U.S. was attacked by the Al Qaeda which resulted in the War on Terrorism and the Patriot Acts
• War on terror


  Global battle to root out anti-western and anti-American Islamist terrorist cells launched by President George W. Bush as a response to the 9/11 attacks