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News of the Nation
Handguns became the issue of the day as the nation grappled with a spate of senseless shootings.
Clinton Acquittal | Budget Surplus | Gun Control | Campaign 2000 | Superpower Woes
Acquittal on High Crimes
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A Senate trial in the first two months of 1999 followed President
Clinton's impeachment in Dec. 1998. On Feb. 12, the Senate
acquitted the President on both counts of impeachment after
failing to achieve a simple majority, much less the two-thirds
majority needed for conviction. On the charge of grand jury
perjury, the vote was 55-45 with 10 Republicans voting for
acquittal along with all 45 Democrats. The vote on obstruction of
justice was 50-50, with 5 Republicans crossing party lines to
vote for acquittal.
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Clinton Acquittal | Budget Surplus | Gun Control | Campaign 2000 | Superpower Woes | Top
Social Security versus Tax Cuts
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In the aftermath of impeachment, angry Republicans in Congress
intensified their anti-Clinton acrimony at the expense of
legislation. Rabid partisanship and distrust characterized both
sides of the debate on what to do with a surprising $14 billion in
budget surplus projections. The President, riding high on glowing
reports that the 1996 welfare overhaul had been a success,
pushed for further social reform-specifically, revisions to the
Social Security, education, and health care systems. Republicans
countered with calls for drastic tax cuts during the federal budget
negotiations for 2000, despite the fact that polls have repeatedly
shown that Americans prefer increased social spending over tax
breaks.
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Clinton Acquittal | Budget Surplus | Gun Control | Campaign 2000 | Superpower Woes | Top
Jury Still Out on Gun Control
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Despite the encouraging FBI report that the murder rate
continues to plummet-it is now at its lowest level since
1967-a spate of isolated killing sprees in 1999 traumatized the
nation and revived the gun control debate. On April 20, Eric
Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, killed 12 fellow students,
themselves, and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton,
Colo. A series of appalling killings followed throughout the
summer and fall, including one at a community center and
another at a church.
Public soul searching struggled to explain these senseless acts,
focusing in particular on the school shootings, all of which had
been committed by white, suburban teenage boys. Media
violence, lack of parental supervision, and adolescent alienation
were prevalent explanations, with the more conservative
elements of society attributing the trend to evil and godlessness.
Senate leader Trent Lott claimed that "when we stopped having
prayer in schools, things started going to pot." While
conservatives argued that gun control was not the solution-guns
don't kill people, it's people who kill people, the argument
goes-liberals countered that if there was less access to guns,
people would be killing people much less frequently.
The Senate, in response to the public outcry after the Columbine
shootings, passed a bill that called for mandatory background
checks on buyers at gun shows. But as public outrage faded, the
powerful gun lobby again stepped up the pressure on Congress.
House Republicans sponsored a pale imitation of the Senate bill,
which Democrats angrily rejected.
Where politicians have failed, however, the courts have been
more effective. A recent lawsuit found that gun manufacturers
"substantially and disproportionately" increased production of
guns that appeal to criminals, and another lawsuit determined that
manufacturers deliberately oversupply states that have weak gun
laws, fully aware that the extra guns will make their way onto the
black market. Reflecting the tactic used against the tobacco
industry, gun control advocates have begun using the courts as
an effective David to topple the Goliaths of the gun industry.
Colt, for example, found itself slapped with 28 lawsuits, and
announced in October that it would essentially cease selling
handguns to civilians.
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Clinton Acquittal | Budget Surplus | Gun Control | Campaign 2000 | Superpower Woes | Top
White House Wannabes Start Early
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Iowa's January 2000 caucuses were expected to signal the real
starting line of the next presidential race, but political pundits
declared that the race had in fact begun in earnest with Iowa's
August 15 Republican straw poll-a full 14 months before
election day. Stressing "compassionate conservatism," George
W. Bush quickly emerged as the Republican frontrunner,
amassing an astounding $50 million by the end of
September-more money than any candidate in history.
Weighed down by the Clinton albatross and a top-heavy
campaign organization, Vice President Al Gore, heir apparent to
the Democratic ticket, found unexpected competition from
maverick Bill Bradley, former Senator of New Jersey. The
absence of dynamic issues in such prosperous times and the
ennui from premature media saturation led to a frivolous,
celebrity-laden side show featuring the likes of Warren Beatty
and Donald Trump.
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Clinton Acquittal | Budget Surplus | Gun Control | Campaign 2000 | Superpower Woes | Top
Superpower Takes a Back Seat
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The four days of air strikes against Iraq in Dec. 1998, an
international P.R. disaster for the U.S. and Britain, were
followed by a low-profile war of attrition, in which hundreds of
almost daily bombings have been directed against Iraqi targets
within the no-fly zones. Although the air strikes continued
throughout the year, the press all but ignored them, particularly
during the Kosovo crisis. In that latter conflict, the U.S. and
Britain took the lead in NATO's war on Belgrade, a war the
American public cautiously embraced. Since the grisly deaths of
American soldiers in Somalia in 1993, the public has lowered its
threshold for sacrifice on foreign soil.
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Clinton Acquittal | Budget Surplus | Gun Control | Campaign 2000 | Superpower Woes | Top
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