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Who stole whose agenda?

according to the inside-the-Beltway crowd, Bill Clinton's presidency has been successful because he has co-opted Republican ideas. He's hewed the conservative line, they say. Well, like so much of the discourse in Washington, this is pure hog swill. I'll tell you why his poll ratings are sky-high: It's because he's implemented his own progressive vision of America. Republican conservatism ain't got nothing to do with it.
You don't believe me? Let's just take a look at the issues. And I mean the issues that matter to the American people, not to the bow-tied nabobs in the Washington press rooms.
No. 1: Education: Hey, don't take my word for it. Here's Ari Fleischer, a spokesman for House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer. "On education," he said, "we are going to steal a page from President Clinton. It's a great idea. He had it, but we're going to make it ours now." So, while Republicans talked about eliminating the Department of Education, the president secured the largest investment in higher education since the 1945 GI Bill. He also expanded participation in Head Start -- allowing 180,000 more children to benefit from the program. So, on perhaps the most important issue facing the country, it was the president who co-opted the Republicans, who only now are starting to realize that investing in our children's education might not be such a bad idea.
And while we're on the subject of children, let's talk about the child tax credit, which covers some 7.5 million children from working families. Yes, Republicans talked about it, and even had a provision in their 1994 "Contract with America." But they wanted to deny these credits to lower income families -- let's say a teacher or cop, with a spouse and two kids, who earns $23,000 -- claiming it was welfare. The president said no. If he took the idea from anybody it was from a Tennessee senator who, along with New York Democrat Rep. Thomas Downey, proposed an $800 per child tax credit back in 1991. That senator, by the way, is now Vice President Al Gore, who was still a Democrat the last time I checked. Some could also argue that the president stole it from himself, since it was also included in his 1992 platform.
No. 2: Health care: Y'all remember back when the president offered a plan to reform the country's health care system? Well, Republicans went all out to make sure that the country was deprived of health care reform of any kind, much less the president's plan. Then the pundits weighed in and said the president dropped the idea altogether. Oh yeah? Then how come he recently got the largest investment in children's health care since the passage of Medicaid in 1965? Seems Republicans have caught on that health care reform isn't such a loser after all. That's why they voted for the Kennedy-Kassenbaum health-care reform bill, which made it possible for people changing jobs to keep their health insurance.
No. 3: Deficit reduction This was supposed to be the Republicans' big mantra. It's all they ever talked about. Funny how it took a Democratic president to actually do something about it. Claiming that they forced through the balanced budget deal is like roosters crowing about making the sun rise. The federal budget would have been balanced regardless of what Congress did this year, thanks to the tough decisions Clinton made back in 1993, when -- without a single Republican vote -- he pushed through an economic plan that raised taxes on the wealthiest 1.2 percent. Republicans said the plan would kill jobs and increase the deficit. Wrong! We've got the healthiest economy in a generation. And, thanks to the president's early action, the deficit's been cut by almost 80 percent -- from $290 billion to $67 billion -- before this latest budget deal. Compare that with the Reagan Republicans' wacky supply-side economics of the 1980's, which mortgaged our future and exploded the deficit.
I could go on: a 90-cent increase in the minimum wage; family medical leave so workers can care for a family member without fear of losing their job; 100,000 new cops on the beat; a ban on assault weapons; a Brady Bill providing a five-day waiting period to purchase handguns; and safe drinking water legislation protecting our drinking water from contaminants. Do these sound like ideas co-opted from Republicans? Fact is, while they were busy making campaign commercials about all the things they would do, Clinton went out and did them.
Aug. 11, 1997