Clinton came into office just as the recession ended at the end of 1992. If not for the S&L problem, the recession would've ended sooner and the Fed wouldn't have had to spend 24 months lowering interest rates in 1991-1992. The presidency is basically irrelevant to the economy --- the private sector runs the economy. If anything, the public sector is the drag on the economy. Bush and Clinton have taken money from the private sector (which now runs a deficit) and put into ever larger, ill-conceived entitlement programs in order to buy votes. It's bad enough he sells out US interests in order to get illegal campaign contributions, he also uses fraudulent tactics to get matching federal funds. They should get rid of the welfare program for presidential candidates.
Clinton's drug use is pretty well-known. Considering his lying and stonewalling in the Flowers, Lewinsky, and other issues, the credibility problem with respect to drug use rests with him and not his accusers. He could've at least come up with a better answer on the marijuana issue, which is basically a lightweight issue. Since he couldn't even handle that, he's really not up to the task on the cocaine abuse or other personal issues.
They finally admitted defeat in Haiti today (after the military has been petitioning to get out for the last three years). Another Clinton military action that failed:
U.S. To End Permanent Military Mission To Haiti
By Patricia Zengerle
MIAMI (Reuters) - The U.S. military's five-year mission in Haiti will end in coming months as U.S. troops close their permanent camp and begin a series of humanitarian visits to the Caribbean nation, defense officials said Tuesday.
Military officials have been recommending an end to the mission for some time, expressing concern over the safety of troops in Haiti and questioning the cost-effectiveness of an effort that carried a $22 million price tag last year.
In February, Gen. Charles Wilhelm, commander in chief of the U.S. Southern Command (SouthCom), recommended withdrawal.
"As our continuous military presence in Haiti moves into its fifth year, we see little progress toward creation of a permanently stable internal security environment," Wilhelm told Congress.
SouthCom spokesman Raul Duany said Tuesday that no date had been set for the troops' departure, which could come in December or January.
U.S. troops arrived in Haiti in a glare of international publicity in September 1994, when 20,000 landed to end a dictatorship and restore Haiti's first freely elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, ousted in a military coup three years earlier.
Five years later, the force has dwindled, as has world interest in their mission. The U.S. Support Group-Haiti, a contingent of about 400 soldiers, remains in the country, providing a U.S. presence and performing such humanitarian tasks as school-building, road repair and medical care.
Military officials said the United States would shift its focus from maintaining a permanent presence in Port-au-Prince to sending troops to the hemisphere's poorest nation on specific humanitarian missions as part of the military's "New Horizons" program, in effect in the region for about 15 years.
"We stand by General Wilhelm's recommendation to engage Haiti by what we call 'alternate engagement' instead of a permanent presence," Duany said.
Those missions would cost much less than maintaining a permanent base, he said. The United States spent about $38 million carrying out temporary humanitarian missions in five countries in 1998, compared with $22 million in Haiti.
The switch from a base in Port-au-Prince will also make it easier for the military to work far from the Haitian capital, such as in the northern city of Cap-Haitien, he said. |
