THE POST– COLD WAR WORLD ★^1077The major policy initiative of Clinton’s first term was a plan devised by
a panel headed by his wife, Hillary, a lawyer who had pursued an indepen-
dent career after their marriage, to address the rising cost of health care and
the increasing number of Americans who lacked health insurance. In Can-
ada and western Europe, governments provided universal medical coverage.
The United States had the world’s most advanced medical technology and a
woefully incomplete system of health insurance. The Great Society had pro-
vided coverage for the elderly and poor through the Medicare and Medicaid
programs. Many employers offered health insurance to their workers. But tens
of millions of Americans lacked any coverage at all.
Announced with great fanfare by Hillary Rodham Clinton at congressio-
nal hearings in 1993, Clinton’s plan would have provided universal cover-
age through large groupings of medical care businesses. Doctors and health
insurance and drug companies attacked it vehemently, fearing government
regulations that would limit reimbursement for medical procedures and the
price of drugs. Too complex to be easily understood by most voters, and vulner-
able to criticism for further expanding the unpopular federal bureaucracy, the
plan died in 1994.
The “Freedom Revolution”
With the economy recovering slowly from the recession and Clinton’s first
two years in office seemingly lacking in significant accomplishments, voters
in 1994 turned against the administration. For the first time since the 1950s,
Republicans won control of both houses of Congress. They proclaimed their tri-
umph the “Freedom Revolution.” Newt Gingrich, a conservative congressman
from Georgia who became the new Speaker of the House, masterminded their
campaign. Gingrich had devised a platform called the Contract with America,
which promised to curtail the scope of government, cut back on taxes and eco-
nomic and environmental regulations, overhaul the welfare system, and end
affirmative action.
Viewing their electoral triumph as an endorsement of the contract, Repub-
licans moved swiftly to implement its provisions. The House approved deep
cuts in social, educational, and environmental programs, including the popular
Medicare system. With the president and Congress unable to reach agreement
on a budget, the government in December 1995 shut down all nonessential
operations, including Washington, D.C., museums and national parks.
Gingrich had assumed that the public shared his intense ideological con-
victions. He discovered that in 1994 they had voted against Clinton, not for the
full implementation of the Contract with America. Most Americans blamed
Congress for the impasse, and Congress soon retreated.
What were the major international initiatives of the Clinton administration
in the aftermath of the Cold War?