This page was last updated on February 13, 2011.
Nixon to China; Editorial; Beaver County Times; February 13, 2011.
The editorial engaged in a bit of revisionist history when it wrote of “Clinton revamping welfare.” Though Mr. Clinton mentioned this issue during his 1992 campaign, he did nothing about it once elected. As a result, welfare reform was a part of the 1994 Republican “Contract with America.” When the Republican-majority Congress took the initiative and passed welfare reform legislation, Mr. Clinton twice vetoed it. After some negotiations with then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), Mr. Clinton finally signed the bill in 1996 at least partly because he was concerned about the political consequences of vetoing welfare reform three times during an election year in which welfare reform was a significant issue.
One bit of info the editorial omitted is the vote on the temporary Patriot Act extensions failed because for some reason House Republican leadership put the extensions on a track that required a two-thirds majority (285 of 425 votes) to pass. The vote was eight votes short of two-thirds, so the bill would have easily passed with the normal simple majority. Approximately one-third of House Democrats voted for the temporary extensions.
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