LF: Bill Clinton goes 'crazy' for more credit on his welfare reform and budget balancing policies

Title: Bill Clinton goes 'crazy' for more credit on his welfare reform and budget balancing policies
Source: Daily Mail Online
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... e-reform-budget-balancing.html
Published: Oct 1, 2011
Author: Mark Duell
Post Date: 2011-10-01 17:15:49 by Sebastian
Keywords: None
Views: 184

It’s 20 years since Bill Clinton launched a successful bid to become president - and now he wants a bit more praise for balancing the budget.

Mr Clinton, 65, said many Republicans believe he was ‘saved from himself’ by a GOP Congress elected in 1994 that ‘forced’ welfare reform.

But the Democrat, speaking on Friday in Little Rock, Arkansas, said his home state was a test case for welfare reform when he was governor.

Credit: Former President Bill Clinton speaks as his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, third left, and daughter Chelsea, second left, listen, in Little Rock, Arkansas

He said 43 states got federal waivers to implement welfare reform before the Republican-controlled House passed a final bill, reported Politico.

‘I go crazy every time I read the conventional wisdom,’ he said on Friday, claiming the media and commentators keep ‘overlooking all relevant facts’.

Mr Clinton was speaking as part of a weekend of events to mark the 20th anniversary of him announcing a run for president, reported Politico.

He kicked off the weekend by dedicating a $10.5million pedestrian bridge across the Arkansas River next to his presidential library.

Former President Bill Clinton, right, talks to his wife Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left

Former President Bill Clinton walks across the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge for a dedication ceremony

Address: Former President Bill Clinton, speaks to Mrs Clinton, left, and walks across the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge for a dedication ceremony, right

Senior aides from his 1992 bid also praised him for turning around the Democratic party and being a trailblazer for novel campaign techniques.

'I go crazy every time I read the conventional wisdom'

Bill Clinton

‘We need a coherent narrative,’ Mr Clinton said, reported Politico. ‘Your counter has to be rooted in the lives of other people.’

He attacked the Tea Party, which he said was originally simply ‘against unaccountable behaviour from top to bottom’ before it ‘morphed’.

Mr Clinton also claimed a late 1970s U.S. record for the highest proportion of African-American professional staff as a state attorney general.

Listening: A crowd fills seats at the foot of the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge as former President Bill Clinton speaks during the dedication ceremony

Civil rights activist Vernon Jordan also spoke, saying the Democrats were ‘lost at sea’ before Mr Clinton become an icon for the party.

‘It was change,’ Mr Jordan said, reported Politico. ‘It was different. It was fresh. It was young. It was also experience.’