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‘We have too many people in prison': Bill Clinton tells CNN that tough ’90s crime bill went too far
Source: Reuters
REUTERS
06 MAY 2015 AT 14:11 ET
Former President Bill Clinton said on Wednesday that an anti-crime crackdown when he was in office in the 1990s went too far, and said he now supports his wife Hillary’s plans to reverse some of those justice policies.
The former president told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that the crime bill was imperfect.
Bill Clinton signed into law a major crime bill in 1994 that imposed tougher sentences, put thousands of more police on the streets and helped fund the building of extra prisons. But the era of mass incarceration is now being questioned because of the continuing high proportion of Americans – especially black males – who are in prison.
“The problem is the way it was written and implemented. We have too wide a net. We have too many people in prison. And we wound up spending – putting so many people in prison that there wasn’t enough money left to educate them, train them for new jobs and increase the chances when they came out that they could live productive lives,” he said according to a CNN transcript of the interview.
-snip-
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/we-have-too-many-people-in-prison-bill-clinton-tells-cnn-that-tough-90s-crime-bill-went-too-far/
41 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
use of Central Americans in some sort of drug control trials. Things have changed since Obama has been president, he turned the corner on this with Eric Holder.
Now imagine if Bill attempted to make a change over the status of Cuba or negotiate with Iran back in those days! We were just coming off the national romance with Reagan (well, I wasn't fooled, but too many were).
He met one hostile diversion after another from Day One (sound familiar?) and derailed off his planned agenda. He did raise taxes, and treated 'terrorism' as police action. He got convinced by NATO that we had to get into the Kosovo conflict, but that had been an area of contention for centuries and Yugolavia was only held together by the post WW2 power structure of Europe which was eroding.
The operation was a 'success' militarily but it was probably the only war the GOP wasn't in love with, painting it as opportunism. But it was mandated by treaty. The USA did the role that was assigned to it and it was over with in a matter of weeks. We are seen as the heavy but some anonymous online experts don't seen to grasp these plain facts. We like the UN and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
But that is a treaty we signed onto as well. The Birchers have always hated them, so does the GOP. A read of those rights and other papers by them such as the one where they call denial of women's right to choose as torture is something they hate. They voted against the rights of the disabled because of their fetus fetish, but that was an excuse. They want the disabled to die and 'reduce the surplus population.'
Clinton was saddled with the Newt Gingrich majority that took over in 1994 with Rush and non-stop cable punditry assisting because HRC dared to try to get health care reform. The origin of the Palin's Death Panel meme came from Rush regarding HRC's plan to reform healthcare:
The Health-Care Plan of 1993
Clinton's attempt at health care reform
The Clinton health care plan was a 1993 healthcare reform package proposed by the administration of President Bill Clinton and closely associated with the chair of the task force devising the plan, First Lady of the United States Hillary Rodham Clinton. Bill Clinton had campaigned heavily on health care in the 1992 U.S. presidential election. The task force itself was created in January 1993, but its own processes were somewhat controversial and drew litigation. Its goal was to come up with a comprehensive plan to provide universal health care for all Americans, which was to be a cornerstone of the administration's first-term agenda. A major health care speech was delivered by President Clinton to the U.S. Congress in September 1993. The core element of the proposed plan was an enforced mandate for employers to provide health insurance coverage to all of their employees through competitive but closely regulated health maintenance organizations.
Opposition to the plan was heavy from conservatives, libertarians, and the health insurance industry. The industry produced a highly effective television ad, "Harry and Louise" ad", in an effort to rally public support against the plan. Democrats, instead of uniting behind the President's original proposal, offered a number of competing plans of their own. Hillary Clinton was drafted by the Clinton Administration to head a new Task Force and sell the plan to the American people, a plan which ultimately backfired amid the barrage of fire from the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries and considerably diminished her own popularity. By September 1994, the final compromise Democratic bill was declared dead by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell.
The Clinton health plan required each U.S. citizen and permanent resident alien to become enrolled in a qualified health plan and forbade their dis-enrollment until covered by another plan. It listed the minimum coverage and maximum annual out-of-pocket expenses for each plan. It proposed the establishment of corporate "regional alliances" of health providers to be subject to a fee-for-service schedule. People below a certain set income level were to pay nothing. The act listed funding to be sent to the states for the administration of this plan, beginning at $13.5 billion in 1993 and reaching $38.3 billion in 2003...
Opposition to the Clinton plan was initiated by William Kristol and his policy group Project for the Republican Future, which is widely credited with orchestrating the plan's ultimate defeat through a series of now legendary "policy memos" faxed to Republican leaders. Conservatives, libertarians, and the health insurance industry proceeded to campaign against the plan, criticizing it as being overly bureaucratic and restrictive of patient choice. The conservative Heritage Foundation argued "the Clinton Administration is imposing a top-down, command-and-control system of global budgets and premium caps, a superintending National Health Board and a vast system of government sponsored regional alliances, along with a panoply of advisory boards, panels, and councils, interlaced with the expanded operations of the agencies of Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor, issuing innumerable rules, regulations, guidelines, and standards. "
In August 1994, Democratic Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell introduced a compromise proposal that would have delayed requirements of employers until 2002, and exempted small businesses. However, even with Mitchell's bill, there were not enough Democratic Senators behind a single proposal to pass a bill, let alone stop a filibuster.
A few weeks later, Mitchell announced that his compromise plan was dead, and that health care reform would have to wait at least until the next Congress. The defeat weakened Clinton politically, emboldened Republicans, and contributed to the notion that Hillary Clinton was a "big-government liberal" as decried by conservative opponents...
https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/textbooks/boundless-u-s-history-textbook/the-challenges-of-globalization-and-the-coming-century-after-1989-31/the-clinton-administration-231/the-health-care-plan-of-1993-1317-9290/
It was one of the major factors in the Obama/ Clinton split in 2008. She voted for cheaper pharmaceuticals to save costs with the clout of the government (and buying from Canada, IIRC).
Although state UHC is an option under the AFCA, it is an option and was not adopted as much as it should have been. There were even provisions to hire insurance company employees to work for an expanded government run health care plan as private insurers were expected turn the work over to the government since their massive profits were going to be cut.
The political landscape is even worse than it was then. There have been many unexpected twists and turns on this road as the GOP hasn'tt worked in good faith for the public. They are social darwinists, little different than the typical Randian. They are following the Koch agenda which calls for all such programs to be cut out despite the death toll. 'Collateral damage' at home.
That being said, I guess it is a good thing that Bill is making his apology regarding the drug laws and has even gone south of the border to apologize for the harm it has done there. What he is saying is good, but I somehow feel disquieted.
This is supposed to be HER presidency IF, and these are big IF's, she wins the primaries and then the general. I am not voting for both of the Clintons, but have nothing against him. The great RW conspiracy is real and we've only learned its true authors, and the mindset it employs, in recent years. It was not well known back in the Clinton days so HRC was mocked for saying so, but after watching media disinfo since those days, most of us are not so naive as to deny it. When one looks at the names in that article above, we see the hand of the Koch brothers on all those organizations that are named. They have not changed their agenda since 1980.
But Bill is a gifted speaker and has a great way of getting to the point of things. I'll live with it, but we still need a Democratic majority that is veto proof to get what needs to be done. I don't know that either Clinton has had much success in legislation...
Although I believe she has a much better track record in getting bills passed as a Senator. Bernie has not either, despite having great bills that have not been passed. Remember, too, that he was being extorted. The government was shut down under Newt Gingrich and the GOP also tried to put him out of office.
All that he did was under extortion each year as Obama has been. I put the blame for some bad laws at their feet as they were not what Bill was elected to office to do. Some of what he did really hurt the poor, some helped others. I feel his record is not as good as it should have been. Some were not of voting age when he was in office. Things in this nation have changed drastically this past century. Some for the better, much for the worse.
Gratuitous pic of Obama and Clinton happily embracing each other as the count came in on the scoreboard for the ACA. Yes, she was there and involved in saving lives with the ACA. Those whose lives have been saved might consider that before they spit at her name:
With her and Bernie running in this race in our party's name as candidate for POTUS, we have much to be proud of.
Now imagine if Bill attempted to make a change over the status of Cuba or negotiate with Iran back in those days! We were just coming off the national romance with Reagan (well, I wasn't fooled, but too many were).
He met one hostile diversion after another from Day One (sound familiar?) and derailed off his planned agenda. He did raise taxes, and treated 'terrorism' as police action. He got convinced by NATO that we had to get into the Kosovo conflict, but that had been an area of contention for centuries and Yugolavia was only held together by the post WW2 power structure of Europe which was eroding.
The operation was a 'success' militarily but it was probably the only war the GOP wasn't in love with, painting it as opportunism. But it was mandated by treaty. The USA did the role that was assigned to it and it was over with in a matter of weeks. We are seen as the heavy but some anonymous online experts don't seen to grasp these plain facts. We like the UN and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
But that is a treaty we signed onto as well. The Birchers have always hated them, so does the GOP. A read of those rights and other papers by them such as the one where they call denial of women's right to choose as torture is something they hate. They voted against the rights of the disabled because of their fetus fetish, but that was an excuse. They want the disabled to die and 'reduce the surplus population.'
Clinton was saddled with the Newt Gingrich majority that took over in 1994 with Rush and non-stop cable punditry assisting because HRC dared to try to get health care reform. The origin of the Palin's Death Panel meme came from Rush regarding HRC's plan to reform healthcare:
The Health-Care Plan of 1993
Clinton's attempt at health care reform
The Clinton health care plan was a 1993 healthcare reform package proposed by the administration of President Bill Clinton and closely associated with the chair of the task force devising the plan, First Lady of the United States Hillary Rodham Clinton. Bill Clinton had campaigned heavily on health care in the 1992 U.S. presidential election. The task force itself was created in January 1993, but its own processes were somewhat controversial and drew litigation. Its goal was to come up with a comprehensive plan to provide universal health care for all Americans, which was to be a cornerstone of the administration's first-term agenda. A major health care speech was delivered by President Clinton to the U.S. Congress in September 1993. The core element of the proposed plan was an enforced mandate for employers to provide health insurance coverage to all of their employees through competitive but closely regulated health maintenance organizations.
Opposition to the plan was heavy from conservatives, libertarians, and the health insurance industry. The industry produced a highly effective television ad, "Harry and Louise" ad", in an effort to rally public support against the plan. Democrats, instead of uniting behind the President's original proposal, offered a number of competing plans of their own. Hillary Clinton was drafted by the Clinton Administration to head a new Task Force and sell the plan to the American people, a plan which ultimately backfired amid the barrage of fire from the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries and considerably diminished her own popularity. By September 1994, the final compromise Democratic bill was declared dead by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell.
The Clinton health plan required each U.S. citizen and permanent resident alien to become enrolled in a qualified health plan and forbade their dis-enrollment until covered by another plan. It listed the minimum coverage and maximum annual out-of-pocket expenses for each plan. It proposed the establishment of corporate "regional alliances" of health providers to be subject to a fee-for-service schedule. People below a certain set income level were to pay nothing. The act listed funding to be sent to the states for the administration of this plan, beginning at $13.5 billion in 1993 and reaching $38.3 billion in 2003...
Opposition to the Clinton plan was initiated by William Kristol and his policy group Project for the Republican Future, which is widely credited with orchestrating the plan's ultimate defeat through a series of now legendary "policy memos" faxed to Republican leaders. Conservatives, libertarians, and the health insurance industry proceeded to campaign against the plan, criticizing it as being overly bureaucratic and restrictive of patient choice. The conservative Heritage Foundation argued "the Clinton Administration is imposing a top-down, command-and-control system of global budgets and premium caps, a superintending National Health Board and a vast system of government sponsored regional alliances, along with a panoply of advisory boards, panels, and councils, interlaced with the expanded operations of the agencies of Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor, issuing innumerable rules, regulations, guidelines, and standards. "
In August 1994, Democratic Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell introduced a compromise proposal that would have delayed requirements of employers until 2002, and exempted small businesses. However, even with Mitchell's bill, there were not enough Democratic Senators behind a single proposal to pass a bill, let alone stop a filibuster.
A few weeks later, Mitchell announced that his compromise plan was dead, and that health care reform would have to wait at least until the next Congress. The defeat weakened Clinton politically, emboldened Republicans, and contributed to the notion that Hillary Clinton was a "big-government liberal" as decried by conservative opponents...
https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/textbooks/boundless-u-s-history-textbook/the-challenges-of-globalization-and-the-coming-century-after-1989-31/the-clinton-administration-231/the-health-care-plan-of-1993-1317-9290/
It was one of the major factors in the Obama/ Clinton split in 2008. She voted for cheaper pharmaceuticals to save costs with the clout of the government (and buying from Canada, IIRC).
Although state UHC is an option under the AFCA, it is an option and was not adopted as much as it should have been. There were even provisions to hire insurance company employees to work for an expanded government run health care plan as private insurers were expected turn the work over to the government since their massive profits were going to be cut.
The political landscape is even worse than it was then. There have been many unexpected twists and turns on this road as the GOP hasn'tt worked in good faith for the public. They are social darwinists, little different than the typical Randian. They are following the Koch agenda which calls for all such programs to be cut out despite the death toll. 'Collateral damage' at home.
That being said, I guess it is a good thing that Bill is making his apology regarding the drug laws and has even gone south of the border to apologize for the harm it has done there. What he is saying is good, but I somehow feel disquieted.
This is supposed to be HER presidency IF, and these are big IF's, she wins the primaries and then the general. I am not voting for both of the Clintons, but have nothing against him. The great RW conspiracy is real and we've only learned its true authors, and the mindset it employs, in recent years. It was not well known back in the Clinton days so HRC was mocked for saying so, but after watching media disinfo since those days, most of us are not so naive as to deny it. When one looks at the names in that article above, we see the hand of the Koch brothers on all those organizations that are named. They have not changed their agenda since 1980.
But Bill is a gifted speaker and has a great way of getting to the point of things. I'll live with it, but we still need a Democratic majority that is veto proof to get what needs to be done. I don't know that either Clinton has had much success in legislation...
Although I believe she has a much better track record in getting bills passed as a Senator. Bernie has not either, despite having great bills that have not been passed. Remember, too, that he was being extorted. The government was shut down under Newt Gingrich and the GOP also tried to put him out of office.
All that he did was under extortion each year as Obama has been. I put the blame for some bad laws at their feet as they were not what Bill was elected to office to do. Some of what he did really hurt the poor, some helped others. I feel his record is not as good as it should have been. Some were not of voting age when he was in office. Things in this nation have changed drastically this past century. Some for the better, much for the worse.
Gratuitous pic of Obama and Clinton happily embracing each other as the count came in on the scoreboard for the ACA. Yes, she was there and involved in saving lives with the ACA. Those whose lives have been saved might consider that before they spit at her name:
With her and Bernie running in this race in our party's name as candidate for POTUS, we have much to be proud of.
One of them dumps dirt on your rug, and then the other one sweeps it up with the vacuum to show you how well the machine works. 
I am about as sick of the Clinton$ as I am the Bu$hes...and that's pretty damned sick.
thousands of POC in those prisons for one joint crime, gambling, selling unlicensed cigarettes, if they don't die for their 'crimes' them ending up in one is a direct result of his policies "going too far". I'm supposed to be impressed? Not. Not at all.
Don't you love it when they call their disastrous failures "imperfections"?
Pleading guilty to "imperfection" invites the comment, "Well, nobody's perfect."
