Contract With America - Effects of The Contract

Effects of The Contract

Some observers cite the Contract with America as having helped secure a decisive victory for the Republicans in the 1994 elections; others dispute this role, noting its late introduction into the campaign. Whatever the role of the Contract, Republicans were elected to a majority of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1953, and several parts of the Contract were enacted. Some elements did not pass in Congress, while others were vetoed by, or substantially altered in negotiations with President Bill Clinton, who would later sarcastically refer to it as the "Contract on America."

As a blueprint for the policy of the new Congressional majority, Micklethwait & Wooldridge argue in The Right Nation that the Contract placed the Congress firmly back in the driver's seat of domestic government policy for most of the 104th Congress, and placed the Clinton White House firmly on the defensive.

George Mason University law professor David E. Bernstein has argued that the Contract "show... that federalism and limited national government seriously," and "undoubtedly made

Read more about this topic:  Contract With America

Famous quotes containing the words effects of, effects and/or contract:

    Some of the greatest and most lasting effects of genuine oratory have gone forth from secluded lecture desks into the hearts of quiet groups of students.
    Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)

    If one judges love according to the greatest part of the effects it produces, it would appear to resemble rather hatred than kindness.
    François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)

    A good businessman never makes a contract unless he’s sure he can carry it through, yet every fool on earth is perfectly willing to sign a marriage contract without considering whether he can live up to it or not.
    Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976)