Appendix C: Liberal and Conservative Events

 

Schlesinger did not describe his methodology for determining his political cycle. In order to express his cycle quantitatively, a methodology that reproduces his cycle was needed. This method must also agree with certain commonly-held ideas about recent political movements. For example, the “Reagan Revolution” of the 1980’s ought to appear as a swing towards conservatism.

I compiled a timeline of American political events, listed in the Table below. I labeled each event as either liberal or conservative. To make these assignments I used the 15 rules listed below. I began with the key ideas debated in the election of 1800. This election was about the scope of the new federal government established by the constitutional convention thirteen years earlier. One side of the debate, represented by Hamilton and Adams, favored a strong central government. This faction had been in control of the government since 1789 and was known as the Federalists. Since Schlesinger considers the 1789-1800 period conservative, this means the Federalists and their favored policies are defined to be conservative. Schlesinger further characterizes conservatives as authoritarian. Based on these observations the following policies are assumed to be conservative:

 

0.      Political developments supported by or favoring the conservative party.

1.      Favors regressive taxes, especially (protective) tariffs; opposes progressive taxes.

2.      Favors strong military and its use when necessary--not pacifist. Supports an active foreign policy. Military power was one of the key attributes of government in the late 18th century. A strong government implied a strong military and the will to use it.

3.      Favors central banking as means to finance government—not to regulate economy.

4.      Favors sound money (e.g. gold standard) and prudent governmental finance. A strong government is one run on sound financial principles. This view (and #3) was inherited from the English Whigs following the Glorious Revolution, after which the British government adopted a formal budget and central banking.

5.      Favors restricted voting, civil and collective bargaining rights, anti-sedition measures, and law & order over criminal rights. This factors in Schlesinger’s idea of conservatives as authoritarian and the Jeffersonian’s embrace of “democracy” as a core value that differentiated them from Federalists.

6.      Favors strong private property rights (pro-slavery, anti-business regulation). The political theory of the day held that the principal purpose of government was to secure rights to property, hence support for strong government implies support for strong property rights.

7.      Favors internal improvements designed to promote industry and commerce.

8.      Opposed to wealth redistribution by government. This includes Indian removal, homesteading, public education and modern social welfare programs. These ideas follow from 18th century political theory about natural law and property relations that formed one of the bases for constitutional government.

 

These rules handle just about all of the events up to the 20th century. About the only significant category of 19th century events not handed are those pertaining to civil service reform. I was unable to assign these as either C or L and they are labeled as N for neutral. After the start of the 20th century, an increasing number of events cannot be labeled using these rules. In addition, with the rise of the Progressive movement, which redefined liberalism and affected conservatism, some of the existing rules were modified. The following four additional rules were designed to handle new issues or new interpretations of old issues.

9.      Policies that promote resource conservation or environmentalism are considered liberal.

10.  Legislation or court rulings that support traditional morality (e.g. pro-life) is considered conservative; legislation or court rulings that support “new” morality (e.g. prohibition, affirmative action) is considered liberal.

11.  Gun control: liberals for, conservatives against.

12.  Internationalist foreign policy supporting international organizations like the League of Nations or UN is considered liberal

When liberalism began to change to accommodate new progressive concepts, its old libertarian precepts began to be picked up by conservatives. Conservatives began to become more in favor of small government and low taxes although their support of the protective tariff remained strong for a long time. Since WW II conservatives have come to adopt free trade ideology and become anti-tariff. Finally with the Reagan Revolution, conservatives have become anti-tax in principle, even at the cost of deficits. Thus, I have added these rules:

13.  After WW II, free trade becomes a conservative issue.

14.  After 1975, tax cutting/limitation is a conservative issue

 List of Liberal (L) and Conservative (C) Events

Year

Event

Rule

Align

1765

Stamp Act Congress

1

L

1773

Boston Tea Party

1

L

1776

Virginia Declaration of Rights

5

L

1776

Declaration of Independence

5

L

1777

Articles of Confederation

5

L

1787

Constitution

5

C

1788

Bill of Rights

5

L

1790

Fed Government assumes state debts

0

C

1791

Taxes on Spirits

1

C

1791

Bank of US

3

C

1793

Proclamation of Neutrality

2

L

1793

Fugitive Slave Act

6

C

1798

Alien Act

5

C

1798

Sedition Act

5

C

1800

Revolution of 1800

0

L

1801

Expiration of Sedition Act

5

L

1801

Repeal of excise taxes

1

L

1801

Louisiana Purchase

2

C

1803

Marbury v Madison

0

C

1805

Tripolitan War

2

C

1807

Neutrality Issues-Jefferson's embargo

2

L

1807

Slave trade Ends

6

L

1811

US Bank loses charter

3

L

1816

Second Bank of the US

3

C

1816

Protective tariff passed

1

C

1817

Erie Canal construction begins

7

C

1819

McCullough v Maryland (implied powers)

5

C

1820

Compromise of 1820

6

C

1820

Choctaw Removal

8

L

1823

Monroe Doctrine

2

C

1824

American System

0

C

1824

Tariff Raised

1

C

1825

Creek Removal

8

L

1827

First State High School Law (Mass)

8

L

1828

Revolution of 1828

0

L

1828

Tariff of Abominations

1

C

1830

Broader suffrage provided by revisions to some state constitutions

5

L

1830

Indian Removal Act

8

L

1831

Worchester v Georgia

8

C

1832

Tariff reduced

1

L

1832

Bill to recharter 2nd Bank of US vetoed

3

L

1833

Compromise Tariff (lowered)

1

L

1833

Jackson withdraws US funds from 2nd Bank of US

3

L

1835

Seminole War

8

L

1836

Sauk and Fox removal

8

L

1836

Creek forcibly evicted

8

L

1836

Specie circular issued by Jackson

4

C

1836

Gag rule in Congress on abolitionist petitions

6

C

1837

Chickasaw evicted

8

L

1838

Trail of Tears

8

L

1839

Slaves from Amistad freed by Supreme Court

6

L

1840

Independent Treasury Act

3

L

1841

Independent Treasury Act Repealed

3

C

1842

Dorr's rebellion in RI liberalized voting requirements

5

L

1842

SC rules unconstitutional state laws prohibiting return of fugitive slaves

6

C

1842

Mass enacts 10-hr workday for children under 12

6

L

1846

Mexican War

2

C

1846

Independent Treasury reinstated

3

L

1846

Wilmot proviso proposed and but never passed

6

C

1853

Gadsden Purchase

2

C

1854

Kansas-Nebraska Act

6

C

1854

Ostend Manifesto

6

C

1854

Convention of Kanagawa

2

C

1856

First of five U.S. interventions in Panama to protect the Atlantic-Pacific railroad

2

C

1857

Dred Scott Decision

6

C

1860

Lincoln Elected on Abolition platform

6

L

1862

Income tax

1

C

1862

Legal Tender Act

4

L

1862

Morril Act (land grant colleges)

8

L

1862

Homestead Act

8

L

1862

Pacific Railway Act

7

C

1863

Emancipation Proclamation

6

L

1863

National Banking Act

4

C

1864

Lincoln pocket-vetoes Wade-Davis Bill

5

C

1865

13th Amendment

6

L

1865

Freedman's Bureau

5

L

1866

Civil Rights Act of 1866

5

L

1867

Reconstruction starts

5

L

1868

14th Amendment

5

L

1869

The first woman suffrage law in the U.S. is passed in the territory of Wyoming

5

L

1869

Redeemer Govts in Tenn.

5

C

1869

15th Amendment

5

L

1870

Redeemer Govts in Georgia, NC and Virginia

5

C

1870

Sumner defeats annexation of Santo Domingo

2

L

1870

KKK Act

5

L

1870

First Black Senator

5

L

1870

Force Act

5

L

1871

Civil Service

--

N

1872

Liberal Republican split

0

L

1872

Amnesty Act

5

C

1872

Tax eliminated

1

L

1872

Yellowstone national part created

9

L

1873

Silver demonetized

4

C

1873

Redeemer Govt. Texas

5

C

1874

Redeemer govt. Arkansas, Alabama

5

C

1875

Civil Service ended

--

N

1875

Specie Resumption Act

4

C

1875

Supreme Court rules a state can prohibit a woman from voting

5

C

1875

Civil Rights Act

5

L

1877

Munn v. Illinois upholds Granger laws

6

L

1877

Executive Order prohibits Fed Employees from politicking

--

N

1877

Reconstruction ends

5

C

1878

Bland-Allison Act

4

L

1879

US back on Gold Standard

4

C

1881

Tennessee first state to segregated railroad cars

5

C

1882

Chinese exclusion act

5

C

1883

Pendleton Act (Civil Service)

--

N

1883

Civil Rights Act of 1875 struck down

5

C

1884

Amendments to Chinese Exclusion Act

5

C

1886

Supreme Court: Corporations considered as persons under 14th Amend

6

C

1886

Interstate Commerce Commission

6

L

1886

Wabash v. Illinois overturns Munn v. Illinois

6

C

1887

First segregation in transportation laws

5

C

1887

Dawes Act

5

C

1890

Mississippi Plan to disenfranchise Blacks

5

C

1890

"Pitchfork Ben" Tillman elected on white supremacist platform

5

C

1890

Sherman Antitrust Act

6

L

1890

Sherman Silver Purchase Act

4

L

1890

McKinley tariff

1

C

1893

Supreme Court applies antitrust to Unions

5

C

1894

EC Knight case placed food production outside antitrust

6

C

1894

Wilson-Gorman tariff reduces rates slightly

1

L

1895

Supreme Court restrains Pullman strikers

5

C

1895

Supreme Court strikes down part of Wilson-Gorman Tariff

1

C

1896

William McKinley defeats populist William Jennings Bryan

0

C

1896

Plessey v Ferguson (Separate but equal)

5

C

1897

Dingley Tariff raised rates

1

C

1898

Spanish War

2

C

1898

Erdman Act

5

L

1900

Gold Standard Act

4

C

1900

"Fighting Bob" LaFollette becomes Wisconsin governor

0

L

1901

Last Black Congressmen for 28 years

0

C

1901

Northern Securities Suit (first trust-bust)

6

L

1903

Hay-Herran Treaty (Panama canal zone)

2

C

1903

Department of Labor

5

L

1903

Department of Commerce

6

C

1903

Elkins Act

6

L

1904

National Child Labor Committee

5

L

1905

NY Supreme Court finds max hr law for bakers unconstitutional

6

C

1905

Hepburn Act

5

L

1905

U.S. Marines help Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz crush a strike in Sonora.

2

C

1905

U.S. troops land in Honduras for the first of 5 times in next 20 years.

2

C

1906

Pure Food & Drug Act

6

L

1906

Meat Inspection Act

6

L

1906

Employer's Liability Act

6

L

1906

Marines occupy Cuba for two years in order to prevent a civil war.

2

C

1907

Marines intervene in Honduras to settle a war with Nicaragua.

2

C

1908

U.S. Supreme Court upholds Oregon10-hour workday for women.

5

L

1908

Supreme Court finds hatters boycott antitrust violation

5

C

1908

Federal Court finds section of Erdman Act unconstitutional

5

C

1908

Employer's Liability Act struck down

5

C

1908

U.S. troops intervene in Panama for first of 4 times in next decade.

2

C

1909

Payne-Aldrich tariff reduced rates

1

L

1910

Mann Act

5

L

1910

U.S. Marines occupy Nicaragua to help support the Diaz regime.

2

C

1911

Supreme Court upholds injunction against AFL

5

C

1911

Hiram Johnson becomes CA Gov.

0

L

1911

Breakup of Standard Oil (peak of trust-busting)

6

L

1912

U.S. Marines intervene in Cuba to put down a rebellion of sugar workers.

2

C

1912

Nicaragua occupied again by the U.S., to shore up the inept Diaz government.

2

C

1913

Federal Segregation

5

C

1913

Progressive Income Tax passed

1

L

1913

Federal Reserve established

3

L

1913

Underwood act reduces tariff

1

L

1914

Federal Trade Commission

6

L

1914

Clayton Antitrust

6

L

1914

U.S. bombs, then occupies Vera Cruz, in a dispute with Mexico's new government

2

C

1915

Lafollette Seaman's Act

5

L

1915

U.S. Marines occupy Haiti to restore order

2

C

1916

Federal Farm Loan Act

8

L

1916

Adamson Act (8 hr day RR workers)

5

L

1916

Keating-Owens Child Labor Act

5

L

1916

First women elected to Congress

5

L

1916

Marines occupy the Dominican Republic, staying till 1924.

2

C

1917

WW I begins

2

C

1917

Supreme Court struck down segregated neighborhood law

5

L

1917

Supreme Court upholds legality of yellow-dog contracts

5

C

1917

Marines intervene again in Cuba, to guarantee sugar exports during WWI.

2

C

1918

Keating-Owens Child Labor Act declared unconstitutional

5

C

1918

Sanger wins NY suit allowing doctor advice about birth control married patients

10

L

1918

Sedition Act

5

C

1918

Wilson's 14 points

12

L

1918

U.S. Marines occupy Panamanian province of Chiriqui for 2 yr to maintain order.

2

C

1919

Palmer Raids

5

C

1919

Prohibition

10

L

1919

Senate rejects League of nations

12

C

1920

Women's Suffrage

5

L

1920

Harding wins on conservative "Return to Normalcy" Platform

0

C

1920

Sacho And Vanzetti arrested and convicted

5

C

1921

Supreme Court rules unions may be enjoined for restraint of trade

5

C

1921

US troops block W VA miners attempt to organize

5

C

1922

Anti-Lynching Law killed

5

C

1922

Cap gains tax reduced to 12.5% (stock boom begins)

1

C

1923

SC strikes down minimum-wage law for District of Columbia women

6

C

1924

Immigration Act

5

C

1924

KKK reaches height of influence in Indiana politics

5

C

1925

First female governor of a U.S. state elected

5

L

1925

American Indian suffrage granted by act of Congress

5

L

1925

Scopes Monkey Trial

10

C

1925

Top Tax rate reduced to 25%

1

C

1925

U.S. Army troops occupy Panama City to break a rent strike and keep order.

2

C

1926

Railway Labor Act

5

L

1926

Marines occupy the country to settle a volatile political situation.

2

C

1929

Joint Resolution of Congress lowers taxes

1

C

1930

Hawley-Smoot tariff

1

C

1931

Davis-Bacon Act

5

L

1932

Reconstruction Finance Corp

6

L

1932

Emergency Relief Act

8

L

1932

Federal Home Loan Bank Act

6

L

1932

Top tax rate to 63%

1

L

1932

Natl. Rec. Act forbids >1 govt. job / family; many women lose their jobs

5

C

1933

Civilian Conservation Corps

8

L

1933

Federal Emergency Relief Administration

8

L

1933

Glass-Steagull Act

6

L

1933

Plot to overthrow FDR and install Fascist Gov.

0

C

1933

Agriculture Adjustment Act (AAA)

8

L

1933

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC)

6

L

1933

National Recovery Admin (NRA)

6

L

1933

Public Works Admin (PWA)

8

L

1933

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

8

L

1933

US off gold standard

4

L

1933

Industrial Recovery Act

6

L

1933

Farm Credit Act

6

L

1934

SEC

6

L

1934

National Mediation Board

5

L

1934

National Firearms Act

11

L

1934

Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

6

L

1935

NRA declared unconstitutional

6

C

1935

Works Progress Administration

8

L

1935

National Youth Administration

8

L

1935

Social Security

8

L

1935

AFDC Begins

8

L

1935

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

5

L

1935

Banking Act

6

L

1935

Rural Electrification Administration

8

L

1935

SC rules contraceptives not obscene & can be imported

10

L

1936

AAA unconstitutional

8

C

1936

Top tax rate to 79%

1

L

1936

Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Plan

8

L

1937

FDR attempts to pack court--looses popularity

0

C

1938

Federal Firearms Act

11

L

1938

NLRB unconstitutional

5

C

1938

Fair Labor Standards Act (Min Wage & Max workweek)

5

L

1938

Agricultural Adjustment Act

8

L

1939

US v Miller (upholds right to bear arms)

11

C

1939

Relief Act (18 month limit on WPA)

8

C

1940

Selective Service Act

5

C

1940

Alien Registration Act of 1940

5

C

1941

Lend-Lease Act

12

L

1941

Atlantic Charter

12

L

1941

WW II begins

2

C

1942

Office of Price Administration

6

L

1944

GI bill

8

L

1945

Atomic bombs dropped on Japan

2

C

1945

UN Charter signed

12

L

1946

Employment Act of 1946

8

L

1946

Committee on Civil Rights

5

L

1947

Truman Doctrine

2

C

1947

Taft-Hartley Act

5

C

1947

U.S. Supreme Court says women are equally qualified with men to serve on juries

5

L

1947

National Security Act

2

C

1948

Marshall Plan

12

L

1948

Truman ends segregation in Military

5

L

1948

Alger Hiss charged with espionage

5

C

1949

Truman's "Fair Deal" largely rejected by Congress

8

C

1949

Housing Act of 1949

8

L

1950

McCarthy's "I have a list speech"

5

C

1950

McCarren Act (monitor commies)

5

C

1950

NSC 68 rept calls for +Military & -Social spend for Cold War

8

C

1950

US backs French In Vietnam

2

C

1950

Korean War begins

2

C

1951

HUAC activities

5

C

1952

McCarren-Walter Act (ideology as basis for immigration)

5

C

1953

US backs coup in Iran

2

C

1954

Communist Party Outlawed

5

C

1954

Army-McCarthy Hearings--McCarthy discredited

5

L

1954

US backs coup in Guatemala

2

C

1954

Brown vs. Topeka

5

L

1956

Interstate Highway Act

7

C

1957

Little Rock HS desegregation

5

L

1957

Civil Rights Act of 1957

5

L

1958

Eisenhower Doctrine

2

C

1958

National Defense Education Act

8

L

1959

Landrum-Griffin Act

5

C

1960

U2 incident

2

C

1960

CIA begins training anti-Castro guerillas

2

C

1961

SC upholds Florida rules making it less likely for women than men to be made jurors

5

C

1961

Peace Corps

12

L

1961

Kennedy initiates largest peacetime defense buildup in US history

2

C

1961

Bay of Pigs Invasion

2

C

1961

President signs $1.25 Minimum Wage Bill

8

L

1962

Fed Govt. enforces court order admitting James Meredith to U Miss

5

L

1963

President announces naval quarantine to halt Soviet missile buildup in Cuba

2

C

1963

President signs Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

12

L

1963

Top tax rate to 70%

1

C

1963

The Equal Pay Act

5

L

1964

Poll taxes outlawed

5

L

1964

Civil Rights Act

5

L

1964

Economic Opportunity Act (War on Pov)

8

L

1965

Johnson sends troops to Vietnam

2

C

1965

US invades Dominican Republic

2

C

1965

Voting Rights Act

5

L

1965

Higher Education Act

8

L

1966

Miranda v. Arizona

5

L

1967

"Guns and Butter" deficit fiscal policy begun

4

L

1968

Gun Control Act

11

L

1968

Sex discrimination by govt. contractors forbidden / affirmative action for women.

10

L

1968

Open Housing Act

5

L

1969

7th Circuit Court rules women meeting the physical requirements can hold male jobs

5

L

1969

Nixon wins presidency on anti-war platform, begins withdrawal

2

L

1970

Nixon extends Vietnam War into Laos and Cambodia

2

C

1970

US backs coup in Chile

2

C

1970

Philadelphia plan (Affirm Act)

10

L

1970

Clean Air Act

9

L

1970

First Earth Day

9

L

1970

EPA formed

9

L

1970

OSHA Act

9

L

1971

26th amendment grants vote to 18-year olds

5

L

1971

Full School Desegregation

5

L

1972

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms established

10

L

1972

Title IX bans sex discrimination in education programs receiving Fed funds

5

L

1972

Supreme Court upholds right to contraceptive use by unmarried persons

10

L

1972

Equal Employment Act

5

L

1973

SC affirms the EEOC ruling against sex-segregated help wanted ads

5

L

1973

Endangered Species Act

9

L

1973

Roe v Wade

10

L

1973

SC affirms the EEOC ruling against sex-segregated help wanted ads

5

L

1973

War Powers Act

2

L

1974

Nixon resigns

0

L

1974

Housing discrimination and credit discrimination against women outlawed

5

L

1974

Ford pardons Nixon

0

C

1976

Hyde Amendment, eliminates federal funding for poor women's abortions

10

C

1976

Resource Conservation and Reclamation Act (RCRA)

9

L

1977

Moore v East Cleveland (upholds right to bear arms)

11

L

1977

Clean Water Act

9

L

1977

Supreme Court: govt. not required to fund abortion as part of welfare

10

C

1978

Pregnancy Discrimination Act

10

L

1978

Humphrey-Hawkins Act

4

L

1978

Bakke case (Racial Quota constitutional)

10

L

1978

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act

5

L

1978

Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act

6

L

1978

Proposition 13 cuts CA property taxes

14

C

1980

Lewis v US Felons may be denied right to bear arms

11

L

1980

CERCLA (Superfund)

9

L

1980

Reagan Elected on a Conservative Platform

0

C

1980

Supreme Court: no constitutional right for publicly-finance abortion

10

C

1981

State laws giving husbands unilateral control of joint property struck down

5

L

1981

Top tax rate to 50%

1

C

1981

Fed pushed interest rates to all-time highs to combat inflation

4

C

1981

Striking air traffic controllers fired by Reagan

5

C

1981

H.L. v. Matheson, U.S. Supreme Court approves Utah parental notification law

10

C

1981

Supreme Court rules that excluding women from the draft is constitutional

10

C

1982

Ratification efforts for an Equal Rights Amendment fail

5

C

1982

Helms bill challenging Roe v. Wade blocked by pro-abortion filibuster

10

L

1982

Tax Equity & Fiscal Responsibility Act

4

C

1982

US troops to Lebanon

2

C

1983

SC strikes down right to know laws and waiting periods

10

L

1983

ATT Breakup

6

L

1983

American invasion of Grenada

2

C

1983

Pershing missiles deployed in Europe

2

C

1983

Star Wars initiative

2

C

1984

Sex discrimination in membership policies of organizations forbidden by Supreme Court

5

C

1984

"Mexico City Policy" denies funds to foreign orgs that promote abortion

10

C

1985

SC strikes down state laws mandating use of specific abortion methods

10

L

1986

SC declares sexual harassment form of illegal job discrimination

5

L

1986

Graham-Rudman Act

4

C

1986

Stiffens penalties for armed felons

11

C

1986

Firearms Owners Protection Act (eases restrictions on gun sales)

11

C

1986

Law Enforcement Officer Prot Act (ban "cop-killer" bullets)

11

L

1986

Reagan administration secretly aids Contras in Nicaragua

2

C

1986

Top Tax rate to 28%

1

C

1986

Conrail privatized

6

C

1986

US air attack on Libya

2

C

1987

SC rules it is permissible to take sex and race into account in employment decisions

10

L

1987

Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty

12

L

1987

FCC Fairness Doctrine Abolished

6

C

1988

FDA bans importation of abortifacient RU 486 for personal use

10

C

1988

Anti-Drug Abuse Act

5

C

1988

JOBS Act

8

C

1989

SC: Constitution does not require public facilities be available for abortions

10

C

1989

US invades Panama

2

C

1989

Heritage proposes tradable emissions

6

C

1990

Crime Control Act (create "gun-free school zones")

11

L

1991

US invades Iraq

2

C

1992

Democrats win control of government

0

L

1993

The Family Medical Leave Act

6, 10

L

1993

Clinton issues five executive orders reversing abortion restrictions

10

L

1993

Top Tax Rate to 39%

1

L

1993

Motor Voter Law

5

L

1993

Earned Income Credit expanded

8

L

1994

Violence Against Women Act

10

L

1994

Early Head Start program

8

L

1994

Crime bill (3 strikes law, and 100000 police officers)

5

C

1994

GATT ratified

13

C

1994

Brady Bill (background checks before buying a gun)

11

L

1994

Viol. Crime Control & Law Enforce. Act (bans "assault weapons")

11

L

1994

Contract with America

0

C

1994

NAFTA

13

C

1995

Loans to Mexico

12

C

1995

Executive Order Preventing Permanent Striker Replacement

5

L

1995

US v Lopez ("gun-free school zones" unconstitutional)

11

C

1996

Telecommunications Act

6

C

1996

Male-only policy of state-supported Virginia Milt. Inst. found to violate 14th Amendment

10

L

1996

Anti terrorism Law

5

C

1996

Megan's Law

5

C

1996

Minimum Wage increased

8

L

1996

Kennedy-Kassebaum Health Insurance Reform

6

L

1996

Personal Responsibility Act

8

C

1997

Banned Federal Research on Human Cloning

10

C

1997

SC rules college athletics must have roughly equal nos. of each sex to get Fed money.

10

C

1997

Children’s Health Insurance Program Created

8

L

1997

FDA Reform

6

C

1997

NATO Expanded to Eastern Europe

12

C

1997

Printz v US ("Background checks unconstitutional)

11

C

1997

Top Cap Gains tax to 20%

14

C

1998

Air Attacks on Iraq

2

C

1998

Balanced budget achieved

4

C

1999

Bosnian Air War

2

C

1999

Clinton Impeached

0

C

2000

Republicans win presidential election, gaining control of the government

0

C

2001

Democrats gain control of Senate by defection of senator Jeffords

0

L

2001

Bush Tax Cut I

14

C

2001

Patriot Act

5

C

2001

Dept of Homeland Security

5

C

2001

No child left behind act

8

L

2001

American ouster of Taliban govt. in Afghanistan

2

C

2001

ABM treaty revoked

12

C

2001

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty revoked

12

C

2002

Bush imposes Steel Tariff

13

L

2002

Campaign Finance Reform Bill

0

L

2002

Republicans Win control of government

0

C

2002

Deficit Finance restored by Bush administration

4

L

2003

Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act

10

C

2003

SC downs sodomy law

5

L

2003

SC permits Affirmative Action

10

L

2003

Bush Tax Cut II

14

C

2003

Bush Prescription Drug Plan

8

L

2003

Invasion of Iraq

2

C