Bill Clinton Ended Welfare and Paved the Way for MAGA
https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/07/27/clinton-welfare-trump-big-beautiful-bill/Open linkView original on lemmy.blahaj.zoneSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on lemmy.blahaj.zonehttps://foreignpolicy.com/2026/07/27/clinton-welfare-trump-big-beautiful-bill/Open linkView original on lemmy.blahaj.zone
99 replies
"wahhh why did you make me vote so poorly. what i did is your fault. i dont wanna be culpable to myself for my own bad decisions"
-what you sound like right now.
Hmmm... So you're telling me the president that followed the "let's cater to the conservatives to woo them over" turned out to be devastating to the Democratic party...
Let's see what the Democrats are doing now as they obviously learned that lesson...
...wait... They learned that lesson right?
(Insert Padame & Anikin meme here)
This book explains what happened and why it's still happening pretty well. They've basically created a social bubble that includes rich people and politicians, and excludes everyone else. Now, they're in too deep to admit they were wrong, and fascists are taking advantage of that.
They weren't wrong. They accomplished exactly what they intended to accomplish.
Dude, that picture is infuriating. He probably eats cookies too.
Just sitting there eating cookies like a bitch.
Exactly, and brilliant. If dems would have voted for bush Trump wouldn’t have happened.
So very smart!
Buddy we get it, you're an unhinged weirdo. How many comments do you need to prove it?
I'm just proving both sides are the same so you should vote R.
I want the progressives to win. It is the only way to stop blue maga
I'm not sure how you got that out of my comment.
If Dems didn't move to the right under Clinton we'd have had a better shot at avoiding this. They still have this obsession with catering to "moderate conservatives" as opposed to the left wing of their support group.
Absolutely right. We had three candidates Clinton, Perot, and Bush. Bush lost because Perot split the conservative vote. We absolutely should have run the most left wing candidate possible.
I'm having a hard time remembering all of the democratic socialists we had in the house, senate, or as governor but it was like 86.78% of them or something. Just too many names to remember. They were everywhere and in almost all positions until blue maga came along. Anyway, they went with the absolute most conservative democrat, Bill Clinton, whom is essentially a political mix between Hitler and Mussolini to RATCHET toward conservatives.
If you didn't know RATCHET theory is when a fascist pretends to be nurse ratchet by making blue maga more magaee and killing all human rights for billionaires to protect pedophiles. Basically, all the stuff you see in this thread about Clinton and how he is exactly the same as Bush but also worse because DEI, woke, and blue MAGA.
Don't forget the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which allowed for the mass media consolidation we see today.
You mean the Act that came after 12 years of GOP attacks on the Fairness Doctrine and the FCC? The one that passed after the GOP retook both Houses?
Yes, that was all Clinton's fault.
He signed it. Hell, I guess he had to sign it, because they had the votes in the Senate to override a veto. Because lots of Democrats supported it, including Al Gore. And ol' Bill had plenty of praise to heap upon it.
Yes, it's as much his fault as anybody's.
He wrote it!!!
He signed it and danced around on poor people stabbing the pen into a new born baby afterwards! It was horrific blue MAGA barbarism to protect pedophiles.
Next time vote R or you get blue maga poor hurters that hate DEI and will do everything in their power to strip the anti woke movement of any power.
Lol, when we talk about Blue MAGA, you're exactly who we mean. And I'll bet any amount of money that if you actually reply, whatever insipid nonsense you reply with will absolutely prove that point.
It's a week old troll account.
Also working to repeal glass-steagal for his Wall Street buddies which set in motion the collateralized debt that created the 2008 recession
Also DMCA which led to weaponizing copyright against fair use with basically no recourse (and even a path to easily dox people by invoking it, though this was unintended)
And wrt the op shifting the welfare burden onto the disability system. Since the changes in 1996 disability claims have significantly increased year after year (especially claims related to mental health, which are impossible to quantify objectively) which has led to it becoming substantially more difficult in most states for the disabled to receive benefits.
At this point in my state it is basically well understood that if you are claiming disability for any mental illness (including things like autism and intellectual disability) unless you’ve spent years in residential inpatient you should anticipate being denied and having to do a lengthy appeal. It’s also highly recommended to get a lawyer involved which is either costly (typically they take 25% of back pay, max $7200, so if the appeal took two years and payments would’ve been $1100 a month they get $6600 of the 26,400 that is owed to you and you likely desperately need as someone who has had no income for at least 2 years (possibly ever). Or you can get legal aid but qualifications for that are very strict and you’ll likely wait awhile as they’re always slammed
I have one of these lawyers for my cancer disability claim.
Also that amount that is owed to you is disbursed into small quantities at first. Initially a check for around $2000 every six months and then a final lump sump payment a year after the initial payment. Basically so the Fed can continue to get interest on it for a year.
I learned that from my ex's mental health disability claim which finally went through.
I can’t believe Clinton wrote and passed that legislation. He also wrote a lot of blue MAGA pro Trump stuff and expanded global warming with his climate change hoax!
40 Senate Democrats and 97 House Democrats seemed happy enough to put their signatures on it.
Unironically.
Hardly a secret that the 80s/90s was the peak of "Both Sides" politics, given that both parties seemed to be marching in lockstep to send the whole country over a cliff.
Yes, agreed, they are the same.
Don't pretend that Clinton didn't write this behind closed doors with his billionaire buddies and blue maga.
it is all meant to harm true progressives.
Please vote R to support Bernie and the real progressives.
It is the only way to stop the wrong kind of dummyrats and get the right dummyrats as kings!
I doubt Clinton wrote it. Why would he need to when Congress had an army of lobbyists to write it for them?
I mean, you say this, but if the hard left turn in NYC is any indication, it really does seem to help the Socialist cause when you've got fascists running things. Neoliberals like Clinton, Obama, and Biden can tread water for a minute and keep the lights on. But it takes a failson reactionary like Bush or Trump to really fuck up the imperial core hard enough to spur a revolution.
*Rhodes, you dunce.
Bill Clinton pulled out a saxophone to make liberal economics sexy and unfortunately it worked.
I was baffled watching the right wing freak the fuck out all during the 90s about a version of Bill Clinton that only seemed to exist in their heads.
They kept acting that because he and Hillary apparently were what they thought of as boomers/60s hippie activists that it meant Stalin was in the WH. It was all so fucking ridiculous THEN, it looks positively braindead in retrospect.
Clinton was not even a centrist, for fuck's sake.
They did it again 8 years later with Obama. There was a (more than) little twist of racism there to help it along, so it actually kind of worked. Remember the scary black preacher who said 9/11 was chickens coming home to roost (he was right, by the way)? Remember Bill Ayers? Remember how they tried to bring out that photo of him looking fly as hell smoking a fat joint (lol that one backfired)?
That's why half the country will call you a liar to your face when you tell them that Obama deported more people than Trump did in his first term (into the beginning of his second), no matter what data you have to back it up.
Once you get an idea into these people's minds (especially if it plays into their xenophobia and racism), they will believe it until the day that they die. They will eschew their own familial relationships in order to keep believing a lie that has been disproven over and over for decades.
It's fucking tragic.
Please... maga has been on its way since Reagan.
Newt Gingrich is the biggest POS who pushed us to where we are
I think you mean Jefferson Davis. Dude got a bunch of poor white guys to fight for a cause that helped the wealthy and didn't benefit them at all.
Carter wasn't the saint we think he was
Paul Volcker, history's greatest monster.
Basically, he is the same as Trump.
Just blue maga and pro genocide.
If we voted Reagan, Trump would have never happen.
I am very smart by the way. Uneducated can’t see it though.
*civil war
Clinton did a lot of stupid shit, but he didn't "end welfare". For one, welfare still fucking exists, so...
Dude was an orator and he said we were going to end it as we know it. Are people this dense?
There's a lot to criticize Clinton for, so let's not just make shit up
He did start the work requirement bullshit though…
To appease the majority Republican congress at the time. They did attempt an half ass with the first lady to implement Medicare for all
You bet he did. Encouraged child rapists and made sure the #1 government policy is protect the pedophiles over a certain income.
Blue Reagan
DMCA.
If you become skilled at writing articles to even slightly plausibly blame the outcomes of Republican conservative policies on Democrats, you can develop this into an extremely lucrative career.
And if you become skilled at ignoring all the things Democrats actually do when they have power to plausibly act like their rhetoric matches their policy, you can develop that in to lots of Internet points.
Bill Clinton absolutely bears a huge amount of responsibility for Trump. Both because he helped create the material conditions that made Trump viable, but also because he and Hillary used their influence over the party to stuff every position power from local precincts to the DNC chair with devotees of their Third Way Neoliberal Ghoul politics to ensure the party would never correct course or fix the damage they'd done.
Fucking Lemmy moment bullshit.
you just cant accept that clinton was not acting for the people best interests.
Jokes on you, Demarcates don't do shit when they're in power.
Last time they were in power they gave tens of millions of americans access to healthcare. You can say it's bad because it's bad access, bad healthcare, it's bare minimum, and yada yada, but millions of people alive today who wouldn't otherwise, and that's not nothing.
Obamacare? Democrats have been in power since then.
Wait, do you think "in power" means whoever is the president?
Power these days generally means government trifecta. 2009 was indeed the last time Dems had that. 2010 had it lose congress majority, the I believe 2018 had it lose SCOTUS majority.
No.
So you didn't pay attention during Biden's term?
They do, a lot happens. You just don't pay attention.
That’s completely incorrect. When Dems are in power they complain… that they don’t have the power to fix anything.
They also get bent for the MAGAts while putting on a sad face.
Healthcare coverage expanded under Obama, so yeah, he was correct.
Democrats don't do shit. Republicans do evil shit. Take your pick.
"Democrats don't do shit" because their governance is more stable (at least compared to Trump-era Republicans) which means it's more boring which means stupid people don't pay attention and then just ASSUME nothing is happening.
We really needed Bidens presidency to not be boring. He should have been aggressively cleaning house to wipe the insurrectionists out. Instead he sat on his hands while the DOJ pissed around and accomplished nothing. If he'd done his job Trump wouldn't have been an option for the next election.
It wasn’t as if the public weren’t urging him to either, many of them were. Spot on observation
And get plenty of attention around these parts.
Republicans are innocent, it was the mean ol' Dems that did everything.
Clinton "paved the way" for MAGA 16 years before it happened. Got it.
Also he "ended" welfare which continues to exist.
Lemmy gold.
Lemmy has gotten so pathetic in their politics these days. It always was very political but it's pathetic now
So politics are now political?
Sounded way cooler in your head
Our government on both sides sucks donkey dick. They're all bought and paid for. The fucking Democrats in there went against like 78% of their base and voted to keep funding Israel, siding with virtually all the republicans
Yeah nah ones sucking elephant dick instead
Your point is valid though
This is why you need to vote for maga instead of blue maga since one is lying to you about both sides being the same.
It is the only way progressives win!
For the past 50 years Republicans have fucked over the average person more than the Democrats have. Republicans have always gave the rich more tax breaks than the Democrats have. The republicans never stopped backing Trump on anything. For that reason alone I'll never vote for any Republican in office.
HA! So, you are admitting that you never combated the real enemy. You never combated blue maga by voting republican to put progressives in office.
Clear as day you align with blue maga.
As you eloquently stated "our government on both sides sucks donkey dick." You also correctly pointed out, "They're all bought and paid for." You then factually and precisely asserted with irrefutable proof that "the fucking Democrats in there went against like 78% of their base and voted to keep funding Israel, siding with virtually all the republicans."
Then you lie in your next statement and say that the Republicans have fucked over the average person more than the Democrats have. Even you said that they were the same. Then you claim that Republicans support the rich and Trump and such. <---SEE BLUE MAGA TALKING POINTS
You shouldn't try to get people to not support republicans. We need to eliminate blue MAGA by giving the republicans a win and ensuring progressive dummyrats get in office.
You know full well that the only way to get progressives in office is to support red maga dictatorships so that Bernie can become king of democracy and blue maga will be defeated! We will surely have 10 fortnights of DEI after we get rid of wokeism.
Why can't you just tell the truth?
You sound too stupid to understand the concept of having to choose the lesser of two evils. Until there's an option to do something else besides voting dem or rep, I'm voting dem. Not because they don't suck. Because they consistently suck less than the one other current option.
No, I know a lot because of facts and knowledge about blue maga.
Didn't you see above Carter was really a fascist. We dodged a bullet when the true progressive, Ronald Reagan, seized power.
Anyway, don't vote blue maga! That is the same, but actually worse than red maga.
You need to vote R to vote for progressives and all of us educated peoples knows it.
The entire government and media apparatus have been inching us back toward fascism ever since they missed their first chance in the 1930s. Socialist upwelling was so strong that the powers that be allowed FDR to win 4 terms versus the alternative, actual dismantling of the capitalist system. Looks like history is repeating, but like with fucking losers
Fucking stop. The heritage foundation was formed in the 70s to “pave the way” to what we have now. Look at how many policies of theirs the presidents since then have supported.
Welfare still exists, right?
Yeah, he wasn't great, but I'd still vote for him over ANY Republican.
I'd vote Abraham Lincoln over Bill Clinton.
True, but only if he were running under the reputation that Republicans had during his lifetime. If he still chose to run as a Republican today, after seeing what they have become, well I don't think he would do that.
These weird ass articles talking about "paving the way" have the same energy as "Why did you make me hit you?"
Unfortunately the state of the world axtually is an unbroken progression of cause and effect. The actions of those in the past shape the future. Pointing this out doesn't equate to victim blaming.
I'm sorry you had to find out this way.
Let's not forget that before trump came onto the political scene america was a bubbling cauldron of corruption, just not so much blatant and out in the open as it is nowadays. It's greed and capitalism that makes america what it is.
There was not more welfare? I don't believe that
Those of us old enough to remember when you didn't have to have three kids and no limbs to be able to get welfare know that OP is correct and you are wrong.
My in-laws collected welfare. No kids
idiots continue to blame dems for reps make their own bad adult choices as if dems are some sort of palliative nurse that keeps losing their unrestrained patient.
i wonder if these be the same idiots that yell about how voting lesser evil is not a choice.
still not as idiotic as the both-sides crowd. close tho.
anything but hold the voters responsible for voting for this stupid shit to happen.
With Democrats like these, who needs Republicans?
There's two sides, alright. But it's not a partisan split. John Fetterman has more in common with Donald Trump than nearly any of his constituents.
it's two sides of the same shit-smeared coin
I only want to see progressives that are literally being screamed at by everyone around them that are democrats and republicans. That proves that unpopularity that progressive isn't blue maga or red maga.
Anyway, vote R if you want this type of rage inducing progressive to ascend to our ultimate leadership. In Bernies name amen.
what are you even trying to say with this comment?
Obama bailed out banks instead of people which paved the asphalt for their runway.
No, he didn't. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 was passed and signed into law by Bush a month before the 2008 election even happened. The only thing you can really say is that Senator Obama was one of 70 yes votes on the bill in the Senate.
Obama signed the American Rescue and Recovery Act of 2009, which was heavily focused on stimulus and assistance to individuals and working families. He also signed Dodd-Frank which put a ton of new restrictions on the banks.
Basic facts matter.
That and Citizens United really drove the last nail in the coffin. What an awful era.
He advised it.
The bank bailout was signed into law by GW Bush.
Obama advised it.
He who advised it supplied it. We all know Obama was a blue maga conservative. Palin and McCain would have got us on the path to true progressivism.
More importantly, Obama's justice department declined to even really investigate Bush or Cheney for war crimes... Setting the stage for letting Trump get away with as much and now more.
He also legalized, codified, and expanded the drone war, kickstarting the modern drone war state of war.
Obama enacted the first extrajudicial killing of a United States citizen.
I don't think you have your timeline correct. That happened under Bush.
And car companies instead of investing in public transportation.
Romney would have given money, free kittens, and blowjobs to every poor person.
We have to free ourselves from the shackles of blue maga.