America's Maverick Part 2: Madame President

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President Clinton signs the first 5 executive orders of her Presidency:



Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re1PVmGMKf4

Executive Order 13456: Creates a commission to research and study ways to potentially reform the way the US elects Presidents

Executive Order 13457: Repeals President McCain's Mexico City Policy

Executive Order 13458: Repeals President McCain's order that any new proposed regulation do a cost-benefit analysis before its implementation and that the analysis be disclosed to the public

Executive Order 13459: Provides Federal Employees with 12 weeks of Paid Maternal Leave and 6 weeks of Paid Paternity Leave

Executive Order 13460: Notifies Federal Employees of their Employee Rights Under Federal Law

I disagree with the second one, but I like the realism and originality of these executive orders

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All of President Clinton's Cabinet Members get confirmed by the Senate:

Blitzer: All of President Clinton's cabinet has now been confirmed and the vast majority in a pretty easy fashion . The only exception was Howard Dean who as you can see did not receive 60 senators but still was confirmed as we are told Senate Minority Leader Jon Kyl said he would not support such a move as he believes the filibuster should only be used for certain circumstances and this is not one of them.

Secretary of State: Sam Nunn Confirmed Unanimously

Secretary of Treasury: Gene Sperling Confirmed with 87 Ayes to 13 Nays

Secretary of Defense: John Hamre Confirmed Unanimously

Attorney General: Seth Waxman Confirmed with 86 Ayes to 14 Nays

Secretary of Interior: Mark Udall Confirmed with 75 Ayes to 25 Nays

Secretary of Agriculture: Tom Vilsack Confirmed with 96 Ayes to 4 Nays

Secretary of Commerce: Kathleen Sebelius Confirmed with 68 Ayes to 32 Nays

Secretary of Labor: Dick Gephardt Confirmed with 82 Ayes to 18 Nays

Secretary of Health and Human Services: Howard Dean Confirmed with 58 Ayes to 42 Nays 

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Shirley Franklin Confirmed with 77 Ayes to 23 Nays


Secretary of Transportation: Mitch Landrieu Confirmed Unanimously

Secretary of Energy: Ed Rendell Confirmed with 83 Ayes to 17 Nays

Secretary of Education: Mike Castle Confirmed with 79 Ayes to 21 Nays

Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Edward Powell Confirmed Unanimously

Secretary of Homeland Security: Bill Bratton not needing Senate Confirmation due to being retained from previous administration

UN Ambassador: Susan Rice Confirmed Unanimously
 
OBM Director: Peter Orszag Confirmed Unanimously

EPA Administrator: Lyn Scarlett Confirmed Unanimously

Hillary Clinton appoints Congresswomen Kirsten Gilibrand to head the DNC:



Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kirsten_Gillibrand,_official_photo_portrait,_2006.jpg

Blitzer: President Hillary Clinton announced earlier today that she would be appointing Congresswomen Kirsten Gillibrand to take over as head of the DNC. Congresswomen Gillibrand first was elected in 2006 when multiple scandals by her Republican Predecessor John Sweeney led to then President McCain dropping his support of him which led to his defeat.

Schneider: I would like to add that many Republicans believed that they would almost certainly take that seat back in 2008 but as you know incumbents are difficult to dislodge and Congresswomen Gillibrand ended up easily winning.

Blitzer: Why did she get picked by President Clinton

Schneider: One major reason is Mrs. Gillibrand was a huge ally of President Clinton and has since her first senate campaign back in 2000 and add to the fact she is considered a Blue Dog Democrat from upstate New York certainly plays a major role in why she was picked .

Nunn is pretty uncontroversial

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President Hillary Clinton releases her Healthcare plan:


Blitzer: President Clinton released her healthcare proposal and here are some of the major provisions

Important Provisions:

Medicaid and Medicare:

- Reduces the Medicare Age from 65 to 55

- Expands Eligibility of Medicaid from 100% of poverty line to 140%

Mandates:

- Creates an individual mandate for health insurance

- Large Employers would be required to provide their employers with insurance or pay into a fund that finances coverage for insured

Taxes:

- Would increase payroll taxes

- Create tax credits to help individuals purchase health insurance

- Small Businesses who provide health insurance will receive tax credits

Rules for Insurance Companies:

- Cannot deny anyone for pre existing conditions

- Lets kids stay on their parents healthcare plan till they are 26

Other:

- Lets Americans Buy the same insurance plan as congress

- Increases funding to help create new providers in rural communities


So David it seems like a very ambitious plan so could it pass both chambers

Gergen: Oh Yes it is ambitious but we are told that President Clinton met with both Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi before crafting this proposal as this is a proposal she believes can pass congress. Whether it does , we have to see


Insider: HHS Secretary Howard Dean and Chief of Staff Terry McAuliffe Disagree on strategy to pass healthcare reform:

Blitzer: We are getting a report right now that Secretary Dean and Chief of Staff McAuliffe Disagree on a potential strategy  to pass healthcare. So Soledad what are some disagreements we are hearing

O'Brien: Well we are told that Secretary Dean believes the Democrats should push whatever they could through a process known a reconciliation which lets Democrats pass the budgetary provisions of the bill with only 50 votes. So for example thing that could pass through that process are the Medicare and Medicaid changes , the tax changes and along with increasing funding to create new rural providers but what could not pass are the individual and employer mandates along with the rules on insurance companies.

Blitzer: So there would be a pretty significant portion of the proposal that could not pass through reconciliation

O'Brien: That is correct which is why Chief of Staff McAuliffe believes reconciliation is not the right approach as he believes that 1. It could make key parts of healthcare reform not possible 2. It would look bad in the public as viewed as passing a major piece of legislation among partisan terms so he believes there should be a compromise made with the Republicans.

Now of course Secretary Dean believes that 1. Any Compromise with Republicans would mean the Medicare and Medicaid provisions would be gone and he believes those are the most important provisions in the bill and believes without those provisions the bill has no meaning. So for that reason he believes the Democrats should pass whatever they can with reconciliation then negotiate the rest with the Republicans .

Blitzer: Wouldnt passing this make compromise on healthcare impossible

O'Brien: Probably but Secretary Dean believes that the provisions on Medicare and Medicaid are the most important and believes that should be the first priority on this bill.

Excellent (narrative wise) healthcare plan, more original than the ones made by my fictional characters

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President Clinton pushes for Childcare Reform:

Blitzer: President Clinton as promised unveiled her proposal to reform childcare in this nation and here are some of the key provisions

Major Provisions:

- Require all businesses with 50 or more employees to provide 12 weeks of paid maternal leave and 6 weeks of paid paternal leave

- Create tax credits for businesses with 50 or less employees to provide some sort of paid maternal and paid paternal leave

- Make Pre-School Universal for every 4 year old in America

- Expands the Child Tax Credit, and Child and Dependent Care Credit

Blitzer: So Paul it seems like President Clinton so far has gone straight out of the gate as just in her first month in office has already proposed Healthcare Reform and now Childcare Reform

Begala: Yes keep in mind , there were many indications that President Clinton from day 1 that she would go with the approach of pushing through at least the framework of much of her agenda pretty early on in the administration so I would say this is not a surprise. Second keep in mind the issues of Healthcare and Childcare are the issues that the President has been most passionate about throughout her career and if you remember were the issues she pushed the most as first lady so it is no surprise she has a plan of what she has wanted to do on these issues from the get go so its not surprised the proposals are coming out so quick.

Lastly I think the President is quite aware of the history of midterms and while she will hate me for bringing this up the fact is given how slim the Democrats majority is in the house, its very likely they will only have these first two years to push through the more ambitious parts of her agenda due to the fact if the Republicans likely are not wanting to go ahead with it if they controlled the house. Keep in mind it is far easier making more favorable compromises with individual members from the other party than making it with an opposite party speaker so yes I could see some Republicans voting for some version of this proposal while I cannot see a Republican speaker putting this proposal on the floor of the house which changes up things.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announces Democrats will take a two track approach to healthcare, one involving a reconciliation bill and one involving one that goes through the regular order:



Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONxw5m9mvkQ

Cooper: Senator Reid there are rumors that Democrats might be taking a two track approach towards healthcare reform. What does that mean

Reid: Well Anderson that means that we will be splitting healthcare reform into two separate bills, one involving reconciliation and one involving the regular process. The one involving reconciliation will just focus on two areas and they are passing the President's proposal to expand Medicare and Medicaid and how to pay for it.

The second which would be healthcare reform largely relating to the private system we will pass using the normal order which means through a bipartisan process.

Cooper: Why separate out Medicare and Medicaid Expansion from the bill

Reid: Well the reason is that it would not be possible to do any sort of healthcare reform and the reason is one the Republicans would not support any bill with those provisions and there are many Democrats who would not support a bill without it so for that reason I think its better we split the bill to ensure we can get healthcare reform done which is what the American people want.

Cooper: Will you be adding for example the tax credit portion into the reconciliation bill

Reid: No as even though it would be eligible to do so , we want the broader bill to have some sort of bipartisan support and I believe we will get it.

Cooper: Ok thank you for coming on

Reid: Anytime Anderson

Great ideas

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Excerpts of President Clinton's Speech to a Joint Session of Congress



Souce: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/app/uploads/2019/02/RTX6LFXE-1024x683-e1549455385158.jpg

Speaker Pelosi: Ladies and Gentleman , its my high honor to welcome to you , the President of the United States!!

Clinton: Madame Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of congress, distinguished guests and my fellow Americans , it is my great honor to speak to you in this great hallmark of democracy and I look forward to working with you over the next 4 years to make our nation a better place(Applause). Our nation is truly a great place where anything is possible but to keep it that way we must continue to work to confront the problems and challenges we face and one such challenge we face is a healthcare system that continues to get more and more expensive as the years go by and it is something we cannot sit idly by and let happen(Applause). It is also something we cannot solve by continuing to make minor reforms like we have done for the past many decades which is why we must pass comprehensive healthcare reform(Applause). The first thing we must do is expand access and my belief is the best way to do that is by expanding Medicare and Medicaid, and by providing other working class Americans with tax credits needed to ensure they can afford health insurance(Applause). Number 2 we also must regulate the markets to make sure no kid just out of college loses their health insurance , no person with pre existing conditions gets denied healthcare and that every American can buy the same plan we in Congress have(Applause). Doing this will lower costs for everybody and make it so we can have a healthcare system where every American can have access to good quality healthcare(Applause).

Now the next thing we must do is also improve childcare in this country as the fact is our kids are our future and we must do everything we can to help families in this country be able to raise their kids no matter what their income level is(Applause). To start we must guarantee every new mother in this country 12 weeks of guaranteed paid time off and every new father 6 weeks as no family should have to choose between getting the paycheck they need and spending valuable time with their newborn baby(Applause). Next we must expand the Child Tax Credit to help out parents have the extra money they need to raise their kids and make it easier for every parent in this country to send their kid to pre school if they want too(Applause). This policy by the way is not a policy just liberals or progressives get behind but conservatives as well as one as one of the core traditional values that makes a society great is having strong families and this proposal does exactly that which is why I hope and am confident this proposal can pass in a bipartisan manner(Applause).

Lastly we must continue to lead the world in the effort in the war on terrorism(Applause). While we have greatly weakened international terrorism since 9/11, we must never again become complacent as if we do that is the moment they will have the chance to make a resurgence and that is something we just cannot afford(Applause). It is why the US must continue to be the leader in promoting democracy and liberty all across the world because while not every nation can become a democracy overnight , they can still become more democratic than they are today(Applause) . For any doubters I want to point out that many authoritarian states throughout the world in the last century today are democracies because of the example we set and it is my hope that decades from now we can say the same about today(Applause). Thank You May God Bless You and May God Bless America

Great speech

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How is Obama’s Senate career going and will he get a Senate leader
Position from the Senate Democrat caucus

He has been appointed to something better than that

I wonder how Blagojevich (whom I dreamed about today) would respond to this. Would he try to buy Obama's seat as IOTL?

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Breaking News: Long Time Senator Ted Kennedy Passes Away From Brain Cancer



Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ted_Kennedy,_official_photo_portrait_crop.jpg

Blitzer: We have some sad news to report to you and that is long time Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy has passed away due to brain cancer. Senator Kennedy served the state of Massachusetts for 47 years and was known as the lion of the senate given he has authored hundreds of bills that became enacted into law and co sponsored hundreds more and despite being the most prominent liberal in the senate he had a good relationship with many Republican Senators as well who he worked with to pass legislation from time to time. He also was the last living brother of Former President John F Kennedy and over the decades Senator Kennedy paid tribute to his brother and viewed himself as hopefully carrying on his great legacy. Ok lets now go to the White House where President Clinton is making a statement

Clinton: Bill and I are saddened to hear of the passing of Ted Kennedy who truly was one of the all time greats and despite his nearly 5 decades in politics never forgot what his job was and that is to do all he could to improve the lives of the people of Massachusetts and he truly has done so and also done so in his long career. Throughout the decades no issue animated Senator Kennedy more than ensuring we could finally live in a country where every American can have access to healthcare, and while there were many bumps on the way he never stopped fighting and its thanks to him more than really anyone for the multiple pieces of legislation our nation has passed over the past few decades to continue to move us closer and closer to that goal. 

On a personal note, for 8 years I saw up and front as his colleague in the senate his passions for a multitude of issues as well as his willingness to work with anyone to help improve our nation . Our nation will truly miss having a lion like Senator Kennedy in the senate and I want to offer our personal as well as our nation's condolences to the Kennedy family in this difficult time for them.

Blitzer: Former President McCain also reacted by releasing this message

McCain: Cindy and I want to give our condolences to the Kennedy family for the sad passing of a truly great man like Ted Kennedy. As someone who served with Senator Kennedy in the senate for nearly 15 years, I saw his passion for doing right by his constituents every day and also his willingness to work with the other side in getting things done.  It was truly a great honor to work with Senator Kennedy over my time as a Senator and later as President and our nation will miss having someone like Ted Kennedy in the senate.

Blitzer: So now the question comes on who will fill the seat of the late Senator Ted Kennedy

Borger: Now of course Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts would be in charge of picking who his appointment would be but thanks to a law that was passed last year after the late Senator Kennedy's cancer diagnosis, he can only pick someone from a list of 3 names chosen by same party as Senator Kennedy and then a special election will be held within 4 months

Blitzer: Thanks Gloria, now we will take a break but we do want to let you know that later on we will have a two hour special tonight documenting the career of the late great Senator Ted Kennedy.


Former Democratic Nominee Michael Dukakis selected to temporarily fill the seat of the Late Senator Kennedy:



Blitzer: Governor Romney has selected Former Massachusetts Governor and 1988 Democratic Party Nominee for President Michael Dukakis to temporary fill the seat of the late Senator Ted Kennedy. Former DNC Chair Paul Kirk , and Deval Patrick his rival from 2006 all of whom due to the new law passed are not eligible to run in a special election . Governor Romney in a statement called Michael Dukakis a well respected figure in the state of Massachusetts and also scheduled an special election to be held on December 15th of this year with the primary to be held on November 3rd.

Dukakis becomes the oldest first time us senator