President Bill Clinton called himself a “New Democrat.” How

William Jefferson Clinton, who is also known as Bill Clinton, was the 42nd American president. During his service of president, Clinton tried to distinguish himself from the traditional Democrat. He called himself a “New Democrat”. But how exactly did he distinguish himself from the traditional democrat? Three perspectives listed as following may conclude this reason.

Firstly, Bill Clinton and other politicians in the Democratic Leadership Council focused on the interests of the middle class in order to gain their supports. Bill Clinton’s politic focus was so obvious and it could be shown in the 1968 Democratic Party convention held in Chicago, Illinois. Clinton also shaped the party with according identification and put the domestic focus considering middle class’s interests, including stimulating the national economy and enhancing fiscal restraint. In a word, Bill Clinton differed from the previous Democrats by focusing his policies on middle class of United States.

Secondly, Bill Clinton shifted the policy toward helping the middle class, which resulted in the fact that Bill Clinton reduced the welfare expenditures. Clinton’s policy differed from the Democrats in the past that devoted themselves to eliminating the poverty and objecting to extreme privation. For example, Roosevelt’s New Deal, a series of domestic programs enacted in the United States between 1933 and 1936, focused on what historians call the “3Rs”: Relief, Recovery, and Reform. Also, Johnson’s Great Society was another example that democrats opposed extreme privation. Clinton, on the other side, reduced the federal social welfare spending by signing the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in 1996. PRWORA was a United States federal law considered to be a fundamental shift in both the method and goal of federal cash assistance to the poor. The bill added a workforce development factor to welfare legislation, encouraging employment among the poor. This actually helped the middle class in the other way, which was the result that Bill Clinton would like to achieve. However, Earned Income Tax Credit system in the United States helped to encourage the low-income earners to participate in labor market. Low-income families and needy children were able to fight poverty with handing in lower implementation cost.

Thirdly, Bill Clinton committed to restrict fiscal spending. America had been suffering from a massive deficit for a long time. Even the last American president before Clinton, George Herbert Walker Bush, tried to empower government with more control over the private sphere to encounter the national deficit. After Bill Clinton became the president of United States, he restricted the fiscal expenditures and made it a key feature of his presidency. He focused on the deficit reduction and it turned out to stimulate the economy. Also, Clinton tried to encourage the American citizens to consider domestic concerns, especially the maintenance of long-term domestic economy when voting.