Candidates run for president -- and the President lays out his priorities -- as though they can unilaterally enact policy. But more often than not, that impertinent body called Congress stands in the way of presidents' mighty promises. (Noting the promises of some of the presidential candidates, this may be a blessing not-thinly disguised.) The American Prospect Online decided to examine where the likely agreement is between this president and Congress. The laboratory? The State of the Union address.
TAP Online timed the applause (which turned a 14-page speech into a two-hour one) after each of President Clinton's pronouncements. Our "study," though it would never pass muster with the National Academy of Sciences, indicated which of Clinton's laundry list appealed to the gathered lawmakers.
The most popular agenda items were relatively small ones -- such as preventing genetic discrimination by employers and insurers, which received 23 seconds of applause. Next were two health care proposals: tripling the tax credit for those providing long-term care, and the Patients' Bill of Rights, coming in at 22 and 21 seconds, respectively. The fifth was probably more a recognition of a Freudian slip than a registration of true support. Instead of touting a "livable communities" plan, Clinton called them "liberal communities." That got 21 seconds, but also lots of laughter and some boos.
Most of Clinton's big proposals were notably absent from the top-ten list. Among those are: campaign-finance reform (12 sec.), raising the minimum wage (15 sec.), crediting the interest savings from debt reduction to the Social Security Trust Fund (13 sec.), and making low-income parents eligible for the insurance that covers their children (15 sec.).
The State of the Union also provided a bit of a popularity contest as well. Of the numerous people that President Clinton mentioned, Hillary Clinton won the applause test, hands down. She got 35 seconds -- the most of the whole event. Following are the two lists:
The Congressional "Agenda"
- 1. Action to prevent genetic discrimination by employers and insurers (23 sec.)
- 2. Triple the tax credit for those providing long-term care (22 sec.)
- 3. Patients' bill of rights (21 sec.)
- 4. Liberal, whoops, livable communities (21 sec.)
- 5. $3 billion increase in spending on civilian research (20 sec.)
- 6. Giving every senior a voluntary choice of affordable coverage for prescription drugs (19 sec.)
- 7. Men and women receiving equal pay for equal work (19 sec.)
- 8. Economic development in poor regions (18 sec.)
- 9. Moving "forward" on trade (17 sec.)
- 10. Ensuring that in the 21st century every family has the opportunity to succeed and no child is raised in poverty (17 sec.)
People
- 1. First Lady Hillary Clinton (35 sec.)
- 2. Former Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen (29 sec.)
- 3. Retired baseball slugger Hank Aaron (29 sec.)
- 4. Captain John Cherry, who flew through enemy air defenses to rescue an American airman who had been shot down over Serbia (26 sec.)
- 5. Tom Mauser, whose son was killed at Columbine High School (24 sec.)
- 6. Second Lady Tipper Gore, who advocates for mental health (22 sec.)
- 7. Janet Cohen, who travels around the world to show support for American troops (19 sec.)
- 8. Carlos Rosas, who got a job and supports his son (19 sec.)
- 9. Secretary of Defense William Cohen (8 sec.)
