Hillary '08

As of: 5/9/08

SOURCE: Pollster.com, RealClearPolitics.com

RealClearPolitics.com along with Pollster.com averages several national and state polls from news stations such as CNN, FOX, MSNBC and more together at once and finds the top candidates. It is a very accurate polling center because it takes more than one poll and averages the results.

The President's strategy of fiscal discipline, open foreign markets and investments inthe American people helped create the conditions for a record 115 months of economic expansion.Our economy has grown at an average of 4 percent per year since 1993.

More than 22 million jobs were created in less than eight years -- the most ever undera single administration, and more than were created in the previous twelve years.

A strong economy and fiscal discipline kept interest rates low, making it possible formore families to buy homes. The home ownership rate increased from 64.2 percent in 1992 to 67.7 percent, the highest rate ever.

Unemployment dropped from more than 7 percent in 1993 to just 4.0 percent in November2000. Unemployment for African Americans and Hispanics fell to the lowest rates on record, andthe rate for women is the lowest in more than 40 years.

Since 1992, reading and math scores have increased for 4th, 8th, and 12th graders,math SAT scores are at a 30-year high, the number of charter schools has grown from 1 to morethan 2,000, forty-nine states have put in place standards in core subjects and federalinvestment in education and training has doubled.

President Clinton and Vice President Gore have nearly doubled financial aid forstudents by increasing Pell Grants to the largest award ever, expanding Federal Work-Study toallow 1 million students to work their way through college, and by creating new tax credits andscholarships such as Lifetime Learning tax credits and the HOPE scholarship. At the same time,taxpayers have saved $18 billion due to the decline in student loan defaults, increasedcollections and savings from the direct student loan program.

President Clinton and Vice President Gore's new commitment to education technology,including the E-Rate and a 3,000 percent increase in educational technology funding, increasedthe percentage of schools connected to the Internet from 35 percent in 1994 to 95 percent in1999.

Because of President Clinton's comprehensive anti-crime strategy of tough penalties,more police, and smart prevention, as well as common sense gun safety laws, the overall crimerate declined for 8 consecutive years, the longest continuous drop on record, and is at thelowest level since 1973.

To help parents succeed at work and at home, President Clinton signed the Family andMedical Leave Act in 1993. Over 20 million Americans have taken unpaid leave to care for anewborn child or sick family member.

The President pledged to end welfare as we know it and signed landmark bipartisanwelfare reform legislation in 1996. Since then, caseloads have been cut in half, to the lowestlevel since 1968, and millions of parents have joined the workforce. People on welfare todayare five times more likely to be working than in 1992.

After falling by nearly $2,000 between 1988 and 1992, the median family's income roseby $6,338, after adjusting for inflation, since 1993. African American family income increasedeven more, rising by nearly $7,000 since 1993. After years of stagnant income growth amongaverage and lower income families, all income brackets experienced double-digit growth since1993. The bottom 20 percent saw the largest income growth at 16.3 percent.

Since Congress passed President Clinton's Economic Plan in 1993, the poverty ratedeclined from 15.1 percent to 11.8 percent last year — the largest six-year drop in poverty innearly 30 years. There are now 7 million fewer people in poverty than in 1993. The childpoverty rate declined more than 25 percent, the poverty rates for single mothers, AfricanAmericans and the elderly have dropped to their lowest levels on record, and Hispanic povertydropped to its lowest level since 1979.

In his 1995 State of the Union Address, President Clinton challenged Americans to jointogether in a national campaign against teen pregnancy. The birth rate for teens aged 15-19declined every year of the Clinton Presidency, from 60.7 per 1,000 teens in 1992 to a recordlow of 49.6 in 1999.

Efforts of the Clinton-Gore Administration led to the dismantling of more than 1,700nuclear warheads, 300 launchers and 425 land and submarine based missiles from the formerSoviet Union.

President Clinton has protected more land in the lower 48 states than any otherpresident. He has protected 5 new national parks, designated 11 new national monuments andexpanded two others and proposed protections for 60 million acres of roadless areas inAmerica's national forests.

Between 1998-2000, the national debt was reduced by $363 billion — the largestthree-year debt pay-down in American history. We are now on track to pay off the entire debt by2009.

Thanks in large part to the 1993 Deficit Reduction Act, the 1997 Balanced Budget Act,and President Clinton's call to save the surplus for debt reduction, Social Security, andMedicare solvency, America has put its fiscal house in order. The deficit was $290 billion in1993 and expected to grow to $455 billion by this year. Instead, we have a projected surplus of$237 billion.

Under President Clinton federal government spending as a share of the economy hasdecreased from 22.2 percent in 1992 to a projected 18.5 percent in 2000, the lowest since 1966.

President Clinton enacted targeted tax cuts such as the Earned Income Tax Creditexpansion, $500 child tax credit, and the HOPE Scholarship and Lifetime Learning Tax Credits.Federal income taxes as a percentage of income for the typical American family have dropped totheir lowest level in 35 years.

The number of families owning stock in the United States increased by 40 percent since1992.

The President has appointed more African Americans, women and Hispanics to the Cabinetthan any other President in history. He appointed the first female Attorney General, the firstfemale Secretary of State and the first Asian American cabinet secretary ever.

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