Abstract

The greens and the presidency: A voice, not an echo

On the big economic issues of fiscal policy, corporate crime, corporate welfare and corporate abuse of consumers and workers, U.S. President Bill Clinton is a RepDem hybrid. He has no consumer policy; his environmental policy is largely rhetoric and accommodation. The federal regulatory agencies' behavior under Clinton is either indistinguishable from their performance under his Republican predecessors or worse. About the only bright spot is the Food and Drug Administration's anti-tobacco campaign. To make sure that the Federal Communications Commission does not reverse its anticonsumer positions, Clinton undermined his own chairman, Reed Hundt, by appointing two other commissioners with pro-industry leanings.