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I. Bush Takes Over

A The Election of 1988

1. Bush choose an unknown young conservative Senator J. Danforth "Dan" Quayle for his running mate.

2. Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis and Reverend Jesse Jackson were choosen as the Democratic decision.

3. Dukakis was eventually chosen as the Democratic candidate in the end.

4. In the end Bush won the election 53 percent to Dukakis' 46 percent. He also took 426 electoral college votes.

B. The New President

1. Bush started off as a pilot in WWII and won a medal for bravery.

2. He was originally from Connecticut but moved to Texas to start an oil business.

3. He started off saying the old ways of the Reagan era were over, "A new breeze is blowing," Bush declared.

4. He wanted to maintain a balance of the Regan years, but work closely to Democrats he wanted to stay moderate.

C. Drugs, Education, and the Environment

1. Bush spoke strongly on the outtake of illegal drugs in the U.S and he appointed William Bennett to control it.

2. Bennett eventually resigned in 1990 saying that the spread of illegal drugs dropped in some areas.

3. Bush had high goals for education so he called together a meeting of all the nation's governors to set high goals.

4. The president also wanted to recover the environment, to do this he got William Reilly to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

5. When Bush took office there were 17 military plants that were supposedly dumping nuclear waste, the Energy Department estimated that the clean up would cost up to $200 billion.

D. The Savings and Loan Crisis

1. The banks created these S&L's to help Americans save money, but it eventually erupted into a crisis from people not paying the banks back.

2. The Reagan administration allowed banks to have more freedom from the government; banks came up with high-risk loans, this caused many banks to go into bankruptcy.

3. The Bush administration then set up a federal agency to take over the banks, sell them, and sell off their assets.

4. In the end critics did not know who there was to take the blame many blamed the Reagan administration for the fact that they ignored the crisis while it was on the verge of erupting.

E. Reducing The Deficit

1. The federal deficit grew after the S&L crisis making congress in need of a good way to reduce it, Bush vowed to stick with not raising taxes so congress had to find a new way to reduce the deficit.

2. The Bush administration needed to have a plan by October 1, or the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act would be put into place, Bush then considered new taxes for investors who sold their taxes on bonds, Democrats disagreed with this plan claiming it would benefit rich investors.

3. In the end congress and the President came up with a budget that would cut the deficit by nearly $500 billion, but would increase the taxes on cigarettes and alcohol.

F. Elections of 1990

1. The budget program reduced the deficit more than it did in the Reagan years, but Americans were not satisfied by the way the government handles this kind of crisis.

2. Americans began to show their anger by voting for governors of new parties, and showed little enthusiasm while voting for the same members of congress.

3. Many political leaders were in need of support, but the American people were not willing to show it.

G. Flags and the Supreme Court

1. In 1989 Bush was put into a bad position when the Supreme Court ruled in the favor of a man burning the American flag, because it was a form of free speech.

2. Americans were upset with the outcome of this situation, supporters of the amendment said that burning a national symbol was not free speech but an insult, others said that it was more important to protect basic freedoms than symbols.

3. In 1990 a liberal, William Brennan announced his retirement, he was one of the people who defended the burning of the flag.

4. Bush then nominated David Souter to take the place of Brennan, he did not give much information of his views on controversial issues, but was easily supported and took Brennan's spot on the Supreme Court.