After The Republican Takeover Of Congress In The 1994...

After the Republican takeover of Congress in the 1994 midterms, Newt Gingrich, a Republican from Georgia, assumed the Speakership and with it, the congressional agenda. He took bold action on an array of matters, but when it came to DADT, it quickly became clear that he had to retreat. On April 2, 1995, Gingrich declared that Congress would put back in place a definite ban on gays in the military, but took back his statement only two days later in the wake of political reality. There was a â€Å"conspicuous absence of political support for reopening the contentious issue . . . even among conservative Republicans† (Towell 1036). Once Clinton made the decision to compromise, it satisfied enough people to be kept in place, and there was not†¦show more content†¦By the time Obama assumed the presidency, several states had already legalized same-sex marriage and the Democratic White House looked in good shape – with a newly Democratic Congress – to make the m ilitary policy change that Clinton had originally hoped for (Wolf). The public opinion shift towards pro-LGBT rights swung the momentum towards Obama and the Democrats to be able to define the problem of DADT as one that needed changing. Although President Obama now had the power of problem definition, the path towards repealing DADT was anything but automatic. As Godwin, Ainsworth, and Godwin, explain, â€Å"Most policy issues . . . must compete for a place on the agenda† (Godwin 51). Agenda setting is the next step in the public policy model after problem definition, and the DADT repeal did not make it onto the agenda right away. President Obama took office in early 2009, but did not immediately make a move on homosexual military policy as Clinton did. Obama acknowledged that the process to repeal DADT would have to go through the proper legislative channels, most importantly involving Pentagon officials, before it could come to a congressional vote. He and his allies agree d that the best course of action was to â€Å"wait on definitive recommendations from the military† (Rogin 1694). Clinton’s early push for action led to a compromise that was not only seen as a defeat for the administration, but also shied away many DemocraticShow MoreRelatedThe Patient Protection Affordable Care Act ( Ppaca )3791 Words   |  16 Pageshas been handling the balance of power. This law has been in the making since 1989, conceptually beginning as the Individual Health Insurance Mandate through the Heritage Foundation. The individual health insurance mandate had been introduced by Republicans twice in 1993, in hopes of providing â€Å"a bill to provide comprehensive reform of the health care system of the United States† (Sen Chafee, 1993). The bill has been revised multiple times since 1993, budding into what is commonly called Obamacare