January 20th, 2001
"Do you, John McCain, solemnly swear that you will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of your ability, preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States?"
"I do."
-First Inaugural Address of President John McCain
During his presidential campaign, McCain's platform had been based on campaign finance reform, and now that he was in the White House, he made passing campaign finance reform his top priority. Within his first 100 days of office, he had passed the McCain-Feingold act. This bill limited the amount of money that interest groups and political parties could donate to political campaigns, as well as requiring candidates to identify themselves and state that they approve this message in their advertisements.
In the 2000 house elections, the republicans had gained 5 seats. Meanwhile, in the senate, Republicans had narrowly held on to Washington, Michigan and Missouri, as well as gaining seats in New Jersey, Nevada and Virginia. However, Republicans lost Delaware, Minnesota and Florida, leading to Republicans holding onto the senate 56 to 44. With these large congressional polices, McCain could theoretically pass nearly any legislation he wanted to pass. However, some of the more conservative Republicans refused to budge on passing any climate legislation he pushed for, and so during the McCain administration there was little action on climate change on either side.
The economy, which is nearly always the most important issue, was one that McCain addressed in a fairly moderate way. He passed some small tax cuts, though not as large as those which most Republicans, such as George Bush, wanted. He also slightly expanded Social Security and Medicare, which were passed with bipartisan support. There was a brief dip in GDP for a few months in 2001, though it was not quite long enough to be considered a recession. Overall, the economy was doing quite well, even if economic growth had slowed slightly since the Clinton years.
September 11th, 2001
"Mr. President?"
"Yes?"
"A plane has hit the World Trade Center."
