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__Chapter 24 Section 3__

In 1998, George Bush broke a 152-year-old tradition of presidency election, being the first vice president elected into office since Martin Van Buren. Bush had supported the president, and his low profile encouraged Senator Robert Dole and a televangelist Pat Robertson to challenge him for the Republican nomination. The democrats had plenty of eager candidates, but eventually the Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis with the Reverend Jesse Jackson leading. Wide support was won from African Americans and some liberal Democrats, but in the end, Dukakis was chosen. On election day, the Republicans won with Bush's 426 electoral votes to Dukakis's 111. Bush had spoken out strongly about the spread of illegal drugs during his campaign, and appointed William Bennett as the "drug czar" to help control the spread. Bennett's resignation in 1990 did not stop the flow of drugs into the country, and Bob Martinez from Florida was his replacement. Also, the President promised to put more of an emphasis on environment and education. Bush appointed William Reilley to oversee the EPA, signed a bill to limit air pollution, and closed 17 nuclear military power plants, even though there is still no solution for the amount of waste. In 1990, Congress and the President tried to come up with a consensus to lower the deficit of the S&L crisis, and the use of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act was threatened if a budget couldn't be agreed upon by October 1st. New taxes were considered to help the economy, and they were known as Capital Gains.

Eventually, an agreement was reached to cut the deficit by $500 billion in the next five years. With the budget cuts, though, the Americans saw that their President wasn't able to direct a crisis solution, and that Congress wouldn't make the necessary choices to raise or cut taxes.