From the viewpoint of Republicans, who lately have chosen to dress themselves in the mantle of Independence and pretended bipartisanship, Obama has achieved nothing worthwhile, and every act of his and every achievement has been a detriment. That is not surprising.
But what we are increasingly finding is that it is his base that is complaining, “too slow” and some of his acts are a betrayal of their agenda and of his promises. It's strange, but it wasn't so long ago that the complaints were "Too Much To Soon?" prompting me to write a commentary by that name on April 9, 2009 rebutting that fallacious viewpoint.
I think that the criticism is factually wrong and strategically counterproductive. It ignores that Obama has done more in his first year in office since any President, save for FDR or Lyndon Johnson.
So what has he done so far? I will list some of these at random.
He saved this country, and arguably the whole world from an economic meltdown on the scale of the ’29 depression and he did it in record time. On October 12, 2009, eight months after his inaugural Fox Business reported, “The recession, which began in December 2007, (almost a year and a half before his inaugural) has ended…” On November 25, 2009 Reuters reported, “U.S. consumer spending rises, jobless claims tumble."
If he had accomplished nothing more in his first year than this, it should have marked his Administration as one of solid achievement. Instead both Left and Right are complaining about an unemployment rate, a lagging indicator, as being at 10.2%. When the Reagan Administration without having to cope with an incipient meltdown, allowed unemployment to become almost as bad at 9.7%, I do not recall either the Left or the Right indulging in the kind of hand wringing we see now. In economic terms there are still certain laws. The economy must revive, and job growth will inevitably follow. The economy has revived, and only the disgruntled and those disconnected from reality will do other than applaud.
The awarding of the Nobel Peace prize was derided by both Left and Right on the ground that he had not yet accomplished anything, but his success in changing the standing and the image of the US throughout the world, and in fostering diplomacy instead of endless confrontation with friend and foe alike, was a major accomplishment.
He started the process to reform our Health Care System and has succeeded in getting it through the House. Even if it eventually flounders in the Senate, it is his leadership that has brought it to a point never before reached in American history.
But a number of things have already been accomplished in the Health Care area through the stimulus package, e.g. $19 billion has been allocated to help implement an electronic medical record system.
On infrastructure the Department of Transportation has approved 2,500 highway projects.
A $2,500 tax credit to help offset the cost of tuition (among other expenses) for those seeking a college education has been enacted. Nearly five million families are expected to save $9 billion.
He has saved the jobs of untold numbers of teachers and in the process saved the primary educational system in many states throughout the country.
He saved the auto industry and untold millions of jobs in the process.
He allocated $2 billion in stimulus cash for advanced batteries systems. One high-ranking Hill aide called battery technology "the next big frontier" in the automotive world.
Appropriated $5 billion in aid commitments "to bolster Pakistan’s economy and help it fight terror and Islamic radicalism" within the country.
Set up an office of Urban Policy in the White House.
Through the Recovery Act, DOJ secured $2 billion for Byrne Grants, which funds anti-gang and anti-gun task forces. The money, cut during the Bush years, should have massive ramifications on inner-city crime and violence.
Signed Schip legislation giving health coverage to millions of children by a bipartisan vote.
Pushed for and got unemployment insurance extended more than once by a bipartisan vote.
The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 put under federal protection more than two million acres of wilderness, thousands of miles of river and a host of national trails and parks.
He signed into law the Lilly Led-better Fair Pay Act, designed to make it easier for workers to sue over gender-based pay discrimination.
He cut taxes for 95 percent of American workers in his stimulus package.
Tightened limits on interrogation tactics by Central Intelligence Agency officers.
Removed financing restrictions on groups that provide or discuss abortion overseas.
Granted California a waiver to regulate automobile tailpipe emissions linked to global warming.
Ordered the Transportation Department to issue guidelines that will ensure that the nation's auto fleet reaches an average fuel efficiency of 35 miles per gallon by 2020, or earlier.
The day after pill to stop unwanted pregnancies was approved by a new science based FDA.
Dealt effectively with a standoff with Somali Pirates.
Changed Cuba policy allowing Cuban Americans unlimited travel and money transfers to relatives there.
Signed an executive order reversing the ban on federal funding for embryonic-stem-cell research.
Restarted nuclear arms reduction talks with Russia.
Released the Bush Torture Memos, almost without redactions.
Announced a new policy on medical marijuana raids by the federal government.
EPA adopted the position that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions pose a danger to the public's health and welfare.
Stopped the deployment of an ineffective missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Took away from perpetrators of 9/11 the positive appellation of enemy combatants and treats them as mass murderers and common criminals, bringing them before the bar of justice.
Put Sonya Sotomayor on the Supreme Court.
I have no doubt that there are many accomplishments that I have overlooked, but anyone who says the Administration’s accomplishments are meager, has a short memory or a convenient one. Carping from the Right is to be expected. Carping from the base is foolish and counterproductive.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Monday, November 09, 2009
Obama Walks on Water
Many thought Obama walked on water as in November of 2008 he swept to an election victory by the greatest margin in the popular vote in twenty years, gaining his victory by a margin of 53.41% compared to George H.W. Bush's victory of the hapless Michael Dukakis by 53.9%, though Obama brought out a far larger total vote, gaining almost 57 million votes compared to Bush’s just short of 49 million.
His resounding triumph was not entirely due to his charisma or his political appeal, for he ran at a time when the incumbent President and his Republican majority in the Congress had brought the country to the brink of a repeat of the great depression of ’29, where the unemployment rate had gone from 2.5% in 1926 to 35.5% in 1933, when Roosevelt took office. When Roosevelt finally took measures to stem the downturn it took four years to bring the unemployment rate down to just over 20%. See my post from March 12, 2009 and the graph displayed.
Now let us imagine what would have happened if like in the period preceding and following the market crash of ’29 the same policies had been followed as they had in the ‘20s. It is not inconceivable that similar disastrous unemployment would have resulted. Fortunately, it was recognized even by the incumbent President Bush that we were having a banking crisis, which in many ways resembled that of the 20’s, and Bush, who had always preached laissez faire capitalism, took vigorous steps to stem the looming disaster despite his own party in the Congress deserting him. At the same time the long time Chairman of the Fed, Allan Greenspan, long an apostle against regulation, said with disarming frankness “ I was partially wrong" and "I have found a flaw,” but the members of The Republican Congress who correctly have a reputation for “ having never forgotten anything” and “having never learned anything” show that they have learned nothing.
Last week the unemployment rate hit 10.2% and the public has discovered that Obama does not walk on water and has no magic wand. He is being hit with a populism from both left and right that denounces him for helping the banks instead of main street, ignoring the fact that the first thing Roosevelt dealt with was also the banking crisis, with his bank holiday and then guaranteeing deposits. Unfortunately, unlike in Roosevelt’s time when banks were many and small, we now have the behemoths that are “too big to fail.” But of course he is helping main street when he helps the banks, and his stimulus program directly aids main street, its principle weakness having been that it did not allocate enough money to the states to help them out of the crisis, forcing them to either raise taxes or cut back on programs desperately needed in this recession. 50 billion dollars was cut from the stimulus program to aid the states to get the three Republican votes needed to stop the Republican filibuster.
Both Left and Right denounce Obama for not having stopped unemployment from rising as though there were a magic wand that would turn things around by the mere waving of it. As Obama has pointed out the Ship of State does not turn like a motor boat and measures taken nine month ago, which is when the stimulus bill was passed, can not be expected to already affect the unemployment rate, since as all economists tell us that the employment always lags in an improving economy. While for the moment it is little comfort to those unemployed (of course those unemployed take little comfort even when unemployment is low) the economy has now turned around and Reuters, among others, reports, “Productivity surge signals Job Growth to follow. But the agitation about the high unemployment rate is difficult to understand in any case, for the unemployment rate under the Republican hero, Ronald Reagan, was even higher, and I don’t remember the hand wringing then, nor is there much emphasis in our media (Liberal media?) that Reagan presided over a slightly higher unemployment rate, with the unemployment rate then having reached 9.7% more than a year after he was inaugurated, as compared to Obama in office a mere nine month. See the graph and comments on Mark J. Perry's web site.
But as I said he is being attacked from both Left and Right with, e.g. David Brooks in the New York Times of November 6, writing he is doing too much and Paul Krugman writing he is doing too little. It may be that what he is doing is just right, though I would like to see the $50 billion cut from aid to the states restored.
But Obama is also being hit with complaints from the Left that his promises during the campaign are not being fulfilled fast enough, which ignores that our system of government is not designed for fast action with its checks and balances (See Anna Quindlen in Newsweek of November 2) and the non-constitutional requirement of 60 votes in the Senate, a Clinton era Republican invention. But the extent of the obstacles facing Obama are misunderstood and understated even by the above referenced article of which, e.g. incorrectly states with respect to the military policy dubbed, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Transformation is within his grasp, in a pen, a signature, an executive order” which is patently untrue, for it is enshrined in a statute of the Congress which was passed on November 30 1993 in response to President Clinton’s attempting to abolish discrimination against Gays in the Armed Forces by executive order.
As for Obama’s paucity of accomplishments in his first nine months, that too is an invention, or at least a misconception, that I will address hereafter.
As for understanding why the voters turned to Republicans in New Jersey and Virginia in the the last election, thus turning to the very people responsible for the present crisis, I leave that to the pundits.
I can analyze issues. I do not pretend to understand voters.
His resounding triumph was not entirely due to his charisma or his political appeal, for he ran at a time when the incumbent President and his Republican majority in the Congress had brought the country to the brink of a repeat of the great depression of ’29, where the unemployment rate had gone from 2.5% in 1926 to 35.5% in 1933, when Roosevelt took office. When Roosevelt finally took measures to stem the downturn it took four years to bring the unemployment rate down to just over 20%. See my post from March 12, 2009 and the graph displayed.
Now let us imagine what would have happened if like in the period preceding and following the market crash of ’29 the same policies had been followed as they had in the ‘20s. It is not inconceivable that similar disastrous unemployment would have resulted. Fortunately, it was recognized even by the incumbent President Bush that we were having a banking crisis, which in many ways resembled that of the 20’s, and Bush, who had always preached laissez faire capitalism, took vigorous steps to stem the looming disaster despite his own party in the Congress deserting him. At the same time the long time Chairman of the Fed, Allan Greenspan, long an apostle against regulation, said with disarming frankness “ I was partially wrong" and "I have found a flaw,” but the members of The Republican Congress who correctly have a reputation for “ having never forgotten anything” and “having never learned anything” show that they have learned nothing.
Last week the unemployment rate hit 10.2% and the public has discovered that Obama does not walk on water and has no magic wand. He is being hit with a populism from both left and right that denounces him for helping the banks instead of main street, ignoring the fact that the first thing Roosevelt dealt with was also the banking crisis, with his bank holiday and then guaranteeing deposits. Unfortunately, unlike in Roosevelt’s time when banks were many and small, we now have the behemoths that are “too big to fail.” But of course he is helping main street when he helps the banks, and his stimulus program directly aids main street, its principle weakness having been that it did not allocate enough money to the states to help them out of the crisis, forcing them to either raise taxes or cut back on programs desperately needed in this recession. 50 billion dollars was cut from the stimulus program to aid the states to get the three Republican votes needed to stop the Republican filibuster.
Both Left and Right denounce Obama for not having stopped unemployment from rising as though there were a magic wand that would turn things around by the mere waving of it. As Obama has pointed out the Ship of State does not turn like a motor boat and measures taken nine month ago, which is when the stimulus bill was passed, can not be expected to already affect the unemployment rate, since as all economists tell us that the employment always lags in an improving economy. While for the moment it is little comfort to those unemployed (of course those unemployed take little comfort even when unemployment is low) the economy has now turned around and Reuters, among others, reports, “Productivity surge signals Job Growth to follow. But the agitation about the high unemployment rate is difficult to understand in any case, for the unemployment rate under the Republican hero, Ronald Reagan, was even higher, and I don’t remember the hand wringing then, nor is there much emphasis in our media (Liberal media?) that Reagan presided over a slightly higher unemployment rate, with the unemployment rate then having reached 9.7% more than a year after he was inaugurated, as compared to Obama in office a mere nine month. See the graph and comments on Mark J. Perry's web site.
But as I said he is being attacked from both Left and Right with, e.g. David Brooks in the New York Times of November 6, writing he is doing too much and Paul Krugman writing he is doing too little. It may be that what he is doing is just right, though I would like to see the $50 billion cut from aid to the states restored.
But Obama is also being hit with complaints from the Left that his promises during the campaign are not being fulfilled fast enough, which ignores that our system of government is not designed for fast action with its checks and balances (See Anna Quindlen in Newsweek of November 2) and the non-constitutional requirement of 60 votes in the Senate, a Clinton era Republican invention. But the extent of the obstacles facing Obama are misunderstood and understated even by the above referenced article of which, e.g. incorrectly states with respect to the military policy dubbed, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Transformation is within his grasp, in a pen, a signature, an executive order” which is patently untrue, for it is enshrined in a statute of the Congress which was passed on November 30 1993 in response to President Clinton’s attempting to abolish discrimination against Gays in the Armed Forces by executive order.
As for Obama’s paucity of accomplishments in his first nine months, that too is an invention, or at least a misconception, that I will address hereafter.
As for understanding why the voters turned to Republicans in New Jersey and Virginia in the the last election, thus turning to the very people responsible for the present crisis, I leave that to the pundits.
I can analyze issues. I do not pretend to understand voters.
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