Obama Positioned to Quickly Reverse Bush Actions
Stem Cell, Climate Rules Among Targets of President-Elect's Team
By Ceci Connolly and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.
A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition.
In some instances, Obama would be quickly delivering on promises he made during his two-year campaign, while in others he would be embracing Clinton-era policies upended by President Bush during his eight years in office.
"The kind of regulations they are looking at" are those imposed by Bush for "overtly political" reasons, in pursuit of what Democrats say was a partisan Republican agenda, said Dan Mendelson, a former associate administrator for health in the Clinton administration's Office of Management and Budget. The list of executive orders targeted by Obama's team could well get longer in the coming days, as Bush's appointees are rushing to enact a number of last-minute policies in an effort to extend his legacy.
(More here.)
By Ceci Connolly and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.
A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition.
In some instances, Obama would be quickly delivering on promises he made during his two-year campaign, while in others he would be embracing Clinton-era policies upended by President Bush during his eight years in office.
"The kind of regulations they are looking at" are those imposed by Bush for "overtly political" reasons, in pursuit of what Democrats say was a partisan Republican agenda, said Dan Mendelson, a former associate administrator for health in the Clinton administration's Office of Management and Budget. The list of executive orders targeted by Obama's team could well get longer in the coming days, as Bush's appointees are rushing to enact a number of last-minute policies in an effort to extend his legacy.
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
Michael Moore—an anti-war activist and filmmaker—believes that Bush’s egregious delay in rescuing stranded residents of New Orleans was rooted in racial discrimination. “It’s black people who are dying, so Bush doesn’t care” (Interview by David Smith. Statement by Dr. Calvin Butts (Pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City and president of the Council of Churches of the City of New York). (2005, September 4). ‘It’s black people who are dying, so Bush doesn’t care.’ guardian.co.uk/. Retrieved October 16, 2008, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/sep/04/hurricanekatrina.usa1).
“‘A large part of our self-esteem derives from our [racial background],’ Monteith said. ‘To the extent we can feel better about our [racial background] relative to other [racial backgrounds], we can feel good about ourselves. It’s likely a built-in mechanism’” (Shankar Vedantam. (2005, December 10). Psychiatry Ponders Whether Extreme Bias Can Be an Illness. Washington Post. Retrieved October 16, 2008, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/09/AR2005120901938.html).
“‘I don’t think racism is a mental illness, and that’s because 100 percent of people are racist,’” said Paul J. Fink, a former president of the American Psychiatric Association (Shankar Vedantam. (2005, December 10). Psychiatry Ponders Whether Extreme Bias Can Be an Illness. Washington Post. Retrieved October 16, 2008, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/09/AR2005120901938.html).
An individual’s dispositions relative to people of other racial backgrounds, however racist, may be nobody else’s business and do not in and of themselves constitute moral offenses or blameworthy actions or blameworthy omissions of action where every person is a racist to whatever extent. Dr. Paul J. Fink indicates—above—that “100 percent of people are racist.” Maybe one cannot be blameworthy relative to racist dispositions that secretly and merely exist in one’s heart and mind. However, a moral offense or a blameworthy act or a blameworthy omission of action has been committed or effectuated when one acts upon a racist disposition in a way that disadvantages and/or harms one or more individuals. Accordingly, President Bush may not have committed any offenses in secretly hating black people in his heart and mind. This hateful and racist disposition of Bush may be nobody else’s business. However, Bush committed or effectuated moral offenses or blameworthy acts or blameworthy omissions of action when Bush acted upon his hatred of black people in so delaying rescue efforts relative to stranded residents of New Orleans. Kanye West—an American rapper, record producer, and singer—said on NATIONAL TV: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
Bush’s racial prejudice against black people pursuant to Hurricane Katrina resulted in the deaths of so many black people. Those dead black people are never coming back. They are gone forever. Look what Bush has done.
Hopefully, Obama will deal with Bush’s racial prejudice against black people.
Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993
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