Despite list of accomplishments, not much seems changed
Can Obama’s Second Term Unleash Power of His First?
By Ezra Klein - Jan 22, 2013, Bloomberg
U.S. President Barack Obama begins his second term confronting a familiar and frustrating incongruity: the gap between how much change he has fostered and how little about the country seems different.
A partial accounting of Obama’s first term reveals more accomplishments than most presidents secure in two. The healthcare law, of course, is almost certainly the most significant piece of social policy passed since the Great Society. The rescues of the financial and auto sectors, though begun under President George W. Bush, were mostly carried out and completed under Obama. The Dodd-Frank financial reforms included the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The stimulus financed long-term investments in everything from weatherization to electronic medical records and high-speed rail.
The list goes on: The end of the Iraq War, along with a timetable for ending the war in Afghanistan. The killing of Osama bin Laden. The repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Executive actions to supplant the stalled Dream Act, enabling undocumented immigrant youths to stay legally in the U.S. Huge increases in auto fuel-efficiency standards. More than $3 trillion in deficit reduction over a decade.
Yet despite it all, the status quo seems strangely undisturbed. Unemployment is exactly where it was the month Obama took office. The recovery has been lethargic. Washington is even more bitterly polarized. Inequality continues to increase. The number of uninsured Americans has barely budged.
Wall Street remains unstable. The oceans, to hark back to a famous line from a 2008 Obama speech, continue to rise. Battles over spending, taxation and the deficit consume Washington. Congressional gridlock and brinkmanship threaten the economy.
(More here.)
By Ezra Klein - Jan 22, 2013, Bloomberg
U.S. President Barack Obama begins his second term confronting a familiar and frustrating incongruity: the gap between how much change he has fostered and how little about the country seems different.
A partial accounting of Obama’s first term reveals more accomplishments than most presidents secure in two. The healthcare law, of course, is almost certainly the most significant piece of social policy passed since the Great Society. The rescues of the financial and auto sectors, though begun under President George W. Bush, were mostly carried out and completed under Obama. The Dodd-Frank financial reforms included the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The stimulus financed long-term investments in everything from weatherization to electronic medical records and high-speed rail.
The list goes on: The end of the Iraq War, along with a timetable for ending the war in Afghanistan. The killing of Osama bin Laden. The repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Executive actions to supplant the stalled Dream Act, enabling undocumented immigrant youths to stay legally in the U.S. Huge increases in auto fuel-efficiency standards. More than $3 trillion in deficit reduction over a decade.
Yet despite it all, the status quo seems strangely undisturbed. Unemployment is exactly where it was the month Obama took office. The recovery has been lethargic. Washington is even more bitterly polarized. Inequality continues to increase. The number of uninsured Americans has barely budged.
Wall Street remains unstable. The oceans, to hark back to a famous line from a 2008 Obama speech, continue to rise. Battles over spending, taxation and the deficit consume Washington. Congressional gridlock and brinkmanship threaten the economy.
(More here.)
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