Defending the Obama Administration's Record

[ProSense]

Defending the Obama Administration's Record

by Phil Sizemore

From the beginning of his administration, there has been a perennial flaring up of tensions between President Obama and the liberal wing of our common party. His compromise on the stimulus package at the beginning, followed by his choice to avoid nationalizing the banks, deals cut with instead of given to the auto industry, cutting of the public option from the healthcare bill, and subsequent limitation of abortion services provided in the high risk pools dictated by that bill have all riled up the left against their President to the extent that many are threatening to refuse their vote to Democratic candidates in protest. I am writing tonight to defend what I consider to be this administration's considerable record of accomplishment.

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The more direct investments in the bill gave billions in aid to states that prevented cuts of necessary services, particularly teachers. It spent more than a hundred billion dollars on infrastructure improvements from roads to the electric grid to environmental restoration, the largest such expenditure since the Interstate Highway Act (in real dollars positively dwarfing the amount given to the Public Works Administration under FDR), and creating hundreds of thousands if not millions of jobs along the way.

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If the President should accomplish nothing more at all between now and the end of his first term, he has a record of accomplishment that need not feel inadequate in the company of the New Deal and Great Society.

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Discouragement about the completeness of our President's accomplishment should in no way make us disparaging of its scope. I would defy any of my readers to find a more productive congress in recent history. This is real change that is happening in our society today. And in order to continue its march, and in order for us to realize the full extent of our ambitions, we need to be not discouraged but still more excited about the ground that we have gained and are still gaining. Now is not the time to despair and turn on our own leaders. Now is the time to double down, give them the support they need in the coming elections and challenge them to continue our work.

[msongs]

1. some good accomplishments to be sure. mediocrity has its place when great is not available nt

[ProSense]

2. I like that

"some good accomplishments to be sure" = "mediocrity"

Certainly highlights why some arguments can't be taken seriously.

[TomCADem]

25. Health Care Reform, Financial Reform, Saving The U.S. Auto Industry...Yup, borders on greatness

...Spearheading one of the largest stimulus programs ever in the face of an extreme Republican party that is hell bent bringing down the country for political gain?

It is one thing if the U.S. alone was experiencing an economic recession, but the fact is that the U.S. is faring better than many other Western countries, and do you really want to emulate China?

[MannyGoldstein]

3. Passing legislation is not the same as creating positive change

Obama's done a phenomenal job for bankers - record bonuses this year, a full 1% of GDP - but he's done almost nothing to help working Americans or to restore the rule of law.

His http://journals.democraticunderground.com/MannyGoldstein/102">current attack on Social Security speaks volumes - to cut the debt, Obama would rather shake down working Americans than tax the wealthy at fair rates.

[babylonsister]

4. You're like a broken record, manny. I am

never disappointed in anything you post, because it's always negative. Good job! :thumbsup:

[MannyGoldstein]

5. I think that it's really important to keep pointing out the truth

A sat through 8 years of being told that we need to give Clinton plenty of slack, he was doing the best he could. As the result of our silence we have the biggest economic meltdown in 70+ years and jobs gushing to microwage nations. "Third-way" policies have staggering consequences, and we need to call these out for what they are.

If you disagree with what I post, then refute what I write.

[Hansel]

10. "It's really important to keep pointing out the truth"?

Your truth seems to ignore inconvenient facts and involves spinning like a top.

Blaming Clinton for the current economic meltdown requires you to ignore that Bush was president for 8 years. Having seen how Clinton governed it is safe to assume that had he continued his presidency for 8 more years he would 1) not have put in place a large tax cut while simultaneously increasing military spending without covering it in the budget. 2) He would have made the appropriate corrections to policies that would have prevented the loss of millions of jobs, 3) would not have spent a trillion dollars on an unnecessary war and gave away billions on no bid contracts, 4) would not have used 9/11 to completely demoralize the nation so he could govern without question and make it easier for him to get re-elected, and 5) overall would have governed a hell of a lot wiser than Bush.

You have completely given Bush a pass here and are apparently pretending that Clinton would have governed just like Bush. That Clinton is the fault of the economic mess we are in is laughable at best.

[MannyGoldstein]

14. the repeal of Glass-Steagall destroyed our financial system

Which president (who now admits it was a disaster ) signed it?

Sorry if I seem to be giving Bush a pass - but the topic was about criticizing a Democratic president.

[ProSense]

19. "Sorry if I seem to be giving Bush a pass "

Clinton signed the repeal of Glass-Steagall, but it was Bush and his inaction and incompetence who presided over the better part of a decade of zero job creation. Also, the mortgage crisis is definitely attributable to Bush.

[niceypoo]

26. Glass steagall was rendered toothless under Ronald Reagan

http://www.answers.com/topic/depository-institutions-deregulation-and-monetary-control-act">The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 essentially reversed Glass-Steagall.

[Crazy Dave]

22. I agree with you

"The Emperor has no fucking clothes!"

But most are too stupid or chickenshit to say it.

[ProSense]

9. It's amazing how

positive comments about the administration are met with such contempt.

[GreenArrow]

23. I'd say it's even more amazing

how so much contempt is met with so many positive comments.

[ProSense]

6. "Passing legislation is not the same as creating positive change" Right, there has been

no, zip (because we know saving union jobs is a negative), zero, nada, positive change.

[ProSense]

7. " but he's done almost nothing to help working Americans " Your truth

isn't the truth. From the piece linked to in the OP.

To begin with, the bill gave $237 billion of individual tax relief targeted at the lower and middle classes. That relief was more than a campaign promise, it certainly helped many families that were on the financial brink and needed a direct infusion of cash into their pockets. It is difficult to quantify an event that never happened, but any objective observer would have predicted many additional bankruptcies in its absence.

The more direct investments in the bill gave billions in aid to states that prevented cuts of necessary services, particularly teachers. It spent more than a hundred billion dollars on infrastructure improvements from roads to the electric grid to environmental restoration, the largest such expenditure since the Interstate Highway Act (in real dollars positively dwarfing the amount given to the Public Works Administration under FDR), and creating hundreds of thousands if not millions of jobs along the way.

It also served as a down payment of sorts on the president's main domestic priorities. It allocated $40 billion to energy, split between infrastructure improvements, research into more efficient renewables, and job training. It provided more money for Medicaid, paid for 65% of COBRA premiums for the unemployed, and began the key task of comparative effectiveness research, which will help doctors and patients make more efficient medical decisions. It also funded education, helping the aforementioned teachers keep their jobs, expanding Pell Grants and student loan availability, and also leveraging meaningful and needed reforms at the state level by dangling the carrot of grants through the Race to the Top program.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hansel]

12. Opinion pieces on what Obama is doing is not a substitute for facts.

I have seen nothing indicating that Obama is attacking Social Security except assumptions from the hyper-pessimists. While your at it, what does Fox News think? Krugman always has been a severe critic of Obama because he was a Clinton supporter. I take any criticism he has of Obama with a grain of salt because of his hyperbolic bias against him during the primary.

Obama's official stand on Social Security is that it should not be cut and that the wage cap should be lifted to pay for it. I'm one of those kool-aid drinkers would like to wait to hear if he has changed his stand before I accuse him of attacking Social Security.

Obama hasn't really done anything for bankers although the Bush administration did a lot. The rushed legislation that Bush proposed and threatened the congress into passing did not require the banks not pay bonuses. On top of that, the banks who paid record bonuses have also paid back the money with interest. So it's a little hard to lose sleep over that at this point. According to a financial reporter on CSPAN about $100 billion of TARP money is still outstanding. $60 billion is that lent to GM so the banks didn't really make out like bandits.

Also, the bank bailouts that piss you off so much probably saved millions of jobs in the banking industry alone and many millions past that. It's the one thing Bush did that was good.

Saving millions of state government jobs through stimulus, saving GM, putting in money for infrastructure and green energy has also saved or created jobs. He could have done more if the Republicans and blue dogs would get the hell out of the way.

And I don't see the out of control chaos in this country because there is no rule of law.

[MannyGoldstein]

15. both commision co-chairs have tried to cut benefits in the past

Simpson and Bowlers were both drivers of legislation to slash benifits. They failed then, but maybe not this time.

Why would Obama appoint two swine like these to run the commission, which is stocked with more proponents. of cutting SS?

[SunsetDreams]

17. Obama is NOT attacking Social Security

[MannyGoldstein]

18. Read Post 15

So how would you characterize Obama's appointing this commission?

[w4rma]

11. This defense is worthless without talking about Obama busting public school teachers' unions and

giving away public schools to robber barons.

In fact, the topic isn't even mentioned in this essay, leading me to believe that the author doesn't believe his own defense.

[Hansel]

13. Links to factual stories and documents on his union busting activites?

Giving away public schools to robber barons?

Opinion pieces don't count.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

16. I hope you have a good book and some food nearby as I think yer wait is gonna be a long one :) n/t

[YvonneCa]

24. I'd start by reading here...

...and follow the news. These are not specifically 'Obama' related, but he his RTTT is the catalyst for much of this:

http://neatoday.org/category/top-stories/

[cherokeeprogressive]

20. Where's the Big List? I thought for sure, based on your subject line, that I'd see the Big List...

What's it up to now? 300 "historical" accomplishments? I haven't seen the Big List in a while.

I miss the Big List!

[ProSense]

21. You were wrong. n/t

[Barack2theFuture]

27. Grade on all the homework they've handed in?

D-

Trouble is, the dog ate all the big promises.

[zipplewrath]

28. This is where I find the over reachings

Into the new year, and after significant compromise and a bruising political fight, the President signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which for whatever flaws it may have is the single most significant health related law in our history. It will provide tens of millions of more people with access to coverage, and will on average lower premiums for most everyone else. It brings insurance companies effectively to heel, and may well be the beginning of a truly effective health insurance marketplace available to everyone in this country, and the end of the employer based system, which left and right agree is now doing more harm than good.

To call this "the single most significant health related law in our history" is a bit of a reach considering laws like Medicare, and medicaid, not to mention SSI and other related programs.

And to list as an "accomplishment" "lowering premiums" which it hasn't yet "on average" and probably won't ever do since it doesn't control health CARE costs, also seems an over reach.

I'm not sure how it "brings insurance companies to heel" considering that they were given huge numbers of new customers, and so far only the thinnest of regulation (most of the regulations haven't been written yet, but their bringing in a health care industry lobbiest to head up the agency. THAT ought to help). Again over reaching. The impression is left that in order to actually have some list of great accomplishments, you have to over reach.

And you have to laugh at the claim of "ending employer based system" when a significant part of this bill was the employer mandate. It codifies employer based health insurance into law, and that is some how "the end of the employer based system". Again over reaching. I suspect to avoid the part of ANY discussion of the "whatever flaws" the bill might have had, that would actually illuminate that it was a net loss overall.