Obama’s Second Term Agenda: Clean Up The Mess From His First
A new report from the Associated Press is out today examining President Obama’s progress on campaign promises from 2008.
“Despite a relentless workload ahead, President Barack Obama is lighter on his feet in one sense as he opens his second term. Gone are the hundreds of promises of the past. He’s toting carry-ons instead of heavy cargo this time.
“Obama’s first presidential campaign and the years that followed were distinguished by an overflowing ambition, converted into a checklist of things he swore to do. The list was striking not only for its length but its breadth, ranging from tidbits in forgotten corners of public policy to grand — even grandiose — pronouncements worthy of Moses.
“He made a sweeping vow to calm the rise of the seas. And a literally down-in-the-weeds pledge to aid the sage grouse and its grassy habitat.”
First on the list is healthcare. In 2008, President Obama made good on his promises to lead a government takeover of healthcare. But what he clearly failed to do—after promising time and again—is lower premiums.
“Yes, he achieved the transformational health care law, putting the U.S. on a path to universal coverage. But it remains in question whether costs will come under control as he said they would — and as the name of the Affordable Care Act implies. Obama swore a typical family’s premium would drop by up to $2,500 a year by the end of his first term, but they’ve continued to rise. That’s a broken promise tucked inside a kept one.”
Furthermore, AP takes Obama to task for failing to change Washington and cut our deficit in half—both major campaign promises in 2008.
“As for falling sensationally short, the bitterness in Congress on display in that debate, and so many others, was to be swept away as part of the change Obama promised to bring to Washington’s ways and manners. Candidate Obama vowed to turn the page from “ugly partisanship,” only to concede recently that such a transformation was beyond his reach because “you can’t change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside.”
“If Obama can’t be held responsible for cantankerous lawmakers, though, it’s worth remembering that not all of the change he promised to bring to governance was centered on Congress. He also vowed to restrain
the power of Washington’s special interests by barring lobbyists from serving in his administration, only to backtrack by issuing waivers and other exceptions to those new rules. That was strictly an “inside” job.
“On another key promise, deficits have shot up, not dropped by half as he pledged in his 2008 campaign and again as president when the recession was raging. That inherited recession, the halting recovery and his heavy spending to spur growth yielded four straight years of trillion-dollar deficits.”
There you have it, President Obama’s first-term accomplishments: a government takeover of healthcare leading to higher premiums, more partisanship and special interests in Washington, and four straight years of trillion-dollar deficits.
In just a few days, President Obama will be inaugurated to his second term, but it’s important to remember that he’s still trying to clean up the mess from his first.