Page 13 - the Noise August 2016

EDITORIAL
BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, #44
THE HIGHS & LOWS OF AN HISTORIC PRESIDENCY
As the term for our 44th President draws to a close, it is customary to look at the accomplishments, or lack thereof, of any outgoing Executive of these United States. President Barack Obama achieved many things on his agenda. But, in some areas, he fell short of his campaign promises. As we look toward the election of Number 45, we take pause to look at the past 8 years.
On the domestic front, Mr. Obama fulfilled several promises with regard to providing jobs, women’s rights, and helping the middle class American. In his 2016 State of the Union address, Mr. Obama said, “The United States of America, right now, has the strongest, most durable economy in the world.” According to Haver Analytics, an international financial data collection company, the US gross domestic product increased 9.7% from 2009 to 2016 and continues to rise.
Mr. Obama stepped into an economic crisis in 2009. But since 2010, unemployment rates have decreased at a fairly steady rate from a high of around 10% to the current rate of 4.9%, lower than when Ronald Reagan left office in 1989. It has fluctuated only slightly from that rate over the last year, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition, Mr. Obama has helped close some tax loopholes, through new Department of Treasury rules, that allow companies to benefit from taking jobs overseas. Legislation introduced by Democrats in Congress to further those efforts failed in both 2012 and 2014.
In his 2008 speech accepting the Democratic nomination, Mr. Obama said, “Now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day’s work, because I want my daughters to have the exact same opportunities as your sons.”
The first bill Mr. Obama signed into law in 2009 was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, which gives workers additional time to sue for dis- crimination. The crux of the bill was to support equal pay, especially for women. In a press release announcing the signing of the bill, Mr. Obama said, “In this economy, when so many folks are already working harder for less and struggling to get by, the last thing they can afford is losing part of each month’s paycheck to simple discrimination.”
In addition, Mr. Obama issued an executive order to prevent retaliation against employees that disclose compensation information that may lead to discrimination claims. He also formed the National Equal Pay Task Force to work on closing the pay gap between men and women in the workforce. Senate Republicans, however, blocked consideration several times of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have legislated additional requirements on the compensation disclosure issue.
In 2009, the “Cash for Clunkers” program allowed Americans to get higher trade-ins for older vehicles so they could upgrade to cleaner, more eco- nomical cars. The Department of Transportation estimated that the $3 billion program raised overall vehicle fuel efficiency by 58%.
Health insurance for all Americans was another priority for Mr. Obama. In his 2008 speech he said, “Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don’t, you’ll be able to get the same kind of coverage that member of Congress give themselves.” A chief premise of this plan was to provide insurance that was not connected to employment so that a job loss or change would not leave individuals with no health care coverage.
In 2010, the President signed the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Obama promised a national health insurance exchange with uniform federal standards. But when Democrats lost their majority in the Senate, a state-based exchange was passed and ultimately became the basis for the new system. Some consumers saw premium increases initially but annual health insurance increases in many states are lower than what was average before the Afford- able Care Act went into effect.
The Affordable Care Act also keeps insurers from denying coverage to individuals based on pre-existing conditions. However, insurance compa- nies have found loopholes in the law and some patients are paying higher deductibles or finding their insurance won’t pay for certain treatments that should be covered. The Affordable Care Act provides an appeals process for denials but many patients are not aware they have that option.
While there is room for improvement in the health insurance arena, a 2015 Newsweek article said, “The bottom line is that by some estimates, 90% of Americans now have health coverage. Overall, the rate of growth of health care costs has slowed dramatically.”
Mr. Obama has had some major challenges in the foreign policy arena. In a 2008 speech he said, “We will end this war in Iraq. We will bring our troops home. We will finish the job against Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.” He promised to end the war in Afghanistan by 2014.
Mr. Obama authorized the 2011 raid that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden but Al-Qaeda has remained strong in Syria and Yemen. The last US troops left Iraq in 2011 but additional troops were deployed to Afghanistan, as promised, to help fight the Taliban.
More than 3000 troops have been sent back to Iraq in non-combat roles to help train Iraqis to fight the growing stronghold of ISIS. In Afghanistan, Mr. Obama recently announced he would slow the extraction of troops beyond 2016. There are currently 9800 troops in Afghanistan with a plan to reduce to 5500 troops at the beginning of 2017.
In 2009, the President also promised to close the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The number of detainees at the facility has dropped from 242 to 91 as low-risk prisoners have been transferred to other countries. But in 2010, Congress placed a ban on bringing detainees to domestic prisons and the closing of the prison stalled. About 50 of the men currently held at Guantanamo are not considered eligible for transfer. In a last-ditch effort to close the facility, Mr. Obama sent a plan to Congress at the beginning of this year but legislators have failed to act on it.
“For many years, it’s been clear that the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay does not advance our national security it undermines it,” said Mr. Obama. “Moreover, keeping this facility open is contrary to our values. It undermines our standing in the world.”
“He was most effective as a ‘normal’ President,” Harvard University historian Stephen Walt told New York Magazine, “and he helped put the presi- dency back on a human scale. As President, he showed that effective governing requires careful deliberation, discipline, and the willingness to make hard and imperfect decisions, and he let us all watch him do just that. Even when one disagreed with his choices, one knew that his acts were never impulsive or cavalier. Future historians will give him full marks for that.”
by Cindy Cole
the Nöísẽ | the best of arizona | AUGUST 2016 {online at thenoise.us} • 11