The economy is still in the tank, health care reform has been watered down by special interests seeking to maintain the status quo, and Afghanistan is a quagmire with no obvious solution.
So it is easy to conclude that Obama has done little with his time in office thus far. And in fact, in a recent Washington Post poll, 50% of those polled agreed that he has done very little in office, a charge that is constantly repeated by conservative talk show hosts.
But anyone who thinks he has accomplished little isn’t paying attention.
Just off the top of my head, in less than 9 months Obama has: passed a stimulus package that has saved hundreds of thousands of jobs and provided the impetus for new green technologies; pulled the U.S out of a financial crisis that threatened to become an economic depression; for the first time in history we are very close to having comprehensive health reform; secured EPA authority to limit climate-warming pollution under Clean Air Act; raised the minimum wage; instituted important new consumer protections for credit card holders; we now have a timetable for exiting Iraq; generated a vastly improved image overseas, a reformed student loan system; new CAFE standards for automobiles and a revamped auto industry; and filled a vacancy on the Supreme Court.
Jonathan Wesiman’s “Democrats’ Quiet Changes Pile Up” in The Wall St. Journal lists more ‘below the radar’ reforms by Obama:
Last week, Mr. Obama signed defense-policy legislation that included an unrelated measure widening federal hate-crimes laws to cover sexual orientation and gender identification — 12 years after it was first introduced. The same legislation also tightened the rules of admissible evidence for military commissions, an issue that consumed Congress in debate in 2007 but received almost no attention this go-round.
Other new measures signed into law since the administration took office, all of which kicked up controversy in past congresses, make it easier for women to sue for equal pay, set aside land in the West from development, give the government the power to regulate tobacco and raise tobacco taxes to expand health insurance for children. Congress and the White House, in the new defense-policy bill, also killed weapons programs that have survived earlier attempts at termination, among them, the F-22 fighter jet, the VH-71 presidential helicopter and the Army’s Future Combat System.
And Middle East expert Juan Cole has been impressed with Obama’s foreign policy performance so far:
When Obama came into office in January, 142,000 U.S. troops were in Iraq, conducting regular patrols of the major cities. His Republican rivals were dead set against U.S. withdrawal on a strict timetable. He faced something close to an insurrection from some of his commanders in the field, such as Gen. Ray Odierno, who opposed a quick departure from Iraq. Moreover, Obama assumed the presidency at a time when Iran and the U.S. were virtually on a war footing and there had been no direct talks between the two countries on most of the major issues dividing them. In February, the government of Pakistan virtually ceded the Swat Valley and the Malakand Division to the Pakistani Taliban of Maulvi Fazlullah, allowing the imposition of the latter’s fundamentalist version of Islamic law on residents, and Islamabad had no stomach for taking on the increasingly bold extremists. Eight months later, it is a different world.
In Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan, we are light years ahead of where we were when Obama took office.
One might disagree with some of what President Obama has done, but the idea that he has done nothing since taking office is beyond ridiculous.
Tags: Obama’a accomplishments
