President Obama’s administration will be recorded in the
annals of history as one of the strongest in modern times, I’m convinced.
Because of my conviction, I wish to share some of the facts and my thoughts.
Barak Obama took over the presidency at one of the most dismal
time in recent history. Flag-draped coffins bearing America’s
heroes arrived regularly at Dover.
The housing market recently crashed leaving millions facing loss of their homes
through foreclosure. Unemployment began spiking upward on it way to nine
percent in a few months and this added to the horror of home loss. The stock
market tanked—Dow down to the 9000s. GDP growth
was negative for most of two years. Hardly any segment of our society was
unaffected. This was the ugly legacy handed to Mr. Obama on the day of his
inauguration.
The Banking System
Repair
The previous administration in its sunset days made the
agonizing decision to fund bail-out of the banks failing because of their heavy
weight of derivatives from the housing industry that had become near worthless.
Incoming president Obama was left to implement the rescue. We witnessed
uninformed criticism of him for the decision (not his), even though consensus among
experts was that it was the only decision possible.
Working with Congress, Pres Obama’s financial reform program
intended to prevent future financial meltdowns was passed as the Dodd-Frank
bill and signed a year later. Again, the president received criticism by some
for its ineffectiveness and by others as being overbearing on economic growth.
Yet, another financial crash has not happened.
The Auto Companies Rescue
During the waning months of the previous administration,
General Motors and Chrysler informed the Government that they were on the verge
of bankruptcy and needed a government financial support to remain in business.
Provisions were made for this funding and were handed over to Mr. Obama at his
inauguration. The bail-out was implemented and the companies survived and an
estimated million jobs were saved. This did not happen without a lot of
criticism saying this was a government takeover of private industry. Yet the
companies repaid the government and now are at their strongest position in
years. It might seem ironic that Michigan
and Ohio, the largest beneficiaries
of the bail-out switched from Democrat to Republican in the 2016 election.
The Stimulus
Another effort to restore the economy was the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act a.k.a. the stimulus. A fund of $800B was
allocated for repair of infrastructure, schools, etc. It is difficult to see
value received for this funding and a number of reasons are debated—too little
funding, not enough shovel ready projects approved, etc. But Pres Obama has
received endless criticism for the increase in the federal debt. As time went
on, however, some experts stated that the stimulus prevented more severe
unemployment.
Affordable Care Act
When Mr. Obama became president, the United
States was unique among developed nations by
having a large group of citizens without a path to adequate health care.
Millions having preexisting health conditions could not obtain health insurance
and at risk for catastrophic illnesses like cancer with no way to pay for the
expensive medications and procedures. His landmark bill, the Affordable Care
Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, narrowly passed Congress and has been harshly criticized
ever since. Major criticism is based on the increased insurance premiums that
have increased for many—a result of the program being based on a free market
and a pooling of premiums to be able to cover the high-risk individuals. Presently,
some 20 million Americans have access to healthcare through this program and
millions of persons under age 26 can have health insurance on their parent’s
plans.
Mideast Relations
President Obama announced early in his presidency that he
wanted to establish dialog with Iran
and other unfriendly nations. I personally saw this as a move from Middle Ages conquest war mentality. Our armed forces
are the strongest, best trained, best disciplined, best equipped in the world.
We have the power to do virtually anything to any country. It also gives us the
ability to negotiate from a position of strength with anybody. There were
immediately cries of “Moslem”, “soft on defense” and more from his opponents.
Yet, in his second term both Republicans and Democats denied any desire to put
“boots on the ground” in the Mideast. Could this be the
heralding of a change in world powers where means other than killing and
destruction are sought to settle differences? Leadership must come from a
strong nation.
Mideast Wars
In January, 2009,
when Mr. Obama took office, the United States
forces were heavily involved and taking huge casualties in both Iraq
and Afghanistan.
He presided over the final removal of combat troops from Iraq.
This removal was in accordance with an agreement with Iraq
by his successor, and was heartily welcomed by the American people. Long
afterwards, Pres Obama’s opponents began criticism for his not trying to
renegotiate the Status of Forces Agreement without which it would have impossible
to leave combat troops after the Agreement expired in December 31, 2011. It should be noted that as
the last combat soldier arrived home from Iraq,
we heard no such criticism.
The war in Afghanistan—America’s
longest war—continues with minimum combat requirements.
ISIS
In 2014, the world was shocked by the sudden brutal force
known as ISIl, ISIS or Daesh as it overran northern Iraq
and Syria with
perhaps the most brutal warfare ever known to mankind. They overtook a major
piece of land including the cities of Mosul
and Fallujah. The fierceness of their attack, including beheadings, caused the
poorly-trained Iraqi soldiers to abandon their weapons and vehicles and run
away. The U.S.
and coalition forces planned for the re-take of this land. Iraq
and surrounding nations would provide ground troops, U.S.
and other nations would provide air power; U.S.
would also provided Special Forces and advisors for non-combat operations. This
slow process has taken back a major section of the land including Falluja, has
killed thousands a combatants and dozens of leaders, cut off sources of money
and are certain to take beck Mosul.
No surprise, President Obama was again harshly criticized for bringing the
troops home from Iraq and allowing ISIL to
take over of Northern Iraq (although there are others who say that the roots of
ISIL were borne when insurgents took back
that land before a too-little, too-late surge in 2007 drove many insurgents
underground) .
Iran Nuclear Agreement
The West watched with concern Iran’s
buildup of a nuclear warfare capability for decades. The Obama administration along
with the United Nations Security Council and other nations maintained sanctions
of Iraq
requiring it to cease major activities in its nuclear program--activities that
could support development of nuclear bombs. After negotiations (which were
conducted from a position of strength) an agreement was finally reached in mid
2015. The terms of this agreement included, removal of material and cessation
of activities that produce material beyond what is required for peaceful uses. Iran
completed the first phase of its obligation in February 2016 and the
sanctioning nations prepared to release assets to Iran
in accordance with the agreement. This seemed to me like a major step in
stabilizing the middle east even if its terms were only for ten years. But not
the critics—there were cries of giving money to Iran
(its own money we held in sanction), of weakness and the agreement doomed to
failure. Time will tell if this agreement holds, but it could be a landmark achievement
that improves Mideast stability for generations.. We’ll
see.
Immigration
A flood of undocumented persons crossing (primarily) our
southern borders has existed for decades and has been a subject of debate.
Principal voices in the debate are rule of law, compassion and employers’ need for
workers. The debates produced no solutions until 2013 when President Obama sent
his Immigration Reform plans to Congress where it became the Border Security,
Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act. It included increased border security, a path to citizenship for some,
increased visas for low skill and high skill workers and a four year phase-in
of e-verify, a program to detect workers applying for a job with counterfeit
documentation. The bill (S 744) passed the Senate with a bipartisan vote,
but when sent to the House of Representatives, it was never brought to a vote.
Seeing a large portion of the immigration population that
was U.S. by birth but vulnerable for export because of the undocumented status
of their parents, President Obama proposed a program to delay deportation of 4 million
children and young people who were born in this country to illegal immigrant
parents. Because Congress would not accept this deferment, Obama imposed an
executive action known as The
Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA).
Again severe criticism by opponents and eventually a Federal court acted to
halt it.
Waves of Criticism
While the achievements of the past eight years are
remarkable, the administration has had problems that have not been solved such
as a high poverty rate and many single teenage girls becoming parents. These
are systemic problems that cry for a bipartisan solution, yet the
administration takes the full blunt of criticism for these conditions.
These problems along with the criticisms described
previously have resulted in the harshest imaginable bombasting throughout Mr.
Obama’s term. Of course, this is part of the territory for anybody entering
high political office. Nobody gets a free pass. We hear suggestions of an
element of racism these criticisms. As white persons, we might shrug off this
idea; however if we could walk a mile in the shoes of an African American, we might
see the extreme pain in the implication of these criticisms. Think about the
“birther” movement in which as late as January 2016 over 50 per cent of
Republicans believed that Mr. Obama was not born in the United
States. But the Obama family endured all this
with calm dignity. They have my greatest admiration.
President Obama completes his term of office with an
approval rating above 50 percent, a remarkable level for an outgoing two-term president.
And if the Affordable Care Act and the Iran Nuclear Agreement reach their
hoped-for success his approval will be nothing short of spectacular. A legacy
for future generations!
End note: On Wednesday December 7, CNN will present a
two-hour show on President Obama’s legacy. It will be an eye-opener for many,
I’m sure.
