Obama - one year later
Mark Jensen
Issue date: 2/1/10 Section: News
On January 20, 2009 Barack H. Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. During the 2008 election, Mr. Obama was highly regarded as a candidate who could bring about change in a deeply divisive political world. Someone who could bring reform to Education, Health care, Environmental policy and a whole host of other social services, along with helping to slow the impending economic crisis.
During president Obama's first few months in office, the main focus was getting the economy back on track. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was signed into law, which provided up to $787 billion to the states to help repair infrastructure and supply increased funds for social programs.
Bailout monies were provided to General Motors and Chrysler to help prevent imminent failure, along with signing the "Cash for Clunkers" program into law. This is supposed to encourage people to trade in old vehicles for new and more fuel-efficient ones and in return receive government rebates to buy that new car.
On foreign policy the president's main focus has been to bolster the national image of America throughout the rest of the world by visiting with many top leaders. Obama has focused on lowering the number of troops in Iraq while increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan as a means to keep the Taliban in check and improve living standards in that region. The president has made plans to send in an additional 30,000 troops on a set timetable for withdrawal for sometime in mid 2011.
Pending projects of course include the health care reform bill which is still in the process of working its way through Congress. The president has called on Congress to create and pass a bill that increases health insurance coverage to the uninsured. His original proposal would spend roughly $900 billion over a ten year period. These monies would go toward a public health insurance option for those who did not wish to choose private health insurance along with putting regulations on private insurers to make sure that they cannot deny clients based on pre-existing conditions. The current bill no longer includes the "public option" but does include many other provisions originally laid out by the president.
Of course one cannot forget some of the important and interesting points during his first year in office, like the nomination of the first Latina justice to the Supreme Court, inviting a Harvard professor and a police officer to the white house for beers after an alleged racial dispute, calling Kanye West a "jackass" after his poor sportsmanship toward Taylor Swift at the MTV awards in September, his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, and the current bipartisanship the president has been able to whip together in regards to the earthquake in Haiti.
Current polling of the president shows that his favorability has been steadily in decline over the last year, starting with a high of 64% after his inauguration but declining to 49% approval from a Pew Research Poll taken on Jan. 18. What will the next three years bring about for President Obama? We will have to wait and see.
During president Obama's first few months in office, the main focus was getting the economy back on track. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was signed into law, which provided up to $787 billion to the states to help repair infrastructure and supply increased funds for social programs.
Bailout monies were provided to General Motors and Chrysler to help prevent imminent failure, along with signing the "Cash for Clunkers" program into law. This is supposed to encourage people to trade in old vehicles for new and more fuel-efficient ones and in return receive government rebates to buy that new car.
On foreign policy the president's main focus has been to bolster the national image of America throughout the rest of the world by visiting with many top leaders. Obama has focused on lowering the number of troops in Iraq while increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan as a means to keep the Taliban in check and improve living standards in that region. The president has made plans to send in an additional 30,000 troops on a set timetable for withdrawal for sometime in mid 2011.
Pending projects of course include the health care reform bill which is still in the process of working its way through Congress. The president has called on Congress to create and pass a bill that increases health insurance coverage to the uninsured. His original proposal would spend roughly $900 billion over a ten year period. These monies would go toward a public health insurance option for those who did not wish to choose private health insurance along with putting regulations on private insurers to make sure that they cannot deny clients based on pre-existing conditions. The current bill no longer includes the "public option" but does include many other provisions originally laid out by the president.
Of course one cannot forget some of the important and interesting points during his first year in office, like the nomination of the first Latina justice to the Supreme Court, inviting a Harvard professor and a police officer to the white house for beers after an alleged racial dispute, calling Kanye West a "jackass" after his poor sportsmanship toward Taylor Swift at the MTV awards in September, his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, and the current bipartisanship the president has been able to whip together in regards to the earthquake in Haiti.
Current polling of the president shows that his favorability has been steadily in decline over the last year, starting with a high of 64% after his inauguration but declining to 49% approval from a Pew Research Poll taken on Jan. 18. What will the next three years bring about for President Obama? We will have to wait and see.
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