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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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 Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 7:28 am Post subject: Obama's Top 50 Accomplishments |
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Obama's Top 50 Accomplishments
The author really should have confined it to the top 20 or 25. Click through the link for the paragraph-long explanations.
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1. Passed Health Care Reform
2. Passed the Stimulus
3. Passed Wall Street Reform
4. Ended the War in Iraq
5. Began Drawdown of War in Afghanistan
6. Eliminated Osama bin laden
7. Turned Around U.S. Auto Industry
8. Recapitalized Banks
9. Repealed �Don�t Ask, Don�t Tell�
10. Toppled Moammar Gaddafi |
Of the top 10, the first three are phantom accomplishments. The Stimulus was easy, spending money is always easy. The health care reform was meek, lacking a public option, indications are that the CBO budget scoring was doomed to inaccuracy, and a core provision, the individual mandate, has at least a 50% chance of being declared unconstitutional. As for Dodd-Frank, give me a break, that's a step back from the Glass-Steagal era (1934-1999).
The next 7 are real accomplishments, although #5 and #8 deserve asterisks. |
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jaykimf
Joined: 24 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:16 am Post subject: Re: Obama's Top 50 Accomplishments |
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| Kuros wrote: |
Obama's Top 50 Accomplishments
The author really should have confined it to the top 20 or 25. Click through the link for the paragraph-long explanations.
| Quote: |
1. Passed Health Care Reform
2. Passed the Stimulus
3. Passed Wall Street Reform
4. Ended the War in Iraq
5. Began Drawdown of War in Afghanistan
6. Eliminated Osama bin laden
7. Turned Around U.S. Auto Industry
8. Recapitalized Banks
9. Repealed �Don�t Ask, Don�t Tell�
10. Toppled Moammar Gaddafi |
Of the top 10, the first three are phantom accomplishments. The Stimulus was easy, spending money is always easy. The health care reform was meek, lacking a public option, indications are that the CBO budget scoring was doomed to inaccuracy, and a core provision, the individual mandate, has at least a 50% chance of being declared unconstitutional. As for Dodd-Frank, give me a break, that's a step back from the Glass-Steagal era (1934-1999).
The next 7 are real accomplishments, although #5 and #8 deserve asterisks. |
Why should the author have confined it to the top 20 or 25? Don't you think that #50-killing the F22 and saving $4billion is an accomplishment worth noting?
I disagree that the first three are phantom accomplishments. If spending money is so easy, wouldn't they have passed the much larger stimulus that many prominent economists were saying was necessary? Wasn't it an accomplishment to get the republicans to even agree to the stimulus that did pass?
The health care act may not have the perfect world single payer system that we would have liked, but isn't getting health insurance to the millions who otherwise would be uninsured an improvement? Wasn't it an accomplishment to get even that passed? Predicting the future is always prone to inaccuracy . We will always have to make due with our best estimates in predicting the future. If and when the Supreme court rules the act constitutional , will it then be acknowledged as an accomplishment?
Dodd-Frank may be a step back from the Glass-Steagal era, but wasn't it a step up from the Bush era that Obama inherited ? Wasn't it an accomplishment to get congress to even pass what they did? In all three cases, wasn't Obama effectively limited to what he could get Congress to agree to? Even though they may not be as great of accomplishments as we would have preferred, they are still improvements. Limited as they may be, they are not phantoms.
Please explain why #5 and #8 deserve asterisks. |
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lithium
Joined: 18 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 12:02 pm Post subject: |
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| #1 Did a very good job destroying capitalism. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 12:50 pm Post subject: |
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| lithium wrote: |
| #1 Did a very good job destroying capitalism. |
The more sweeping provisions of the healthcare reform don't take effect until 2014. So what you must be saying is that forbidding private insurers from rejecting clients due to pre-existing conditions; this action destroyed capitalism?
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visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 1:02 pm Post subject: |
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| 4. Ended the War in Iraq |
I would call this a phantom accomplishment as well, since he basically just replaced US troops with thousands of private contractors/mercenaries, each making huge six-figure salaries (funded by our government of course). In other words, as the pentagon leaves, the State Department steps in to take its place, and the massive expenditures on the overseas empire continue. Remember the billion dollar armored compound they built for their new embassy? It was built to last. |
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Leon
Joined: 31 May 2010
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| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 1:30 pm Post subject: |
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| visitorq wrote: |
| Quote: |
| 4. Ended the War in Iraq |
I would call this a phantom accomplishment as well, since he basically just replaced US troops with thousands of private contractors/mercenaries, each making huge six-figure salaries (funded by our government of course). In other words, as the pentagon leaves, the State Department steps in to take its place, and the massive expenditures on the overseas empire continue. Remember the billion dollar armored compound they built for their new embassy? It was built to last. |
I was just going to say that. I was also going to add that the Iraqis practically kicked us out, and Obama was trying to negotiate to stay longer. |
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Unposter
Joined: 04 Jun 2006
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| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 5:53 pm Post subject: |
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| What do you think Romney's 10 biggest accomplishments will be, assuming he somehow finds his way to the white house? |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 6:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Unposter wrote: |
| What do you think Romney's 10 biggest accomplishments will be, assuming he somehow finds his way to the white house? |
That's extremely hard to say. But I expect his failures to be similar to Obama's: rampant unemployment, a financial sector run amok, climbing inflation, rising government debt, and moderately low growth. Like Obama, he'll probably appoint ideologically friendly justices after ideologically friendly justices retire (in other words, a net draw ideologically for the court, just as it has been under Obama). Ideologically opposing justices will just wait out a Romney administration, just as they have under Obama. |
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Leon
Joined: 31 May 2010
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| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 6:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
| Unposter wrote: |
| What do you think Romney's 10 biggest accomplishments will be, assuming he somehow finds his way to the white house? |
That's extremely hard to say. But I expect his failures to be similar to Obama's: rampant unemployment, a financial sector run amok, climbing inflation, rising government debt, and moderately low growth. Like Obama, he'll probably appoint ideologically friendly justices after ideologically friendly justices retire (in other words, a net draw ideologically for the court, just as it has been under Obama). Ideologically opposing justices will just wait out a Romney administration, just as they have under Obama. |
Perhaps, for the failure column, attacking Iran. |
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visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 6:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Leon wrote: |
| Perhaps, for the failure column, attacking Iran. |
Or perhaps that will even happen on Obama's watch (with all necessary 'plausible deniability' required of a Nobel Peace laureate, of course)... |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 6:54 pm Post subject: |
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| Leon wrote: |
| Kuros wrote: |
| Unposter wrote: |
| What do you think Romney's 10 biggest accomplishments will be, assuming he somehow finds his way to the white house? |
That's extremely hard to say. But I expect his failures to be similar to Obama's: rampant unemployment, a financial sector run amok, climbing inflation, rising government debt, and moderately low growth. Like Obama, he'll probably appoint ideologically friendly justices after ideologically friendly justices retire (in other words, a net draw ideologically for the court, just as it has been under Obama). Ideologically opposing justices will just wait out a Romney administration, just as they have under Obama. |
Perhaps, for the failure column, attacking Iran. |
Two things indicate to me that Obama's inclination to attack Iran is roughly equal to Romney's.
First, accomplishment #10.
Second, Chances of War with Iran Under Obama Have Dropped for 2012, Risen for 2013
| Robert Wright wrote: |
Though Obama basically stood firm against Netanyahu, he did give the Israeli prime minister a consolation prize. Even as Obama refused to move the red line from "nuclear weapon" to "nuclear weapons capability," he added an extra coat of paint to the red line, stating more emphatically than ever that he wouldn't let Iran cross it.
Particularly significant was his declaration during the Goldberg interview that "I don't bluff." This vow made it into a New York Times headline, and you can rest assured that hawks will recite it via all known media should Iran get close to developing a nuclear weapon on Obama's watch. And that could happen as early as 2013 should negotiations fail in 2012 (though a weapon developed in 2013 almost certainly wouldn't be deliverable via missile in 2013). So Obama has managed to reduce the pressure for military action in 2012, but the price he's paid may be increased pressure down the road. |
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brickabrack
Joined: 17 May 2010
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| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 9:07 pm Post subject: |
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4. Ended the War in Iraq - BS. Still throwing away citizens' tax dollars to the DoD. There's at least 16,000 of these mercenaries still there.
5. Began Drawdown of War in Afghanistan - BS. Just like he said he would drawdown when he got into office. Sent at least 40,000 instead.
6. Eliminated Osama bin laden - I don't believe it, but that's not a popular opinion. Good timing though, Barak. |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:15 am Post subject: |
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| lithium wrote: |
| #1 Did a very good job destroying capitalism. |
Haha! If only. |
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Nowhere Man
Joined: 08 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 6:20 am Post subject: |
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Curious, but Ima do the flailures:
1) Strategic flailure: leading off with healthcare. Like America immediately post-9/11, Obama had massive political Post-Bush capital that he blew on Clinton I redux. All I can say about that is WTF. WTF? People in places that never vote GOP voted for you, then you lead off with...let's try 1992 again.
OMFG. You immediately sensed that, GIVEN THE ECONOMIC IMPLOSION, there might be a better first topic to push.
Plus, the end result is a joke. Funny how Republicans joke about it when they themselves made it a joke.
2) The next flailure is campaign spending. That's really the most immediate need to fix the US, and it would be nice if a NON-WHACKO would follow through. In this point, it's hard to blame Obama alone.
3) The third flailure is government transparency. I'm posting it in place of "failure to close Gitmo" because it would seem there are compelling reasons not to close it, but who knows when your government talks smack in election years then buttons up afterwards.
That said, I'm going to fish these out:
23. Passed Credit Card Reforms
screw that
34. Began Post-Post-9/11 Military Builddown
F-22 should be balled up into this
And Im confused by:
35. Let Space Shuttle Die and Killed Planned Moon Mission
A lot of evidence suggests the moon missions aren't really helpful, but new countries are visiting the ISS, and I'm not sure why the shuttles don't have an immediate replacement.
That's kind of like developing an biplane, then retiring it before you have a monoplane.
Hurray to the beginning oif the end of defense pork. |
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Unposter
Joined: 04 Jun 2006
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| Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 5:25 pm Post subject: |
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For what it is worth, health care reform was one of the few things the President could have done to truly improve the financial footing of the country.
Both businesses and private citizens are overly-burdened by America's shockingly high health costs, reducing America's business competitiveness.
This should have been a slam dunk and at the beginning even Insurance Companies were ready to play ball.
But, the Republican leadership wasn't. Just my opinion, and I don't doubt that there will be people who disagree with me, but the Republicans care more about their power than the American people in a way that is a whole lot scarier to me than the Democrats lack of concern about the American people.
And, if you think Obama has the Constitutional power to over-ride the Senate Republicans, you don't know much about how the U.S. government works.
It is a testament to Obama's ability to navigate the shark tank of American politics that he was able to get anything done. Maybe the Republicans thought that a watered down health care bill was more politically damaging to Obama than nothing at all. It was still a major legislative success because a number of young adults have been able to use their parent's health insurance, considerably increasing health coverage. And, there is still the possibility of other aspects of the health bill actually happening as their target dates for implimentation are reached.
Obama might be the hardest working President in recent American memory but it does not matter. The expectations for Obama were way too high. People expected a revolution. We got a smarter than usual President instead. |
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