When a young junior senator from Illinois ran for president in 2008, he promised to bring us hope and change. Now eight years later, what is his legacy?
He promised to get us out of the Middle East after his predecessor invaded Iraq based on false information cost us thousands of American lives and trillions of tax dollars. He got us out of Iraq as promised and made plans to get the Afghans to take over protecting their country from radical Muslims called the Taliban. He made it clear that this was not anything against Islam, a religion dedicated to peace. The Afghans are still not able to protect their people against the Taliban and need some of troops to stay to help.
He promised to make healthcare coverage affordable and voluntary. He wanted to have a public option to complement or compete with private carriers. No longer would applicants be denied coverage for preconditions.
We did get a healthcare reform but it was not the one he wanted or promised. Americans without coverage would be forced to get it or face financial penalties. Healthy Americans were needed to offset the cost of unhealthy ones, we were told. There would be no public option. Those who could not pay would be subsidized by the government. This was not what he wanted but was persuaded by the House leadership under Nancy Pelosi that this was the only way.
The Affordable Care Act was neither affordable for the middle class nor did it provide care until the premiums and the deductibles were met. Sometimes this meant that in addition to paying $6,000 a year for the insurance, there was a deductible of as much as $5,000 to $10,000 a year, meaning that this was not coverage but rather insurance for any amount above the combined annual cost. Private insurers were dropping out because they were losing money. They became aware that one unhealthy patient could cost as much as 50 or 100 healthy ones. There would be no way to have the healthy ones make up the difference.
The president, his health secretary and his minority leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, were advised that there was an easy way to fix this deteriorating situation. They could make enrollment voluntary and allow private insurers to reject any applicant for medical or financial reasons. Those rejected would be immediately eligible to the public option, which would be more like Medicare than Medicaid. Those denied for medical reasons would have a share of cost but no deductible and those denied for financial reasons would have little or no share of cost and no deductibles. This then would be affordable health coverage as opposed to unaffordable health insurance.
He and his people rejected all solutions and insisted on pressing on no matter what.
He was facing an economic collapse and took steps to save the banks and two of our car companies, one of which is now owned by the Italian carmaker, Fiat. He helped the private sector create 16 million jobs that were lost during the crisis. The unemployment rate went from more than 10% with 800,000 jobs lost each month to a rate of almost down to 4.5% with more than 200,000 jobs added each month for a record number of months. The stock market went from 6,000 to almost 20,000. But he gave up on getting back any of the manufacturing jobs we lost through outsourcing. His people claimed the low skill manufacturing jobs were lost forever and blamed automation instead of outsourcing.
He advocated raising the federal minimum wage to at least $10.10 per hour from its current $7.25 per hour rate. Since then many cities and states have raised their minimum rates to as high as $15 per hour. Average worker incomes have increased by almost 3% as a result.
He had appointed his former Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, a former First Lady, to be Secretary of State in 2009. She promised to reset our frosty relationship with Russia and to champion human rights, especially in the Middle East where women and minorities were being subjugated. Encouraged by the fall of Iraq’s strong man and then by the overthrow of Tunisia’s dictator, she promoted efforts in Egypt, Yemen and Syria to overthrow their longtime dictators, thus interfering with the internal politics of their countries. What followed was the destabilization of Iraq, Yemen, Egypt and Syria. This chaos gave rise to radical Islamists known as Al Qaeda and later ISIS in this area. Our relationship with Russia has never been worse.
He promised to close Gitmo and did much to reduce the population there but was prevented by congress from moving the remaining prisoners to available American prisons. Those who remain there are costing an estimated $10 million a year each.
He promised to unite us saying that there was not a red America or a blue America, no white America or black America. We would be one nation, indivisible. Eight years later, the country is more divided than ever.
When a young high school football player was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer, the president sided with the young man saying that it could have been him as a young man or his son had he had one. It turned out that the young man was killed to stop him from beating the volunteer to death all because the man had asked him what he was doing in the gated community.
When a police officer shot and killed a six foot five inch 300 pound former high school football player, the president again sided with the young man who was killed. It turned out that he too was killed in self defense and did not have his hands up when he was shot. He was trying to kill the officer who stopped him for having committed a strong-arm robbery minutes before. The president did not intervene and the town rioted for more than four months.
Whenever cases like these came up, it seemed that President Obama sided with the assailant rather than the police who risk their lives daily to protect us. It happened again in Staten Island when a six foot five inch 400 pound man with severe heart, kidney and diabetes problems resisted his 30th arrest. He died of a heart attack while police tried to arrest him.
It happened again in Baltimore when a young drug dealer reacted to his 20th arrest of the year and hit his head accidentally while being transported to jail. The mayor of that city immediately decided that the police were guilty and awarded the young man’s destitute mother $6.5 million before the case went to trial. It turned out that none of the six cops were found guilty. In the next six weeks there were 56 homicides. All but one victim and one killer were black. That year there was a record number of homicides almost all affecting black victims.
His siding with alleged victims of police overreach resulted in a 50% increase in homicides of police officers making some police less motivated to aggressively pursue the criminal element. The result in the president’s own Chicago neighborhood has been a dramatic increase in murders to almost 800 this year with 78% of the victims being black and 17% being Latino.
But this past year, the president really went off track. He decided to enter the presidential race to promote his chosen successor, Hillary Clinton. Unlike any sitting president before him, he went on the campaign trail for her, along with his wife, Michelle, and his Vice President, Joe Biden, presumably using taxpayer money for the tremendous expense it entailed. Truman did not campaign for Stevenson. The very popular Ike did not do it for his own vice president, Nixon. Reagan did not do it for his V.P. Bush. Clinton did not campaign for his V.P., Gore. Young Bush did not campaign for Romney.
The president insisted that Hillary was the best prepared to be president, more than anyone ever was. He forgot that Bush Sr. had been Vice President for eight years, head of the CIA, a congressman and a war hero. He forgot that Nixon had been a V.P. for eight years, a congressman and naval officer. How well did they do?
The president promised that Mr. Trump would never be president. He then had to eat his words. When a minority of Americans tried to undo the results of the election, he did not step up and tell them that what they were doing was un-American and was an assault on our democratic system. As a result, some Americans felt encouraged to do whatever they could to overthrow the results.
He had tried to reduce the number of immigrants who came to the country illegally until a few years ago when those on the left decried it. He then allowed and encouraged hundreds of thousands of interlopers from Central America to enter the country unimpeded and to disperse into the American countryside with hopes of future citizenship.
And just this past month, he gave Israel, our country’s greatest ally and the homeland for the world’s most besieged people, a knife in the back by instructing his U.N. representative to not veto a resolution that every other administration had. I
The president’s legacy is both great and unfortunate. He overcame great obstacles but put others in his way. Many of us voted for him and believed in him. He has left us with a mixed legacy.
He promised to get us out of the Middle East after his predecessor invaded Iraq based on false information cost us thousands of American lives and trillions of tax dollars. He got us out of Iraq as promised and made plans to get the Afghans to take over protecting their country from radical Muslims called the Taliban. He made it clear that this was not anything against Islam, a religion dedicated to peace. The Afghans are still not able to protect their people against the Taliban and need some of troops to stay to help.
He promised to make healthcare coverage affordable and voluntary. He wanted to have a public option to complement or compete with private carriers. No longer would applicants be denied coverage for preconditions.
We did get a healthcare reform but it was not the one he wanted or promised. Americans without coverage would be forced to get it or face financial penalties. Healthy Americans were needed to offset the cost of unhealthy ones, we were told. There would be no public option. Those who could not pay would be subsidized by the government. This was not what he wanted but was persuaded by the House leadership under Nancy Pelosi that this was the only way.
The Affordable Care Act was neither affordable for the middle class nor did it provide care until the premiums and the deductibles were met. Sometimes this meant that in addition to paying $6,000 a year for the insurance, there was a deductible of as much as $5,000 to $10,000 a year, meaning that this was not coverage but rather insurance for any amount above the combined annual cost. Private insurers were dropping out because they were losing money. They became aware that one unhealthy patient could cost as much as 50 or 100 healthy ones. There would be no way to have the healthy ones make up the difference.
The president, his health secretary and his minority leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, were advised that there was an easy way to fix this deteriorating situation. They could make enrollment voluntary and allow private insurers to reject any applicant for medical or financial reasons. Those rejected would be immediately eligible to the public option, which would be more like Medicare than Medicaid. Those denied for medical reasons would have a share of cost but no deductible and those denied for financial reasons would have little or no share of cost and no deductibles. This then would be affordable health coverage as opposed to unaffordable health insurance.
He and his people rejected all solutions and insisted on pressing on no matter what.
He was facing an economic collapse and took steps to save the banks and two of our car companies, one of which is now owned by the Italian carmaker, Fiat. He helped the private sector create 16 million jobs that were lost during the crisis. The unemployment rate went from more than 10% with 800,000 jobs lost each month to a rate of almost down to 4.5% with more than 200,000 jobs added each month for a record number of months. The stock market went from 6,000 to almost 20,000. But he gave up on getting back any of the manufacturing jobs we lost through outsourcing. His people claimed the low skill manufacturing jobs were lost forever and blamed automation instead of outsourcing.
He advocated raising the federal minimum wage to at least $10.10 per hour from its current $7.25 per hour rate. Since then many cities and states have raised their minimum rates to as high as $15 per hour. Average worker incomes have increased by almost 3% as a result.
He had appointed his former Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, a former First Lady, to be Secretary of State in 2009. She promised to reset our frosty relationship with Russia and to champion human rights, especially in the Middle East where women and minorities were being subjugated. Encouraged by the fall of Iraq’s strong man and then by the overthrow of Tunisia’s dictator, she promoted efforts in Egypt, Yemen and Syria to overthrow their longtime dictators, thus interfering with the internal politics of their countries. What followed was the destabilization of Iraq, Yemen, Egypt and Syria. This chaos gave rise to radical Islamists known as Al Qaeda and later ISIS in this area. Our relationship with Russia has never been worse.
He promised to close Gitmo and did much to reduce the population there but was prevented by congress from moving the remaining prisoners to available American prisons. Those who remain there are costing an estimated $10 million a year each.
He promised to unite us saying that there was not a red America or a blue America, no white America or black America. We would be one nation, indivisible. Eight years later, the country is more divided than ever.
When a young high school football player was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer, the president sided with the young man saying that it could have been him as a young man or his son had he had one. It turned out that the young man was killed to stop him from beating the volunteer to death all because the man had asked him what he was doing in the gated community.
When a police officer shot and killed a six foot five inch 300 pound former high school football player, the president again sided with the young man who was killed. It turned out that he too was killed in self defense and did not have his hands up when he was shot. He was trying to kill the officer who stopped him for having committed a strong-arm robbery minutes before. The president did not intervene and the town rioted for more than four months.
Whenever cases like these came up, it seemed that President Obama sided with the assailant rather than the police who risk their lives daily to protect us. It happened again in Staten Island when a six foot five inch 400 pound man with severe heart, kidney and diabetes problems resisted his 30th arrest. He died of a heart attack while police tried to arrest him.
It happened again in Baltimore when a young drug dealer reacted to his 20th arrest of the year and hit his head accidentally while being transported to jail. The mayor of that city immediately decided that the police were guilty and awarded the young man’s destitute mother $6.5 million before the case went to trial. It turned out that none of the six cops were found guilty. In the next six weeks there were 56 homicides. All but one victim and one killer were black. That year there was a record number of homicides almost all affecting black victims.
His siding with alleged victims of police overreach resulted in a 50% increase in homicides of police officers making some police less motivated to aggressively pursue the criminal element. The result in the president’s own Chicago neighborhood has been a dramatic increase in murders to almost 800 this year with 78% of the victims being black and 17% being Latino.
But this past year, the president really went off track. He decided to enter the presidential race to promote his chosen successor, Hillary Clinton. Unlike any sitting president before him, he went on the campaign trail for her, along with his wife, Michelle, and his Vice President, Joe Biden, presumably using taxpayer money for the tremendous expense it entailed. Truman did not campaign for Stevenson. The very popular Ike did not do it for his own vice president, Nixon. Reagan did not do it for his V.P. Bush. Clinton did not campaign for his V.P., Gore. Young Bush did not campaign for Romney.
The president insisted that Hillary was the best prepared to be president, more than anyone ever was. He forgot that Bush Sr. had been Vice President for eight years, head of the CIA, a congressman and a war hero. He forgot that Nixon had been a V.P. for eight years, a congressman and naval officer. How well did they do?
The president promised that Mr. Trump would never be president. He then had to eat his words. When a minority of Americans tried to undo the results of the election, he did not step up and tell them that what they were doing was un-American and was an assault on our democratic system. As a result, some Americans felt encouraged to do whatever they could to overthrow the results.
He had tried to reduce the number of immigrants who came to the country illegally until a few years ago when those on the left decried it. He then allowed and encouraged hundreds of thousands of interlopers from Central America to enter the country unimpeded and to disperse into the American countryside with hopes of future citizenship.
And just this past month, he gave Israel, our country’s greatest ally and the homeland for the world’s most besieged people, a knife in the back by instructing his U.N. representative to not veto a resolution that every other administration had. I
The president’s legacy is both great and unfortunate. He overcame great obstacles but put others in his way. Many of us voted for him and believed in him. He has left us with a mixed legacy.
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