What Happened to Obama?

What Happened?

I think we all know what happened here. When he won the election, he had a super-majority in both the House and Senate, thus in the checks and balances system, he was able to take care of some of things for a more progressive cause. However, just because there's a D in front of their name doesn't automatically make the person liberal or leftist on policies. The majority of people in Congress are conservative, even BEFORE the November 2010 midterm elections.

He did managed to sign two executive orders which basically made companies give equal pay to women AND also rescinded the Mexico City Policy which barred people from getting limitless access to abortions. So there were some progressive elements he's done actually. However, there are some things which aren't guaranteed and this is due to the very thing he's in: Checks and Balances Government.

Because of that, he has to do his best to find a compromise to get majority votes in both areas of Congress. Especially the Senate in which there were 58 Democrats plus 2 Independents who caucused for the Democrats and they needed 60 for a filibuster proof enacting. It's unfair to call him right-wing when he actually advocated for progressive views especially on the ones he advocated for. Let's start with the big ones:

1. The Stimulus Package
- Initially, President Obama demanded $1.3 Trillion in stimulus money to help bring the country out of the brink of the recession. Hard to do when you have conservative Democrats in the Senate, so he had to reach some compromise to attract moderate Republicans like Arlen Spector and Olympia Snowe. Thus, he only managed to pour $800 Billion instead of his original wants.

2. Healthcare Bill
- As anyone on the progressive left know, universal healthcare or a public option would have been perfectly ideal to seal the deal and it actually would have curb the cost of healthcare quite a bit by the numbers. However, the conservative Democrats and Lieberman were obstructionists in this debate and even people like House Member Bart Stupak who did not want any federal funding going towards abortions. They've managed to pull through a deal, and while it's not perfect, it's a small step forward.

Of course, these are mere refreshers for what he's done thus far and there were more things he did as well. But what's the deal though? The economy itself. You can't predict the outcome since it's always uncertain. Even economists can get them wrong. Bear in mind that the economy is volatile and there's no real right way or wrong way regarding fiscal disciplines. We all tout fiscal conservatism and fiscal liberalism rather than fiscal responsibility in which requires some practical solutions. In times like this, our government, especially thanks to polarizing economic terrorists like the TEA Party and far-right who's unwilling to compromise on balanced deals are basically killing this country.

And how does all this translate to Obama? Easy. He's the face of the nation and sadly he can only do so much based on his limited power and position. Especially now since the legislative branch are far more conservative than it was before. As I said, if this country was more progressive on economic and social policies, I think our representative conglomerate would actually have things done on a more left leaning level.

 

Politically you are always on point. Well done.

 

Thanks a lot. I wanted to add that Obama is still the center-left liberal people recognize him as. But he's always and will always be a pragmatist and it's pretty evident that it's reflected on him based on his books.

 

Any respect/credibility I "might" have had for you, I just lost it, particularly because of this post. Making this a racial issue between blacks and whites (for no real purpose) just divides us.

I understand that not everyone here is going to like Obama, but a line in the sand has to be drawn with how you express yourself.

 

Mikey...I think for the first time I smell a suspect who's been on here before and he's definitely not a black guy.

 

Perhaps it could be Nico, although his writing style seems to be different.

 

No. Nico masturbates to David Bowie. Mandingo's another familiar face. I just can't make it out.

 

Ok, bear in mind this comes from a progressive, feminist blog, so there's a lot of Hilary Clinton love here, but there are some EXCELLENT points in response to the NYTimes post What Happened to Obama. I will include the link to the whole article, but I'm excerpting the parts I think are particularly applicable

The enitirety of the article can be found here: On Naming the Villian, but I think I've excerpted those parts relevant to this discussion.

 

He got bitched slapped by the Tea Party Movement.

 

Universal healthcare is a myth people. It was a myth in the 90s with clinton and it is a myth now with obama. Its just the sheeple are too stupid to realize it. Remember NOTHING IS FREE everything has a cost and if you try to provide a quality good to too many people such as good healthcare you will have to cut down alot of the quality just to be able to afford to get a higher porportion of it out to the public this is basic economics people. If universal healthcare is so damn great why is europes traditional universal system trying to privitize? Answer that geniouses!

Have a nice time waitin in those emergency rooms people!

Furthermore why would you applaude abortion on demand as an accomplishment! Dont you realize you are contributing to the destruction of your own race as a blac man! More black babies are aborted than anyone else!!!!! And equal pay for women sounds good but society aint never gonna truly let it happen in real life I dont give a damn how many laws he signs! If women want men to continue to take them out and treat them nice and open the damn door for them then men need to be able to INCUR THOSE DAMN COST! HENCE WHY THEY ARE PAID MORE! SO THERE!

 

Medicare is Australia's publicly funded universal health care system, operated by the government authority Medicare Australia. Medicare is intended to provide affordable treatment by doctors and in public hospitals for all resident citizens and permanent residents except for those on Norfolk Island. Residents with a Medicare card can receive subsidised treatment from medical practitioners who have been issued a Medicare provider number, and fully subsidised ("free") treatment in public hospitals. Visitors from countries which have reciprocal arrangements with Australia have limited access to Medicare, as detailed below.
The program was introduced in 1975 as Medibank, and supplemented by a government-owned private health insurance fund in 1976. It was renamed Medicare in 1984.
Since 1999, the public health scheme has been supplemented by a Private Health Insurance Rebate, where the government funds at least 30% of any private health insurance premium covering people eligible for Medicare. Including these rebates, Medicare is the major component of the total Commonwealth health budget, taking up about 43% of the total. The program is estimated to cost $18.3 billion in 2007–08.[1] This figure is projected to rise by almost 4% annually in real terms over the next few years.[1]


THANK GOD FOR MEDICARE...!!! I WAS RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL LAST THURSDAY NIGHT AFTER 4 DAYS AND A MYSTERY ILLNESS. DURING MY STAY I HAD A TEAM OF DOCTORS WHO LOOKED AFTER ME, COMPLETE AND TOTAL ONE ON ONE CARE WITH MY NURSES AND HAD: 1 XRAY, 1 CT SCAN & 1 BONE SCAN...ALL WITHOUT ME GETTING OUT MY CHEQUE BOOK, NOT TO MENTION THE 2 AMBULANCES THAT I HAD AND THE COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF BLOOD TESTS AND SWABS...AGAIN, NOT ONE REQUEST FOR PAYMENT

 

Not surprised that you're willing to pull out this out your ass, but I'll entertain you. You're only correct that nothing is free, but everything else, you're sorely mistaken. There have not been any attempts anywhere in Europe where they want to privatize healthcare in any shape or form. The myth is that the US has the best healthcare system in the world and people like you are too blind to see that.

Other countries pay higher taxes which go towards government run programs like healthcare and the pay off is really well worth it. You speak as though the quality of the healthcare is terrible, but why is it that our country have higher mortality rates? The lack of healthcare and lack of access and affordability for a lot of Americans from a low income setting contributes to people unable to take care of themselves. That's why people look at our healthcare system and wonder, "How can you all live like that?"

In short, it's a right and it's something the governments in other countries acknowledges because if you cannot take care of your fellow countrymen with someone as simple as providing them the best kind of insurance, then you're simply walking on a bleeding line of lies and delusions if you think privatizing everything will make the country better.

You're just that stupid. It'll benefit the corporations taking advantage of the less fortunate, but it doesn't translate to a stronger and economically sound country.

 

So your solution for America is HIGHER TAXES BEING PAID TO A BLOATED BEAURACRACY THAT WILL BECOME BLOATED AND SELF IMPORTANT OVER TIME AS THIS HEALTHCARE THING COMES INTO PLAY? IM NOT TRYNA BE A DICK BUT HIGHER TAXES NEVER HELPED ANYONE IN HISTORY! NAME ONE NATION THAT EVER BECAME MORE POWERFUL OR MORE FREE WHEN ITS TAXES WERE RAISED. THATS HOW THIS WHOLE DAMN COUNTRY GOT STARTED IN THE FIRST PLACE! CUZ OF HIGH TAXES BY THE BRITISH MONARCHY THAT TREATED THE COLONIES LIKE THEY WERE HIS BITCH TO BE SHOOK DOWN AND TRAMPLED ON WHENEVER HE SAW FIT. IT WASNT UNTIL THE COLONIST TOOK UP ARMS AND KILLED HIS SOLDIERS THAT HE GOT STRAIGHTENED THE FUCK OUT AND PUT IN HIS PLACE. THIS HEALTHCARE BILL IS A MASSIVE OVEREACH AND IS MASSIVELY EXPENSIVE AT A TIME WHEN WE ARE BROKE AND NEED MONEY! HOW IS A GOVT! THAT HAS LESS MONEY THAN THE COMPANY APPLE GONNA PAY FOR 300 MILLION PEOPLES HEALTHCARE! DOESNT MAKE LOGICAL SENSE! RAISING TAXES WILL ONLY MAKE BUSINESSES TRIM COST WHICH MEANS CUTTING WORKES AND KILLING MORE JOBS. OBAMAS JOB NUMBERS HAVE BEEN DISMAL AS HELL! PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING IN AMERICA AND THEY ARE BROKE WITH WHOLE FAMILIES LIVING IN MOTEL ROOMS NOW! THEN YOU WANNA ADVOCATE A SECOND TERM FOR THIS MAN! ONLY IN FANTASY LAND WOULD THAT HAPPEN IM SORRY BRO!

 

when birth control become frees/at a reduced price to men and women via the healthcare bill in 2013 everyone wins, A new study by the Guttmacher Institute, a leading reproductive health research and advocacy group, estimates that unintended pregnancies cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $11.1 billion dollars a year. Nearly two-thirds of unintended pregnancies -- roughly a million births -- are publicly funded by Medicaid and other government programs, the report shows.

At the same time, the demand for abortions among low-income women has been on the rise since the recession. The abortion rate increased 18 percent among poor women between 2000 and 2008, according to another recent Guttmacher report, as a result of their inability to afford or access contraceptive services and their perceived inability to support a child.

“Anti-abortion restrictions and cuts to publicly funded family planning services disproportionately affect poor women, making it even more difficult for them to gain access to the contraceptive and abortion services they need," said study author Rachel K. Jones. "It certainly appears these women are being underserved."


Prior to this year, approximately 87 percent of private insurance plans covered abortions. But some type of insurance-coverage ban is now on the books in 11 states, and in the most recent legislative session, legislators in 23 states filed 53 new bills restricting abortion coverage in state-based public health exchanges or across private insurance plans.

Moreover, the House recently voted in favor of H.R. 3, which would disincentivize private insurance companies from covering abortion and penalize small businesses that buy plans that include such coverage.

Now, in addition to forcing many women to pay out-of-pocket for expensive abortion procedures or buy separate insurance plans to cover them, even in cases of rape or incest, states are potentially fueling the rate of unintended pregnancies by cutting family planning. Numerous states, including Indiana, Kansas, Texas, Wisconsin and Tennessee, have passed or filed legislation to defund Planned Parenthood because some of its clinics offer abortions, despite the fact that it would block millions of low-income men and women's access to affordable birth control and contraceptive services.

Wisconsin advanced a budget bill this week that would cut men out of its state family planning program altogether, and Medicaid patients can no longer receive any kind of free care at Planned Parenthood of Indiana. The conservative lawmakers pushing those bills say they want to prevent taxpayer-funded abortions, but by cutting family planning services, they are forcing taxpayers are carrying a much heavier burden.

"Bottom line, we can avoid unintended pregnancies and the abortions that often follow and the costs that often follow if we invest in, rather than cut, state family planning services that help women plan and space the pregnancies they want," said Adam Sonfield, senior policy director at the Guttmacher Institute.

The Guttmacher Institute estimates that every dollar invested in family planning saves state governments $3.74 in Medicaid costs and pregnancy related care.

"We've seen that the states in recent years that have expanded their coverage of family planning services under Medicaid have been able to help more women and men access contraception and avoid unintended pregnancy and abortion," Sonfield told HuffPost. "Any steps away from that are bound to have the opposite effect."

 

Wow, you're incredibly stupid beyond belief. Plus you've been shot down by Tarshi's post and yet, you're willing to disregard someone who lives in a country with universal healthcare to prove you wrong? This is what blind patriotism does to you. And for you to even type all that without any real legitimate research into American history shows that you're incapable of even educating yourself.

Fact #1: Out of all the countries that escaped the recession, Sweden with it's capitalist socialism policies and France managed to get through the mess better than the "staunch" capitalist nation of the U.S.. Even Canada fared better than the US. What caused it the economic meltdown anyway? The deregulated banking companies that almost destroyed us. That's not based on socialism. That's capitalism working itself because those companies tried to get over us like a fat rat.

Fact #2: When you raise taxes for the wealthy, you're more likely to create a surplus for the country. Clinton did it, and even Truman did it. And you know what? We've recovered from economic slumps readily and easily and how did this happen? We've raised taxes appropriately and kept the country afloat.

Fact #3: Conviction of giving tax breaks to wealthy Americans don't create jobs. In fact, the middle class create jobs for the common people and if there are people who deserve such breaks, it would be the lower and middle class people so they can live a little better. Tell me, do you really think this country would be richer if we didn't pay taxes to our government?

Fact #4: The healthcare bill we have now is a watered down, but it's better than what were having before. I don't see an overreach of government from it since it allowed to CHOOSE whether you wanted to become part of it or not. Hence "Public OPTION". Plus, we have saved money thanks to this overhaul, but for some reason idiots like yourself are incapable of realizing it.

Fact #5: Obama came into office with the mess that Bush started and he's actually made some progress with it. The economy's growth is akin to Japan's currently because it's sluggish like a turtle. Given the years he's been in office, he's accomplished a lot and for you to disregard all that only make you a fool.

He's done enough within three years to improve the situation from where we were back in 2008 and I think he deserves another four years for his efforts.

Oh...I know! Since you're so cocky in all this, why don't PRAY these problems away. I'm sure it would help, yes?

Oh wait...I forgot...

PRAYERS DON'T WORK! And you're delusional too.

 

Wow, that's a pretty crazy argument. At most that's an argument for paying heterosexual women in a relationship less. What about lesbians? What about gay men?

How about this: recognize that it's 2011, pay me the same as my similarly qualified male colleagues and I will start tipping people who open the "damn door" for me.

 

Universal healthcare is available in every AAA rated nation in the world, period. If you understood the way it works in places like France, Sweden, etc you might change your tune. Research is your friend.

Abortion on demand has nothing whatsoever to do with killing of black people, it has to do with allowing women agency over their own bodies. Your figures on the number of black women who abort are incorrect.

You're full of shit. All over the place.

 

Funny how you only mentioned capitalist socialist nations as having fared well in the recession while not saying a damn thing about GERMANY! THE LARGEST ECONOMY IN EUROPE WHICH IS SEEING MASSIVE GROWTH IN ITS ECONOMY AND POSTIVE JOB CREATION. NOT TO MENTION GERMANY IS ONE OF THE MOST FISCALLY RESPONISBLE AND PRO CAPITALIST NATIONS IN EUROPE. AND FUNNY HOW YOU CHOOSE TO IGNORE GREECE AND SPAIN! TWO EUROPEAN SOCIALIST NATIONS WHOS EXCESSIVE GOVT. SOCIAL SPENDING HELPED GET THEN DOWN INTO THE DUMPS IN THE FIRST PLACE. I NEVER SAID ANYTHING ABOUT RAISING OR LOWERING RICH PEOPLES TAXES, I ONLY SPOKE OF BUSINESS TAXES. AND BUSINESSES WILL HAVE TO INCUR COST BECAUSE OF THIS BILL ITS IN THE BILL AND ITS INEVITABLE! HOWEVER THE ONLY ONES WHO WILL BE HURT BY THIS ARE SMALL BUSINESSES AND MINORITY OWNED BUSINESSES WHILE THE BIG BOYS LIKE MCDONALDS AND WAL MART GET AN EXEMPTION! NOW AINT THAT A TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS BILL WILL PROVIDE A BURDEN FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS CUZ THEIR TAXES WILL HAVE TO BE RAISED TO FUND IT! JUST RICH PEOPLE ALONE WONT EVEN BE ENOUGH TO SUPPORT THIS MONSTROSITY. AND HOW THE HELL CAN YOU SAY THE BILL IS BETTER THAN WHAT WE HAD BEFORE WHEN IT WONT EVEN BE IMPLEMENTED TILL 2014! IF IT WORKS THEN COME BACK AND TELL ME. UNTIL THEN MY POSITION STANDS.

 

Tarshi, I'm so glad you had that available to you! If I remember correctly the hospital bills for 5 days of IV steroid treatment, tests, etc was well in excess of $15,000 here 3 years ago. I had good health insurance, thank the gods, but even so my out of pocket expenses were ridiculous.

 

How bout so many women stop being whores and having unprotected sex then maybe they wouldnt be overburdening the tax base with their baby daddys CHILRENS!!!!!!!!!!! But you all want to reject the very institution that advocates abstinence THE CHURCH! 50 yrs ago we didnt have these problems cuz people had values and they cleaned up their own MESSES instead of making the govt. wipe their ass everytime they shit themselves!!!!!!!