Obama Policies and the Public’s Perception

My topic: The difficulties facing Obama policies and the public’s perception of the job he’s done.
As it stands for 2010, Obama has not had the best of luck with passing domestic policies through the majority led democratic congress. The public’s view of Obama’s lack of assertion and success has fueled, even more, the already existing frustration over the weak economy. Blinded by this want of a quick recovery, people fail to see what Obama has been successful in. His successes encompass health care, the stimulus package and the small tax cut the tax payers received last year. What the public does notice or what the media display’s for them is the heavier tax burden imposed by all these government policies. This growing dislike for government interference has caused a shift from a majority who favor strong government, to now a majority who wish for less government interference. This is shown through the now Republican Majority existing in the House of Representatives.

In It's about his policies, Charles Krauthammer constantly criticizes Obama’s effectiveness within the last two years. However, he fails to take into account that two years is too short of a time to hope that a nation recovers greatly economically. Krauthammer backs up his argument about Obama’s incompetence with the statements that for the first time since the introduction of the Budget Act of 1974, congress has failed to write a budget or appropriations bill. He goes on to say that because of there being no action, the economy is still extremely weak and that unemployment is unacceptably high. This he feels is not helped by the stimulus package instituted by Obama. Instead all the package does is increase the national debt. After reading this, I feel Krauthammer isn’t analyzing the whole situation. What he is instead doing is simply taking the faults and being over critical and pessimistic. As the American public, we are spectators. We are not in the white house and do not know the obstacles Obama faces in passing bills and instituting policies. Moreover, Krauthammer is assuming that the president has this insurmountable power that allows him to make a decision and have everyone go with it. But that is incorrect. The president creates a policy and has to have the house and senate agree. When over 500 members of conflicting parties and ideologies are placed together in a room it’s incredibly difficult to have them agree on something. Obama can propose, but he cannot impose. What best sums up the position Obama is in is “He has been drawn, whether by inclination or necessity, to the portion of his presidency where he is weakest and most likely to face resistance and defeat. And the weaker he gets politically the less likely he is to get domestic legislation passed, and the defeats will increase his weakness.” Elections and Obama’s Foreign Policy Choices. Obama knew that having a Democratic majority was key in hopefully being able to have some success in the passing of his domestic legislation. Thus he began campaigning. But the democratic public popularity had fallen greatly. And though through his campaigns, Obama managed to keep a majority Democratic senate. In the end, the republicans took majority in the house.
With the majority in the House of Representatives now belonging to Republics, the Democratic President now faces more difficulty in passing policies. If anything, he’ll have to work on ending the polarization of parties. Then and only then may he have more successful in domestic affairs. Obama’s been saying that he will continue to work on the deficit, budget, and enforce healthcare. He plans to uses executive authority when blocked by congress. His plans, however, talk about spending more and increasing the deficit in order to save the economy. How he plans to get those ideas past his new republican house is hard to say. Even with executive authority, he is greatly limited in with what he can do. His job entitles recommending it to congress and having them approve it. In the end, the lack of people’s belief in Obama and the democratic public parties ability to get things done installed this change. And with it, the future looks bleak as most likely Obama will be railroaded every step of the way.