Summary: A Presidency Determined To Change A Nation

Vanessa Puga
POL201
Professor Mishler
November 16, 2010
A Presidency Determined to Change a Nation On Tuesday January 20th 2009 in Washington D.C., our 44th president Barack Obama stood before a record breaking crowd of Americans to deliver his inauguration speech which marked the commencement of his four year term. Being the first African American president, the journey that Barack Obama embarked on was difficult but he worked hard to win over voters with his many speeches that promised “Change”; the slogan of his campaign. As president Obama presented his inaugural speech, Americans all over the country witnessed a highly anticipated and great moment in history. In hopes of reassuring his supporters and promising those people with doubts President Obama said, “Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America: They will be met.” With that said it has been almost two years since we elected this democratic candidate to run our country and within his time of being president we have already took notice to a great amount of progress. Though not all issues have been completely solved president
Obama and his administration have proved to be successful with issues such as, health care reform, immigration legislation, and economic reform. Before Obama became president the cost of health insurance was at its highest and therefore over forty-five million Americans including over eight million children were lacking health care. Health insurance premiums had nearly doubled and increasing co-pays and deductibles threatened the access to care. Even Americans with health insurance struggled with the high costs and many insurance plans covered only a limited amount of doctor visits and hospital days. This was of course a major issue for the American people and in fact, over half of all personal bankruptcies were caused by medical bills. In addition, serious defects in the health care delivery system are to blame for the lack of affordable health care, and because of this president Obama believed that it was necessary to take on the difficult and complicated task of redesigning the system. According to the very detailed plan proposed by the Obama- Biden campaign the main goals were to lower costs to make our health care system work for people and businesses; not just insurance companies, provide affordable and accessible coverage options for all Americans, promote prevention, and strengthen public health. As a result of president Obama’s hard work the health reform bill passed through the House of Representatives on March 21, 2010. Time magazine reported that, “The house voted 219-212 to send a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system to be signed into law.” (Tumulty) The Democrats were able to pass the bill without a single republican vote. The bill is said to provide health coverage to nearly 32 million Americans and lower health costs by making the practice of medicine more efficient. It will also end the practices of some insurance companies.
They will no longer be allowed to deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. Also those adults with pre-existing conditions would be able to buy coverage through expanded high risk pools. This would greatly benefit those adults and children that suffer from chronic diseases. With this passage of legislation, president Obama achieved one of the most important goals of his presidency and the apparently the most extensive piece of legislation, “since the 1960’s Great Society initiatives that saw the passage of Medicare and Medicade.” (Trumulty) Many Americans that were suffering before from poor health care are now satisfied with the reform that was made possible but President
Obama. It is believed by Obama that rather than finding real solutions to the issue of immigration, politicians have instead exploited it and that is just simple unacceptable because it is important that we ratify tough practical reforms. Every year a million people enter our country legally but another large sum of people come illegally or illegally overstay their visas and this is mainly because our borders are not secure. In reference to president Obama’s plan of immigration reform several things must be done. First a stronger enforcement on the border and in the work place is crucial because this will prevent illegal aliens from entering our country and illegally gaining employment. But on the other hand, it would be beneficial for us to bring more skilled foreign-born workers because this would help benefit our economy. Another important point made in the outline is that we must respond to what gives people from other countries the desire to come to America. For ages immigrants have traveled to our country for a chance at a better life that is filled with a tremendous amount of opportunity. Quite recently there has been much talk about the Dream Act which is set out to, “help those individuals who meet certain requirements, to have an opportunity to enlist in the military or go to college and have a path to citizenship which they would otherwise not have without this legislation.” (Abaddon) This act would not only benefit the immigrant but also benefit our country as a whole because it would give the illegal immigrant and chance to give back to the country that has provided them with great opportunity. These are only few of the many promises mentioned in the Obama-Biden plan to reform immigration legislation but the fact of the matter is that not many of these issues pertaining to immigration have been met. And so, it is unfortunate but without bipartisan support the issue of immigration cannot be solved. This is meaning to say that without any votes from the Republican Party, reform that brings accountability to our immigration system cannot pass. In an interview with the network MSNBC, president Obama blamed the halt of immigration reform on “political posturing and special interest wrangling”. In his opinion, government and businesses should be held accountable for its responsibility to secure the border and his focus is mainly to provide a path to citizenship for immigrants. For the fact that there are so many aspects of this reform that have not been handled only time will tell if President Obama can be successful at reconstructing immigration legislation. It is no surprise that one of the greatest issues that our country faces today is economic crisis which is the result of many years of irresponsibility both in government and in the private sector. As Obama took office this was one of his main concerns and he planned to take action immediately so that Americans could have a sense of relief after all the hardships we had faced due to the economic crisis. Creating jobs, Keeping Americans in their homes, and bringing stability to financial markets were the proper solutions that Obama sought out in order to deal with the way the economy had taken a turn for the worst. Because so many jobs were lost The American recovery and reinvestment plan was signed by the president which was put to work immediately so that jobs would become available to those who were unemployed. Furthermore, those who were at risk of losing their homes hoped that president Obama would prevent that from happening. Those Americans who worked hard to have a home but were greatly affected by the crisis certainly did not deserve to lose their homes so to prevent foreclosures; President Obama created different programs such as The Making Home Affordable Modification Program and The Making home Affordable Refinancing program. Both of these were able to help Americans avoid losing their homes during the economic crisis. As for Wall Street and in Washington, accountability and transparency were demanded by the president. To support leading and create sustainable economic growth it was necessary to take steps to ensure that banks use taxpayer assistance. In terms of the economy Obama is doing his best to make sure that Americans no longer have to deal with such harsh circumstances that this crisis had put us through these past years. All in all, I think that almost every American of our generation can agree on the fact that this presidential election was one that changed history. Some may think it was for the better and others may think for the worst, everyone it of course entitled to their own opinion. But after assessing some crucial aspects of Obama’s presidency such as health care reform, immigration legislation, and economic reform, it is clear that he has done some good things for our country and he is definitely keeping most of the promises made during his campaign. Though he has yet to follow through will absolutely all promises, it is only a matter of time before he does. After all he did guarantee, “Change we can believe in.” and it is up to us to trust that President Barack Obama will lead our country in the right direction.