Obama Won't Procrastinate His Push for Change
Some say his focus on healthcare, energy, and overhauling the financial system is too much at once
During the campaign, Barack Obama invoked the words of Martin Luther King Jr. in calling for transformational change. "I am running because of what Dr. King called 'the fierce urgency of now,' " Obama said in South Carolina on Nov. 3, 2007. "I am running because I do believe there's such a thing as being too late. And that hour is almost here."
During his first five months as president, Obama has demonstrated how seriously he takes this commitment. Brushing aside criticism from Washington veterans that he is overloading the capital's political circuits, he is alarming both allies and adversaries with his push for change, the faster, the better.
His critics have a point. His challenge to the status quo may be causing too many powerful forces to line up against him, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, members of the medical establishment, the conservative power structure in Washington, and Rush Limbaugh and his cohorts in the punditocracy of the right. If Obama fails to overcome them, his credibility could be shattered, and his dreams of change could evaporate.
Obama has three main goals for 2009. He is pushing for an overhaul of the healthcare system, for passage of a far-reaching energy bill, and for a new regulatory structure for the financial industry. All will require congressional action. Tackling any one of those issues would be a huge undertaking. Tackling all three at once is herculean.
His first priority is fixing healthcare. "We can't not do healthcare reform, because healthcare costs are breaking families, businesses, and the federal government," says White House counselor David Axelrod. "So if we don't do significant healthcare reform, we're on a catastrophic course. What that means is that we have to put a lot of effort into not just expanding coverage but in reducing the costs of healthcare, taking out the sort of redundancies and waste and inside trading and so on that have contributed to this untenable inflation in healthcare costs for two decades."
At a town-hall meeting in Green Bay, Wis., June 11, Obama said the healthcare system costs so much and excludes so many that it has become a crisis. "We have reached a point where doing nothing about the cost of healthcare is no longer an option," Obama said. Obama is pushing Congress to pass healthcare legislation by late summer or early fall.
This week, the president added another initiative to the fast track: revamping the financial-services industry. Excesses in that sector are widely blamed for contributing to the financial meltdown of the past year, and Obama and his aides argue that, again, they have had no choice but to move quickly to mend the system. Among his proposals are authorizing the Federal Reserve to supervise "nonbank" financial institutions, setting up a "Council of Regulators" to coordinate the activities of a dozen separate regulatory agencies, and creating a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to shield everyday people from abuses. Obama hopes Congress will approve the massive regulatory bill by year's end.
In addition, Obama aims to win passage for energy and climate-change legislation this year, designed to move America away from overreliance on foreign oil and to encourage the use of alternative energy sources such as solar and wind power. These have been the policy goals of administrations going back to Jimmy Carter in the 1970s, but no one has found a way to persuade Congress to make the required alterations in Americans' lifestyles. It's unclear whether Obama will do much better, but he is intent on trying.
And don't forget Obama's goal of winning Senate confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor by early autumn, which will absorb much of the Senate's time when hearings start in July.
Of course, all of his domestic plans could be superseded by threats from abroad. That became clear this week when protests and riots dominated the headlines from Iran in the wake of that nation's disputed presidential election. And every recent president has had to deal with tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, the rogue regime in North Korea, and, of course, international terrorism.
Obama advisers see a central irony. "One reason there is so much urgency is that Washington has put off decisions on these issues for decades" during which the problems have been allowed to fester, says White House spokesman Josh Earnest. Now the bills are coming due. And Obama has staked his presidency on his belief that Americans will agree that there can be no more procrastination.
- See photos of Obama behind the scenes.
Reader Comments
Trillion-Dollar Bank Shakedown Continues (new links):
Obama’s attack on our free market economy began long before the current crisis. The following legal documents, news articles, and videos show his part in causing this crisis over the past fifteen years. Now he uses it as an excuse to do even more damage. To him, our free enterprise system is a giant merciless beast that he and his allies have succeeded in wounding. In a free market, your choices as a consumer, select against society’s losers, which he represents. This is why the Obamabots, having won, are still seething with hatred for their opponents. Having wounded the beast they are now closing in for the kill. The recovery of our free market economy is not their objective. They would rather replace it with something else. So their policies are only making matters measurably worse. They want revenge for the unfairness they perceive in the free market.
These legal documents show Barack Obama suing Citibank under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) from 1994 to 1998, where he and other lawyers got $950,000 in legal fees without finding any evidence of wrongdoing:
http://clearinghouse.wustl.edu/chDocs/public/FH-IL-0011-9000.pdf
http://clearinghouse.wustl.edu/chDocs/public/FH-IL-0011-0007.pdf
This was part of a legalized protection racket perpetrated on our nations banks, and part of a widespread systematic shakedown, described in detail in this article published in the year 2000: "The Trillion-Dollar Bank Shakedown That Bodes Ill for Cities":
http://www.city-journal.org/html/10_1_the_trillion_dollar.html
The New York Times reported on this in 2003, and explained what additional regulatory action the Bush administration tried to initiate to protect the banks, in "New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae", only to be blocked by Democrats in congress:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/11/business/new-agency-proposed-to-oversee-freddie-mac-and-fannie-mae.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
Obama, ACORN, Bill Clinton, the Clinton Administration, and members of congress explain what happened here in their own words in these videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN31-nKndg8&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-TyH6Yupso
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr1M1T2Y314
This video connects the dots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZVw3no2A4&feature=iv&annotation_id=event_597487
Thomas Sowell summarized it all in his column, "Do Facts Matter?":
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NGRjODM1MTJlOGZiZDk2ODI4NTUzMWMxYjgwMjliMGQ
The Washington Post provides additional detail: ("Where Was Sen. Dodd? Playing the Blame Game On Fannie and Freddie"):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091102841.html
The Wall Street Journal provides additional detail: ("Blame Fannie Mae and Congress For the Credit Mess "):
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122212948811465427.html
This pattern of behavior must be stopped to protect the economic future of our country.
Luiesmom, This is what being a community organizer has to do with not liking police?
Obama’s attack on our free market economy began long before the current crisis. The following legal documents, news articles, and videos show his part in causing this crisis over the past fifteen years. Now he uses it as an excuse to do even more damage. To him, our free enterprise system is a giant merciless beast that he and his allies have succeeded in wounding. In a free market, your choices as a consumer, select against society’s losers, which he represents. This is why the Obamabots, having won, are still seething with hatred for their opponents. Having wounded the beast they are now closing in for the kill. The recovery of our free market economy is not their objective. They would rather replace it with something else. So their policies are only making matters measurably worse. They want revenge for the unfairness they perceive in society.
These legal documents show Barack Obama suing Citibank under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) from 1994 to 1998, where he and other lawyers got $950,000 in legal fees without finding any evidence of wrongdoing:
http://clearinghouse.wustl.edu/chDocs/public/FH-IL-0011-9000.pdf
http://clearinghouse.wustl.edu/chDocs/public/FH-IL-0011-0007.pdf
This was part of a legalized protection racket perpetrated on our nations banks, and part of a widespread systematic shakedown, described in detail in this article published in the year 2000: "The Trillion-Dollar Bank Shakedown That Bodes Ill for Cities":
http://www.city-journal.org/html/10_1_the_trillion_dollar.html
The New York Times reported on this in 2003, and explained what additional regulatory action the Bush administration tried to initiate to protect the banks, in "New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae", only to be blocked by Democrats in congress:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/11/business/new-agency-proposed-to-oversee-freddie-mac-and-fannie-mae.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
Obama, ACORN, Bill Clinton, the Clinton Administration, and members of congress explain what happened here in their own words in these videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivmL-lXNy64&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vJcVgJhNaU&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs&feature=related
This video connects the dots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZVw3no2A4&feature=iv&annotation_id=event_597487
Thomas Sowell summarized it all in his column, "Do Facts Matter?":
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NGRjODM1MTJlOGZiZDk2ODI4NTUzMWMxYjgwMjliMGQ
The Washington Post provides additional detail: ("Where Was Sen. Dodd? Playing the Blame Game On Fannie and Freddie"):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091102841.html
The Wall Street Journal provides additional detail: ("Blame Fannie Mae and Congress For the Credit Mess "):
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122212948811465427.html
This pattern of behavior must be stopped to protect the economic future of our country.
"GOVERMENT WOULD GET OUT OF THE WAY".
we do not need all of Obama's big government (NON SOLUTIONS) to this countries problems. The people and the private sector could solve those problems BETTER AND QUICKER IF "GOVERMENT WOULD GET OUT OF THE WAY".
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