Obama's Incomplete Greatness

Aug 7, 2012
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The article talks about Obama's accomplishments and says he should be measured by other presidents, not by the economy and other things alone.

Read more, especially the intro into the below remarks.

And yet a solid majority of Americans nevertheless thinks the president has not accomplished much. Why? There are plenty of possible explanations. The most obvious is the economy. People are measuring Obama’s actions against the actual conditions of their lives and livelihoods, which, over the past three years, have not gotten materially better. He failed miserably at his grandiose promise to change the culture of Washington (see “Clinton’s Third Term”). His highest-profile legislative accomplishments were object lessons in the ugly side of compromise. In negotiations, he came off to Democrats as naïvely trusting, and to Republicans as obstinately partisan, leaving the impression that he could have achieved more if only he had been less conciliatory—or more so, depending on your point of view. And for such an obviously gifted orator, he has been surprisingly inept at explaining to average Americans what he’s fighting for or trumpeting what he’s achieved.

In short, when judging Obama’s record so far, conservatives measure him against their fears, liberals against their hopes, and the rest of us against our pocketbooks. But if you measure Obama against other presidents—arguably the more relevant yardstick—a couple of things come to light. Speaking again in terms of sheer tonnage, Obama has gotten more done than any president since LBJ. But the effects of some of those achievements have yet to be felt by most Americans, often by design. Here, too, Obama is in good historical company.

The greatest achievements of some of our most admired presidents were often unrecognized during their years in office, and in many cases could only be appreciated with the passing of time. When FDR created Social Security in 1935, the program offered meager benefits that were delayed for years, excluded domestic workers and other heavily black professions (a necessary compromise to win southern votes), and was widely panned by liberals as a watered-down sellout. Only in subsequent decades, as benefits were raised and expanded, did Social Security become the country’s most beloved government program. Roosevelt’s first proposal for a GI Bill for returning World War II veterans was also relatively stingy, and while its benefits grew as it moved through Congress, its aim remained focused on keeping returning veterans from flooding the labor market. Only later was it apparent that the program was fueling the growth of America’s first mass middle class. When Harry Truman took office at the dawn of the Cold War, he chose the policy of containment over a more aggressive “rollback” of communism, and then he built the institutions to carry it out. He left office with a 32 percent public approval rating. Only decades later would it become clear that he made the right choice.
 
Obama's Incomplete Greatness

The article talks about Obama's accomplishments.......

Talks-about???

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Republicans WORST nightmare?



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Obama's Incomplete Greatness

LOlOlollOLOLOlo
LOLlOl

LOLOl
LOLL

Are you fucking serious?
 
get ready for the onslaught of RWer's amnesia about how Boosh! Ran this economy into the ground.


"Back in 2003, when the so-called Medicare Modernization Act was being debated in Congress, we warned that this latest round of Medicare privatization contained severe flaws that would hurt consumers and taxpayers while lining the pockets of special interests. With nearly two years of hindsight, we can safely say we were right: The MMA has been a major disappointment for consumers and taxpayers, but a windfall for private insurance and drug companies.

We've laid out the extent of the MMA's failures in a new report: Medicare Privatization: Windfall for the Special Interests. The report chronicles the failures of the MMA in three key areas: Medicare Advantage overpayments, subsidies to regional PPOs, and drug prices.

Among the key findings:

* Under the MMA, Medicare has been significantly overpaying private plans under Medicare Advantage. In 2005, Medicare overpaid private plans by at least 7% per beneficiary, costing taxpayers $2.7 billion. In 2006, overpayment reached 11% per beneficiary, costing taxpayers $4.6 billion.

* Under the MMA, Congress set aside $10 billion for an unnecessary subsidy (or "stabilization fund") to regional PPOs. This year, however, 88% of beneficiaries have access to a regional PPO, before the so-called "stabilization fund" was even tapped--no subsidy was necessary.

* Medicare Part D drug prices are substantially higher than the prices obtained by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which negotiates prices on behalf of consumers. For all of the top 20 drugs prescribed to seniors, the lowest price charged by any Part D plan was higher than the lowest price secured by the VA. Yet Congress refused to let Medicare negotiate directly with the drug companies, as the VA does.

*Bottom line: this report shows that, unfortunately for consumers and taxpayers, the MMA has not even come close to meeting the high expectations set for it by Congress. Consumers are getting hurt and taxpayers fleeced, while insurance companies and drug manufacturers are raking in money faster than they can count it. Congress needs to move away from this deeply flawed privatization model, and instead focus on strengthening Medicare.




:eusa_whistle:
 
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Truly we won't know for 50 to 100 years how good or bad obama was. It will take that long to know the effect of the Bush presidency. Look how long it took before we had a historical record to show how really bad FDR's presidency was.
 
Obama's Incomplete Greatness

LOlOlollOLOLOlo
LOLlOl

LOLOl
LOLL

Are you fucking serious?

Look at these guys. Still living in 2003.

When they finally get to 2010, I wonder if they will realize what the American people did when they took the house away from them ?
 

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