Grading Obama One-Third Into His Term
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Coming up on the end of the first third of President Obama's term, we can begin to assess the success or failure of his administration.
- Economy: D Minus
The stimulus package has helped General Motors and Chrysler avoid collapse,
but it merely shifted the burden to taxpayers and creditors. Meanwhile, financial institutions have taken the stimulus funds without necessarily turning on the credit spigot, consequently the housing market has remained severely damaged and businesses find loans for operations difficult to obtain leading to a continuation of high unemployment. [chart from Google] - Health Care: D
While forcing through a partisan "re-form" of the health care system, the Obama administration has alienated a significant portion of the population, threatened the careers of Democratic Party members of Congress, set up the nation for massive deficits related to health care [the CBO allows $500 billion of savings from diverting funds from Medicare and is based on 10 years of revenue to the government versus 6 years of health care coverage... check the chart closely], potentially driven many doctors to consider early retirement, and may well have created disincentives for those considering a medical career. Meanwhile, the idea that more Americans will be covered by health insurance may be more numbers juggling than reality as businesses react to the burdens of providing health care under the new law. [chart source DailyMe.com] - Military Operations: C
Contrary to President Obama's initial optimism that the U.S. could simply leave the Middle East and talk ourselves into a lasting peace, U.S. troops will remain beyond his campaign timeline in Iraq while a new quagmire is developing in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Meanwhile, politically correct dictates from the Administration now place the troops in a damned if you shoot when you shouldn't [even if you couldn't know you shouldn't] or damned if you don't and are killed. [picture from CNN] - Nuclear Control: F
While focusing on a new Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty [SALT] with Russia that is more token than significant, Iran continues to move forward toward nuclear weapons capability. Meanwhile, the Obama Administration determines the best it can do is offer up assurances that we will not use nuclear weapons against an aggressor if they do not have nuclear weapons which is supposed to be an incentive for Iran? to give up its efforts to become a nuclear power... at the same time that Secretary of Defense, William Gates, admits that the Obama Administration has no real strategy developed for coping with a nuclear Iran [its not like Iran developing those weapons is a big surprise]. [picture unknown source] - Energy: D
While coming up with a resolution to consider offshore drilling for oil and natural gas [excluding some of the most promising offshore areas], the Obama Administration continue to focus on alternative energy and mandating smaller cars and trucks as its focus for becoming energy independent and "solving" a CO2 "problem" that is quickly being recognized as a non-existent problem. Meanwhile, moving forward on more new safe, dependable, and clean nuclear power plants has fallen into neglect as the Obama Administration continues to push nascent, inefficient, unreliable alternatives while concurrently trying to dismantle coal power which is the source of nearly half the nation's electricity. [chart from NY Times] - Immigration: D
It is difficult to grade the Obama Administration on anything positive it has done to manage the massive influx of illegal aliens into this country because it has done nothing really. Meanwhile, states such as Arizona and Texas are beginning to address the issue of defending the borders which should be one of the Obama Administration's primary responsibilities according to the Constitution. [picture unknown source]
My wife considers this grade inflation.
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