There have been a few diaries about Jacob Weisberg's Slate article praising President Obama's First Year. Yet I think for too many it still hasn't sunk in. Indeed, even within the progressive blogosphere, opinions are split passionately on the merits of what President Obama has accomplished in just one year. Yet I am concerned that opinion and the temperature of heated expectation has thrown a damper on the actual facts. Which need to be stated over and over and over again.
More below.
Health Care: For all its flaws and for all of the sausage making and the constant screaming and banter on the left and the right, despite the tons of cash flowing from opposition groups and teabaggers disrupting debate; despite weak democrats in the senate and angry progressives in the house, the healthcare bill seems set to pass. Whatever you personally feel about the bill, it is still the single most sweeping reform of our healthcare system in over 60 years. Period. One of my best friends is working as-needed for a local contractor. Dude makes less that 14,000 a year. No insurance at all. He lives in a government-assisted apartment. Now, under the proposed legislation, he would be eligable for Medicaid. So, if you are one of the ones screaming "kill the bill!"...why don't you want my friend to have insurance? Seriously...
Stimulus: Again, for all the flaws in the stimulus, there is mounting evidence that the cash that is flowing to the states is much needed and is the single most important reason that the bleeding has all but stopped. Same goes for the bailouts, which is a populist's nightmare. Yet there are telltale signs that the bailouts stabilized a situation that he didn't create, that was an existing problem when he took office. We also need to understand that the TARP funds were existing holdovers from the Bush administration. Let's not forget that. Basically what Obama's administration has done is oversee the last half of the money. Also, it needs to be said that the taxpayers have profited over 52 million dollars this year. Not too bad for a horrific, tasteless investment. Not to mention the President has begun to charge fees to these big banks, which are aimed at TARP banks that have not paid back their fair share yet.
97% pass rate: It should also be noted that this President has a higher rate of passing bills he favors than any President since FDR. He's even ahead of Johnson. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi also deserve some of the credit on this one, as they have worked overtime to corall votes and compromise and negotiate. I'll never really understand how critics point their fingers and say he's not doing anything, when he has a higher pass rate than any other President in modern History.
Situation on the ground: There are maybe fifty-two votes in the senate that are progressive enough to pass progressive legislation like the "public option." Sounds like a clear majority, yeah? Well, no. With a united republican opposition salivating, waiting to hand the President failure after failure, it is important to get the favor of centrist democrats. Now, there are literally hundreds of bills lying around, collecting dust because there aren't the votes to pass them. Republicans don't want ANYTHING passed because they want us to scream at each other. They want us so disenfranchised and angry at our base that we stay home and pout on election day and watch republicans win seat after seat. That's been their plan since the days of Barry Goldwater. Divide and Conquer. They know that by showing their asses in congress and delaying and stalling and threatening to filibuster en masse, that they hand the sausage-making in the hands of conservative democrats. They further know that by doing that then they leave the populist progressives at the mercy of the centrist, corporate Democrats. It's a great plan, if you can keep your party in check, which the Republicans are very good at doing.
These things need to be repeated over and over again. Because I've heard people on this site, "The Democrats can't GOVERN!" and people sugggesting alliances with teabaggers because maybe they'll "come around" because they are populists.
BULLSHIT
The Republicans play populist when it serves their purposes, but they are so ingrained with corporate DNA that even their "teabaggers" are corporate drones, bused in by FreedomWorks, a CORPORATIST ORGANIZATION! Don't let yourself get fooled by the bullshit. Know the facts. Repeat them early and often.