At Home and Abroad, a Record of Achievement

(By Chuck Herz, State Chair, Wyoming Democratic Party)

Over President Barack Obama’s first two years in office he and Congress have:

-- Rescued our economy from the free fall it was in when he took office and laid the foundation for a much sounder future economy.

-- Enacted reforms that make us safer in our health and our finances.

-- Extended individual liberty and equality -- the hallmarks of American democracy.

-- Made strides to safeguard our country and restore respect for it in the world.

Economy

As Obama took office, we confronted economic collapse. People were losing jobs, houses, and savings at rates not seen since the Great Depression. Another depression threatened.

The president, Congress, and the Federal Reserve took action to arrest the collapse and get the economy back on track -- but a sounder, more sustainable track. Sweeping financial reform curtails practices that brought on or deepened the Great Recession.

The Recovery Act stimulus package, the rescue of the U.S. auto industry, and other actions brought us back from the brink and restored economic growth. Growth has been sustained over several quarters, but hasn’t yet gotten enough people back to work.

The more recent extension of tax cuts and unemployment benefits will sustain those still out of work and further spur the economy.

Stimulus was essential to make up for curtailed demand from fearful consumers and businesses, from banks cutting off credit, and from strapped state governments, but adds a lot to the record-setting debt piled up over the previous eight years. Democrats had introduced fiscal discipline during the Bill Clinton years and left government well into the black. Obama has taken steps to renew that fiscal responsibility once the current crisis is past, by restoring the "Pay-Go" rules Bush and Congress had swept away, freezing federal discretionary programs and federal-employee pay, and asking a bipartisan Presidential Commission to recommend tough fiscal measures requiring sacrifice from everyone.

Safety

Obama’s signature accomplishment was the health care reform that had long eluded us. It was clouded by controversy and disinformation about what the reform does. But the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.

When fully operational in 2014 "Obamacare" will ensure that millions (thousands of Wyomingites) who’ve had no insurance or insurance that covers too little no longer need play Russian roulette with family health and finances. It will secure us from having to pay for those who choose to play Russian roulette, forcing others to pick up the tab when they can’t pay. Those with "pre-existing conditions" will get coverage. Preventive care will reduce risk of serious illness and costlier care. Your insurer can no longer cut you off just when you need expensive care on grounds of some technical error. Trials of promising ways to limit costs will begin. And according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, all this will reduce, not add to, the federal deficit.

Those who attack Obamacare owe an adequate alternative solution to all these problems and a national health care system that has cost us far more of our GDP, and delivered poorer health results (life expectancy, child mortality, etc.), than the systems of other nations.

Among other Obama accomplishments that safeguard our families are credit card reform that puts a stop to exorbitant or suddenly hiked interest rates and fees and a major update of food and drug safety laws.

Liberty and equality

Under Obama we’ve taken further steps toward completing the bedrock American commitment to liberty and equality. Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell means that those willing to risk their lives for us are not barred from military service by their private personal behavior. A new law aimed at equal pay for equal work restores the rights of women to challenge pay discrimination once they become aware of it. Two extraordinary women have gone on the Supreme Court, one of them the first Latina there. And prejudice-induced violence will be curbed by the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

National security

President Obama has brought an end to combat operations in Iraq. In the nearly impossible conditions of Afghanistan, the additional troops he committed and the new leadership he installed are making tangible progress. The new Strategic Arms treaty with Russia reduces the threat of nuclear weapons and improves our credibility to limit their spread. A new trade deal with South Korea strengthens both countries and both economies. America’s reputation and credibility in the world, tattered and stained when Obama took office, has recovered.

These are but the high points of an extraordinarily cycle in American history. If you look only at the legislative record, one conservative scholar concludes, "you really don’t have any rivals since Lyndon Johnson -- and that includes Ronald Reagan."

Chuck Herz is the chairman of the Wyoming Democratic Party.

This article was first published in the Casper Star-Tribune, Sunday, Jan. 2, 2011.