President Obama Policy – Writers Choice

Failures and Successes of Obamacare and the Stimulus Policy
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Abstract
Four months after the election of Barack Obama as the United States’ first black president, he “gave his State of the Union address to” a joint session of the Congress. The President talked about many issues that have been crippling the economic development of the US. Among the issues he mentioned were energy, education, health, and lending etcetera. Aside from just mentioning the issues, the President also talked about how he hoped his government would solve them. Policies like the Stimulus policy, officially known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and healthcare reforms which led to Obamacare were some of the strategies the President talked about in his address to the Congress. Even though the stimulus policy managed to improve the economy of the US, it had some notable failures which did political damage to the Obama administration. The Obamacare, on the other hand, helped 9 million Americans access health insurance but left out almost twice as many citizens in need of the program.
Key words: Obama administration, Presidency, address, Stimulus policy, Obamacare
Failures and Successes of Obamacare and the Stimulus Policy
President Barrack Obama made history by becoming the first African American to be elected the president of the United States of America. Many people know President Obama for his eloquence and his ability to articulate issues that appeal to most of the American citizens.

Approximately three months after being elected president, Obama gave his state of the union address “before a joint session of the Congress” (Peters & Woolley, n.d.). In his speech, the President touched on many issues that would help revive the economy of the US. Some of the critical topics he addressed were education, health, energy, and investment and lending. This paper talks about two policies that stemmed out of his recommendations to the Congress in this address, and their failures and successes. It also talks about whether the presidency is a powerful or a weak tool for policy change.
Stimulus Policy
In his state of the union address, President Obama recognized that the economy of the United States had indeed fallen way below the level that they could comfortably take. He also pointed out that the economy did not go that low overnight and that most of the problems the Americans were experiencing then did not start with the sinking of the stock market or the collapse of the housing market. Obama attributed it to the wrong choices that both the Americans and some of the past regimes had made in the past. Some of the bad choices he mentioned were the delay in formulating and implementing healthcare reforms, depending heavily on imported oil instead of focusing on other renewable sources of energy, and maintaining a poor system of education. After mentioning all these issues, he said that then was the time to take bold and wise moves to ensure that those issues of the past do not keep eating the economy of the US. He then reminded his audience of the task he gave the Congress a few moments after he took office. He said he requested the Congress to send him “a recovery plan by President’s Day that would put people back to work and put money in their pockets” (Peters & Woolley, n.d.). By the time he was speaking, the Congress had done what he had asked them to do, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was law. The President said that the plan would, in the following two years, create or save 3.5 million jobs, provide tax cuts to working families, and tax credits to college students for their entire four years in college.
Many years down the line, the stimulus policy that resulted from the legislation has achieved great successes and unexpected failures. When selling the stimulus policy, the Obama administration made it sound like it would drop kick the nation out of recession. However, this goal was never achieved. The stimulus bill was worth an estimated $800 billion, making it the biggest economic recovery plan in the history of the world (Carley & Hyman, 2014). Nonpartisan and economist forecasting estimated that the program saved and created over 2 million jobs. It also created some unexpected “buzz around renewable energy” (Carley & Hyman, 2014). The small kitty of education grants encouraged 32 states to come up with reforms like tying the pay of the teacher to the performance of the students or “lifting caps on charter schools” (Carley & Hyman, 2014). Nearly 41,000 miles of roads were paved, and high-speed internet installed in close to 3,000 rural schools (Carley & Hyman, 2014).
In spite of these achievements, the stimulus failed to give rise to a robust and sustainable economic recovery. The failure, according to experts, could have been due to a possible misinterpretation of the recession or the manner in which the Obama administration sold the policy. Analysts suggest that the state assistance was not sufficient to fill the budget gaps, and the school aid, in most cases, just delayed rather than prevent teacher layoffs (Carley & Hyman, 2014). Some economists also argue that the program was too small to achieve what it was meant to achieve, while some say it was the design that had a problem. All in all, the program did a lot of economic good to
Obamacare
As mentioned before in the paper, healthcare was one of the areas that President Obama touched on in his state of the union address. The President said that reforms in the health sector, cannot, must not, and will not wait (Peters & Woolley, n.d.). “The Obamacare is one of the programs that” were born by the healthcare reforms of the Obama regime (Krugman, 2014). However, just like the stimulus policy it had tremendous successes and notable failures.
The Obamacare, officially known as the Affordable Act Care (ACA), was signed into law in March 2010 (Krugman, 2014). Many have seen the act as one of President Obama’s biggest legacy while some saw it as an unsustainable process from the start when the website to enroll people into the program almost crushed due to the number of individuals rushing to register. The greatest positive about the ACA undoubtedly is that approximately 9 million got health insurance between 2010 and 2014 (Krugman, 2014). 9 million more people with health insurance means that the emergency rooms have to worry about 9 million fewer people flooding them and causing severe strains in their operations (Krugman, 2014). Most poor Americans have to wait for serious health concerns that would see them rushed to the emergency rooms for them to visit the hospital. However, according to Kaiser Permanente, approximately 28 million American were eligible for the program at its inception (Krugman, 2014). Therefore, 19 million of the eligible citizens either chose to ignore the program or had difficulties figuring it out (Krugman, 2014). Most of these people were young and low-income non-white citizens. This is the category that the program was meant for. However, the 9 million people that enrolled in the program were happy with the services provided as well as their costs. Even if the 19 million eligible citizens did not manage to enroll, the 9 million that did reduce a significant stress on the healthcare system. Therefore, despite the fact that some people did not like the program, it was a success (Krugman, 2014).
In conclusion, these two policies indeed experienced significant successes. The fact that the president initiated them says something about the presidency; it is an efficient office for policy changes. The words of the president were powerful enough to get the Congress to craft the stimulus plan which was responsible for significantly boosting the economy of the US. Those very instructions saw millions of Americans gain access to health insurance, hence reducing the strain that has always been on the American health sector. These pieces of evidence just go to show how powerful and efficient the presidency is, as a policy change agent.
References
Carley, S., & Hyman, M. (2014). The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Lessons from
Energy Program Implementation Efforts.State and Local Government Review, 0160323X14538066.
Krugman, P. (2014). In Defense of Obama. Rolling Stone, 1220, 38.
Peters, G., & Woolley, J. T. (n.d.). Barack Obama: Address Before a Joint Session of the
Congress. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=85753