Obama's 2008 promises: kept or broken?

HEALTH CARE

"Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American." PARTIALLY KEPT

Mr. Obama passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which will help make health care accessible for millions of more Americans through the expansion of Medicaid and new government subsidies. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office revised its estimates after the Supreme Court ruling on the health care law and now projects that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), "in comparison with prior law before the enactment of the ACA, will reduce the number of nonelderly people without health insurance coverage by 14 million in 2014 and by 29 million or 30 million in the latter part of the coming decade."

While not "every single American" will have insurance, the CBO projects that by 2016, 92 percent of nonelderly residents will have insurance.

"If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums." BROKEN

So far, premiums for those who already have health insurance have gone up during Mr. Obama's presidency.

The nonpartisan, nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation reported in September 2011, "After several years of relatively modest premium increases, annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage increased to $15,073 this year, up 9 percent from last year."

"If you don't, you'll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves." KEPT

The Affordable Care Act requires members of Congress to purchase health insurance plans either created directly by the new law or as part of the health insurance exchanges that are expected to be set up by 2014 -- the same exchanges through which many Americans would acquire insurance.

"And -- and as someone who watched my mother argue with insurance companies while she lay in bed dying of cancer, I will make certain those companies stop discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most." KEPT

The Affordable Care Act does prohibit insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions.

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[JohnBeaulieu]

Foreign Policy points Gov. Romney could make in closing the third/last debate with President Obama:

Mr. President, when you ran for your first term as president, you promised:

1. That you would take immediate steps to end the genocide in Darfur. You didn't.
2. To launch an "Add Value to Agriculture" (AVTA) initiative for Africa. You didn't.
3. To fully fund debt cancellation for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries. You didn't.
4. To launch an Africa-specific Global Energy and Environment Initiative. You didn't.
5. To press China to respect human rights. You didn't.
6. To press China to end its support for regimes in Sudan, Burma, Iran and Zimbabwe. You didn't.
7. To enforce our trade laws and agreements with China to ensure America has a fair opportunity to compete and to counteract piracy of intellectual property: You didn't.
8. To show U.S. leadership in negotiating a political settlement on Cyprus. You didn't.
9. To create a new Office of Conflict Prevention and Resolution at State. You didn't.
10. To pursue direct diplomacy with all nations, friend and foe. In the case of North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba and others, you didn't.
11. To double U.S. spending on foreign aid to $50 billion per year by 2012. You didn't.
12. To double the Peace Corps to 16,000 volunteers by 2011. You didn't.
13. To establish a $2 billion Global Education Fund to create alternatives to extremist schools. You didn't.
14. To form an international working group to address the Iraqi refugee crisis. You didn't.
15. To provide at least $50 billion to the global fight against HIV/AIDS by 2013. You didn't.
16. To create a 25,000-strong Civilian Assistance Corps to deploy during international crises. You didn't.
17. To significantly increase funding for the National Endowment for Democracy. You didn't.
18. To restore U.S. leadership on space issues by seeking a code of conduct for space-faring nations. You didn't.
19. To open "America Houses" in cities across the Arab world. You didn't, except for one in non-Arab Indonesia.
20. To double the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA's) budget, increasing the U.S. share to $225 million. You didn't.
21. To take the lead at the G-8 to launch "Health Infrastructure 2020." You didn't.
22. To establish a Shared Security Partnership Program to invest $5 billion over 3 years to improve U.S. cooperation with foreign intelligence and law enforcement agencies. You didn't.
23. To support passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution and to recognize the Armenian Genocide. You didn't.
24. To conduct direct talks with Iran and conduct direct presidential diplomacy with Iran with no preconditions. You didn't.
25. To work with European allies to end "national caveat" restrictions in Afghanistan. You didn't.
26. To end the war in Iraq within 16 months of your inauguration. You didn't. It took 35 months.
27. To secure Russia's agreement to extend the monitoring and verification provisions of the START I Treaty before it expired in December 2009. You didn't. That agreement didn't come until April 2010 and the "New START" treaty was not formalized until February 2011.
28. To expand the U.S.-Russian ban on intermediate-range missiles so that the agreement is global. You didn't.
29. To nominate a Special Envoy for the Americas. You didn't.
30. To provide leadership in enforcing international wildlife protection agreements, including strengthening the international moratorium on commercial whaling, especially by Japan. You didn't.
31. To strengthen the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 2010. You didn't.
32. To work with the Senate to secure the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). You didn't.
33. To lead a global effort to secure all nuclear weapons materials at vulnerable site within 4 years. You didn't.
34. To lead a global effort to negotiate a verifiable Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT). You didn't.
See www.obama44reportcard.com for details on when these promises were made and amplifying data on how/why President Obama didn't fulfill them.
www.obama44reportcard.com

[ZZLA]

And Romney WON'T keep promises either. He can't. Not in the face of a $16T deficit. This is the result of leveraging and kicking the can down the road which started mid century. Deleverage and we'll go into recession, pure and simple. New, innovative industry growth i.e. energy, nano, health, etc. that is unsubsidized will create jobs and might bring us back to par, if not reduce the number. But, $16T will never be paid off. Republicans can chime in here and regain some respect for being honest. Both Dems and Reps are consumed with short-term goals. Romney, if he wins, will have his day walking on hot coals, while being reduced to irrelevancy.

[mikesmithut]

What a crock! First, you are not clairvoyant and in no way know what promises Romney would or would not keep. Neither does the presumption of what one person would do excuse the facts of what the other has done. Why do you insist on protecting the President against the truth? You must work for the media.

[mollykj]

""I will -- listen now -- I will cut taxes -- cut taxes -- for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class." KEPT

The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the stimulus) cut taxes for 95 percent of working families by changing withholding rates."

Yeah, right. He cut 2% off the amount the employee has to contribute to FICA - that is social security, not income tax.

So, basically, working Americans have been forced by their President to save 2% LESS for their own Social Security.

Brilliant.

[stupa5]

Obama 2012
deport Romney to the Caymans!

[Leatoo]

Depot you to Libya!

[alphaa10000]

"BROKEN" PROMISES ? A "BAFFOON SHILL" ?

CBS reporter Stephanie Condon did a fairly accurate job of profiling Obama's promises, but her conclusions about Obama performance are illogical, at best.

In point of fact, with control of the US House of Representatives after 2010, the GOP gleefully engineered most Obama "failures" to meet his promises. Since any legislative success requires consent of the house, Boehner and Cantor always had the last word.

Obama's plan to end dependence on Middle East oil has been the elusive goal of many presidents since Carter declared it the "moral equivalent of war". But failure did not occur through a broken promise, but because effective oil lobby opposition blocked every substantive measure. So far as Obama's responsibility is concerned, he kept his promise.

Obama did fail to keep his promise on one matter entirely within his power. Obama's plan to "safely harness nuclear power" depends on defining what the American public will accept as safe, and that has not been done. While Condon gave Obama a "promise kept", the matter is far from resolved. The new NRC chairman has ordered a thorough review of all nuclear power plant recertification efforts for such obvious faults as failure to provide for evacuation, failure to provide for safe storage of wastes, etc.

Obama investment in retooling for improved, greener automotive design was made, and tax incentives provided to make it easier to afford the new car designs. But that was the extent of the Obama promise. The fact that critics had some influence on sales of the Chevrolet Volt and other cars does not alter the fact Obama delivered what he promised.

On educational funding, Obama promised "we will make sure you can afford a college education." However, whatever funding Obama promised and delivered easily could be eclipsed by rising tuition. Since Obama does not control the rapidly moving target of college tuition, this is not an Obama broken promise.

Of Obama's plan for lower health care insurance premiums, this depends on the whims of the private insurance market, since Obamacare (thanks to the GOP and its insurance lobby) did not include at its passage a Medicare-type plan called Public Option. Without public option, if rates from private insurers go up, neither Obama nor anyone else has any influence to bring them down. This, of course, illustrates why Obama said early in his campaign to include public option, "It helps keep the insurance companies honest." Not a promise broken, but an element beyond Obama's direct control.

Protecting Social Security for future generations, says Condon, is a broken Obama promise. Again, however, legislative inertia is not presidential misconduct, or a broken promise. As Nobel economist Paul Krugman repeatedly has pointed out, Social Security has a record reserve, and it will be more than a decade before any adjustment in withholding becomes appropriate, and that adjustment can be made without drama, when required.

Obama's promise to review the federal budget for "deadwood" is not the same as a promise not to sign new spending, because much of his spending is required to keep his promises. Nor could a reasonable person have expected him not to sign spending bills. Condon's conclusion is without foundation, and for that matter, any rational explanation whatever.

The 2008 Obama promise for "finishing the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban" could be construed to mean something entirely different than declaring victory and bringing troops home from Afghanistan-- it could be taken to mean a years-long, tough war to prop up Karzai, rebuild the country, somehow end rampant corruption, and invest as much military as required. That is no longer politically feasible, because most Americans want out of Afghanistan, and to them, at least, "finishing the fight" means simply ending the US intervention. Therefore, finishing the fight is not a 2008 promise partially kept, as Condon suggests, but not kept at all because of politics 2012.

Renewing diplomatic efforts with Russia to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons is an Obama promise made and kept, and far more successfully than George W. Bush. The fact Iran already has a "peaceful" reactor in no way detracts from the diplomatic effort waged by Secretary Clinton to apply pressure on Iran-- the diplomatic campaign is what Obama promised, and kept.

In summary, although reporter Condon has been accused by another poster (GOP) of being a "baffoon shill", surely she understands that Washington 2009-2012 is almost pure gridlock. Most readers already understand simple obstruction has been the principal political game of the GOP from 2009-2012, and to conclude Obama is responsible for any of it is absurd.

Score-- Stephanie Condon 0, CBS Readers 0. I politely suggest Condon is capable of a much better, more logical analysis than this article, and look forward to reading it, at some point.

[aboco]

Typical Libtard. Always an excuse for everything. A promise broken is a broken promise. Period. The budget is not balanced. More Americans are unemployed. He spent his first year continuing his "election speeches" versus reaching across the aisle. We are no closer to eliminating our dependance on foreign oil...in fact, he has stood in the way of progress. Oh yeah, and while you Libtards cried and whined about the $4 Trillion Bush added to the debt in 8 years....Obama has added in excess of $5+ Trillion in only 4 years. Go ahead, I'll wait while you do the math. Don't forget to carry the one.

[3700817]

Keeping track of promises kept or broken is a fool's errand. We all make promises. Some of those promises are kept, and some of them shouldn't be kept. If you doubt my words, ask your spouse.

Before you make any more quick judgments about who is right and who is wrong, ask yourself this. Do you really know what is good for you?

[alphaa10000]

Monitoring promises should be more than score-keeping. A proper retrospective on any candidate can be useful when it measures his accuracy in assessment of challenges, the feasibility of policy objectives chosen, and his success in realizing them.

Condon's article begins as a good idea, provided the analysis takes into account all the factors controlling the outcome. Unfortunately, Condon treated the matter as a scorecard exercise, with little apparent depth or consistent rationale for determining what promises were kept.

With Obama, analysis can be difficult. Even Obama's first two years were hamstrung by a huge glut of competing emergencies, and it was his first task to prioritize the crises. Some insist Obamacare's passage was all that could be reasonably expected after the nation's economy was stabilized and foreign wars brought under better management.

[dbegley998]

OK lets skip the broken promises. Here is a list of Kept Obama promises
1)Ahhhh, I'm thinking Ahhh.............................

[dslaby]

You don't call an emergency room physician who resusitates a dying patient a failure; President Obama resusitated a dying capitalist system and now the patient is in recovery. A lot different than the conservatives who would have pulled the plug and waited to see if the dying patient would recover on his own.

President Obama has turned around the economy - consider the free-fall into depression that was occurring when he took office: we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. Yes we are much better off than we were 4 years ago.

While the recovery is slow and likely to be affected by the European recession caused by austerity; the financial market is doing fine, and Mitt Romney and his 1% privileged class should thank President Obama for restoring their wealth, and those with 401Ks for restoring their retirement funds. The stock market has fully recovered. America's banks are the most stable in the world. Exports as a percent of GDP has recovered. The auto industry is alive and growing and Osama Bin Laden is not.

We may not be happy that President Obama did not turn out to be another leader in the stature of Martin Luther King, but he has slaved to keep us from the destruction of the conservative right, by even trusting in bipartisanship of an obstructionist GOP Congress. The Tea Party GOP are weeds in the garden of democracy.

[American72]

Obama's promises: kept or broken: I don't know of any Obama promise that has been kept.

This, folks, is a direct quote from Nancy Pelosi. Can't believe she said this. She cares for the unemployed and underemployed about as much as snakes care for people.

"We have to think in terms of the country than in each individual person," she said, adding later: "It's a hard sell, and if you don't have a job, what difference does it make to you?"

[TimeToEvolve]

The contrast between the elitist, everyone can be rich, radical Republicons and the down-to-earth Democrats who care about Americans in general and women, children, minorities and workers specifically could not be more pronounced. How did America buy into this fake, fraudulent failed free market crap that has failed so badly? And which the ridiculous out-of-touch Republicons keep pushing.

[Lindag20]

by jgg000010 September 4, 2012 10:04 PM EDT
how many bills is harry reid sitting on?
--------------
how many times has the House voted to repeal the ACA? Congress has a 9% approval rating for GOOD reason.