Obama Turns His Attention Back to the Economy

Since U.S. President Barack Obama took office, he has pushed for Congress to approve the $787 billion economic stimulus package, as well as pumping in enormous funds through various channels to rescue financial, and other, institutions. The federal government has also intervened in the economy with an intensity not seen in decades, including directly injecting funds to buy out corporations and turn them into state-owned enterprises, as well as limiting the salaries of high-level corporate executives.

At the same time, Mr. Obama has been in action in various front lines to carry out his promise of reforms to reinvigorate and to change the face of domestic and foreign policies.

A few months ago, Mr. Obama listed the achievements of his first 100 days as president in a press conference at the White House. These included successfully pushing Congress to approve the economic stimulus package, creating or retaining 1.5 million jobs, allowing 95 percent of the working class to enjoy tax rebates, taking steps to end the Iraq War, strengthening cooperation with NATO, striking at Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, making a decision to close down the Guantanamo Bay prison and fully prohibiting the use of torture.

Obama’s performance after he took office has won him universal praise. A survey carried out by the Associated Press in April found that 48 percent of those interviewed thought that the U.S. was heading in the right direction, a 31 percent increase from half a year ago. There were others, however, who felt that Obama had been doing too many things, and still others who felt that he had not done enough in the area of the economy. 90 percent of those interviewed felt that the economy was the most important problem to be dealt with.

Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who had visited Kuala Lumpur a few days ago, felt the same way. He felt that it would be better if Obama could pay more attention to economic problems. According to the reporter, MM Lee was concerned that as Obama has been directing his attention to issues such as reforming the health care institution, reducing energy consumption and combating climate changes, he has not been able to concentrate on handling the knotty economic problems.

“He has thrown many balls into the air, and I am sure that he has the ability to catch them all. However, the current economic problems require him to put in a lot of effort to handle and resolve in order for the economy to get back on track.”

At the beginning of his term, many commentators said that Mr. Obama was facing some of the harshest challenges since President Roosevelt. Mr. Obama once said on his 100th day press conference: “What surprised me was, usually a president will be faced with a problem or two when he takes office, but I didn’t expect I would be faced with seven or eight of them.”

Mr. Obama’s words reminds us of what President Harry Truman once said. “I felt like the moon, the stars and all the planets had fallen on me.”

Truman took over from President Roosevelt, who passed away during his term in 1945. During his term, Truman had seldom met with Roosevelt and had not received reports on the development of nuclear bombs and the U.S.-U.S.S.R. relationship. On the following day of his coming into office, all of these problems, as well as a series of issues during the war, rained down on President Truman. They were more than he could handle, and he had therefore poured out his woes to the reporters.

Though he marveled at the magnitude and complexity of his tasks ahead, Mr. Obama, however, has always displayed a prudent yet optimistic sense of confidence.

Nothing compared to Truman and Roosevelt

In a recent interview with the Associated Press, a number of scholars studying American presidents compared the challenges Obama has faced with those that a few former leaders who took office in troubled times had faced. They felt that the challenges Obama is facing are in fact nothing compared to what those leaders had been through.

Truman himself was faced with the decision of how to end the Second World War, whether to drop the atomic bomb on Japan (this would reduce the American troops casualties, but tens of thousands of Japanese civilians would perish), as well as how to establish world peace, which included how to deal with Nazi Germany, the perpetrator of a war that caused widespread misery and suffering.

Stephen Hess, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said: “This fellow was dealt an incredibly difficult hand, both foreign and domestic. But maybe if you compare him to Lincoln or to FDR, it is not such a mountain to climb.”

“On the scale of being confronted with truly major problems on taking office, I think I would have to put it in the top 10 percent,” said Hess. These problems included the economic crisis, the Guantanamo Bay detainees, health care, North Korea’s nuclear program, Iran’s nuclear program, as well as the Israel-Palestine problem. “Lincoln took over on the verge of a civil war that was going to divide the country. Americans were slaughtering Americans. Roosevelt faced the worst depression the United States ever had.”

Comparing Obama with Roosevelt, Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, said that though Roosevelt did not face major diplomatic challengers when he took office, he was faced with an economic collapse that was far more serious than the economic crisis that Obama has inherited.

Then there was Kennedy, who has often been mentioned in the same breath with Obama.

When John F. Kennedy took office in 1961, he took over the plans to train and support Cuban exiles to invade their homeland from the previous administration. The Bay of Pigs Invasion, however, was an utter failure, and the young president was embarrassed.

The Kennedy administration continued to put pressure on Cuba, which led to the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. “We were at the brink of nuclear war. I don’t think we are at the brink of war with the North Koreans,” said G. Calvin Mackenzie, professor of government at Colby College.

Scholars thus felt that though Obama was faced with a thousand and one formidable challenges, they are nonetheless not insurmountable ones.

As Obama and his party start to fulfill his other promises of reforms made during the election one by one, he has also recently begun to shift his focus back on the economy.

On Tuesday of this week, Mr. Obama announced during a cabinet meeting that he intends to speed up the implementation of the $787 billion economic stimulation plan. He admitted that he was not satisfied with the stimulation plan’s progress, and he promised to carry it out in a more transparent manner. The federal government had also announced a number of new plans to stimulate the economy on the same day.

Obama’s economic stimulus plans will continue to be announced one after another, because he understands that though the U.S. economy is seeing signs of recovery, it is in fact merely slowing its fall. There is still a long and arduous journey ahead to full recovery. The public evaluation of his administration’s success still hinges mainly on the economy’s performance.