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Political positions of Barack Obama
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Political positions of Barack Obama
Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017, served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004. A member of the Democratic Party, he made his presidential run in 2008. He was elected president in 2008 and re-elected in 2012.
Obama has declared his position on many political issues through his public comments and legislative records. The Obama Administration stated that its general agenda was to "revive the economy, provide affordable and accessible health care to all, strengthen our public education and social security systems, define a clear path to energy independence and tackle climate change, end the War in Iraq responsibly and finish our mission in Afghanistan, and work with our allies to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon."
President Obama was first inaugurated in January 2009, in the depths of the Great Recession and the subprime mortgage crisis that began in 2007. His presidency continued the Troubled Asset Relief Program and auto industry rescue begun during the Presidency of George W. Bush and immediately enacted an $800 billion stimulus program, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which included a blend of additional spending and tax cuts. By early 2011, the economy began creating jobs consistently each month, a trend which continued through the end of his tenure.
Obama followed with the 2010 Affordable Care Act. By 2016, the law covered approximately 23 million people with health insurance via a combination of state healthcare exchanges and an extension of Medicaid. It lowered the rate of those without health insurance from approximately 16% in 2010 to 9% by 2015. Throughout his administration, healthcare costs continued moderating; for example, healthcare premiums for those covered by employers rose by 69% between 2000 and 2005, but only by 27% from 2010 to 2015. By 2017, nearly 70% of those on the exchanges could purchase insurance for less than $75 per month after subsidies. The law was evaluated multiple times by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which scored it as a moderate deficit reducer, as it included tax hikes primarily on high income taxpayers (roughly the Top 5%) and reductions in future Medicare cost increases, offsetting subsidy costs. No House Republicans, and only a few in the Senate, voted for the law.
To address the excesses in the banking sector that precipitated the 2008 financial crisis, Obama signed into law the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010, which limited bank risk-taking and overhauled the outdated regulatory regime ineffective in monitoring the non-depository or shadow banking sector at the core of the crisis, which had outgrown the traditional depository banking sector. The Act also created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but did not breakup the largest banks (which had grown even larger due to forced mergers during the crisis) nor separate investment and depository banking, as the Glass–Steagall Act had done. Only a few Republicans voted for the law.
The Great Recession had caused federal government revenues to fall to their lowest level relative to the economy's size in 50 years. At the same time, safety net expenditures (including automatic stabilizers such as unemployment compensation and disability payments) and stimulus measures caused expenditures to rise considerably. This drove the United States federal budget deficit higher, creating significant debt concerns. This caused several bruising debates with the Republican Congress. President Obama signed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which included the expiration of the Bush tax cuts for high income earners and implemented a sequester (cap) on spending for the military and other discretionary categories of spending. Compared against a baseline where the Bush tax cuts were allowed to expire on schedule in 2010 for all income levels, this law significantly increased future deficits. Compared against the previously years, it reduced the deficit and limited future cost increases. Along with the recovering economy, the law even lowered the deficit back to the historical average relative to GDP by 2014.
With the economy recovering and major budget legislation behind him, President Obama began shifting to another priority: income and wealth inequality. From 1950 to 1979, the Top 1% earned roughly a 10% share of the income. However, this had risen to 24% by 2007, due to a combination of globalization, automation, and policy changes that had weakened workers' bargaining position in relation to capital (owners). He referred to the widening income gap as the "defining challenge of our time" during 2013. His tax increases on higher-income taxpayers lowered the share of after-tax income received by the Top 1% from 17% in 2007 to 12% by 2015, while job creation remained robust.
Wealth inequality had also risen similarly, with the share of wealth owned by the Top 1% rising from 24% in 1979 to 36% by 2007. While U.S. household net worth rose to nearly 30% from its pre-crisis peak from 2007 to 2016, much of this gain went to the wealthiest Americans, as it had before Obama became president. By 2015, the wealth share owned by the Top 1% reached 42%.
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Political positions of Barack Obama
Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017, served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004. A member of the Democratic Party, he made his presidential run in 2008. He was elected president in 2008 and re-elected in 2012.
Obama has declared his position on many political issues through his public comments and legislative records. The Obama Administration stated that its general agenda was to "revive the economy, provide affordable and accessible health care to all, strengthen our public education and social security systems, define a clear path to energy independence and tackle climate change, end the War in Iraq responsibly and finish our mission in Afghanistan, and work with our allies to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon."
President Obama was first inaugurated in January 2009, in the depths of the Great Recession and the subprime mortgage crisis that began in 2007. His presidency continued the Troubled Asset Relief Program and auto industry rescue begun during the Presidency of George W. Bush and immediately enacted an $800 billion stimulus program, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which included a blend of additional spending and tax cuts. By early 2011, the economy began creating jobs consistently each month, a trend which continued through the end of his tenure.
Obama followed with the 2010 Affordable Care Act. By 2016, the law covered approximately 23 million people with health insurance via a combination of state healthcare exchanges and an extension of Medicaid. It lowered the rate of those without health insurance from approximately 16% in 2010 to 9% by 2015. Throughout his administration, healthcare costs continued moderating; for example, healthcare premiums for those covered by employers rose by 69% between 2000 and 2005, but only by 27% from 2010 to 2015. By 2017, nearly 70% of those on the exchanges could purchase insurance for less than $75 per month after subsidies. The law was evaluated multiple times by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which scored it as a moderate deficit reducer, as it included tax hikes primarily on high income taxpayers (roughly the Top 5%) and reductions in future Medicare cost increases, offsetting subsidy costs. No House Republicans, and only a few in the Senate, voted for the law.
To address the excesses in the banking sector that precipitated the 2008 financial crisis, Obama signed into law the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010, which limited bank risk-taking and overhauled the outdated regulatory regime ineffective in monitoring the non-depository or shadow banking sector at the core of the crisis, which had outgrown the traditional depository banking sector. The Act also created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but did not breakup the largest banks (which had grown even larger due to forced mergers during the crisis) nor separate investment and depository banking, as the Glass–Steagall Act had done. Only a few Republicans voted for the law.
The Great Recession had caused federal government revenues to fall to their lowest level relative to the economy's size in 50 years. At the same time, safety net expenditures (including automatic stabilizers such as unemployment compensation and disability payments) and stimulus measures caused expenditures to rise considerably. This drove the United States federal budget deficit higher, creating significant debt concerns. This caused several bruising debates with the Republican Congress. President Obama signed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which included the expiration of the Bush tax cuts for high income earners and implemented a sequester (cap) on spending for the military and other discretionary categories of spending. Compared against a baseline where the Bush tax cuts were allowed to expire on schedule in 2010 for all income levels, this law significantly increased future deficits. Compared against the previously years, it reduced the deficit and limited future cost increases. Along with the recovering economy, the law even lowered the deficit back to the historical average relative to GDP by 2014.
With the economy recovering and major budget legislation behind him, President Obama began shifting to another priority: income and wealth inequality. From 1950 to 1979, the Top 1% earned roughly a 10% share of the income. However, this had risen to 24% by 2007, due to a combination of globalization, automation, and policy changes that had weakened workers' bargaining position in relation to capital (owners). He referred to the widening income gap as the "defining challenge of our time" during 2013. His tax increases on higher-income taxpayers lowered the share of after-tax income received by the Top 1% from 17% in 2007 to 12% by 2015, while job creation remained robust.
Wealth inequality had also risen similarly, with the share of wealth owned by the Top 1% rising from 24% in 1979 to 36% by 2007. While U.S. household net worth rose to nearly 30% from its pre-crisis peak from 2007 to 2016, much of this gain went to the wealthiest Americans, as it had before Obama became president. By 2015, the wealth share owned by the Top 1% reached 42%.
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