Obama's Presidency Accomplishments

I read an article from The Nation called, 100 Down, 900 to Go. This article was about how Obama is doing pretty well even with all of obstacles his predecessor, "arguably the worst President we ever had, left him. However he still has a long way to go and he knows this because he doesn't want people to look at what he's done in the first 100 days he wants them to see what he does after the 1000 days are up.
Obama has "hit the ground running," he's been going and going on trying to get us out of this crisis. He has, "pledged to close Guantanamo and the CIA black sites. He quickly passed a strong recovery bill -- even if it was smaller than it should have been; that bill and his proposed budget begin to lay out a new blueprint for economic recovery and reconstruction, and a break with ill-conceived dogma about deficit reduction that has defined and limited economic policy for thirty years. He repealed the global gag order, took steps to restore science to its proper place with regard to stem cell research and addressing climate change, and has embarked on a substantive transformation to a clean energy economy"He is also bettering our relationships with others around the world that aren't very good. declared his commitment to nuclear abolition and, in doing so, has opened the door to a renewed and wiser nuclear non-proliferation framework.
Even though Obama seems to be doing well and is coming up with pretty good ideas on getting us out of this mess some are still skeptical about the military escalation in Afghanistan and the bank bailout. The budget plan may not do as good as it's supposed to because of how bad unemployment is and is becoming. The unemployment rates might just cancel out any good the bailout does. Then there's the war, some feel that the resources we are using over there are going to dry us out and make it impossible to get out of this crisis. However if the bailout doesn't work Obama will have to go to plan B. The article goes onto to talk about how health care is another issue we really need to work on as well.
I feel Obama is doing a lot to get us out of this mess. He's not just sitting around letting everyone else do it all he's actually out there working for it. I don't ever remember hearing about George Bush doing much of anything except starting a war. I think in time, if we give him a chance, Obama will do a lot for our Country and make it a better place to live. He can only do so much in such a little time.

Thawing Long-Frozen Relations with Cuba

I read an article from the New York Times called, Obama Calls for Thaw in United States Relations with Cuba. This article talks about how Obama wants to have friendlier relations with Cuba. It states, "The United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba." Obama's words during the opening ceremony at the Summti of the Americas, gave hope and said that the U.S. is willing to "change direction" in it's dealings with Cuba. The Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Cuba's leader, Raúl Castro had suprisingly warm words with each other as well.
Other leaders felt that they were witnessing a historic shift when Obama extended his hand to Cuba. Cuba has been barred from the Organization of American States since 1962. So Cuba wasn't even on the agenda or invited but many leaders have been trying to make Cuba an issue. Well it worked and now the door is opened for discussions and they've abandoned the "longstanding restrictions on the ability of Cuban-Americans to travel freely to the island and send money to relatives there." Everyone knows that their trust in Cuba will take a while but we've made steps in the right direction to begin to have better relations with them. They are willing to engage in a wide range of issues from human rights, free speech, and democratic reform to drugs, migration, and economic issues.
Cuba felt ignored by the U.S. during the Bush administration so Obama was going there to reach out to them. He stated, "I didn't come here to debate the past, I came here to deal with the future." Mrs. Kirchner praised Obama for what he did to stabilize the relationship from the absurd restrictions imposed by the Bush administration. Castro told his people of the plans for Obama's administration's decision to lift restrictions on family travel and remittances in an appraising way. He is willing to go along with and give his people freedom on everything.
Some leaders have plans on raising the issue getting Cuba back into the Organization of American States at the summit meeting. There are no plans for Obama and Cuba's leader to meet privately, however there are plans for them to meet together with other leaders. They weren't friends with Bush, but they hope to be friends with Obama.
I think bringing Cuba back into the mix and having better relations with them is a very good idea. We all need to be on the same side, it will make the World work better. It could possibly mean no more wars!!! I'm all for that. I just don't think they should trust anyone one hundred percent first because anyone could lie.

Cutting Programs the Poor Need!

This week I read an article from The New York Times called, States Slashing Social Programs for Vulnerable. This article talks about how we are, "battered by the recession and the deepest and most widespread budget deficits in several decades." Because of this many states are using their safety nets which is crippling the programs that would over time save us money. The $787 billion stimulus package is helping the states with some these programs by, "providing large amounts of money to pay for education and unemployment insurance, bolster food stamp programs and expand tax credits for low earners." However the money will only help forty percent of the problem and 34 states have cut some of these programs so far. In Arizona the elderly seem to be struggling the worst. More than 1,000 of them are having to make it without home-care aides with their every day life such as bathing, going to the doctor and etc. Because of this many may become even sicker and have to be put in nursing homes which cost even more. In Ohio and a few other states they are facing large cutbacks on child welfare investigations which means many more children may be hurt and put into foster care. Despite tax increases California ended dental coverage for adults on Medicaid. According to Linda J. Blessing and the facts we are cutting things for short term savings that will result in a greater long term health and financial cost.Some Republican legislators still argue that state expenses are too large, while officials say that carving another $2 billion from the budget will wreak havoc.
California is blowing my mind! According to the article, "As revenues sank late last year, forcing across-the-board cuts this spring, the child protection agency stopped investigating every report of potential abuse or neglect, and sharply reduced counseling of families deemed at risk of violence. Some toddlers with disabilities like autism and Down syndrome are not getting therapies that can bring lifelong benefits. And here, as in other states, the drive to help disabled people live at home has been set back." I'm going to be a social worker so this upsets me very much. It's like the government doesn't even care about people they're just worried about money!
The article goes on to talk about a few people who really need help that are on a waiting list. "Mary Beth Thompson, 57, is seriously overweight, with chronic pain and weakness on her left side, she has trouble moving about and cannot step into the bathtub without falling. She's even gotten a broken wrist from this. Winona Conn, 75, who uses a wheelchair because of a paralyzed leg, has been on the waiting list for home aid for a year." More and more people are needing help however the states keep cutting the programs. "State support for home and community services was reduced by $2 million in 2008, and the waiting list has grown to 50,000 from 30,000." Mary Lynn Kasunic stated, “If you don’t give people a bath a couple times a week, change the linens and make sure they get their medicines, their health will decline much faster. They end up in the emergency room in a crisis, and then in a nursing home.”
The Illinois governor's budget proposal is wanting to scale back home visits to ill equipped first time mother's, who are given advice during these visits to help reduce child abuse and better prepare the child for school. In the article it is stated that we spend $1.2 million on child welfare a year so why don't we spend a lot of money on keeping them out of this as well. Ohio's budget will be "dramatically decrease our ability to investigate reports of abuse and neglect,” and lose 75% of our investigators.
"New York State is using stimulus money and a tax increase to avoid most of the large cuts in child care, nurse visits to inexperienced mothers and other services that were originally proposed. But if revenues keep falling by the billions all bets are off."
In Arizona they had to cut $1.6 billion from their $10 billion budget. In the next fiscal year it is said that they expect a $3 billion shortfall. "Ms. Blessing, of the Department of Economic Security, said her agency had already laid off 800 workers, including 15 percent of its child protection investigators, and imposed furloughs amounting to a 10 percent pay cut." Again this is horrible because we need social workers, in fact we need more than we have and here they are getting rid of them!
However he state has secured $18 million from the stimulus package to save child care subsidies for the working poor. But they've cut some of the programs such as the, in-home counseling of troubled families, so deeply that they only have the choice to either remove the children and put them into foster care or wait and see if something bad happens. Counseling truly helps these families, sometimes it's their only option besides breaking up the families and that's something we've worked to prevent over the years. We want families to be able to stay together.
This article has truly gotten to me. I cannot believe that the states and government are actually cutting these programs. These programs are the only things many people have to live. They are extremely important and to think that they are actually getting rid of the child abuse investigations and just letting the abuse happen! I mean I can almost but not completely understand the cut backs on some of the programs but the child abuse investigations, and the cut backs on the much needed counseling!! It really sickens me! I never thought that the government would cut back this, I mean to me it's the most important thing out there. It keeps the children safe! I guess this means that everyone needs to be paying closer attention to your neighbors and kind of investigating them yourself to keep the children safe.

Unemployment Rates Going Up!!!

I read an article from The Nation called, Unemployment Spike a Wake-Up Call for Obama. This article was about unemployment continuing to rise. Unemployment is now higher than at any time since Ronald Reagan's first term in the White House. Eight and a half percent of Americans are officially unemployed, however that number doesn't include the millions of American's who want to work but have given up on trying to find it.
Since the Bush-Chaney administration in 2007 there has been a loss of 5.1 million jobs, there were 663,000 jobs alone lost last month. There are six states who now have double-digit unemployment rates. Things are bad and they're not looking up. "A growing number of analysts predict that unemployment nationally will move into the double digits and that it will remain above 10 percent well into the mid-term election year of 2010." They say we'll be lucky if we quit loosing jobs by the end of the year. However during the Bush-Chaney administration they and the financial media was still peddling the fantasy that all was well with the economy
This crisis is a big part in Obama's administration. However a scary fact is, "When the White House and Democrats in Congress worked up plans for what became the $787 billion stimulus plan, the administration's economists were counting on unemployment staying below 9 percent." So who knows how they'll be able to fix the unemployment crisis because unemployment is getting into the double-digits. It is said that we're going to need more money than what the stimulus plan offers.
These unemployment rates are scary. It's hard to believe that the Bush-Chaney administration was still trying to say that the economy was still okay and strong when it was falling apart. Then the fact that the stimulus bill that everyone is hoping will save us and give us jobs probably won't even be able to help us as much as we need it to.