Hans von Spakovsky / @HvonSpakovsky / Grant Strobl / / comments
President Barack Obama was swept into office in 2008 on hopes that he would unite the country. (Photo: Kevin Dietsch/UPI/Newscom)
COMMENTARY BY
Hans von Spakovsky@HvonSpakovsky
Hans von Spakovsky is an authority on a wide range of issues—including civil rights, civil justice, the First Amendment, immigration, the rule of law and government reform—as a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and manager of the think tank’s Election Law Reform Initiative. Read his research.
Grant Strobl
Grant Strobl is a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation.
Americans voted in November for seismic change, but our outgoing president is still as clueless as ever about the nation he governed.
In his farewell speech-cum-lecture earlier this month, President Barack Obama proclaimed that he made America better by “almost every measure.”
The statement goes far beyond optimism, and lands squarely in the realm of delusion.
Eight years of Obama’s leadership has left America demonstrably weaker and more divided. Rather than the promised “healing”—racial and other—the Obama era frayed the ties that bind us.
KEEP THE DAILY SIGNAL FREE
It began when his Justice Department dropped an open-and-shut voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party. It was essentially a declaration that his administration would use the Voting Rights Act to protect only certain races.
There followed a steady stream of false claims that America was an inherently racist society with a biased judicial and law enforcement system. Obama rekindled a racial divide that had been steadily disappearing in American society.
In fostering group identity politics for political advantage, the Obama administration only divided the American people. And the people know it.
A recent Rasmussen poll found that 60 percent of Americans felt “race relations have gotten worse since Obama’s election”—a far cry from the president’s claim of “better” race relations under his administration.
The president also boasted of controlling health care costs while bringing Americans better insurance coverage. Neither claim is true.
This year, insurance premiums skyrocketed by an average of 25 percent in states with exchanges. Deductibles are through the roof. And people shopping for more affordable insurance are finding far fewer options.
Most states this year have even fewer insurance providers participating in health care exchanges than last year.
As for “better coverage,” the vast majority of previously uninsured people now covered are enrolled in Medicaid—a troubled and increasingly stressed program that actually delivers poorer health outcomes than those of people with no insurance at all.
It’s no wonder that more Americans want to repeal the consistently unpopular law than keep] it, according to a recent Kaiser Health tracking poll.
The president proudly stated that he opened a “new chapter with the Cuban people,” but it appears the new chapter for the Cuban people is one behind bars. Since Obama began “normalization,” arrests of Cuban political dissidents have escalated, with over 9,000 political arrests made in 2016.
It is no secret that the tyrannical Castro regime has a dismal human rights record. The influx of American capital blessed by normalization will only bolster the regime.
It was a huge mistake to give Havana diplomatic recognition with no conditions and no requirements to stop the oppression. In Cuban-American communities, the widespread celebrations of Fidel Castro’s death stood in stark contrast to the bitter disappointment in Obama’s failure to stand for freedom and liberty in Cuba.
Returning to domestic policy, the president ignored his real record: eight years of economic stagnation. Instead, he offered happy talk: “The good news is that today the economy is growing again.”
Really? Our economy continues to underperform, with low increases in gross domestic product, a low labor participation rate, increased cost of living in cities, and lower-than-expected wage growth.
Rather than implement policies that encourage business creation and investment, the president fostered an environment of class warfare and instituted policies, including Obamacare and overregulation in many other areas, which increased the barriers to entry for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
This no-regrets president remained unapologetic of his “pen and phone” approach to governance. First expressed in 2014, it reflects his belief that the limits of the Constitution on the power of the presidency do not apply to him.
Obama has engaged in more unilateral policy-making through executive fiat than almost any previous president—bending, changing, rewriting, and ignoring the law at will.
From refusing to enforce federal immigration law or welfare work requirements, to ignoring statutory deadlines, to making illegal recess appointments, Obama abused his office and his power. That is not something to be proud of.
In his typical lawyerly fashion, the president skirted around the truth of cities riddled with racial tension and soaring crime rates, small businesses ruined by rising health care costs and crushing regulations, a metastasizing national debt, and a foreign policy that seems to favor authoritarian regimes over our allies.
Perhaps all the spin worked on the reporters attending Obama’s last speech. But the broad swathes of the American people who have suffered the consequences of his misgovernance for eight long years stopped buying it months, if not years, ago.
COMMENTARY BY
but our outgoing president is still as clueless as
ever about the nation he governed.
President Barack Obama proclaimed that he made
America better by “almost every measure.”
lands squarely in the realm of delusion.
America demonstrably weaker and more divided.
Rather than the promised “healing”—racial
and other—the Obama era frayed the ties that
bind us.
open-and-shut voter intimidation case against the
New Black Panther Party. It was essentially a
declaration that his administration would use
the Voting Rights Act to protect only certain races.
that America was an inherently racist society
with a biased judicial and law enforcement system.
Obama rekindled a racial divide that had been
steadily disappearing in American society.
advantage, the Obama administration only
divided the American people. And the people
know it.
of Americans felt “race relations have gotten
worse since Obama’s election”—a far cry from
the president’s claim of “better” race relations
under his administration.
health care costs while bringing Americans
better insurance coverage. Neither claim is true.
an average of 25 percent in states with exchanges.
Deductibles are through the roof. And people
shopping for more affordable insurance are
finding far fewer options.
providers participating in health care exchanges
than last year.
previously uninsured people now covered are
enrolled in Medicaid—a troubled and increasingly
stressed program that actually delivers poorer
health outcomes than those of people with
no insurance at all.
repeal the consistently unpopular law than keep]
it, according to a recent Kaiser Health tracking poll.
a “new chapter with the Cuban people,” but it
appears the new chapter for the Cuban people
is one behind bars. Since Obama began
“normalization,” arrests of Cuban political
dissidents have escalated, with over 9,000
political arrests made in 2016.
has a dismal human rights record. The influx
of American capital blessed by normalization
will only bolster the regime.
recognition with no conditions and no requirements
to stop the oppression. In Cuban-American
communities, the widespread celebrations of
Fidel Castro’s death stood in stark contrast to
the bitter disappointment in Obama’s failure to
stand for freedom and liberty in Cuba.
ignored his real record: eight years of economic
stagnation. Instead, he offered happy talk:
“The good news is that today the economy is
growing again.”
with low increases in gross domestic product, a
low labor participation rate, increased cost of
living in cities, and lower-than-expected wage
growth.
business creation and investment, the president
fostered an environment of class warfare and
instituted policies, including Obamacare and
overregulation in many other areas, which
increased the barriers to entry for small
businesses and entrepreneurs.
of his “pen and phone” approach to governance.
First expressed in 2014, it reflects his belief that
the limits of the Constitution on the power of the
presidency do not apply to him.
policy-making through executive fiat than almost
any previous president—bending, changing,
rewriting, and ignoring the law at will.
law or welfare work requirements, to ignoring
statutory deadlines, to making illegal recess
appointments, Obama abused his office and
his power. That is not something to be proud of.
skirted around the truth of cities riddled with
racial tension and soaring crime rates, small
businesses ruined by rising health care costs
and crushing regulations, a metastasizing
national debt, and a foreign policy that seems
to favor authoritarian regimes over our allies.
attending Obama’s last speech. But the broad
swathes of the American people who have
suffered the consequences of his misgovernance
for eight long years stopped buying it months,
if not years, ago.