The economy definitely is not growing fast enough, but blaming Obama doesn’t really make sense. Very weak growth is a problem throughout the developed world, and the US economy is if anything better than average.
What did Obama do wrong?
Leaving aside issues that are primarily questions of personal values, I see a couple of important failures that seem pretty objective.
Affordable Care Act: The rollout of Healthcare.gov was an embarrassing debacle, but the law itself just isn’t very good—even from a liberal perspective (the basic plan was originally a proposal by the right-wing Heritage Foundation). It doesn’t achieve anything like universal coverage, there have been continued large increases in insurance premiums, the insurance “corridors” are hemorrhaging money faster than expected, and there are some signs of the “death spiral.” (United Health is losing so much money they plan to exit the [individual] market.) Even Obama has admitted that “if you like your health plan, you can keep it” turned out not to be true. Keep in mind that ACA was designed so that many of its aspects don’t take full effect for years, so we still don’t really know how things will shake out, but it’s clear Obama’s signature legislation isn’t curing America’s healthcare woes.
Obama administration policies of supporting regime change against secular Arab governments has basically been a disaster, leading to disastrous civil wars in Libya and Syria. Islamists are almost certainly a lot stronger than they would have been if the administration had done nothing. The side effects of this are disastrous for long-term US policy goals like supporting European integration, since the resulting refugee crisis has (temporarily?) killed Schengen and made the nationalist parties in Europe stronger. And the crisis is ongoing, we have no idea how bad it will get.
Which liberal health policy experts have you been reading to get that impression of the Affordable Care Act? Most liberal economists I have read have mixed feelings on the act, but think it was largely an improvement. While conservatives would probably agree with most of your statement, I would hardly call your view an objective one if a lot of experts would disagree with it.
Which liberal health policy experts have you been reading to get that impression of the Affordable Care Act?
I’m saying the law, taken on its merits, is not actually good by the standards liberals profess. I’m aware most liberals supported it (with some grumbling) but I think that’s mainly because of Halo Effect/Affective Death Spiral. If George W. Bush had proposed this, I suspect liberals would have criticized it for locking us even deeper into the private insurance trap (giving corporations a captive market).
Is the U.S. health care system as a whole better than before the ACA in your view?
No. I’d mostly prefer market-oriented reforms for healthcare (plus vouchers), but right now we tend to get the worst of both worlds. Single payer would also probably be better than what we have now.
Also, could Obama have gotten anything more liberal—like universal coverage—through congress?
The main obstacle wasn’t really that it was too liberal. Opposition from the insurance lobby is what killed “Hillarycare” back in 93 even though Democrats had huge majorities then as well. Once the insurance lobby got the “public option” removed from the legislation, they supported it.
What are your politics?
Mostly paleoconservative, less opposed to “big government” than most paleocons.
The economy definitely is not growing fast enough, but blaming Obama doesn’t really make sense. Very weak growth is a problem throughout the developed world, and the US economy is if anything better than average.
Leaving aside issues that are primarily questions of personal values, I see a couple of important failures that seem pretty objective.
Affordable Care Act: The rollout of Healthcare.gov was an embarrassing debacle, but the law itself just isn’t very good—even from a liberal perspective (the basic plan was originally a proposal by the right-wing Heritage Foundation). It doesn’t achieve anything like universal coverage, there have been continued large increases in insurance premiums, the insurance “corridors” are hemorrhaging money faster than expected, and there are some signs of the “death spiral.” (United Health is losing so much money they plan to exit the [individual] market.) Even Obama has admitted that “if you like your health plan, you can keep it” turned out not to be true. Keep in mind that ACA was designed so that many of its aspects don’t take full effect for years, so we still don’t really know how things will shake out, but it’s clear Obama’s signature legislation isn’t curing America’s healthcare woes.
Obama administration policies of supporting regime change against secular Arab governments has basically been a disaster, leading to disastrous civil wars in Libya and Syria. Islamists are almost certainly a lot stronger than they would have been if the administration had done nothing. The side effects of this are disastrous for long-term US policy goals like supporting European integration, since the resulting refugee crisis has (temporarily?) killed Schengen and made the nationalist parties in Europe stronger. And the crisis is ongoing, we have no idea how bad it will get.
Which liberal health policy experts have you been reading to get that impression of the Affordable Care Act? Most liberal economists I have read have mixed feelings on the act, but think it was largely an improvement. While conservatives would probably agree with most of your statement, I would hardly call your view an objective one if a lot of experts would disagree with it.
Here is Austin Frakt on the Affordable Care Act.
I’m saying the law, taken on its merits, is not actually good by the standards liberals profess. I’m aware most liberals supported it (with some grumbling) but I think that’s mainly because of Halo Effect/Affective Death Spiral. If George W. Bush had proposed this, I suspect liberals would have criticized it for locking us even deeper into the private insurance trap (giving corporations a captive market).
Thank you for the reply. This is interesting.
Is the U.S. health care system as a whole better than before the ACA in your view?
Also, could Obama have gotten anything more liberal—like universal coverage—through congress?
What are your politics?
No. I’d mostly prefer market-oriented reforms for healthcare (plus vouchers), but right now we tend to get the worst of both worlds. Single payer would also probably be better than what we have now.
The main obstacle wasn’t really that it was too liberal. Opposition from the insurance lobby is what killed “Hillarycare” back in 93 even though Democrats had huge majorities then as well. Once the insurance lobby got the “public option” removed from the legislation, they supported it.
Mostly paleoconservative, less opposed to “big government” than most paleocons.