(ThyBlackMan.com) As 2013 came to a close it brought an end to the fifth year of the Presidency of Barack Obama. Fifth years are often difficult for Presidents who are re-elected to a second term and already pundits from both sides of the political perspective are analyzing what 2013 meant for the Obama Presidency and whether the President and his team can bolster momentum or whether they are destined to spend the next three years on matters the Executive Branch has control over while Americans prepare to think about the next Presidential cycle.
Most of these analysts frame their arguments against historic patterns and argue that the Obama Presidency fits into the same mold as others because all Presidents misread their mandate after re-election, or because all second-term Presidents overreach, or because their support team simply gets tired and runs out of new and innovative ideas. The media and the analysts do the nation a disservice by trying to fit the Obama Presidency into the mold of historic norm because they overlook the one element that President Obama has faced that most second term Presidents did not, a hostile opposition party in Congress that has deliberately undermined the President at every turn and prevented him from implementing his policies.
The obstruction began almost as soon as President Obama was sworn in. No one can forget Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell walking up to a microphone in 2009 and stating that it was the goal of the Republican Party to make President Obama “a one term President.” It can be argued
that it should be the goal of any party to make a President of the opposing party a one-term President, certainly Democrats in 1981 hoped Ronald Reagan would be a one-term President and the GOP in 1993 had that goal for Bill Clinton, but never had an opposing party’s leader so brazenly proclaimed that goal out loud to a national audience before a new President had even gotten started.
At the time of that proclamation the GOP had no power to block President Obama’s agenda. The Democrats controlled the House of Representatives by a wide margin, with then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi able to keep enough of her members in line to move difficult legislation forward, and the Democrats had 60 sitting Senators in the Senate, a filibuster-proof majority. With these majorities, President Obama was able to pass his stimulus plan to help solve the country’s economic problems, the bailout of General Motors to prevent the auto industry from collapsing and taking millions of jobs with it, and of course his signature achievement, the Affordable Care Act, disrespectfully referred to by detractors as Obamacare.
Republicans used this landmark achievement and the great animosity that many in their party had for this President to whip up their base and marrying that enthusiasm on the right with the historic unease Americans feel about giving one party complete control, the GOP swept to the House majority in 2010 by winning 63 seats! Once they took control in January 2011, Republicans went about deliberately challenging President Obama on every issue and in almost all cases refusing to even negotiate. Observers couldn’t help but see that it was not just philosophical opposition, but an outright attempt to undermine the President and his agenda.
The first major attempt at undermining the President came in the summer of 2011 when budget negotiations entered a critical period. To make matters worse, the Treasury had reached the debt limit and could no longer borrow money, which would have triggered the first ever national default to our creditors. Rational observers never dreamed that anyone would actually allow a default, but the GOP refused to raise the debt limit unless the President agreed to draconian spending cuts. The economy was still weak and the President was actually proposing more stimulus to keep the economy moving. The GOP wouldn’t hear of it and took this battle all the way to the brink. Eventually, both sides agreed to kick the can down the road, as usual, with a short term debt limit hike and a trigger called “sequestration” that would dramatically cut both domestic and military spending if both sides didn’t agree on a more rational deal in the future.
By the time Congressional Republicans brought the United States to the edge of default over the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling last year, GOP obstructionism had become the new normal. But even that strategy was unprecedented. While members of both parties (including then-Senator Obama in 2006) have historically cast symbolic votes against a debt ceiling increase to protest the majority’s agenda, never in recent times has the majority itself had the power to block a boost in our nations borrowing authority. There were no doubts now that the GOP and Tea Party Stalwarts were responsible for the subsequent downgrading of the U.S. credit rating; first of its kind in American history.
While pundits knew for sure that neither side would allow sequestration to happen, when the time came, Republicans allowed it to go through, initiating cuts that proved to be a drag on the economy and setting up another budget and debt limit battle that culminated in a weeks-long government shutdown in the fall of 2013. Every GOP move was designed to deliberately weaken the President and make sure he did not implement his policies. Unless you’ve been on an extended trip to the coast of Siberia; you will recall the latest budget agreement even ended the federal government guarantee of long-term unemployment benefits and severely cut the food stamp program, both designed to give those in need a leg up; not intended to be as Republicans scoff: ‘a handout.”
No policy, however, made Republicans go crazy more than what they whimsically refer to as Obamacare. Since taking control of the House in 2011, Republicans have voted to repeal the law over 45 times, knowing that they have no power to actually repeal the law. Obamacare was also the major sticking point in the government shutdown of 2013 because the GOP would not pass a budget that did not defund Obamacare. Republicans think they have a winning issue with the difficulties of the Obamacare roll-out and so far polls show that they might, but scratching the surface reveals that the GOP is just as responsible for the roll-out problems as the President.
The federal exchange and its accompanying website ere never meant to serve millions of people. Each state was supposed to design its own exchange and sign people up within the states. Republican leaders made it a deliberate part of the Party strategy to oppose Obamacare on every level, so most of the GOP-led states have refused to set up exchanges, forcing their citizens to turn to the federal exchange.
Republicans don’t control the Senate, but here too, GOP leaders deliberately invoked the filibuster rule an unprecedented number of times to block President Obama’s judicial appointments and even some of his cabinet appointments. Court seats have remained vacant throughout the President’s slowing down the process and preventing rulings that would help cement the President’s policies in place for the good of the American people. This situation became so bad that Democrats in the Senate invoked the co-call “Nuclear Option” and changed the rules to prevent any further filibusters of judges.
This deliberate obstruction extends to every action the President is trying to take, from the environment, to the economy to labor relations, to civil rights. The bottom line is this: If the President is for it, the GOP is against it. One can’t help but see that there is and has been a deliberate attempt to undermine the President and prevent him from being successful. To add insult to injury; Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing Tuesday December 13, 2013 to discuss the prospect of impeaching President Barack Obama – they just weren’t very eager to use the dreaded “I-word.”Small wonder the US Congress is suffering its lowest approval rating in history based upon anti Obama shenanigans thanks to the Tea Party vis-a-vis the GOP.
Unless the Democrats regain control of the House and once again have 60 seats in the Senate or are willing to end the filibuster all together, this obstruction will continue and the President will have a very frustrating last two years in office. The 2014 midterm elections may well be a turning point in this saga as the American people, Democrats and Republicans; rise up and say: “Enough is enough!”9
Staff Writer; Stanley G. Buford
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