Tuesday, October 22, 2013
You think you've had a hard month? Talk to Obama
This article, from USA Today, provides a recap of this month and the political and economic events that have taken place. These events required executive involvement and supports the author's main point that the president has had a lot to deal with in this eventful month. The article is divided into four parts: the recent, lackluster, job report, the technical issues Healthcare.gov has faced, the government shutdown and debt ceiling, finally the President's approval rating has also dropped. The article is filled with statistical data and offers a good summary of the government as of late.
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This was a great article and I liked all of the included statistics. This shutdown was all but highlighted by the fact that the website, that was setup for people without health insurance to get quick and affordable care, to immediately have issues. It disappointed me personally, but it is defiantly causing more headaches to Obama and his administration.
ReplyDeleteThis month for the president has been no walk in the park, but he knew that this job would be difficult when he decided to run. What he needs to do now is make this upcoming month one to remember. Something to get his approval ratings above 50%. A loss of up to 24 billion dollars is too much. He needs to work extra hard this November to gain a majority of the public's approval.
ReplyDeleteOf course stress is a part of being president, isn't that included in the package? Like that cliché says: with great power comes great responsibility. We've been learning all year about the government expanding its scope of issues to take care of for the public. The government and the president can't satisfy all or even most of these challenges they have taken up. I thought the approach of the article was somewhat obvious, but it's a nice summary of the problems on the president's and the country's minds in the recent months.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that President Obama was most scrutinized for durring the 2012 election was his lack of "clear message" to congress. I feel like in the case of the government shutdown Obama was very clear with his message to congress, and so I think that people should cut him a break about that. In regard to the poor performance of the Obamacare website, I think it is ridiculous that there are still bugs. These kinks should have been worked out in the first few days the website was live.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Michaela in that it is ridiculous that there are still bugs in the Obamacare website. Also, the article put the cost of the Affordable Care Act at $24 billion, that's $1.5 billion a day which is way too much. Another thing that caught my eye was that the Republicans said the site issues were a reflection of the Affordable Care Act itself. Which, at this point in time is somewhat accurate, considering all the problems.
ReplyDeleteWith everything that has been going on these past few weeks, I think this article does a good job summarizing the main issues. I agree with Michaela that Obama was very clear with his message to Congress about the debt ceiling and the Affordable Healthcare Act. I hope that Congress learns from this experience that they cannot play games instead properly running the country. There are a lot of things that can be done in the upcoming weeks and months to resolve these issues and restore faith in the president and Congress as both have less than a 50% approval rating.
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ReplyDeleteThe fact that Obama's approval rate is only at 44.5% and 47% of people want Congress completely changed says a lot about this past month. An extreme amount of work needs to be done in the near future, and not just enough to postpone the problems to a later date. Permanent actions need to be taken now that the shutdown is over. The last thing Washington needs is an even greater drop in confidence, which is exactly what happened after $1.5 billion was spent per day.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Casey, that these issues can't just be half resolved right now. They need to be dealt with so that the government can work. Although Obama did realize all the responsibilities that would come with this job, I don't think it is all his fault. There are other elected officials in the government and if the citizens don't contribute to politics, they should not complain. There were people on the highway trying to get people to honk to impeach Obama, which I think is a ridiculous suggestion. I think they have no grounds to do such a thing.
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ReplyDeleteAll of the included statistics here are very interesting. Ranging from the unemployment numbers to the amount of money that the shutdown cost the United States are all interesting figures. I mean, the shutdown cost us $1.5 billion a day. That is a LOT of money. However, on a completely different note, the title of this article is almost worded as if to make you feel sympathetic for Obama. Sure, it's been a rough month for him with everything that has gone on, but he is the president and he should be prepared to experience anything. Now, yes, some of these things cannot be blamed on him, like the website not working, and all politicians are to blame for the shutdown, but he is the president, and when things aren't going right, it's simple to blame who is in charge. While these things may not be his fault completely, he is somewhat responsible and needs to take action to try and mend what is not right.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Michaela that Obama made it very clear to Congress what his message was regarding the debt ceiling and Affordable Healthcare Act. Yes, a ton of changes need to be made in order to have approval rates that are above 50%, but Obama is not to blame for this entire past month.
ReplyDeleteOf course being president comes with a lot of pressure and criticism, but I don't think it's right that Obama is receiving blame for some of the things listed in the article. For example the shutdown; was Obama supposed to allow a small vocal minority to decide what parts of the government could or could not be run? No of course not that would be ridiculous and not even remotely democratic. Also, the glitches in the healthcare website. Yes of course he should, and is, addressing and fixing the problems. But it is absurd to blame Obama for technical difficulties, and say that these technical difficulties have any correlation with the validity of the actual program.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Yarrow and Casey. The government can't keep pushing the issues back farther and farther. They need to resolve the debt ceiling issue now, and they need to work on lowering the country's debt in general. Also the website for the affordable care act is currently a reflection of Obamacare. Obamacare looks like a joke, because the act which they have spent 24 billion dollars on has yet to work due to the failing website.
ReplyDeleteObama and congress just dug themselves their own grave and now they have to find a way to dig their way out. Maybe they should try to appease the public a little or just do something productive. Because right now we are the biggest joke of a Democracy. I know I said this before but the government needs to man up, put their big boy pants on and do something positive.
ReplyDeleteThis article shows just how difficult and stressful it can be to be the President of the United States, especially when the two parties are so dysfunctional. It's not surprising after a month like this where the government shut down cost $1.5 billion a day that the President's approval ratings are down.
ReplyDeleteObama has faced a very hard month in general, but I feel particularly bad about the glitches in the healthcare rollout website. Because Obamacare was already such a controversial, hotly debated issue in Washington, it was crucial for the launch of the website to go smoothly. Unfortunately it did not, and that gave Rebublicans the perfect opportunity to slander the healthcare act even more than they already had been.
ReplyDeleteThese days it seems as though even when some progress is made, there is still something wrong with it. I am referring to the 148,000 jobs that were added this month. Though it makes progress, the rate is far too slow to get back to where we were before 2008. It's also a shame that the American people are the ones that must pay for this while congress is virtually unaffected.
ReplyDeleteI would first like to address the title and style in which this article was written. It is trying to create a pitiful view of our president, in which we are supposed to feel sorry for what Obama has had to deal with. I would like to correct this and say that if you campaigned and spent money trying to acquire a job with full knowledge of all responsibilities, you have forfeited the right to pity. Regarding the information itself, all I see is a list of problems, being either poorly resolved, or left alone entirely.
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