US outgoing President Barack Obama delivered last Tuesday a farewell speech at the end of his second term, to review his eight years as a president. After turning the page of Obama’s presidency, we might want to ask: what happened in the United States during those years? Does change happen in America as he said in Chicago as soon as he was elected in 2008?
Interactions in the American political scene in recent months show that President Obama already feared the loss of the political legacy after the end of his second term, particularly with regard to the Obama Care Act, which aims at providing easier and less expensive medical insurance for about 95% of the population by the year 2019, a law that the president-elect Trump promised to abrogate once he will take power in the twentieth of January.
Trump’s sharp attitude toward this law pushed President Obama to go to Congress recently, where he met members of the Democrats, urging them to unite their voices against the new Republican administration, especially in relation to its position regarding the health program, which Obama considers a historic footprint he left in the lives of the American people, and his best achievement during his eight years in the White House.
It is well known that the issue of health care is one of the most divisive issues between Democrats and Republicans as some 50 million Americans lack health insurance. The conditions of a large proportion of the American people were affected by the consistent dispute on this subject since President Roosevelt, but the Democrats themselves have failed to implement ambitious plans developed in the past, specifically with President Bill Clinton in the mid-nineties.
Objectively speaking, Obama Care is the most important achievement of the US outgoing president. He added the United States to the list of developed countries with comprehensive health care systems after it had been the only major state that gave up its role on the level of comprehensive health care leaving it to the private sector. American health care indicators rose highly after this law. The United States became one of the most leading countries in terms of health care for its citizens, as about $8,400 were spent per citizen in 2011.
On the statistical level, Obama’s Care has benefited about 20 million people, with 9/10 Americans having health insurance for the first time in history. but it seems that it is not a sufficient justification to keep it from the standpoint of the Republicans, who want to bring it down even before the Trump presidency, as Vice President-elect Mike Pence said that abrogating this law will be the first topic on the agenda, adding that Trump may take action on the first day in the White House. President Trump chose as Minister of Health Tom Bryce, Senator for the state of Georgia and one of the most vocal opponents of Obama Care.
This law is the first enemy of the Republicans since in 2010. The position of President Trump it is not an individual one. We have to remember that the law faced strong objection and did not get a single Republican vote in the Congress, as opponents saw that it contradicts the principles of the US Constitution regarding civil liberties requiring everyone to buy the health insurance policy, and impinging on State authorities as it enhances the Federal government’s powers over the health insurance sector. All Republican candidates made it a priority in their campaigns to bring down Obama Care. Trump is no exception and the law may be the first internal change wrought by President Trump in his presidential term.
In foreign policy, it may be difficult for Trump to achieve substantial breakthroughs except for the relations with Russia. He has pledged to make a drastic revision in this direction. Most likely, he will go in a different path than Obama, especially after he described those who refuse rapprochement with Russia as “stupid people” and “fools”.
In relation to Syria, Obama did not reap but failure from his policies in this file, as his second term ended with Syria in the hands of Russia, Turkey and Iran, negotiating about its fate in isolation from the United States, perhaps for the first time since the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the control by the United States of the global system.
Nonetheless, Obama leaves the White House with an economic achievement as he saved the US economy from the crushing financial crisis, in terms of reducing the unemployment rate to about 7.4% after it reached 10% before assuming the presidency in 2008 directly.
Objectively speaking, Obama did not leave fingerprints to guarantee him a place in the presidential hall of fame, as his policies had failed in most of the foreign policy files, but he is one of the few presidents whose footprints his successors want to erase completely, whether at the internal level as Trump is seeking to abrogate Obama Care, and at the external level as there is a similar attempt to cancel or modify the nuclear agreement signed with Iran, which is seen as one of the achievements of the Obama’s presidency.
