Alfonse D'Amato

Assessing the Obama legacy

Posted

Like him or not, President Obama will always be remembered as a transformational figure. The 44th president, the first African-American, is a tremendous orator who promised change and hope to the American public.

Now eight years have passed, and before the most unconventional candidate begins his first term as president, let’s reflect on Obama’s two terms.

It is only fair to begin with the initiative that bears his name, Obamacare. The Affordable Care Act was the subject of exhaustive political debate. Obama put his presidency on the line to get it passed, and it is now the first thing Republicans want to dismantle. Obamacare expanded coverage to 20 million working-class Americans across the country, but there were also many problems.

In speech after speech, Obama promised the American people public gold at the end of the affordable health care rainbow. He promised that his plan would cut the cost of health care, and that those who liked the insurance plan they had could keep it. This turned out not to be the case; in fact, many people were forced to change doctors and plans.

Without any changes, Obamacare would increase the long-term federal deficit by $6.2 trillion, and that doesn’t account for the growing rate at which Americans are joining the Medicaid rolls.

The administration deceived the American people about Obamacare. It was the old bait and switch, promising one thing and delivering another. Now what?

Another of Obama’s campaign pillars was immigration reform. In 2008, he pledged that he would pass immigration reform in the first six months of his presidency. He had overwhelming command of Congress, with 60 Democratic senators and a majority of the House, but he never used this power to produce comprehensive immigration reform.

After his eight years in office, we are left with no meaningful immigration policy. Our borders are still not secure, and we have failed to deport thousands of criminal aliens. The immigration crisis is just another loose end of the Obama administration that President-elect Donald Trump has promised to make a top priority.

Next is foreign policy. The U.S. faces several ongoing terrorist threats, such as the Islamic State and the development of nuclear weapons in North Korea. Obama has restored ties to Cuba and has done much to combat the Ebola virus in West Africa, but his mistakes in Syria and the nuclear deal with Iran “trump” these accomplishments.

The civil war in Syria is now in its sixth year, and the president’s failure to act has led Russia to fill the power vacuum in the region. Look at the ongoing crisis in Aleppo. Over the past eight years, the Middle East has gone up in flames. We have deserted one of our most trusted allies, Israel. Other countries are collapsing, and Islamic terrorist groups like ISIS have taken advantage of the power vacuum and have strengthened.

The Iran deal is another failure. All it does is guarantee that Iran will have nuclear weapons in the near future, because it allows the Islamic republic to keep much of its nuclear infrastructure in place. The U.S. freed up $150 billion in frozen Iranian assets, which will no doubt be used to fund terrorism and rebuild its military.

These are now Trump’s challenges. He has already promised to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and replace it with fair bilateral trade deals. He also seeks to reduce the environmental restrictions he has labeled “job-killing.” Trump has vowed to focus on America’s infrastructure with an initiative that would create tens of thousands of jobs across the nation. Finally, he plans to launch an immigration reform program that will aim to “end illegal immigration and suspend immigration from terror problem regions.”

President Obama left many problems for the president-elect to solve. The war on terror is as crucial as ever, both at home and abroad. There must be immigration reform so that we can protect our borders, and we must make immediate changes to Obamacare to protect against high health care premiums.

Obama may have brought change, but it’s my hope that President Trump brings action.

Al D’Amato, a former U.S. senator from New York, is the founder of Park Strategies LLC, a public policy and business development firm. Comments about this column? ADAmato@liherald.com.