President’s political review

The current United States president Mr. Hussein Barack Obama won the presidency June 19, 2008 as the candidate of change and promised to establish various reforms to the policies of the previous regimes that would help to rescue the country’s turbulent economy, (The White House, 2009). According to Clark (1998), one of the major pillars for the president contained in his agenda list is to have all citizens in United States get health care insurance. This is to be supported through funds derived from revoking of tax reliefs for wealthiest American citizens. Also, he plans to establish reforms that would enhance support for education for all citizens by repealing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and by providing extra tax credits to middle and lower-class citizens for higher education. He plans to enhance foreign relations by promoting diplomatic relations among national states, expanding military operations and working towards a nuclear free world (Clark, 1998).

Further, the U.S. president plans to enhance environmental regulations that will reduce emissions and increase fuel efficiency. This is to be achieved through ratification of agreement over environmental regulation and establishment of a national cap and trade carbon exchange (Clark, 1998). He also made some judicial appointments to achieve a judiciary that would accommodate the new policies. He plans to ensure that National Security is enhanced on all citizens by fighting terrorism and increasing emergency funding to the department of defense and port security. Finally, he intends to enhance economic security by ratifying trade agreements that will foster exportation of goods and services at lower prices but ensure that American companies remain competitive (Clark, 1998).

In fulfillment of the health care and education goals, the U.S president has faced challenges from the rich citizens who feel that the repealing of their tax cuts and reliefs is unfair , (Miller, 2011). He faces difficulties in enhancing economic security due to the huge adverse impact of economic crisis that hit the country’s economy months before his election. The national security and the foreign relations policies especially in regard to proliferation and disarmament elicited mixed reactions domestically and internationally with some arguing that this might lead to conflicts with other countries and cause further insecurity. The environmental policies have on the other hand been associated with increased job loss among huge number of Americans, (Miller, 2011).

On November 21, 2011, the US president issued an executive order which that introduced new sanctions against Iran for its “development of its petroleum resources and maintenance or expansion of its petrochemical industry” (The White House, 2011). The sanctions targeted the supply of goods, services, technology or support to Iran as well as against eleven individuals were believed to be involved in Iran’s Weapons of Mass Destruction program.

On January 20, 2009 President Obama produced one of his famous speeches, during his inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in front of two million American citizens. In this speech, he promised the American public and the world “a new era of responsibility” Pilkington (2009). He provided reassurances to the public that his government would provide answers that the American public had been seeking in regard to the problems they were facing during that particular turbulent period (The White House, 2009).

One thing that I personally like about the president’s agenda is that it seeks to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor through repealing tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and giving tax credits to the middle and lower class citizens. However, the president’s agenda has one remarkable shortfall relating to the implementation of global warming policy. The result of implementation of this agenda has destroyed hundreds of thousands of jobs with analysts estimating that approximately 7000 jobs will occur by the end of 2011, (Miller, 2011).

References

Clark J., ‘how Barrack Obama works,’ 1998, accessed, 13 December 2011 from

<http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/barack-obama8.htm>,

Miller, H., ‘no end in sight to Obama’s job-killing policies,’ 2011, 13 December 2011

from, http://www.forbes.com/sites/henrymiller/2011/09/06/no-end-in-sight-to-obamas-job-killing-policies/

Pilkington, E., ‘Obama inauguration: Words of history … crafted by 27-year-old in

Starbucks,’ 2009, 13 December 2011 from <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/20/barack-obama-inauguration-us-speech>

The White House, ‘President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address,’ 2009, 13 December

2011 from http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/inaugural-address

The White House, Executive Order 13590 — Iran Sanctions, 2011, 13 December 2011

from < http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/11/21/executive-order-iran-sanctions>