What Obama Really Thinks About His Economic Legacy

The proof of the success of Barack's economic plan will be obvious in a few years when the Obama Foundation will have a capitalization three or four times that of the Clinton Foundation; in fact, it will probably top 1 billion. In short Obama Trumps Clinton, Bush and Carter combined.

Trauma. Many of us are waiting for the economy to collapse again instead of moving forward. The great recession traumatized us. Jobs are back, but they are not the same jobs. Growth is moving in the right direction, but it a cautious growth. We need an emotional stimulus plan that works for all of us.

Obama's administration's shortcomings are not his, they are ours. We are the ones who presented less than 40% of our population at the polls. We are the ones who watch the faux facts on Fox "News". We are the ones who from a field of 17 contenders for the GOP presidential candidate field (not an Obama-class choice among them) have paved the way for the current political circus.

And I somewhat blame the media, who could have presented a lot of glitz and flashy headlines, rushing to try to beat the electronic media with their news bites without the investigative and informative reporting of the past. Just look at the coverage the computer glitches in rolling out the ACA - wanting to turn it into a scandal, instead of in-depth information about what this amazing law represents to millions of America. And while we are on the ACA, why are/were there no articles on how the health care and pharma industries have manipulated increases that are blamed on Obamacare?

So when detractors want to blame Obama for the shortcomings of his two terms, look in the mirror and around you at your fellow Americans....and then thank your lucky starts that he was where he was when we need him.

A bit of revisionist history, if you ask me. When it came to spending when we needed it, Obama was into "belt tightening" and comparing the deficit to household debt.

"One of the pillars of that foundation must be fiscal discipline. We came into office facing a budget deficit of $1.3 trillion for this year alone, and the cost of confronting our economic crisis is high," he said. "All across America, families are tightening their belts and making hard choices. Now, Washington must show that same sense of responsibility."

This is Obama in 2009. In order to be seen as "serious," he was slinging the same talking points as the conservatives.

This should be keeping him up at night.

He will be missed. Thoughtful, cool-headed, and reflective are qualities absent from the political stage this year.

There is one last thing he needs to do and that is to help Democrats and the Democratic Party by saying what it means to be a Democrat, encouraging the already elected Democrats to show pride in to being a Democrat, what it means to them, why they are a Democrat, and encouraging those who are also running for office this cycle to be proud to be a Democrat as there is completely opposite attitudes, interests between the two parties regardless of the attempt to blur the difference by those who find doing that might aggrandize themselves or their partisan purpose.

I was hoping that with Obamacare, I would be able to receive dental extractions for extremely rotting teeth and 21st century 4 on 1 dentures where dentures are held in by 4-5 implants all done within a few days. The old way took a lot more and one ended up with clunky dentures that took numerous visits to refit, learning to speak with new dentures and the sensation of plastic in the roof of the month, sometimes causing the wearer to have gaging reflex, where 4 on 1 procedure has no problems associated as with old procedure. The only problem is the procedure is new and cost is to high. I'm on disability and medicare will not pay even for old procedure. There is plenty of govt resources for chip, wic,and Medicaid. My guess is the poorer elderly lives aren't considerd as valuable and ready for the boneyard anyway, so why should taxpayers assistance be used on some old poor person who can't get a job because him or her can't eat, smile or speak perfectly because of ugly teeth.

Obama is wrong about the impact of the Reagan era. Today we have 100% consensus behind the tired neo-Keynesian formula of tax increases and stimulus spending. There is no discussion of Supply Side anything. We demonize and torment business with needless regulation, impairing credit creation and new jobs. Is there any wonder there is a broad feeling of uncertainty and malaise? The Obama/Dodd-Frank/Warren years have been a terrible waste in terms of fixing structural issues. Instead we have a pysudo progressive Inquisition focused on extracing maximum penalties from industries like banking and mortgage lending.

It is true that the state of the nation is much better than it was 8 years ago, but the election 2016 Republicans will tear at every part of Obama's legacy. Hillary Clinton has been a genuine champion of what Obama has accomplished and has tried against the most obstructionist Republican Congress we have ever seen in our era and it would behoove Obama to support Hillary in her bid for the Office. With the tsunami of negativity that is already and will be lodged against her, she is going to need vocal and loud advocates, or it will be almost guaranteed that there will be a very diminished legacy Obama can even hope for. No one else is giving such a noble voice to his works other than Hillary.

How many readers know the root cause of the prosperity of the 1950 to 2000 period? It helps maybe to have lived it. The secret sauce was government R&D spending after WWII in programs which had huge impacts on every state and town in America. It was R&D fallout from the Depression and Second World War and then the Marshall Plan, Cold War and Space and Nuclear races that produced unprecedented wealth. We built nuclear subs on the coasts and ICBMs across the prairies. Government made investments in air and space transportation, the Interstate, Internet, fiber optics, silicon devices, software, PCs, Oracle, IBM, Apple, Boeing, Rockwell, Microsoft – these all put America on top. This federal R&D led to private sector business expansion, export prowess, and the spread of wealth.

We do not now need less government we need more government -- both state and federal to plan and fund the R&D seed money for the next moon shots in health care, energy conservation, renewable energy, new ways to rebuild infrastructure. We need the same for food production, waste reduction, and recycling.

The Chinese will do this so we have to jump ahead. The USA has to invent new uses of technology and rebuild value-add which is the only way to create job and wealth growth. This time around we need skilled politicians and technicians who build in sustainability and understand how you get value-add. This is missing.

President Obama is right.

I especially agree with bullet point #2.

I think his biggest mistakes were (1) to bring in the Clinton Wall Street people, the Rubin proteges and the arrogant deregulator and redistribution opponent Larry Summers; (2) to stand by and watch so many families lose their homes while banks got bailed out and CEOs made out like bandits; and to hand over negotiation of ambitious trade pacts to his wall street friend. The resulting TTP and TTIP are NOT about "free trade," most of the wide gains from which are long since obtained. These two pacts are about vastly increasing profits of pharmaceutical and intellectual property-based firms, and an incredible end-run around democracy via expansion of the deeply undemocratic, unappealable, Investor State Dispute Settlement that allows wealthy corporations to sue democratic governments trying to protect their citizens' health and safety. And they WIN these suits (the plaintiffs are mostly big U.S. firms). Countries have been sued under these trade processes for trying to discourage smoking, for banning harmful additives in gasoline; and the U.S. is being sued for canceling the Keystone Pipeline! Why on earth does Obama want a legacy like this? Is he planning on getting a nice post-presidency job at one of these corporations?

Evidence-based policy: It's something that Obama clearly believes in. And that's natural enough - it seems like common sense to base policy on empirical facts from the real world, right? Wrong. It's far from common. In fact, it's highly endangered (if not extinct) among Republicans and many conservative parties around the world. Here in Australia, the party currently in power still refuses to accept basic facts of science. And here, like in the US, religious cranks insist on putting their invisible-fairy beliefs ahead of real-world observations.
Thoughtful people need to support the importance of facts, science, empirical observation and evidence - in everything we do. We need to keep our minds open and ready to accept new evidence as it arises. Obama has been very good at doing that for the last eight years.

Our problem is our government is too large and we spend too much. We are better today because of time and low interest rates nothing the president has done. He forgets the misery we had during the Carter years, despondency, the wreckage of the 1970's, Watergate, Vietnam, protests, it was ugly and bad for the economy. Reagan was the right guy and the right time, he was positive and strong, unlike Obama who is negative and weak. Reagan believed in the American people, that they had the fire in them to succeed, Obama is of the belief we need more government, business is evil and dependency should be a way of life because you can't do it on your own without him.

Urko 27514 6 hours ago
Raising taxes. Issuing new regulations by the millions. Doubled the taxpayer deficit. The southern border a mess for eight years, would not be tolerated anywhere else.

It is a miracle, the U.S. economy has survived the last eight years. It will take 12+ years to clean up this mess.
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This is rich folks. Obama did not raise taxes, in fact the Bush cuts were set to expire (called a sunset provision) and Obama extended the Bush cuts past their expiration. BYW, it is Congress that enacts the tax rates not the president.

Obama did not double the deficit -- it just so happens that George W did not put the wars on the books and Obama did. Leaving the books off the books as George W did was wrong and did not accurately reflect spending. Obama put the cost of the wars in the budget for all to see.

George W ruined our economy and it is a miracle that we did not go into a true depression. The economy was actually broken by the banksters beginning in 2005 through September 2008 which was when George W was in office. The market dipped lowest in March of 2009 and bottomed around 6,500 for the DOW and it has since grown to 18,500.

We have ignorant people in this country who don't bother with the facts. To those who want fewer regulations, I say go live in Somalia or Yemen.

Thank you President Obama. The leaders of the GOP were against you from day one. Their goal was to make you a one term president.
You didn't stand a chance of uniting the nation due to their obstruction.
While we often forget to give you credit, you did a great job of saving us from losing 700,000 jobs a month, the disastrous economy the previous administration left us with, starting Americans on a path to universal health care, capturing the mastermind of 9/11, protecting LGBTQ rights, just to name a few.
In the face of and despite all the obstructionists and fox noise that is your legacy.
You will be missed.

Why not have a conversation with some of those getting left behind? I have a good job with a large company, and every day I worry my job will be given to som H1B who gets paid 1/3 what I do and sends his paycheck to Pune.

From my perspective looking at American foreign policy being so intertwined with its economic policy, I find the Obama economic legacy may have delayed right wing or isolationist policies by the left from sweeping the country so far in the 21st century.

From my perspective looking at American foreign policy being so intertwined with its economic policy, I find the Obama economic legacy may have delayed right wing and isolationist policies by the left from sweeping the country so far in the 21th century.

I really enjoyed this article. The number 1 reason why I vote democrat is because of economics - mostly regarding Keynesian stimulus vs austerity, along with the fact that only one party takes the goldbug crowd seriously.

Not too bad considering he was circumvented at at every turn by the Republican political terrorists that wanted the economy to tank (and every other gov institution for that matter) for their own political gain. And I do mean terrorist in that they do essentially what any terrorist group does: destroy faith in the government and then claim they themselves are the solution the very destruction they themselves caused (see ISIS).
His only fault lays in his reluctance to assume the role of "Explainer-inChief"—which reflected his seeming distaste for the necessary relentless politicking that would require. But hey, that's his job (maybe the most IMPORTANT part of his job). And also to not call these lunatics out for what they are while letting them off the hook for the dangerous and un-American behavior they inflicted on this country.

Well, seen from outside the economic legacy of President Obama isn't so bad. However, the reason for that is not that he and his administration didn't the right things or that what they did right. It was more the ideological obstruction by the GOP and some tea party rabble-rouser. Compromise is seen as a capital sin for them; denying that living together, whether in a partnership or society, is always about compromises. These ideologists seems not to be interested in their country or their fellow citizens but more in the well-being of their sponsors, the Wall Street "banksters" and the very rich campaign financier seeking only their personal profit. It’s a shame: Such a rich country and round the corner you'll find the 3rd world. Any politician not trying to fix the obvious wealth and income inequality as well as the inequality of chances in education and health care in your country should get the right message in the next election. Unfortunately it seems that at least in one party the plebs are following a self-declared plebeian tribune.

With the idiocracy in charge in the senate, that anything got done is simply astounding! Imagine what might have been done, and how much further ahead the US economy would be if that Prince of Darkness, Mitch McConnell was able to overcome his predjuice and horror that a black man was in the White House! I am kind of hoping that Trump triumphs so that the Moronic Party of NO in Washington get the "white" president they've been longing for.

I am rarely in lockstep with anyone's thoughts about how he/she regards himself. But in Obama's case, I am in nearly complete agreement with all seven of his reflective thoughts. But in response to his second and third point (Obama's failure to initiate a massive infrastructure project), Obama acknowledge the obstructionist behavior by Republicans in Congress as the major factor accounting for this failure. The cloth from which Obama was cut defined his limitations as a wheeler-dealer and schmoozer with people he could barely tolerate but this same character trait kept him whole, wholesome and moral as a human being and as this country's first and great American black president.

Had the Republican side of the aisle not been the party of "NO," the United States would be in far better shape. Had the Republican side of the aisle not also been the party of misinformation, the public would know that.

Period.

The American economy was ruined by the Iraq war during the administration of Bush/Cheney.
None of us has forgotten that little event and no thinking person ever will.

I agree that not pushing effectively for a large infrastructure repair spending package was one of the biggest letdowns of the Obama Presidency. When we can spend billions of dollars on an unnecessary war in Iraq, it boggles the mind that we cannot spend the money on rebuilding our infrastructure which would benefit vastly more citizens and strengthen our country. We can still do it with some sensible small tax increases (gas) and shifting dollars out of the bloated Pentagon budget (cut the buy of the problematic F-35s in half and we would free up 500 billion dollars over several years right there) and reforming our health system with such cost effective moves as the Feds/Medicare being allowed to negotiate over drug prices. We do have the resources to rebuild our country now and support good paying middle class jobs!

Like all narcissists, Obama believes he can do no wrong and that all of his critics are prejudiced against him. He has practiced Keynesian economics on a grand scale, and he has achieved lousy results. The economy is barely growing, despite massive federal spending that has increased the federal debt from less than $11 trillion to almost $19 trillion in the 7 years of Obama's administration. The Fed has shot all of its bullets by reducing interest rates to near zero, punishing seniors who count on savings interest for discretionary spending to supplement their Social Security payments. Now, any hint of increasing rates by the Fed is met with a stock market swoon, so the Fed can't make a dent in the federal debt. Meanwhile, the labor participation rate is at its lowest level since the Great Depression; the misleading 5% unemployment rate fails to take account of the massive numbers of Americans who have given up looking for work. Wages are stagnant. Food stamps and government subsidized housing and social service payments to people on the dole are at all time highs. None of this is good news, but Obama prefers to look at the economy through rose colored glasses. Self delusion is the norm for narcissists.

At the end of eight years, facts do matter. Bottomline: The country is better off with Obama as the president than it would have been with the then Republican candidates. Inspite of all the resistance from Congress, Obama still achieved a lot in his Presidency. History will judge him favorably for:
- Bringing back the country out of a deep recession.
- Initiating the Health Care, although it will evolve and needs to change a lot from that it is today. Only he walked the walk on this big change the country needed long time ago.
- Reducing the footprint on invading other countries and successfully targeting terrorists.
- Attempting to move the needle on clear air related legislation.
- More freedom and right for the LGBT community.
...just to name a few. There is a lot more he could have done and also there are lots of mistakes that he had done. But what better would we have been with the alternative candidates at that time?

Within the economic disaster and program bequeathed to him, President Obama has made lemonade. Many continue to complain about how sweet or sour it has been, forgetting that the fatal concession to financiers was led by George W. Bush.

That said, elevating ourselves relative to the atrocities perpetrated abroad elides the point. Globally, the financiers that drove us into the ditch are still at the wheel -- driving the ascendancy of monetary policy over fiscal policy.

In that way, the uber-rich harness the wealth of nations to their own whim -- with little oversight as to how it is spent or invested. This injustice has fueled the frustration with "establishment politicians" and populist rage.

We may have avoided an economic depression, but have not escaped the pain and suffering of financial industry failures. Instead the pain has been institutionalized as the unicorns of the gig economy would treat workers as apps -- disposing of Americans whenever the next shiny, new thing comes along.

Obama seems to know the problems but his legacy will be that he couldn't find a way to accomplish solutions. Since both Republicans and Wall Street hate Obama, why didn't he give them a real reason to hate him? He should have tried to stick it to them at every opportunity! Can't he see that they look really bad when they try to justify their trickle down economics and ginormous effective tax breaks (which is different than the bogus marginal tax rates nobody pays?

The only people doing well in this recovery are the Wall Street robber barons and banksters that caused the Great Recession. We have come out of the recession with people having to pay much more for housing, food and basic necessities. Health care costs including premiums are on the rise. And yet, wages stay stagnant, millions have been forced out of their jobs and into early retirement, Social Security benefits are frozen at a level below the poverty line. It really is criminal what has happened thus far in the 21st millennium as the result of political gridlock in Washington.

Whatever the Republicans and Democrats are doing, it ain't working for most people. This election is primarily about wealth and income inequality, and the consensus among most voters is to kick the establishment politicians to the curb.

Everyone can see that the politicians care more about the 1% than the 99%! Something is going to change because it has to.

President Obama needs to say all this clearly and understandably in a speech to the American people.

Raising taxes. Issuing new regulations by the millions. Doubled the taxpayer deficit. The southern border a mess for eight years, would not be tolerated anywhere else.

It is a miracle, the U.S. economy has survived the last eight years. It will take 12+ years to clean up this mess.

"But he also believes his administration could have done more if he had sold his policies more effectively."

Obama shouldn't berate himself. The GOP wasn't buying. For them it was ideology first, country second.

The GOP will always disparage Obama. It's in their DNA. The sneering began in Jan. 2009, and will continue forever.

Adam Smith repudiated mercantilism, but warned that unregulated, insufficiently taxed capitalism would eventuate in monopoly, oligarchy, riot, penury & repeat cycles of ruinous market implosion [prophetic eight times, 1837-2007]...supply-side fiscal policy, subsidizing malefactors of wealth, generates neither investment nor employment.

Though it is true that Obama acted correctly in 2008 with the banking crisis, he did intervene with a trillion dollars of taxpayer revenue. And he complains that Wall St. still hates him. Imagine the infinitely greater contempt we the little people who paid those tax dollars are held in by that group, Wall St. Obama, as our first president of color, turned out to be quite colorless in his complete neglect of his own people starting here in the Chicago area. He hyped up being the first black candidate, took the votes and then delivered nothing to this constituency. Chicago is still the epicenter of homicide in the uSA, and Obama is naturally not calling it a "sweet home" like the jazz tune, but planning to retire elsewhere.