The First 100 Days: A Flying Start
The First 100 Days: A Flying Start
The First 100 Days: Nicolaus Mills
By the time he leaves office, President Barack Obama will be judged a success if he keeps the country from falling into a depression, successfully gets American troops out of Iraq, and makes national health insurance a reality.
Obama’s good fortune is that he starts with advantages that no president has had since Franklin Roosevelt took office in 1933. The country is sick of the Iraq War. The deregulation craze that began with Jimmy Carter’s presidency is over. Government intervention in the economy, along with massive deficit spending, has, for the moment, become Republican as well as Democratic policy.
But Obama’s good fortune does not mean that he can afford to squander his first hundred days. The memory of Bill Clinton—who spoiled his first presidential term by proposing a health care plan that nobody could understand and got bogged down in “Don’t ask, don’t tell”—reminds us of all that can go wrong when a president begins badly.
What Obama wants to do in his first hundred days is take a series of steps that will both win him widespread approval and show that he is serious about change. In order of importance, here are the three steps that I think he should take:
First, insist on a targeted stimulus program. Show that it is possible to be tough and generous at the same time. Banks should only get money from an Obama administration if they increase their lending and do their best to avoid foreclosing on the houses of their borrowers. The same kind of quid pro quo should apply to the auto industry. If the Detroit automakers are to get help, they need to come up with a plan for fuel-efficient cars that Americans can afford and will want to buy.
Second, reintroduce the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The program subsidizes health care for children from families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford their own private coverage. The original Children’s Health Insurance Program, which would have cost $35 billion over five years, had bipartisan support in 2007 when it was vetoed by President Bush. Such a bill would be a good first step toward universal health insurance for all children.
Third, end President Bush’s ban on government funding for research using stem cells taken from human embryos. The cures that stem-cell research may be able to effect range from Parkinson’s disease to Alzheimer’s, and once this area of research is opened up, it will be virtually impossible to shut it down. Stem-cell beneficiaries and their families will constitute a powerful interest group, and for President Obama, there will be an added bonus for acting swiftly on their behalf. Every time inroads on a disease are achieved as a result of stem-cell research, his name will be sure to come up.
Nicolaus Mills is author of Winning the Peace: The Marshall Plan and America’s Coming of Age as a Superpower.
