As an environmentalist, I believe the government should always be doing more to protect the environment. Obama did use much of the stimulus money towards green efforts, but he is not following through with many of his other campaign promises. Of course, with checks and balances, changing policy is a slow process, but I do believe he could be doing more.
Obama came into the presidency at a difficult time; with the country in recession, he had to pick which battles to fight for. He pulled really hard for the health care reform and then had to focus his efforts on the oil spill.
I worry that environmental efforts are always in the backburner because they do not seem like pressing problems. Yet, the problems just continue to get bigger and bigger, and one day will be an immediate problem which we will no longer be able to solve.
Good point that the issue doesn't hold a lot of saliency for the larger public due to the fact that the consequences seem so far in the future. However, I would disagree that Obama needs to "pick battles". The job of the President is be in charge of the whole system not just choose the part that they think will get them re elected. Time will tell though, he still has a couple years we'll have to wait and see what else he will accomplish.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Amanda. I do understand the president has to pick battles-he has to focus on what is going to help the American people on a short term basis first before he can focus on the larger issues like the environment. But I do wonder if maybe his tiptoeing around the issues is going to actually hurt him in the long run. The more time he spends away from the issue the more it may undermine his policies. And Martha is it really the President's job to be in "charge of the whole system?" Didn't you say in your blog that the President is really the front man for the Congress, "the heavy lifters?" Just a thought...
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Obama faces challenges largely out of his control. But I disagree with the fact that environmental efforts are being stifled because they "do not seem like pressing problems." Obama knows they're important, Congress knows they're important, but it's the special interests at stake that I think are really the issue. The president is forced to appeal to his financial supporters, but I wish he would appeal more to his constituents - especially the environmentalists, like me :)
ReplyDeleteHealth Care definitely slowed down other agendas that Obama had discussed within his political campaign. That, coupled with the ongoing recession and unemployment rates have made it hard to challenge the "norm" and implement progressive legislation. I believe that the economic climate made it easier for Obama to go back to nuclear power and stray away from campaign promises. I agree with the idea of problems perpetuating, which is exactly the case within the realm of environmental politics. These issues need to reach the forefront of discussion before it is to late, but I guess before then we'll have to figure out how to fix Social Security since we've been putting that off forever.
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