Barack Obama has an accountability problem. It’s not
simply that during the 2008 campaign he made extravagant promises to
heal the planet, slow the rise of the oceans, end political divisions in
America, and usher in an era of hope and change. It’s that as a
candidate and in the early days of his presidency, Obama and his top
aides made a series of very specific promises on a range of issues.
As
a candidate, Obama promised to create five million new energy jobs
alone, claimed that by the end of his first term his health care plan
would “bring down premiums by $2,500 for the typical family,” and
guaranteed that his financial rescue plan would help “stop
foreclosures.” As president-elect, Obama informed us that he had asked
two of his top economic advisers, Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein,
to conduct a “rigorous analysis” of his economic recovery plan. The
report that he released predicted unemployment would not rise above 8
percent if the stimulus plan was passed. And in the first year of his
presidency, Obama pledged to “cut the deficit we inherited in half by
the end of my first term in office,” “lift two million Americans from
poverty,” and “jolt our economy back to life.”
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