President Barack Obama has officially entered into his second year in office still promising that America will make a come back.
One of the first things he did after his inauguration, which I personally benefited from, was raise the Pell Grant for student financial aid, which he recently did again to meet the rising cost of college tuition.
Although he has paid some attention to other issues, Obama’s main focus has been on health care, to which he has met a lot of resistance from Republicans, some in his own political party and the people of America. After a long battle over health care reform, it is becoming increasingly clear that this issue may not be conquered.
So why is the president still so headstrong about health care reform? Shouldn’t he be focusing on more pressing issues in this country like the slow, painful, continuous downfall of our economy?
I support Obama. I think, as I’m sure a lot of you do, he is a refreshing change from our former commander in chief. He has kept his word that he would fight for health care, but at some point it is time to lay down your armor and open yourself up to compromise.
It’s definitely a good thing that our president is so passionate that he won’t give up fighting for something he believes we deserve, but with Americans still losing jobs and homes every day, the domestic issue Obama should be focusing on is the economy.
Maybe I feel so strongly about this issue because my life has been so negatively impacted by the recession. My father, who is a college-educated man with an MBA, was let go from a company he slaved for more than 20 years nearly three years ago.
For two years, a man with a bachelor’s degree as well as a master’s degree in business and an extensive resume searched high and low for a job in the field in which he had experience. After countless interviews and overcrowded job conventions in downtown Atlanta, it became clear to him that his hopeful hunt was in vain.
Companies were, and still are, laying people off, not hiring new employees. He did what he had to do for his family and started training as a truck driver. This gave him a major slash in his salary, which was a huge blow to his pride. During the course of his unemployment, three other people in our neighborhood were laid off. They are all currently seeking employment. However, I continue to wonder if a man as qualified and experienced as my dad can’t find a job, who can?
Lately, the media has been overly excited about the fact that the unemployment rate has fallen from 10 to 9.7 percent, but these numbers do not include people who were laid off and now work part time jobs or people who are actively seeking full time employment.
The unemployment rate is based on the amount of the population that receives unemployment benefits. However, my parents did not file for unemployment for a year after my dad lost his job, so it’s likely the actual number of unemployed Americans is higher than the government likes to project.
Many students who have completed their bachelor’s degrees are staying in school as long as they can, seemingly waiting out the storm. This is a far cry from the former certainty that a young, college educated man or woman could find a decent-paying job shortly after graduating.
This reality keeps students from promptly paying back student loans, which two-thirds of undergraduate students have, putting the lending banks out thousands of dollars and submerging new alumni into debt. Thus, the country is pushed further into deficit. Furthermore, investors who have lost money in the stock market are too afraid to put money back into the unpredictable market, banks are losing money due to home foreclosures and the country is still pouring billions of dollars into the endless war in the Middle East.
Obama has taken a few steps in an effort to stabilize the economy. He gave banks across America billions of taxpayers’ dollars, which they are expected to pay back with interest (good luck with that, Mr. President) to loan money to small businesses and students. He also gave large sums of money to the big four American motor companies, which seems pointless since most Americans can’t afford to buy brand new cars.
A few suggestions I’ve been hearing here and there that seem legitimately beneficial may prove more fruitful. One is to invest in offshore drilling here in America. This would decrease our import costs maybe even allowing us to export oil.
Apart from tapping into our natural resources, the government could invest more money into companies that seek clean fuel solutions, allowing their businesses to grow and therefore employing more college educated Americans.
A similar idea is for the government to invest in wind turbines. These require careful assembly as well as extensive maintenance, which also means a lot of employed Americans. These are just a few possibilities I hope Washington is considering.
It seems as though the issue of health care reform would go hand-in-hand with economic reform. If people have decent jobs, they’ll have benefits including health insurance. While Obama’s main problem with our current health care system is how manipulative and stingy insurance companies are, so many lobbyists for this industry have their hands in congressmen’s pockets that the possibility of Obama having his way with this issue is simply not feasible. The issue that he could conquer, however, is that of the economy. When the country is in such economic turmoil, the importance of recovery should transcend partisan values and lobbyists’ interests.
It’s easy to criticize the president when you don’t shoulder all the responsibility he does. However, it’s our job to be critical of our elected officials to make sure they’re fighting for us.
We all know the economy took years to get into the poor state it’s in, and it will take even longer to pull America back from the brink of a depression. Yet the more the government works to restore stability, the sooner Americans can take a sigh of relief and go to work without worrying about getting laid off.
Sometimes, even someone as bright and grounded as Obama needs to be checked and reminded there are issues other than health care reform plaguing America.
Nora Donnelly is a sophomore majoring in communication. She can be contacted at [email protected].