![]() ![]() Enacted in early spring 2010, ACA was the most significant policy reform of the US healthcare system since the 1960s. The standout domestic policy legacy of the Obama administration was the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. Here we will look at four key areas: healthcare, immigration, climate policy and racial justice. The stand-out legacies of the Obama years would become a direction of travel, if not always an end point. We’ve found that while some aspects of the Obama legacy were vulnerable to reversal, other areas proved more resilient. In a new book, we’ve looked at what kind of legacy Obama left as well as what success Trump has had in trying to roll it back. This limited Trump’s capacity to continue unpicking his predecessor’s achievements. Like Obama, he enjoyed two years when his party controlled both houses of Congress – until the Republicans lost their majority in the House of Representatives in the 2018 mid-term elections. Nor was America’s institutional fragmentation brushed away with a new broom once Trump entered the White House. And these obstacles were not always given due attention by the Trump administration. Such routes included executive actions as well as presidential memoranda.ĭuring the 2016 campaign, candidate Trump declared that he would “cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama.” Yet, while executive actions are simpler to reverse than legislative achievements, there are still procedural obstacles to overcome if a predecessor’s actions are to be rolled back. Once Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in January 2011, the scope for legislative action dramatically diminished and his administration had to find other ways to get things done. Or those that initially seemed flat – such as that of Harry Truman – come to be seen in a much more positive light as the years pass.įor Obama, the successes he enjoyed and disappointments he endured after his election in 2008 were often a consequence of the political environment in which he operated. ![]() Sometimes, political legacies that appear immediately important can diminish in significance over time. It’s not always easy to pinpoint the exact legacy a president leaves behind, particularly in the short term. ![]() This ensures that the choice American voters make at the ballot box in November will either reinforce Obama’s legacy – or rebut it once again. Now, his 2020 election opponent is Obama’s former vice president, Joe Biden. From blasting the “ horrible” Iran nuclear deal to blaming Barack Obama’s administration for the “ obsolete, broken system” that Trump claims has hindered the US response to the COVID-19 crisis, he’s used his predecessor as a constant foil.ĭuring his 2016 campaign for the White House, Trump committed himself to rolling back much of the Obama legacy. Throughout Donald Trump’s first term in office, the US president has harked back to the Obama years. ![]()
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