Semester Grades for the Administration: 1

Obama Administration Earns a B- for First Semester Struggle to Reduce Poverty

The grades are in for the first semester of the Administration, and the executive branch earned a B-. This is not bad for the first 18 weeks of the new administration. They earned only one solid A in the first 18 weeks with the signing of the stimulus bill. They had one A- last week after the homeless/foreclosure/renter bill was signed into law. They did get one F in week 12. If we were grading on a curve in comparison to other administrations in Europe, Asia and South America, I am sure that they would have received a B+ or better.

The country has dealt with an auto industry in free fall, a Supreme Court vacancy, a financial collapse, recession, 30 plus banks that failed, rising unemployment, a housing bubble bursting, foreclosures, the fallout from US torturing detainees, Guantanamo Bay prison, North Korea and Iran, lawsuits filed against the previous administration, a federal budget, and two wars. It is amazing that any attention was paid to poor people, health care, the environment or homelessness. Just compiling the above list it is almost like we can summarize the first semester of the administration as: the good news is that they won the popular vote to take the leadership of the United States, the bad news is that they won the popular vote to take the leadership of the United States.

Unlike a few other administrations, this group will not be taking the summer off. We will have grades at the end of August for the summer semester. Next week, we will again post the list of areas that the administration needs to dedicate some attention with regard to poverty to begin to get their grades up to the A level. There is a long list of problems that they have not even begun to address including rural issues, Katrina, and jobs, jobs, jobs.

Brian
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