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Instant gratification. We are a nation of wanting the quick hit. That's one reason why so many of us have been following the coverage all week of the 100th day of Barack Obama's presidency.
As we are marking those first 100 days of the Obamas historic move to the White House, everyone is dissecting what the president has and has not accomplished, trying to divine what this cosmic snippet of time will mean for the rest of his days in Washington and whether he's started down the road of getting done what he promised he would when he was still on the campaign trail.
This week conservatives scoffed at him and progressives lauded him.
He clearly has done things that are significant and Womenstake, the blog of the National Women's Law Center, lays the general themes out quite nicely:
In this brief span of time, Congress and the new Administration prioritized the needs of women and girls throughout the federal government, supported women in the workplace, and provided much-needed assistance to low-income families. The new Administration worked to improve women’s health and education, invest in child care and early education, and guarantee equal rights for all.
Signing the Lilly Ledbetter Act into law was one of the first things Obama did to signal his support for working women, but we're still waiting for him to throw his support behind getting the Paycheck Fairness Act passed. The Ledbetter law only expands our rights to sue employers who have already discriminated against us. We still need the Paycheck Fairness Act to make sure our bosses do the right thing from the get-go so we don't always have to be worried about whether our male counterparts are getting paid more simply because they are men.
On the heels of that, Obama made sure that more children would have access to health insurance and health care by signing a law that would increase funding for the SCHIP program.
The president has made sure that benefits for women and children have been preserved in the Medicaid program, he's reversed the Global Gag Rule, which preventedtthe use of federal funds in overseas programs if reproductive initiatives informed women of all options. Plus, as outlined by Peggy Simpson at the Women's Media Center blog, the Obama administration has made it possible for university health centers once again to purchase and provide low cost birth control to students and funding has been restored to Head Start and other child care subsidy programs to the tune of about $4 billion.
WHEW! And it doesn' stop there! Since it's impossible to list in a blog post all the things that have gotten done in Obama's first 100 dats, check out this cool interactive map to see more. I LOVE this!
Not bad for three months work, I'd say. Sure the conservatives are trying to get you to believe that Obama is all about tax and spend, but his program is about cutting taxes for most people and making sure we have the money to fund the kinds of social programs our country should support wholeheartedly. If it weren't for SCHIP, one my of nieces would have been without health services for most of her childhood because her father, my brother, who was her primary caregiver was in the military and his insurance didn't cover her.
Yeah, that's real family friendly. But I digress.
There are many places that have dissected this in more detail, so my question is this -- What is Obama going to do in the next 100 days? And the 100 after that?
Health insurance for pretty much everyone was near the top of his agenda as a candidate. Will we see movement on that soon? And what about the economy? I'm really not thrilled with how things are going with PunditGirl's 529 college fund and I'm not getting a sense of confidence from anyone on his economic team, with the big exception of Elizabeth Warren, the chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the TARP funds. I have a major political crush on her for telling it like it is when it comes to our problems.
And Chrysler has announced it's mini-bankruptcy plan. Why do they get a financial bye, of sorts, but most homeowners are not? Just as you can't be a little bit pregnant, you can't be a little bit bankrupt. I'd like some answers and actions on
