History will regard Barack Obama as an excellent president of the United States. We may take for granted one of the unique aspects of his presidency: Not once was he tainted by the whiff of a scandal. No matter what one thinks of President Obama’s politics, he served with great honesty and integrity.
But his policy accomplishments also deserve accolades. It must be remembered that they were achieved with Republicans controlling the House of Representatives for all but the first two years of his presidency and the Senate for the last two years. Most of all, President Obama and his administration deserve credit for the economy. He was elected in 2008 and inherited an economy that was near ruin and om the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Unemployment was over 10 percent. Major industries, like the auto industry, were on the verge of collapse. Some banks and financial institutions closed and others were in danger. President Obama proposed and Congress enacted a $787 billion stimulus plan, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It worked.
Obama leaves office with unemployment at 4.7 percent. During his presidency, more than 15 million jobs were created. Real income has grown. Banks were rescued and the auto industry was saved and is thriving. Perhaps most astounding, the Obama administration was able to dramatically decrease unemployment without inflation.
The signature legislative accomplishment of the Obama administration was also its most controversial: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. As a result of Obamacare, 22 million more Americans have health insurance; the percentage of those without health care coverage is the lowest in American history. The rate of increase in health care costs has dramatically slowed.
Specific provisions of the law have helped millions. No longer can people be denied health insurance because of pre-existing conditions. When I moved to California to take a job at the University of Southern California in 1983, virtually no health insurance plan would cover me because I had cancer the year before. No longer can people with chronic conditions be denied health care coverage or charged more in premiums. No longer can insurance companies put a cap on yearly or lifetime benefits. It has been estimated that before Obamacare, more than 50 percent of consumer bankruptcies were because of health care costs. Children can be included on their parents’ health insurance until age 26.
For our long-term health and the health of our planet, the Obama administration was instrumental in a major international effort to limit greenhouse gas emissions, the Paris Accords. The diplomacy of the Obama administration paid off in that for the first time China agreed to environmental controls. There have been regulations and executive orders to limit pollution from coal-fired electrical generators, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is real and it endangers our planet. Politicians who deny this science or who seek to repeal, rather than enhance these efforts, risk irreversible damage to the environment.
The Obama administration played a key role in expanding rights for gays and lesbians. It successfully argued in the Supreme Court to have the federal Defense of Marriage Act declared unconstitutional and for a right to marriage equality for gays and lesbians. It oversaw the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and the integration of gays and lesbians into the military has been successful and without incident.
The Obama administration ended disastrous policies from the Bush-Cheney years, including immediately ending the use of torture. Unfortunately, because of a federal statute, the Obama administration has not been able to close the prison in Guantanamo, but only 55 prisoners remain there, down from a high of 775 individuals. Obama finally normalized relations with Cuba, a foreign policy change that was long overdue. The Obama administration successfully negotiated a deal with Iran that prevents its development of nuclear weapons.
Perhaps President Obama’s longest-term legacy is his picks for the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan are impeccably qualified and will be important voices and votes on the Supreme Court for decades to come.
President Obama, of course, has not been a perfect president. I have disagreed with many of his policies, such as the metadata collection by the National Security Agency and the unprecedented prosecutions of the press. I wish he had been more aggressive in filling judicial vacancies when the Democrats controlled the Senate. I think he did a poor job of explaining the Affordable Care Act and how it benefited tens of millions of Americans. The income gap grew and contributed to the election of Donald Trump. President Obama failed in his desire to bring the country together, but it is unclear what any human being can do right now to heal the deep divides.
Above all, the president is a leader and the most important leadership always is by example. President Obama was an example for all of us with the class, decency, and dignity in which he served. We only can hope that other presidents will emulate this in the years ahead.
Erwin Chemerinsky is dean of the UC Irvine School of Law.
