Obama's First 16 Days

President Obama has sat in the Oval Office now for 16 days and he has already made drastic changes to America and Her future. While watching the coverage of the Inauguration Parade one could not help but wonder if President Obama thought he had better places to be and more important things to do than watch a parade. President Obama said from the beginning that he wanted to get to work “fixing” America and it has shown during his first 16 days.

During President Obama’s second day in office he signed three Executive Orders, or a type law that the President has Constitutional authority to make with out Congress’s approval. The first three Executive Orders all dealt with the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. The First order dealt with closing the base and the proper and timely review and disposition of detained individuals. The second and third were made to review the detention policies at the base and to ensure that lawful interrogations were happening on the base.

These three Executive Orders, in many people’s eyes, were much needed. While some were pushing for reform at the base, many were pushing for closure in light of recent accusations by prisoners about poor treatment, facilities, interrogation tactics, and torture.

The President also signed three major Presidential Memorandas. The first two dealt with the President’s administration; the first set in motion a potential freeze on the Senior White House Staff’s salary and the second was a commitment by the President that his office and his administration would strive to have a transparent and open government. These two memorands were big steps in the President’s public relations by upholding one campaign promise, the open government, and a more recent promise to do what ever he can to help the economy and tax payers.
The third memoranda dealt with the Mexico City Policy, which has over turned or reinstated by every President since President Ronald Reagan. The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 prohibits nongovernmental organizations (NGO) that receive federal funding from using the funds to pay for abortions as a family planning method. President Ronald Reagan expanded this act in 1985 to include any NGO that provided advice, counseling, or information to patients on abortion or lobbied a foreign government to legalize abortion, this became known as the Mexico City Policy. President Clinton revoked the policy in 1993, President Bush reinstated it in 2001, and now President Obama has followed tradition and revoked it. This was President Obama’s first step to changing America’s stance on abortion and trying to uphold Roe vs. Wade.

President Obama did also take some action dealing with the economy. He met on Tuesday January 27th; President Obama met with leaders of the House to work on passing his $825 billion stimulus package. He mainly focused on trying to make the vote as bipartisan as possible by talking to many Republican leaders. Currently the Senate is looking at passing a different version of the stimulus bill than the House did, which might cause confusion to some. However, if that happens what will take place is a conference of the two versions with members of both chambers participating and then both chambers would also have to vote on the conferenced version. President Obama has said that he hopes the bill will be on his desk to sign by mid-Friday.

President Obama has a long way to go on his agenda; after all he is only 16 days into his new job. However, so people have been asking me why is there so much focus on a President’s first 100 days? Well it started in 1932 when Franklin Roosevelt became President. In those days the economy and the nation was in the midst of the Great Depression and people wanted to see fast action. In Roosevelt’s first 100 days he was able to get Congress to pass 15 major bills. So now a days it is seen as a way to judge how fast acting and how productive a President can be. And President Obama only has 84 days left.

--Megan Hakes

Disclaimer: The facts cited in this article come from whitehouse.gov and cnn.com. Comments can be left here on the blog, or sent directly to pharos@wvwc.edu, where they will be forwarded to Ms. Hakes.

The Pharos acts both as a source of news and as a forum for free expression for the West Virginia Wesleyan community. The Pharos and its staff operate with editorial freedom and responsibility. The views and editorials printed with The Pharos reflect the opinions of the individual writers and not the college or The Pharos staff as a whole. Material in the paper and its online format, the Pharos Blog, is selected, edited, then produced.