What Obama’s First 100 Days Have Meant for 50-Plus America

Stoking confidence and boosting optimism is always the crucial first step, analysts say, in reinvigorating a nation suffering the effects of a deep recession. Getting the country to regain confidence in itself is “the most important thing he’s done in these 100 days,” historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, a one-time assistant to President Lyndon Johnson, toldMeet the Press.

The economic turnaround is crucial for 50-plus America.

Americans 50 and over have shouldered disproportionate losses in the current economic upheaval, as Wall Street prices fell by almost half and housing values dropped 20 percent. Of the nearly $7 trillion in Wall Street losses, for example, those over 50 lost $5 trillion.

Any economic recovery, when it comes, will have comparable disproportional benefit. That could take years. In the meantime, the unemployment rate among those over 55 has doubled to 6.2 percent in the past 15 months, and other older Americans have canceled retirement plans and are working longer if they can.

“One hundred days is an awfully short time,” said John Rother, AARP executive vice president for policy and strategy. “The true measure of comparison ought to be the track record of previous presidents, and by that measure Obama has accomplished quite a lot.”

Obama won congressional approval for a $787 billion economic stimulus bill in near-record time, even though his efforts to win bipartisan support sputtered. The Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act included $150 billion in tax breaks for low- and middle-income households and a $250 benefit for all Social Security recipients. The administration says it will create or save more than 3.5 million jobs over the next two years.

He has set the campaign for health reform in motion.

Obama won congressional support to expand health care for 11 million children with the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. The economic stimulus plan includes $19 billion to begin computerizing medical records and training nurses and primary care doctors in the system’s use, with a goal of saving billions in health care costs.

But that was just the start. His new budget creates a 10-year $634 billion health care “reserve fund” to expand health insurance, improve the quality of care and modernize the system as an effort to promote coverage for all Americans. He has convened a series of town hall meetings where dozens of health care stakeholders pledged to seek common ground in reducing health costs and expanding coverage. “The progress already made toward health reform is pretty significant,” Rother said.

To demonstrate the potential for computerized medical records to reduce errors and save money, the administration has gotten the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments to develop shared medical record-keeping that would transfer a file seamlessly from one agency to the other after military personnel end their active service.

Communities will be helped by rebuilding the nation’s transportation system in the name of economic stimulus.

In addition to allocating nearly $7 billion for more than 2,100 “shovel ready” highway construction projects, the stimulus act designates more than $8 billion to help develop high-speed rail corridors, including links that would connect Los Angeles to San Francisco, Minneapolis and Kansas City to Chicago, and Washington to New Orleans and Houston.

Separately, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has allocated some $3 billion to spend on delayed improvements in the nation’s supply of public housing.

He’s expanding the role of government.

After three decades of politicians’ “smaller government” rhetoric, Obama has launched an aggressive expansion of the federal government’s interests and activity. While the president has resisted calls to nationalize any banks, the federal government now owns a substantial share of two auto companies and several banks, and the administration is involved in day-to-day management of the auto industry—including the sacking of one CEO—and the banking system. With two low-level wars, a deep recession, a perceived backlog in domestic and foreign initiatives, and a solid Democratic majority in Congress, Obama has concentrated decision making at the White House and launched sweeping initiatives.

One measure of his vision is Obama’s budget proposals, which, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), would add a whopping $9.3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. The auto industry initiative holds particular impact for 930,000 older and retired GM and Chrysler workers, whose pensions and health benefits are at stake.

“We’re seeing the beginning of serious change in the country, and it’s one of the biggest departures I’ve seen in my adult lifetime,” David Gergen, an adviser to four presidential administrations who now teaches at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, told NPR. “The pendulum is swinging.”

His pitch for bipartisanship produced a new initiative for volunteer service, but little else.

In April Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which he championed in his inaugural address to expand national community service programs, increase the number of positions from 75,000 to 250,000 and create new cadres of volunteers focused on education, clean energy, health care and veterans. This represents the greatest expansion of service opportunities since 1963, when President Kennedy called for creation of a national service corps.

The new law also seeks to encourage volunteer work among retirees and would offer them a $1,000 educational award that they could transfer to a child or grandchild.

The recovery and the fate of the Obama administration are at a tipping point that could last for a while.

The biggest threats to Obama’s agenda remain economic. While boldly boosting the budget deficit now to create jobs, reopen spigots of credit and refloat the housing market, Obama’s budget team says it wants eventually to shrink the government’s debts, which according to the CBO would double over the next decade.

The economy is also weighed down by the fact that, having indulged in a decade of go-go spending, many Americans now face the frightening realities that they owe more on their homes and cars than they are worth. Home foreclosures that first sprouted among risky borrowers holding subprime loans are now spreading to conventional borrowers who have lost their jobs. As retail sales continue to be weak, commercial real estate owners, shopping mall developers and large retailers are the next to face potential real estate setbacks.

“It’s actually been a pretty fruitful 100 days,” Tom Davis, a former GOP congressman from Virginia and Republican strategist, said to theSan Francisco Chronicle. “The gig on him is he’s trying to do too much, but from those criteria, he’s doing well and his numbers are still very, very strong. You can pick apart his policies … but we had a campaign and basically he said what he’s going to do and that’s what he’s doing.”

Jim Toedtman is the editor of theAARP Bulletin. Michael Zielenziger writes on business and the economy.