Obama Positioned
To start quickly governing from the left. WPost on 200-odd quick Obama fixes:
Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.
A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition.
In some instances, Obama would be quickly delivering on promises he made during his two-year campaign, while in others he would be embracing Clinton-era policies upended by President Bush during his eight years in office.
“The kind of regulations they are looking at” are those imposed by Bush for “overtly political” reasons, in pursuit of what Democrats say was a partisan Republican agenda, said Dan Mendelson, a former associate administrator for health in the Clinton administration’s Office of Management and Budget. The list of executive orders targeted by Obama’s team could well get longer in the coming days, as Bush’s appointees rush to enact a number of last-minute policies in an effort to extend his legacy.
No time like the first five minutes to unimpose them for overtly political reasons. Alkl I have to say is, thank God Obama is going to stop the ocean from rising and find something useful to do with all that aborted baby pith.
Obama himself has signaled, for example, that he intends to reverse Bush’s controversial limit on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, a decision that scientists say has restrained research into some of the most promising avenues for defeating a wide array of diseases, such as Parkinson’s.
Bush’s August 2001 decision pleased religious conservatives who have moral objections to the use of cells from days-old human embryos, which are destroyed in the process.
Hey, what about us irreverent conservatives. I didn’t like that embryo cuisinarting much either. Hate to throw out all the progress scientists have made using adult stem cells from non-aborted humans. No mention of that in this article.
The new president is also expected to lift a so-called global gag rule barring international family planning groups that receive U.S. aid from counseling women about the availability of abortion, even in countries where the procedure is legal, said Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, he rescinded the Reagan-era regulation, known as the Mexico City policy, but Bush reimposed it.
“We have been communicating with his transition staff” almost daily, Richards said. “We expect to see a real change.”
Your tax dollars for Mexican abortions. They might want to think about pushing that as part of comprehensive immigration reform.
The president-elect has said, for example, that he intends to quickly reverse the Bush administration’s decision last December to deny California the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles. “Effectively tackling global warming demands bold and innovative solutions, and given the failure of this administration to act, California should be allowed to pioneer,” Obama said in January.
California had sought permission from the Environmental Protection Agency to require that greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles be cut by 30 percent between 2009 and 2016, effectively mandating that cars achieve a fuel economy standard of at least 36 miles per gallon within eight years. Seventeen other states had promised to adopt California’s rules, representing in total 45 percent of the nation’s automobile market. Environmentalists cheered the California initiative because it would stoke innovation that would potentially benefit the entire country.
California uber alles.
Anyway, it’s not all just about chiseling the hated name of Bush from all government edifices. It will also be necessary to erect many statues of the new pharoah.
Despite enormous pent-up Democratic frustration, Obama and his team realize they must strike a balance between undoing Bush actions and setting their own course, said Winnie Stachelberg, the center’s senior vice president for external affairs.
“It took eight years to get into this mess, and it will take a long time to get out of it,” she said. “The next administration needs to look ahead. This transition team and the incoming administration gets that in a big way.”
Poligazette notes the Bush legacy lives in the Supreme Court and in Iraq. For now.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:53 am Comments (11) on Sunday, November 9, 2008
11 Responses to “Obama Positioned”
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November 9th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Look for the middle class to flee California in ever-increasing droves over the next few years.
November 9th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
My thoughts exactly. They are even mimicking “wonder” cells from hair, not that I have much to spare.
November 9th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Didn’t Missouri and Calfornia vote to fund embryonic cell research? Where, exactly, has that gotten them? No, I haven’t heard much from them either.
November 9th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
[...] I fear is that Obama may turn into Clinton re-dux: Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush [...]
November 9th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
[...] Hot Air, Hullabaloo, Associated Press, The Moderate Voice, The Impolitic, The Caucus, Jules Crittenden, Booman Tribune, http://www.redstate.com, Shakesville, Agitprop, DownWithTyranny!, Newshoggers.com, [...]
November 9th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
[...] Memeorandum: Hot Air, Hullabaloo, Associated Press, The Moderate Voice, The Impolitic, The Caucus, Jules Crittenden, Booman Tribune, http://www.redstate.com, Shakesville, Agitprop, DownWithTyranny!, Newshoggers.com, [...]
November 9th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
“bay pith”?
November 10th, 2008 at 8:16 am
[...] Jules Crittenden has more on the hope and change to come. [...]
November 10th, 2008 at 11:25 am
The CA greenhouse gas rules would probably not survive a court challenge. (Interstate Commerce clause, wouldn’t you know?) I would expect Obama, a former constitutional law professor, to know that. Maybe Biden could explain it to him.
November 10th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
[...] This would probably mean more if the Obama Camp didn’t already announce more abortions and less energy production for America. [...]
July 22nd, 2009 at 2:47 am
[...] Jules Crittenden analyzes Obama’s plans in more [...]