The Achievements of Governance

With the electorate ostensibly sending a message to President Obama and the Democratic Party in the 2010 mid-term elections, there is no shortage of punditry as to the reasons why voters turned their backs on the Democrats. Whether implicit or explicit, these pundits point to Democratic failures—failure to reduce unemployment more rapidly, failure to frame their agenda within a grand narrative that resonates, etc.

What has largely gone unnoticed—or at least underappreciated—is just how much this president and the Democratic congress achieved legislatively over the past two years. Healthcare reform, the stimulus, and financial regulatory reform, of course, have received all the headlines—and rightfully so—but there have been a myriad of progressive legislative achievements that have gone relatively unnoticed, without the fanfare, anger, faux outrage, and demagoguery of the healthcare debate.

Among others, these include:

-The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, making it easier for workers to sue for pay discrimination based on gender.

-Tripling the size of the AmeriCorps public service program

-Hate Crimes legislation, making it federal crime to commit an assault based on sexual orientation.

-Student Loan reform, discontinuing a forty-five year program that provided federal subsides and guarantees to private student loan lenders, with the Department of Education now handling such loans directly without profit.

-New rules on credit card companies, banning sudden arbitrary interest rate hikes

-A stimulus package that provided investments in education, health care, a national electronic health records system, infrastructure, green energy, and more.

-Healthcare reform that will extend health insurance to over 95 percent of Americans and does much to begin the process of bending the cost curve

-Financial regulatory reform, which modernizes the regulatory apparatus and rules for the 21^st century, while also creating an independent Financial Consumer Protection Agency

These are what Rachel Maddow calls “the underpinnings of the most legislatively productive 21 months in decades”…characterized as “policy, not politics”. It’s safe to say that the Democrats used their majorities to get stuff done, to govern, rather than politicking in anticipation of the next election. For that reason, it has been a two-year super majority well spent.