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2009 Year In Review
By the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy
INTRODUCTION
This January, President Obama stepped into office to face a nearly overwhelming array of challenges: a plummeting economy that threw millions of Americans out of work – and left them unable to find new jobs; an unrepentant financial industry, eager to return to the era of risky bets and astronomical compensation even as they relied on taxpayer largesse to avoid a wholesale collapse; an increasingly unaffordable health care system that threatened to bankrupt the public purse while leaving millions without coverage; the threat of global climate change, capable of devastating the world if we don’t rapidly and dramatically reduce emissions; crashing home values and retirement savings; workplace abuses; consumer scams; rights denied to undocumented immigrants and to homosexual citizens; mediocre schools; ever more costly colleges; overstuffed prisons; crumbling infrastructure…
And that’s just on the domestic front.
Backing up the new president: a numerically strong but internally fractured Democratic majority, still too much under the sway of powerful industries and cautious ideologies to take the bold actions necessary to confront the nation’s problems.
On the other side: a radical minority uninterested in progress or compromise, ready to stir up – and fall for – the wildest conspiracies. (Death panels, anyone?)
It made for a tumultuous year.
We saw progress: the stimulus legislation may well have kept the nation from complete economic collapse, the EPA moved to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and Congress curtailed credit card abuses. But it was less than we hoped for – and, frankly, less than we needed. At the same time, lax gun laws, harsh immigration enforcement, and political insiders’ cozy relationship with Wall Street threatened to move the nation backward. The quality of health care reform, perhaps the single domestic policy that will most define 2009 when the history books are written, remained uncertain as this report went to press.
In this Year in Review, the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy offers a first look back at 2009 through the best and worst of the year’s public policy, a mayors’ eye view of recovery efforts in six American cities, a recommended reading list for progressives, and the 2009 DMI Injustice Index.
Read 2009 Year In Review in its entirety
By the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy
2009: Digging Ourselves Out
This January, President Obama stepped into office to face a nearly overwhelming array of challenges: a plummeting economy, an unrepentant financial industry, an increasingly unaffordable health care system that leaves millions without coverage, the threat of global climate change, and far too much more.
The efforts to dig ourselves out from beneath these domestic crises made for a tumultuous year.
Take a look inside at the policies that shaped the year of 2009.
StimCity: A Mayors' Eye View of Economic Recovery
INTRODUCTION
This January, President Obama stepped into office to face a nearly overwhelming array of challenges: a plummeting economy that threw millions of Americans out of work – and left them unable to find new jobs; an unrepentant financial industry, eager to return to the era of risky bets and astronomical compensation even as they relied on taxpayer largesse to avoid a wholesale collapse; an increasingly unaffordable health care system that threatened to bankrupt the public purse while leaving millions without coverage; the threat of global climate change, capable of devastating the world if we don’t rapidly and dramatically reduce emissions; crashing home values and retirement savings; workplace abuses; consumer scams; rights denied to undocumented immigrants and to homosexual citizens; mediocre schools; ever more costly colleges; overstuffed prisons; crumbling infrastructure…
And that’s just on the domestic front.
Backing up the new president: a numerically strong but internally fractured Democratic majority, still too much under the sway of powerful industries and cautious ideologies to take the bold actions necessary to confront the nation’s problems.
On the other side: a radical minority uninterested in progress or compromise, ready to stir up – and fall for – the wildest conspiracies. (Death panels, anyone?)
It made for a tumultuous year.
We saw progress: the stimulus legislation may well have kept the nation from complete economic collapse, the EPA moved to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and Congress curtailed credit card abuses. But it was less than we hoped for – and, frankly, less than we needed. At the same time, lax gun laws, harsh immigration enforcement, and political insiders’ cozy relationship with Wall Street threatened to move the nation backward. The quality of health care reform, perhaps the single domestic policy that will most define 2009 when the history books are written, remained uncertain as this report went to press.
In this Year in Review, the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy offers a first look back at 2009 through the best and worst of the year’s public policy, a mayors’ eye view of recovery efforts in six American cities, a recommended reading list for progressives, and the 2009 DMI Injustice Index.
Read 2009 Year In Review in its entirety