Fourteen Changes Barack Obama Could Make in His First 30 Days

Some time ago, I found 194 things Barack Obama would do as President. I took them from the plethora of Obama policy papers in the issues area of the official Obama site. They are here and here.

There are many remarkable things about Barack Obama. Here are two:

First, Obama is a governance junkie. Somehow he knows how to jog the machine to do better. If he can infuse the huge federal engine with bite-sized, doable tasks that all link together somehow, he will be what we might call a mystery reformer -- a relatively low-key, undramatic force that renews and redirects a flaccid and ineffective establishment.

Second, Barack has his act together. Of course there will be changes. Of course there will be bends in the road and obstacles.

BUT:

Years ago, Barack knew what needed to be done. These were not poll-driven incremental things like Clinton did to win points in an intractable political environment. They were a MENU of what could be done in an integral way, assuming just the sort of sea change the last two years of politics is bringing forth.

Here I offer a few samples from the many things Barack would do. Not because they are the most dramatic, but because they are things he could achieve by either executive action or administrative order (to a Cabinet department) or both.

Here, from the sources above:

Obama will reverse the politicization that has occurred in the Bush Administration's Department of Justice. He will put an end to the ideological litmus tests used to fill positions within the Civil Rights Division.

Obama will ban racial profiling by federal law enforcement agencies and provide federal incentives to state and local police departments to prohibit the practice.

Obama will dramatically simplify tax filings so that millions of Americans will be able to do their taxes in less than five minutes.

Obama will create a program to inform businesses about the benefits of flexible work schedules; help businesses create flexible work opportunities; and increase federal incentives for telecommuting.

Obama will also make the federal government a model employer in terms of adopting flexible work schedules and permitting employees to request flexible arrangements.

Obama will streamline the financial aid process by eliminating the current federal financial aid application and enabling families to apply simply by checking a box on their tax form, authorizing their tax information to be used, and eliminating the need for a separate application.

Obama will create an energy-focused Green Jobs Corps to connect disconnected and disadvantaged youth with job skills for a high-growth industry.

Obama will establish a goal of making all new buildings carbon neutral, or produce zero emissions, by 2030.

Obama will end abuse of no-bid contracts by requiring that nearly all contract orders over $25,000 be competitively awarded.

Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.

Obama will bring democracy and policy directly to the people by requiring his Cabinet officials to have periodic national broadband townhall meetings to discuss issues before their agencies.

Obama will amend executive orders to ensure that communications about regulatory policymaking between persons outside government and all White House staff are disclosed to the public.

Obama will require his appointees who lead the executive branch departments and rulemaking agencies to conduct the significant business of the agency in public, so that any citizen can see in person or watch on the Internet these debates.

Obama will nullify the Bush attempts to make the timely release of presidential records more difficult.

My blog is devoted to daily updates useful to Obama supporters. SOURCE

Comments

[eldungo]

Will he restore Habeaus Corpus? Will he restore Posse Comitatus? Will he roll back FISA? Will he examine ALL of bush's signing statements? THESE are the important issues. These are powers and rights that have been usurped from Americans. I fear that neither party will give up these powers. I don't think anyone in history has given up such power. These rights need to be literally handed back to Americans. Otherwise, Democracy in the USA is over.

[vegas9999]

Why clean house? Bush, the idiot, was supposed to clean house. He left all the Clintonites in the State Dept. That is why the GOP is lost

[mom2sons]

From top to bottom he has to clean house. No leftovers if he can help it. Clean up DOJ first! LOL Many people are probably shaking in their idealogue boots right now. They should be when an O administration comes in. Don't try to change stripes now....lackies and flunkies all of them. All of the rethug pundits, especially pastor Joe and Ron Christie, better start looking for a new line of work! LOL Can't stand them.

[pontiuspilate]

What's really funny is how Biden opposed everything Obama stood for just 90 short days ago.y, what an 'about face'.
Remember the Star Trek episode where the crew of the Enterprise landed on a planet and inhaled the spores of those funky opium looking plants? And there was total peace and bliss amongst everyone...and not even captain Kirk wanted to leave the place.
That's what this entire blog site reminds me of...you have all inhaled the spores.

[chucklasker]

I'm a student of Obama, but I hadn't seen many of these. Thanks!!

[WASanford]

Stephen, you've missed the most important thing President Obama can do. The problem is, he can't do it by himself, he needs for congress to play its part. I'd love to see him sign in to law a bill that provides for publicly financed campaigns and makes it a disqualification from holding any office for someone accepting any kind of contribution, however large or small. The morning of January 21st, 2009 would not be too soon.

It's imperative that control of our government be returned to the American public. For too long it has been the tool of large corporations, the very wealthy and other special interests. The means of their gaining control of our representatives has been the very expense of campaigning. It"s impossible to gain office without the support of this minority of citizens.

An example of this is Senator Dodd jumping to provide a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry after taking more than $23,000,000 in campaign contributions from the very industries his committee is supposed to oversee. You can see this for yourself at opensecrets.org, the web page of the Center for Responsive Politics.

This is not government of the people, by the people, and for the people it"s something else. All you need is a quick glance around yourself to see that it"s not working for the vast majority of us.

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[Stephen C. Rose - Huffpost Blogger]

Clearly this isn't a first thirty days issue! I am not sure where I stand on it. Barack has revolutionized campaign financing and may yet revolutionize our democracy, giving new meaning to participation. It may well be that future candidates will be successful as they garner grass roots support and small donations. The 14 things above are a tiny selection of things, chosen with no particular reason save a capacity to do something simple fairly soon after being inaugurated.

[WASanford]

When I think about this, I can"t see any way for us to escape from the dominance of our government by the corporations. The evidence is clear that these corporations will only serve their own interests against those of the rest of us and that the interests of these corporations are clearly for the short term.

Even now, as our economy collapses, our government"s response only serves the short term interest of the corporations that are in trouble i.e. the investment banks. Nothing is being done for the Americans who are losing their jobs, their homes, their retirement, etc.] If we are to make an economic recovery, we must generate jobs for our citizens and these jobs must generate some real wealth, not just shuffle paper. That"s just not happening.

If we are to take our government back it will take something of coup. So how do we do that, run down Pennsylvania Avenue with pitchforks in our hands? I"ve been proselytizing taking as much of our business from the corporations as possible, perhaps starving them to death, but that"s a long term event and the corporations are doing a better job of that than we ever could.

What I was thinking of was a surprise assault by congress passing campaign reform overnight while the lobbyists slept.

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[Whostandsandwaits]

Some excellent points here. From a round-table family discussion of this very subject, we would add the essential task of first taking an "inventory" of sorts. For every "transition" in government there remains a collection of "leftovers" from the previous administration. By taking such an inventory and making the salient problems (the immediate legacy from the "Bushies") public, Obama thus provides a clear focus for his own tactics and strategies. Such transparency could then be followed up by the regular reporting of solutions being implemented on an ongoing basis. Step-by-step the public confidence (in what are already shakey times) could be incrementally restored. A report card of sorts...the best of report cards as we would all be made aware of precisely where we are coming from, the solutions effected, and the results of those efforts. Are we ready for such a logical, mature and transparent approach to governance?