So, is President
Barack Obama fulfilling the tenets of his execute mandate—in this case, his
mandate to be the United States head of state and head of government? The unabashed
and clear answer is “No.” Even today, headlines such as “Second wave of health
plan cancellations looms”[1]
and “White House braces for doctor dump”[2]
make clear that he cannot fulfill his self-proclaimed mandates regarding the
Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”). Along with that come headlines such as “How
low can it go? ObamaCare poll numbers drop—again”[3].
The headlines
unpartisanly make clear that the popular-vote and electoral-vote winner of the
2012 Presidential Election and the then-incumbent President of the United States .
Per the CBS-taken poll that was cited in “How low”, “While Republicans are
united in their opposition to the health care law, the latest numbers reflect
new skepticism among Democrats and independents.” The poll further reflects, “Obama
has been facing criticism from his own party for both the failures of
HealthCare.gov as well as cancellation notices that have gone out to those on
the individual market whose policies did not make the cut under ObamaCare's new
standards. The president last week gave insurance companies a one-year
extension, allowing them to re-offer those out-of-compliance plans.”
What, then, is
President Obama’s mandate? Obviously, it is to be an effective head of state
and government, and chief executive who can win and keep the hearts and minds
of his constituents and fellow public servants. According to Ansolabehere et.
al., “Government touches the life of the ordinary citizen most directly in
his or her interactions with bureaucratic agents-at the Department of Motor
Vehicles when obtaining a driver's license; in filing one's income tax return
with the Internal Revenue Service; at the recruiting center when enlisting in
one of the armed services; at the Board of Elections when registering to vote.”[4]
Furthermore, “The
bureaucracy is the administrative
heart and soul of government. It is where the rubber meets the road-where the
policies formulated, refined, and passed into law by elected officials are
interpreted, implemented, and ultimately delivered to a nation's citizens. ”[5]
With
ObamaCare, President Obama clearly has not “ultimately delivered [his policy]
to [his] nation [read: state]'s citizens”. Despite that Obamacare was indeed
“formulated, refined, and passed into law by elected officials[;] interpreted,
[and] implemented [to take full effect in 2014]”, it was immediately and has
further become controversial and scandalous legislation. Therefore, the
ObamaCare scandal (“ObamaGate”? “CareGate”? “Health-Care Gate”?) alone shows
that Obama is not fulfilling his mandate as the chief United States state and government
executive.
This
to say nothing of IRSGate, which involved the IRS that is supposed to “[touch]
the life of the ordinary citizen most directly in his or her interactions with
bureaucratic agents-at the [IRS when he or she files his or her] income tax
return with [them]”. Instead, with President Obama’s allowance and/or command,
the IRS busied themselves witchhunting non-Far-Left individuals and being the
inquisitors regarding potential and established non-Far-Left 501(c)3s and
501(c)4s, and other non-Far-Left organizations that must be established or
maintained with IRS permission or approval.
This
also says nothing of what happens “at the Department of Motor Vehicles when
[one is] obtaining a driver's license [or attempting to do so]”. For one who
follows the news, he or she may know that President Obama and Governor Martin
O’Malley of Maryland
are ideologically and partisanly aligned—since both are Far-Left Democrats. If
President Obama is influenced by Governor O’Malley—who made sure that “Maryland
became the 13th state to either issue or announce it will soon be issuing
driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants”[6] —he
may get ideas—and scary ideas. After all, he made RomneyCare’s core concept a
national concept when he took it from a Massachusetts-state one—to give all
citizens who were residing in the certain territory and could or did not have
private insurance government-funded healthcare. He made take the ideas of
Maryland, “Connecticut, Utah, California, North Carolina, Illinois, Oregon,
Colorado, Rhode Island, Nevada, Washington State, Washington D.C., New Mexico
and Vermont”[7], and
make them a national idea—and without putting citizens and legal immigrants
first.
In
conclusion, President Obama is failing miserably at fulfilling his mandate to
be the United States
head of state, head of government, and chief executive—even to the point at
which he has gravely upset his constituents. “Now we are seeing the President's
poll numbers plummet. His approval rating of 39% is evidence that Americans
have turned sour on him. For a very long time, even when voters did not agree
with his policies, his personal likeability remained strong. They viewed him
apart from his policies; that is no longer the case. Now, Americans are not
liking his policies and they are not liking him very much either.”[8]