Reaching for a New Deal: Ambitious Governance, Economic Meltdown, and Polarized Politics in Obama's First Two Years

During his winning presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised to counter rising economic inequality and revitalize America's middle-class through a series of wide-ranging reforms. His transformational agenda sought to ensure affordable healthcare; reform the nation's schools and make college more affordable; promote clean and renewable energy; reform labor laws and immigration; and redistribute the tax burden from the middle class to wealthier citizens. The Wall Street crisis and economic downturn that erupted as Obama took office also put U. S. financial regulation on the agenda. By the middle of President Obama's first term in office, he had succeeding in advancing major reforms by legislative and administrative means. But a sluggish economic recovery from the deep recession of 2009, accompanied by polarized politics and governmental deadlock in Washington DC, have raised questions about how far Obama's promised transformations can go. Reaching for a New Deal analyzes both the ambitious domestic policy of Obama's first two years and the consequent political backlash up to and including the 2010 midterm elections.
Reaching for a New Deal situates Obama's efforts in the context of previous efforts to fundamentally reshape U. S. domestic policies, from the New Deal through the Great Society to the Reagan era. The book opens by assessing how the Obama administration overcame intense partisan struggles to achieve legislative victories in three areas health care reform, federal higher education loans and grants, and financial regulation. Lawrence Jacobs and Theda Skocpol examine the landmark health care bill, signed into law in spring 2010, which extended affordable health benefits to millions of uninsured Americans after nearly 100 years of failed legislative attempts to do so. The book also examines the domains in which Obama has used administrative action to further reforms in schools and labor law. Lorraine McDonnell describes the acceleration of state and local K-12 educational reforms through federal stimulus funding and the Race to the Top program sponsored by this administration's Education Department. The book concludes with examinations of three areas energy, immigration, and taxes where Obama's efforts at legislative compromises made little headway. Judith Layzer shows how economic crisis and intra-Democratic Party divisions undercut Obama's hope to forge comprehensive, environmentally friendly energy reforms.
Reaching for a New Deal combines probing analyses of Obama's domestic policy achievements with a big picture look at his change-oriented presidency. The book uses struggles over policy changes as a window into the larger dynamics of American politics and situates the current political era in relation to earlier pivotal junctures in U. S government and public policy. It offers invaluable lessons about unfolding political transformations in the United States.