OBAMA IN OFFICE ★^1139Taken together, the measures of Obama’s first year and a half in office saw
the most dramatic domestic reform legislation since the Great Society of the
1960s. “Change”—the slogan of his election campaign— was significant, but
did not go far enough for many of his supporters. The health- care bill failed to
include a “public option,” in which the government itself would offer medical
insurance to those who desired it (much like Medicare for elderly Americans).
Obama chose his economic advisers from Wall Street, who underestimated the
depth of the crisis and continued the Bush administration policy of pouring
taxpayer money into the banks and assuming responsibility for many of their
debts. Little was done to help home owners facing foreclosure. During 2008 and
2009, the economy lost 8 million jobs. It would take a long time to recover them.
The Problem of Inequality
In 2014 and 2015, the economic recovery finally gathered momentum,
although growth remained weak by historic standards. Nonetheless, consumer
spending and confidence were on the rise, unemployment was falling, home
sales were rising, and the stock market reached record highs. The one exception
to these favorable trends, however, was a significant one— Americans’ wages
remained stagnant. In fact, because of the growing number of low- paid jobs,
the continuing decline in the power of unions, and the rising value of stocks,
owned primarily by upper- income Americans, virtually the entire benefit of
the recovery that began in 2009 went to the top 1 percent of earners, while the
real incomes of most families declined, deepening the long- term trend toward
greater and greater economic inequality. In 2013, the top 10 percent of Amer-
icans received nearly half the total income. Meanwhile, the percentage of
families in the middle class continued to shrink while those living in poverty
continued to grow.
At the bottom of the social scale, Americans employed by some of the coun-
try’s largest corporations, including McDonald’s and Wal- Mart, received piti-
ably low wages, at or just slightly above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per
hour (a figure lower, in income adjusted for inflation, than fifty years before).
Many of these workers were assigned to “flexible” schedules, which means that
they did not even know the number of hours they would work each week until
a few days prior, making planning for child care and other obligations almost
impossible. Nearly three- quarters of people helped by programs designed for
the poor, such as food stamps and Medicaid, include a working member, so in
effect taxpayers are subsidizing the low- wage policies of highly profitable cor-
porations by enabling their employees to survive. McDonald’s had a helpful
website to assist its workers in making ends meet. It urged them to try to have
two full- time jobs, spend no more than twenty dollars per month on health
insurance, and break food into small pieces so that it would seem to go further.
What kinds of change did voters hope for when they elected Barack Obama?