Assessing Obama's Domestic Policy

• Author: Davia C. Downey
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12784
• Published date: 01 July 2017
• Date: 01 July 2017

628 Public Administration Review • July | August 2017

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 77, Iss. 4, pp. 628–631. © 2017 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12784.

Davia C. Downey is MPA program

coordinator and assistant professor of

public administration at Grand Valley State

University. She teaches courses in local

politics, comparative and international

administration, public policy, and public

administration. Her recent publications have

appeared in

Comparative Civic Culture

and

American Review of Public Administration

.

She is also editor of

Cities and Disasters

,

published in 2015.

E-mail: downeyd@gvsu.edu

John D. Graham , Obama on the Home Front:

Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks

( Bloomington : Indiana University Press ,

2016 ). 488 pp. $40.00 (hardcover), ISBN:

9780253021038.

I n his most recent book, John D. Graham takes a

page from his previous work, Bush on the Home

Front , to explore the domestic policy making of

President Obama. In this book, the former Office

of Information and Regulatory Affairs appointee

under George W. Bush and current dean of Indiana

University ’ s School of Public and Environmental

Affairs provides a comprehensive analysis of major

hallmarks of Obama ’ s administration, including the

Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Cash for Clunkers

program, among many others. As Graham establishes

early in the book, the modern-day president has two

goals while in office: to enhance his party ’ s electoral

interests and to succeed in creating laws that fulfill his

or her campaign promises. The objective of this book

is to answer the following questions about Obama ’ s

presidency: whether he was successful in pursuing his

domestic agenda and whether his attempts to fulfill

his policy promises could have been achieved in a

way that reduced political costs to the Democrats in

Congress and his job approval ratings. Graham builds

on previous research on presidential policy making

by developing a theory of presidential effectiveness

under conditions of congressional polarization. He

does this while providing prescriptions for how the

president could have been more efficient in using his

power to move his agenda through Congress. Now

that President Obama has handed over the reins to his

successor, this measured account of the challenges and

accomplishments of his two terms in office is a very

timely read.

This 11-chapter book utilizes a case study approach

by highlighting some of the most critical issues that

defined the Obama presidency, namely economic

policy, health care, environmental policy, and

immigration/labor reform. Using information from

various sources, including campaign speeches, public

speeches made by the president, annual budget

requests, and public actions made by Congress

through Obama ’ s two terms, as well a prodigious

amount of news reports, Graham builds a textured

account of Obama ’ s domestic policy-making efforts

from 2009 to 2015. Readers should note that Graham

does not tackle the entirety of Obama ’ s domestic

agenda, which could have easily included a discussion

of education policy, agriculture, and gay rights, among

many others.

Graham begins by analyzing the economic stimulus

packages that dominated the first two years of the

presidency (chapters 3 and 4), then turns to ACA

and its implementation challenges (chapters 5 and

6), discusses Obama ’ s regulatory actions to reduce

greenhouse emissions (chapter 7), and examines

Obama ’ s approach to energy policy, namely his stance

on renewable energy, biofuel development, and clean

coal initiatives (chapter 8), and explores Obama ’ s

efforts on comprehensive immigration reform

(chapter 9). The book then investigates the effects of

the midterm elections of 2010 and 2014 on Obama ’ s

domestic policy-making activity and concludes with

a recap of sorts in a chapter titled “A Counterfactual

Obama Presidency.” In this chapter, the author refines

his theory by providing an analysis of how Obama

could have used his political capital and intellectual

prowess to achieve more of his legislative priorities

while simultaneously stemming the cataclysmic

electoral losses experienced in 2010 and 2014 by the

Democratic Party.

Upon entering office in 2009, Obama enjoyed

Democratic majorities in both the House and the

Senate, which helped to ensure high legislative

productivity through 2010. While Obama enjoyed

a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate in 2009,

Graham notes that this benefit was short lived. The

rise of the Tea Party posed significant challenges

to Obama ’ s agenda, demolished the share of the

Democratic Party ’ s seats in both chambers of

Assessing Obama ’ s Domestic Policy

Danny L. Balfour , Editor

Davia C. Downey

Grand Valley State University