Tracking Obama's footprints.

• Author: Bresler, Robert J.
• Position: Barack Obama's presidency - STATE OF THE NATION

SOME PRESIDENTS LEAVE a light footprint on history and others a heavy one. Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan's were indelible, vacating the office with the country and the world a different place from when their terms began. The historical impact of the presidencies of Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton, for example, will be hard for future generations to detect. Ford brought integrity back to the White House and Clinton presided over a reasonably prosperous and peaceful era. Both things can be said about Calvin Coolidge. Yet, whatever the merits of his presidency, it hardly was one of great historical moment.

What of Barack Obama's presidency? Early assessments of any presidency are foolish. A survey of so-called presidential scholars released this summer placed Obama above Reagan. Based on what, it is hard to discern. Some presidents get off to a difficult start and finish with a flourish. Reagan's first two years saw inflation raging, the economy in deep recession, and the Cold War as frozen as ever. As he left office, inflation had cooled; the economy was booming; and the Cold War was coming to an end. Obama's beginning has been just as difficult--an economy mired in recession, a difficult war in Afghanistan, and gigantic debts and deficits. No one can predict the end to this story. However, the contrast between Reagan's beginning and Obama's can provide some clues. By the third year of his Ad ministration, Reagan's deep income tax cuts and his support of the Federal Reserve's tight money policy set the stage for a dramatic economic recovery and a sharp decline in inflation. Obama's stimulus package, overweening financial regulations, and new health care costs give little hope that he has laid the basis for a Reagan-type recovery.

Even if the economic doldrums continue into the third and fourth year of this Administration, and Obama be comes another one-term president, will his presidency still matter in the history books? It very well might. ObamaCare is the largest entitlement program since Medicare. Experience tells us that entitlements are almost impossible to repeal. Obama's spending program goes beyond a one-time stimulus initiative. He has increased government spending from a historical-level 21% of gross national product to almost 25%. Every new government spending program has a strong constituency behind it; cutting or eliminating them finds constituent groups claiming foul and hordes of lobbyists descending on Congress. Pres...