It has been one week that the Obama administration has been working at solving all the problems that U.S. citizens are facing. Here’s what Barack Obama and his team worked on:
Reverses Key Bush Security Policies
President Obama reversed the most disputed counterterrorism policies of the Bush administration on Thursday, declaring that “our ideals give us the strength and moral high ground” in the fight against Al Qaeda. But Mr. Obama postponed for months decisions on complex questions the United States has been grappling with since the terrorist attacks of 2001. Mr. Obama signed executive orders closing the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, within a year; ending the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret prisons; and requiring all interrogations to follow the non-coercive methods of the Army Field Manual.
Federal Aid for International Abortion
President Obama repealed rules on Friday that restricted federal money for international organizations that promote or provide abortions overseas, sweeping aside a pillar of the social policy architecture of George W. Bush’s presidency.
Automobile Emissions
President Obama directed federal regulators on Monday to move swiftly on an application by California and 13 other states to set strict limits on greenhouse gases from cars and trucks. He also ordered the Transportation Department to begin drawing up rules imposing higher fuel-economy standards on cars and light trucks.
Economic Stimulus Package
Mr. Obama spent more than two hours in closed-door meetings with Congressional Republicans, outlining his $850 billion economic stimulus plan and fielding an array of critical questions. The stimulus plan is the centerpiece of President. Obama’s early agenda, and it also seeks to make good on some of his signature campaign promises, including an income tax cut for most Americans earning less than $200,000 a year. Under the plan, individuals would receive up to $500 and families up to $1,000 through a cut in payroll taxes on the first $8,100 in income. The money would be delivered through paychecks as a reduction in Social Security withholdings, and is intended to bolster consumer spending by giving a small lift to household pocketbooks.
Combining the spending and revenue effects of H.R. 1, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that enacting the bill would increase federal budget deficits by $169 billion over the remaining months of fiscal year 2009, by $356 billion in 2010, by $174 billion in 2011, and by $816 billion over the 2009-2019 period.
Spoke to the Muslim World
It was Barack Obama’s first televised interview from the White House and the first with any foreign news outlet. In the interview, which was taped on Monday night and broadcast throughout the Muslim world on Tuesday, Barack Obama said it was his job “to communicate to the Muslim world that the Americans are not your enemy.” He added that “we sometimes make mistakes,” but said that America was not born as a colonial power and that he hoped for a restoration of “the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago.” President Obama spoke as his special Middle East envoy, George J. Mitchell, arrived in Egypt to begin an eight-day tour that will include stops in Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, France and Britain. In Egypt, Mr. Mitchell planned to meet President Hosni Mubarak.
After Obama made his talk to the Muslim world -Iran's president has responded to an overture by President Obama by demanding an apology for past US "crimes" committed against Iran. The US "stood against the Iranian people in the past 60 years," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during an address in the western region of Khermenshah. "Those who speak of change must apologize to the Iranian people and try to repair their past crimes," he said. President Obama has offered to extend a hand if Iran "unclenched its fist".
Sends Envoy to the Middle East
President Obama sent his special envoy, George J. Mitchell, on an eight-day listening tour that includes Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, France and Britain.
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