As Obama Leaves, Battles Over His Legacy Begin
Even Trump has begun to view Obamacare more favorably after finding out what's in it. After his first meeting with Obama he came out with new promises to keep such central features as universal coverage without exclusions for preexisting conditions and the right to keep one's children on one's health plan until they reach age 26.
How is this basket of goodies to be funded? Trump did not say. As usual, he's leading those not-trivial details to Congress to decide.
Meanwhile, in his final weeks in office, Obama has busied himself with last-minute executive actions that also serve as rear-guard roadblocks to help protect his legacy.
For example, he has named new environmental monuments for federal protection. He has written a new rule to protect Planned Parenthood funding from state interference. He has ordered the transfer of detainees from Guantanamo Bay. He has punished Russia for interfering in the recent elections through cyberattacks.
Sure, Trump can reverse Obama's executive orders. But as Obama found when he was forced by Iraq's leaders to follow George W. Bush's timetable for Iraq withdrawal, a president in his or, someday, her final days can do a lot to intrude on their successor's agenda.
When former president George W. Bush was asked about his legacy after two terms in office, he told a CNN interviewer, "History will ultimately judge the decisions that were made ... and I'm just not going to be around to see the final verdict."
"In other words," he added, "I'll be dead."
President Obama may not have to wait that long. Legacies are in the eye of the beholder. But sometimes people don't really appreciate your agenda until they see somebody else try to take it away.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
(c) 2017 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
