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Cato Dispatch for May 1, 2009

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(Links to outside sources were active as of the date of this dispatch; however, not all news sources maintain links to current stories indefinitely. Some links also may require registration.)

Obama's First 100 Days

It has been more than 100 days since President Obama swore an oath to uphold the Constitution on January 20. From the perspective of those who believe in limited government, free markets and peace, how has the president done? Cato scholars weigh in:

The correct question to ask, says Cato Vice President Gene Healy, is not "how is he doing?", but "how much damage has the President done?"

In Obama's case, the answer is, a lot. He's made a running start toward transforming the federal government's role in the economy and %u2014 if such a thing is even possible %u2014 further expanding the president's role in American life.

In an op-ed for National Review online, Cato President Edward Crane explains how Obama has accumulated so much power in such a short time. When Republicans were in power, they increased spending and focused on the wrong issues, Crane says, leaving them without any credibility to criticize:

Pres. Barack Obama is a thoroughgoing statist, perhaps the worst in American history. And with Wilson, FDR, and LBJ, he's got some serious competition. Republicans in Congress lack the leadership to challenge the president's audacious power grabs. More important, they lack any serious philosophical basis for doing so.

Strategically, conservatives have made three major mistakes. The first was to follow the advice of supply-side guru (and big-government Democrat) Jude Wanniski and not talk about spending cuts, much less the proper role of government. Economic growth replaced individual liberty as the rallying cry of far too many GOPers. Second, the neocons %u2014 mostly statists themselves %u2014 should never have been accepted into the fold. All they give us is a war against a country that never attacked us and schemes for "national greatness" like going to Mars. Enough. Finally, conservatives should jettison the social agenda of gay marriage, flag burning, and school prayer, and focus instead on federalism.

Obama on Foreign Policy

Cato analysts have over-all positive reviews of Obama's record on foreign policy.

Christopher Preble and Ted Galen Carpenter on Iraq:

Obama moved quickly to fulfill his most important foreign policy promise: ending the war in Iraq. That said, the policy that his administration will implement is consistent with the agreement that the outgoing Bush administration negotiated with the Iraqis. Given that the war has undermined U.S. security interests, and our continuing presence there is costly and counterproductive, Obama should have proposed to remove U.S. troops on a faster timetable.

Malou Innocent on Pakistan and Afghanistan:

The jury is still out on the other major, ongoing military operation, the war in Afghanistan. That mission is directly related to events in neighboring Pakistan, which is serving — and has served — as a safe haven for Taliban supporters for years. President Obama deserves credit for approaching the problem with both countries together, and also in a regional context, which includes Iran, as well as India. Still unknown is the scope and scale of the U.S. commitment.

Christopher Preble and Ted Galen Carpenter on Iran:

On Iran, President Obama made the right decision by agreeing to join the P5 1 negotiations, but that is only a first step. The two sides are far apart and President Obama has not signaled his intentions if negotiations fail to produce a definitive breakthrough. Sanctions have had a very uneven track record, and are unlikely to succeed in convincing the Iranians to permanently forego uranium enrichment.

Doug Bandow and Christopher Preble on North Korea:

President Obama was mistaken if he believed that that the UN Security Council would render a meaningful response to Pyongyang's provocative missile launch. It was naive, at best, for him to believe that even a strong rebuke from the UNSC would have altered Kim Jong Il's behavior. The president must directly engage China, the only country with any significant influence over Kim.

Ian Vasquez and Juan Carlos Hidalgo on Latin America:

President Obama has signaled a slight change on US-Cuba policy by softening some travel and financial restrictions. It is not as far as we would have liked, but it is a step in the right direction — toward greater engagement, as opposed to more isolation, which was the approach adopted by the Bush administration.

Obama on Education

The president has received harsh criticism from Cato education analysts since he signed a bill that would discontinue a Washington DC based program that gives poor children an opportunity to attend private schools. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan downplayed a report that showed the students in the program were excelling beyond their peers in public school.

Writing for Townhall.com, analyst Neal McCluskey examines Obama's education record in the White House:

Unfortunately, in his first one-hundred days Obama failed to fight for just meaningful reform. The president did nothing to defend Washington DC's school voucher program, which provides real school choice for 1,700 education-starved kids. Indeed, what his administration did was worse than nothing: it buried a report showing vouchers' success just as Congress was debating the program's fate, and barred 200 children who had won vouchers from using them in the coming school year.

But here's what really doesn't make sense: spending unprecedented billions to save a hopeless system while letting real reform die. Unfortunately, such has been Obama's first 100 days.

Writing for Cato's blog, education scholar Andrew J. Coulson discusses why Obama should pursue school choice programs for children:

If President Obama believes his own rhetoric on the need for greater efficiency in government education spending and for improved educational opportunities, he should work with the members of his own party to continue and grow this program.

Chris Moody, editor, cmoody@cato.org