CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
July 6, 2009 – 12:10 a.m.
Votes Mostly Go Obama’s Way
By Rachel Bloom and John Cranford, CQ Staff
As his presidency approaches the half-year mark, Barack Obama is on pace to be the most successful Oval Office occupant in more than half a century when measured by his ability to get Congress to vote his way — even though he shows signs of carefully picking his fights on Capitol Hill.
Almost without exception, presidents start strong in their contests with lawmakers, and their success rates falter over time. Typically, presidents win most often in their first or second years in office on House and Senate roll call votes in which they take a clear position.
So far, Obama has taken clear positions on relatively few floor votes — 26 in the House and 37 in the Senate, including 20 votes to confirm his nominees. Still, his success score of 95.2 percent, if it continues for the rest of the year, would be the highest for any president since Congressional Quarterly began this measurement in 1953. That’s true not only for the first year of a presidency, but also for any year.
The following are a few statistics about Obama’s success on floor votes held through the start of the July Fourth recess and the degree to which lawmakers are voting with him.
• Obama has secured victories on 24 of the 26 House votes where he’s staked out a clear position in advance and 36 of 37 votes in the Senate. One of his two House defeats came on a meaningless vote two days after he took office to block continuation of the $700 billion financial bailout effort begun in September.
The other was two weeks ago on passage of the defense authorization bill for fiscal 2010, which Obama has threatened to veto because it would continue building F-22 fighter jets, which he wants to cancel, and require an alternative engine design for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, an addition he doesn’t think is necessary. His lone Senate defeat came in May, when the chamber voted against closing the prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
• If Obama’s success rate holds, he’ll surpass Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson, who has the record with 93.1 percent in 1965, his second full year in office. Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower has the second-highest success rate, 89.2 percent in 1953, his first year. By contrast, Democrat Bill Clinton — who started strong with 86.4 percent success rates his first two years — has the lowest one-year success score of the past half-century, 36.2 percent in 1995, the year the Republicans took control of Congress.
• Democrats in both chambers are far more supportive of Obama than they have been for a president of either party in half a century. Senate Democrats are voting with him 92 percent of the time on average, and House Democrats are supporting him 89 percent of the time.
• Senate and House Republicans aren’t consistent with each other in their support for Obama. Perhaps it’s not a surprise that members of the House GOP are voting with Obama just 36 percent of the time — compared with their average support score of 39 percent for Clinton in his first year and 42 percent for Democrat Jimmy Carter in his first year. But Senate Republicans have so far supported Obama 56 percent of the time. That’s the second-highest Senate GOP support score for any Democratic president — just shy of the 60 percent they gave Clinton in 1997.
Comments
It seems that when Obama was inaugurated, he had a play book of legislation ready to go, otherwise he could not have moved so quickly. So, is he the puppeteer, or the puppet of the far left who seemingly prepped him, paid for his law degree, and provided him with unprecedented, and illegal, campaign contributions? Seemingly he, and Congressional Democrats, seems to want to destroy America, not save it. Otherwise what better explanation is there?
Unfortunately he also going to lead the history of the nation in debt, taxes, job loss, broken promises, and loss of freedom. Some would say, far more important negatives.
Arthur LEMAY, You are really goofy! By chance, could it be that the POTUS is good at what he does? Or maybe congress finally has a chance to do what we want them to do? Or maybe the President and congress agree with most of these actions? GOOFY YOU
Arthur, you are being a bit absurd. Much like with the primaries, he is a planner and strategist. He has long term planning. His campaign made no secret that it was starting on planning all the way back in July before the election, just in case he was elected. That is what responsible people who could potentially be running our country should do.
Looks like there is not much left to destroy, the Republicans did a good job already.
Re: Arthur LEMAY What better explination is there? That your a tin-foil hat wearing yahoo. There's that.
Arthur Lemay and Rick G are hilarious. GOP= The Party of NO, but they have NO credible alternative solutions to anything that the President has proposed.
rick g... let's go one at a time: debt - somewhat true, he is borrowing to get us out of depression. However, the pointless war in Iraq costs as much. taxes - When your taxes actually go up, you can comment on this... up the jury is still out on this job loss - not his fault, most of the decision here were a long time coming -- i.e. still a hangover from the Bush era broken promises - not sure what these would be, unless you are a liberal loss of freedom - you're joking right? Even Rebs are back pedaling now on how Bush want a supreme presidency and how he sucked our freedoms up illegally.
Arthur LEMAY Before I answer the questions you posed, allow me to correct at least the more erroneous, if not just flat-out slander and defamation of President Obama. Perhaps Mr. Obama's ability to "move so quickly" stemmed from being acutely aware that he had eight years of predecessors' damage to this country: committing American troops for the two unprovoked wars; used the fear in the country after the events of 9/11 to pass very stringent legislation to create the Patriot Act and the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security. And I hate to disappoint you, but his education was not funded by anyone "the far left," in order to be a "puppet for Congressional Democrats." Instead, his education, like that of millions of other Americans, was paid for with scholarships.
Hey Arthur--Why the heck would the Democrats want to "destroy" America? That's just insipid a remark as you can make. The only thing they want to "destroy" is the legacy of waste, ignorance and ignominy the GOP left us.
Arthur, this is called preparation and competence, something we hadn't experienced as a nation for eight years. When you accept the mediocre as the norm, excellence can be shocking. Regarding destroying America, how could he do worse than the previous administration, that you, evidently, had the bad judgement to support?
"Paid for his law degree". See this is why people should be educated. He wasn't even in politics when he went to Harvard. So how in the hell did any democrat pay for his education? I like the fact that the President gets stuff done and doesn't let the naysayers and racist distract him from following through on what he promised the American people! I 100% support the President and his agenda.
What about mortgage cramdown? Obama staked out a pretty clear position in favor of that, and lost that.
While many peope are getting squeamish about the efficacy of Obama's stimulus package, I'm of the mind that it was far too small, not radical enough. People are fickle; they want instant gratification. At this point, conservativism has absolutely no credibility in terms of positing economic strategy for getting us out of this mess. Obama is responsible for addressing three decades of Republican mismanagement. Give the man a chance to get things done, afterall, isn't that what the public voted for in the first place? The agrument that the government shouldn't spend in a deficit is valid; however, the Keynesian side of this argues that it's an investment to spend in order to get out of a deficit. It's time for new ideas and alternatives to business as usual. I only hope Obama gets a little more thick skin when it comes to new policies to limit Wall Street greed in generative ways that help society as a whole.
..."So, is he the puppeteer? The puppet of the far left who seemingly prepped him, paid for his law degree, and provided him with unprecedented, and illegal, campaign contributions? Seemingly he, and Congressional Democrats, seems to want to destroy America, not save it. OTHERWISE, WHAT BETTER EXPLANATION IS THERE?? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? How about the reality that Barack Obama and his team have assembled the best friggin' Administration this country has seen in a very, very long time, and they are just proving what TRUE COMPETENCE can do with votes, legislation, policies, and what it will take to get America out of one hell of a GAWD-AWFUL MESS!!! bROUGHT on in seeminly little time, less than 8 years, by a bunch of FAR-RIGHT profit-seeking, deregulating, corporate ass-kissing, greedy fascist CROOKS!!!
Arthur Lemay, You dont need a "better" explanation, you need better therapy. Or at least a dictionary - to look up the words 'better' or 'explanation' , because you obviously have no notion of either. Anyway the ridiculous slippery slope fallacies(eg. rick g) are generally the conservatives' oft abused weapons.
This article is being far too generous to Obama. His "fierce advocacy" of LGBT civil rights so far is nothing more than promises, a proclamation, and a cocktail party. He gets a success rate of zero for his civil rights agenda.
It's a shame to see Washington getting along so well. We were railroaded with terrible legislation when W enjoyed a one-party Washington, and we will continue to be railroaded with terrible legislation now that Obama enjoys the same Washingon DC now leaning the other direction. I miss the days of Bill Clinton vs a Republican-controlled Congress.
President Obama must be given the benefit of the doubt. We need to wait 1 year to render a decision as to whether the policies of the current administration are making a difference. After 1 year, the "Bush did it" excuse is no longer valid, and only the behavior of the Obama administration can be seen as the cause of the then current economic conditions. If the stimuus fails to achieve its goals of fixing the economy and actually achieves a far worse outcome, namely saddling the economy with an unpresidented level of debt, then we, as constituents and citizens, should begin a state by state class action suit and sue all congress people for criminally negligent behavior regarding the stimulus bill and the well publicized lack of reading done by our elected officials. As a historical footnote, does anyone remember what minor historical happening pulled the US out of the great depression?
The stimulus plan not radical enough? The stimulus plan is a joke. It is clear it was not meant to stimulate anything except the pocketbooks of various politicians. If you think for one second that our taxes aren't going to increase to pay for all of the spending you are living in candyland. Yeah, our taxes haven't increased yet, but they will, or else our country is going to go bankrupt. To the poster who called the war in Iraq "pointless." Many of us soldiers do not see it that way at all. We liberated a country that was the most progressive Middle Eastern country prior to Saddam's reign. I understand liberals would rather spend tax dollars on the pet projects of politicians and other pointless endeavors, but the two wars we are currently fighting are by no means pointless.
The stimulus plan not radical enough? The stimulus plan is a joke. It is clear it was not meant to stimulate anything except the pocketbooks of various politicians. If you think for one second that our taxes aren't going to increase to pay for all of the spending you are living in candyland. Yeah, our taxes haven't increased yet, but they will, or else our country is going to go bankrupt. To the poster who called the war in Iraq "pointless." Many of us soldiers do not see it that way at all. We liberated a country that was the most progressive Middle Eastern country prior to Saddam's reign. I understand liberals would rather spend tax dollars on the pet projects of politicians and other pointless endeavors, but the two wars we are currently fighting are by no means pointless.
With the stimulus passed, albeit too small, the next important vote is on a health care plan with a government option.
If the "Party of No" votes "no" to socialism, communism, goverment takeovers and exploding debt, then I'm all for "no."
"Destroy America?" That was moved along that path by the right-wing wackos and Neocons that controlled this country for six of eight Wubba years. Amazing how people forget history when it is convenient.
RIP GOP!
This is a good summary. So much has gone by in a flurry, it's helpful to get a wrap-up, bullet-point list periodically. I thought he was doing well, but I had no idea, this well! Health care is so much the big kahuna, that we lose sight of the 180 turn of the ship of state that this president has made. .
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