The Major Issues of 2014
by Jesse J. Lewis, Sr.
The following are the major issues we must face in 2014:
The Blame Game in Washington D. C.
Obama heads into his sixth year of his presidency with a growing economy and momentum toward winding down the longest American war; however, the nation’s first African-American president has the lowest poll numbers since he took office in 2009. The public has shown their dissatisfaction over the botched Obamacare rollout, the NSA revelations and the dysfunctional politics of Washington.
At the same time, polls also show record public dissatisfaction with Congress after two years of stalemates that culminated with the 16-day government shutdown in October.
The Budget
Despite slow but steady growth in 2013, a CNN/ORC poll released showed 70 percent of responders considered the economy in generally poor shape. According to the poll, Americans planned to curtail their Christmas gift- giving and charitable contributions due to economic concerns.
These numbers come as the stock market has surged, unemployment is at a five-year low, auto sales are at a seven-year high, gas prices have dropped and the housing sector that dragged the country into recession in 2008 is rebounding.
The Obama administration gets credit for the U.S. recovery from recession and the incremental growth of recent years, but Republican opponents argue its policies hinder stronger performance by failing to further reduce deficits and debt.
Since Republicans won back control of the House in 2010, no Washington fight has been more stubborn than the battles over budget and taxes. The October shutdown proved so politically damaging, especially for Republicans, that congressional budget negotiators subsequently worked out a compromise two-year spending framework intended to remove the possibility of a similar impasse until after the November election.
The first spending showdown of 2014 will involve extending long-term unemployment benefits that expired on December 28.
Affordable Care Act
Obamacare will be a major issue in 2014 and, according to some, will hurt Democrats. The prediction for the Affordable Care Act is in 2014 it will get worse. The GOP has pledged to make the Affordable Care Act one of the top issues for 2014. One fear is that people will think they signed up for coverage even if they didn’t take the final and vital step of paying the first premium and will seek care. Another problem: The system has been passing along erroneous information to insurers, something the Health and Human Services Department has been racing to fix.
Renewed focus will be placed on whether insurance coverage is working as intended or as expected. Democrats and the administration can be expected to emphasize disparities in coverage. Only about half the states elected to expand Medicaid to people who won’t be able to afford to buy health insurance. Because the ACA assumed all the states would expand Medicaid, millions of poor instates such as Texas, and Florida will be left with no coverage.
If the system gets in working order, “It could become a positive for Democrats, an emblem of how limited government involvement in social areas can improve the lives of the American people.”
If things are rocky, the issue could “cast a long, dark, shadow over Democratic prospers in 2016.
2016 Elections
The former Secretary of State could be a key influence on the 2014 political landscape even without declaring whether she will run for president in 2016. Hillary Rodham Clinton looms large as a potential 2016 presidential candidate, but she could be a major factor in the 2014 elections, too.
Ready for Hillary, the group organizing supporters nationwide for a potential Clinton campaign, says it will ask its members to support candidates endorsed by Clinton in the 2014 midterm elections, and to push her policy agenda over the next two years.
Clinton is not likely to become a candidate herself until after the 2014 elections. But political pundits can’t imagine her not campaigning in 2014 only because she has close ties to several candidates. If Clinton helps Democrats win in 2014, it would solidify the support of a pro-Hillary swath of the political elite well before the first 2016 primary, but if Democrats lose widely in midterm elections, that could tarnish her.
Getting Hillary supporters to work on 2014 issues and campaigns serves two goals: to help pass policy or legislation that matters to the supporters of Ready For Hillary, and it allows the development of the volunteer organization.
Same-Sex Marriage
At the end of the second year for gay and lesbian equality, continued progress in not inevitable. Further progress can’t be taken for granted. Six states legalized same-sex marriage this year, bringing the tally to 18 states and the District of Columbia.
It is unclear whether the wave of equality that has swept from state to state over the past two years, if national or regional, is bound to crash ineffectually on more conservative parts of the country. The Supreme Court stopped short of declaring same-sex marriage a constitutional right, so further progress can’t be assumed.
In 2014 the fight for equality will take hard organizing and patient persuasion.
Immigration Reform in 2014
Of the many issues left unfinished by Congress when they left town for the holiday break, an overhaul of immigration laws is one that is certainly not going away. 2013 saw the first major attempt at a comprehensive immigration reform bill since 2006. In the meanwhile, advocates who want to see Congress pass legislation that includes a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants have gotten more aggressive in their efforts to convince the House Republicans leadership to put a bill to a vote, stopping by their homes, offices and breakfast spots, uninvited, to visit, pray, and demand a vote.
The pressure that built toward the end of the year will continue into 2014, making it a difficult issue for either the president or House Republicans to ignore. It seems that continued deportation will be at the heart of advocates’ grievances.
Advocates are certainly counting on the impending election to bolster their own pressure on Washington to act on the issue. The future of immigration policy in the House rests largely in the hands of the leadership, and especially Boehner. He has expressed a commitment to overhauling the nation’s law all year as long as it is done on the House’s terms, but has also failed so far to put a single bill on the floor.
Discrimination
It’s sad that we are still discussing discrimination in 2014, but as long as we have disproportional pay as it relates to men and women, as long as there are Stand Your Ground laws, as long as we permit people to carry pistols without background checks, as long as citizens can stand up and say that the President should ‘walk out of the White House with his hands up’ because he is Black, in the year 2064, 50 years from now, we will still be discussing it.
e-mail:jjlewis@birminghamtimes.com
