Continuity in the Obama Administration

Bush's Policies Gain Ground in New Administration

Apr 20, 2009

One of Obama's themes during his 2008 presidential campaign was "change." Early in his term, however, "continuity" could describe his work in three policy areas.

President Obama’s policies are a continuation of his predecessor, George W. Bush, in the areas of faith-based initiatives, gun control, and education.

Obama Expands Office of Faith-based Initiatives

An expansion of faith-based initiatives, or allowing religious organizations to compete with secular organizations for government aid, was a major theme of Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign. As president, he opened a faith-based office in the White House and similar offices in different cabinet departments to accomplish this goal. Rather than doing away with this innovation of the Bush White House, Obama has expanded the faith-based office, now renamed the Council for Faith-based and Community Partnerships (Jeff Zeleny and Laurie Goodstein, “White House Faith Office to Expand,” The New York Times, February 5, 2009). The office now appears poised to play a more central role in the Obama administration than the Bush administration.

One of the most contentious questions in Bush’s faith-based office was whether faith-based groups who receive government funds to provide social services can refuse to hire people who are not of their faith. Bush’s faith-based office said that they could. While many of Obama’s supporters expected him to overturn this ruling, he has not. Rather, he decided to review the policy on a case by case basis as issues arise.

Obama's Position on Gun Control

The Second Amendment states, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Liberals and conservatives have debated whether the right to carry firearms is an individual right, or only for the purposes of being in a militia. Conservatives argue the former, liberals the latter. The Supreme Court only recently addressed the question in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008). The Court supported the conservative position in arguing that the 2nd Amendment contains an individual right to carry firearms. When Obama was asked about this case, he did not take the liberal position. Rather, he argued, like Bush, the Supreme Court, and most conservatives, that the 2nd Amendment entails an individual right to carry firearms. This is not to say that he is opposed to all types of regulation. He supports a ban on assault weapons, for instance, but so does President Bush.

In the area of education reform, we also see a continuation of Bush policy in the Obama administration. The No Child Left Behind Act was the cornerstone of Bush’s education reform agenda. It focused on testing to measure schools performance. Obama plans a continuation and expansion of this policy agenda. “Obama’s fundamental strategy is the same as George Bush’s: standardized tests, numbers-crunching; it’s the N.C.L.B. approach with lots of money attached,” said Diane Ravitch, a critic of Bush education policy, in an interview with the New York Times (Sam Dillon, “Education Standards Likely to See Toughening,” April 14, 2009). Not only does Obama want stricter testing requirements, he wants to use these tests to measure teacher performance, a policy opposed by teacher’s unions.

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