How Far Has Obama Been Able to Impact on the Foreclosure Legacy He Inherited?
In answering the question how far has Obama been able to impact on the foreclosure legacy he has inherited in the first hundred days of power, it can be said that he has made the people sit up and be accountable again.
Within a hundred days USA today is different from what it was on 19th January 2009. The change may not be evident as yet in foreclosure statistical numbers but these are the last kicks of a dying dog.
In the new America a woman can bring legal charges and hope for redress if she has been discriminated at her place of work. George Bush had not made things easy for such a woman.
It has been focused in the case of Lilly Ledbetter. She was the only female supervisor in a factory at Alabama. She worked at the tyre plant of Goodyear for two decades only to find out that men holding the same post earned $1,500 monthly more in comparison to her income. Disgusted she took premature retirement in 1998 and sued Goodyear. The district court gave a ruling favouring Goodyear but allowed a jury trial. The latter said that she should be compensated with arrear wages together with penalties. But Goodyear got an appeal in which the ruling went against her. The case now shifted to Washington but the Supreme Court by 4 to 5 majority rejected the claims of the woman. The ground was not that her claims were untenable but that she should have filed her complains within 180 days after receipt of her first salary!
There was a national movement against this ridiculous ruling but Bush remained impervious together with the Congress, bowing to the dictates of the business lobby. McCain however had opposed it.
Nine days after swearing in as President, Obama cancelled the law and signed the Lilly Ledbetter Act – it being his first piece of law making exercise. Now women have six months time to file complaints about discrimination.
Many in the country are sleeping well because of changes in the health care system. Bush had ignored that too. If one lost a job the health care too vanished. Under Bush rule there was a staggering increase in number of uninsured persons – 47 million that included 10 million children.
Bush had banned stem cell research but many like former Nancy Reagan are thankful that science has been freed from shackles. Alzheimer sufferers are beginning to nurse hopes.
