Accomplishments and Vendettas

   The president recently claimed that his administration has accomplished more in its first two years than any other presidential administration.
   Most significantly, he has shut down the government for a full month, longer than in any other such episode.
  As a result, many thousands of government workers are on furlough or are forced to work without pay. This includes airport security workers, FBI agents, Secret Service agents who are directly responsible for the president's safety, as well as many others, who must pinch pennies to buy food, pay rent or mortgages, and even for needed medical care.
   Some accomplishment.
   He has also exceeded the record for the most lies told by a president in that same period of time.
   That too is an accomplishment.
   Along the way, he has overseen the biggest and fastest turnover of Cabinet officers and senior advisors than any other administration.
   Another accomplishment.

  When a nation's economy does well, politicians claim credit for the boom, and when the economy stumbles, they blame someone else, usually a predecessor in the other political party.
   The U.S. economy now seems about to stumble, according to many experts. So after more than six years of solid growth, most under his predecessor, who's he going to blame if the economy tanks?
   Most likely he will blame Democrats in Congress who won't approve $5 billion to build a Great Wall -- which already exists.
   Now he wants to divert funds from disaster relief to pay for the already existing Great Wall.
  In his latest power play, he made public a plan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other senior officials to visit war-torn Afghanistan. He did this after Pelosi suggested he postpone his State of the Union speech to Congress, citing safety issues because of the furloughed security staff -- a problem that exists because of the government shutdown -- for which he himself took credit.
   In any case, there is no requirement that a president deliver his State of the Union report to Congress in person. The Constitution simply states that a president make such a report yearly. In fact, for many years the report was done in writing and with little fanfare. It was not until the 20th Century and the advent of broadcasting that the State of the Union report was delivered in a speech to a joint session of Congress.
   
   So what has this president accomplished during his first two years?
   Daily news reports are filled with details of what he says and does, as well as the consequences of past words and actions.
   He has indeed accomplished many things, but whether on balance these accomplishments have benefited or harmed the nation is for the public -- especially voters -- to decide.