The list of domestic problems facing the President-elect is a daunting one: high unemployment, increasing child poverty, growing numbers of Americans without health insurance, rising rates of homelessness due to mortgage foreclosures, a lack of affordable child care, disappointing educational outcomes, and the coming pressure on provisions for the elderly, to name just a few. Even before the current economic crisis became apparent, the nation’s social safety net was already revealing signs of wear and tear, with particularly severe implications for the large concentration of racial minorities and white female workers in low-waged, casualized service occupations. The recession has only made things worse, adding white men at all occupational levels to the pool of unemployed and under-employed lacking access to social provision.
Much of the weakness in the American system of social provision has to do with its public-private character, and to the fact that its success greatly depends upon the strength of the labor market. Clinton-era welfare reforms, coupled with the Bush administration’s emphasis on privatization, have made the system particularly vulnerable in this period of economic downturn.
How will President Obama address these challenges? What directions can we expect his administration to take, based on his voting record, the statements he made during the campaign, his roster of proposed appointments, and the policies he has outlined so far? What are his aspirations, and to what extent will the contours of the existing welfare state, as well as the scope of the economic crisis, constrain his efforts to bring about reform? This paper will sketch the broad outlines and origins of the public-private welfare state he has inherited, and then focus on prospects for reform in child care, health care, and long-term care—all areas in critical need of change.
