President Obama’s Duties as the American CEO in his Second Term Research Paper

Introduction

President Barrack Obama’s swearing in January 2013 marked the beginning of his second and last term as the president of the United States of America. As the president and the chief executive of the United States, President Obama, under the federal constitution, is granted the powers to execute the laws, to appoint key federal officials and to grant pardons as well as reprieves.

The president’s decision-making is based on the information obtained from the heads of divisions and departments. It is common for US presidents to enter office with an agenda, whether in the second or last terms of the tenure.

The agenda can be broad and sometimes lumped into more clear categories. In most cases, while democrats attempt to expand social services, republicans normally focus on narrowing government spending.

Within the short period president Obama has been in his final term as the president and CEO, he has executed his duties in these capacities, which are worth discussion. Arguably, it appears that President Obama’s agenda as America’s Chief executive in the next four years are based on his promises prior to 2008 general elections are still in his agenda, although much remains to be seen of his tenure.

As the US chief executive, president Obama has started with significant changes in his administration, as witnessed by his recent appointments. Although he has attempted to focus focusing his appointments based on qualifications and experience, it is quite evident that his focus has leaned much towards bureaucracy, given that most of his state officers are actually technocrats with strong bureaucratic experience.

First, President Obama’s first and most significant role as the American CEO in his second term is the appointment of John Kerry as his Secretary of State. On January 29, few days after Obama’s inauguration as the president for the second term, John Kerry was appointed as the new secretary of state, replacing Hillary Clinton.

The technocrat is not only a Veteran in the Vietnam War, but also an experienced individual in international affairs and a former Senator for Massachusetts. In addition, he sits in a number of committees, including small business, senate finance and commerce.1

President Obama has further shown his role as the Chief executive of the US by making other appointments, including that of technocrat Jack Lew as the secretary of the treasury, Chuck Hagel as the secretary for defense and other cabinet appointments.

Moreover, it is worth noting that Obama has used his powers to replace and/or transfer a number of appointees in his cabinet at his own will. For instance, the former secretary of defense, Leon Panetta, has been replaced with Chuck Hagel, while Jack Lew replaces Timothy Geithner in the office of the secretary of treasury.

Secondly, president Obama has executed his powers vested on him by the federal constitution by taking steps to galvanize the American economy through uplifting of the middle class. Right from his inaugural speech, Obama has focused on a plan centered on the middle class as the “engine of growth”, which aims at investing heavily in national education, manufacturing and clean energy.2

In addition, on 5 February 2013, few days after his inauguration, President Obama started by meeting CEOs of leading organizations in the United States. These included CEOs of Goldman Sachs Group, Yahoo and 10 other corporations.3 The aim is to reduce deficit as well as immigration into the United States from a number of poorly developed nations, especially in Latin American and Mexico.

To ensure this is done, President Obama shuttered a job council he had previously set up as an advisory organ on economic issues. This was within his constitution powers to hire and fire advisors on certain issues such as social affairs, military and the economy.

In fact, the president is seeking to reform the immigration laws in order to contain deficit and improve the economy, with the long-term aim of achieving a strong economy driven by the middle class rather than large corporations.

It is also worth noting that as the Chief executive of the United States, the president bears the important role of dealing with international affairs, negotiating business and other issues with foreign nations or regional organizations and even signing agreements on behalf of the people of the United States of America.

As such, within the first few weeks of his second term, President Obama is already executing his powers bestowed on him by the federal constitution. For instance, he is already negotiating with the 27-member states of the European Union for a free trade agreement, with special focus on Britain, France and Germany.

The aim is to ensure that American goods find their way, with ease, into the European markets, considering that the European Union is the largest and most developed regional market in the world.

Secondly, this is an attempt by the president to use his constitutional powers, as the federal Chief Executive, to negotiate a deal that will see American companies and individuals deal directly and freely with their European counterparts and more important, deal with the problem posed by the aggressive market strategies used by China and Chinese companies.

It is also worth noting that it is the role of the present of the United States, as the chief executive, to plan on the federal budget. Using these powers, present Obama, in his second term, is already considering a budget that will be friendlier to the middle class, especially in regards to job creation and reduction in deficit. This issue was top on the agenda in the meeting between the president and the CEOs from the 12 different companies in February.

To further reduce spending, the president has taken initiatives, which are currently in progress, to ensure that military spending is reduced, while health spending increases significantly. As the country’s chief executive, the president has embarked on a program to reduce the number of American troops in foreign nations, particularly Afghanistan.

On February 12, a few weeks after his inauguration, the president announced a gradual withdrawal of more than 34,000 troops from Afghanistan, which has already started.

A part from reducing the presence of American military in foreign nations like Afghanistan, the step is an indication of the president’s ability to use the constitutional powers as the country’s chief executive in an effort to reduce foreign spending and instead increase domestic spending.

It is also within this effort that the president, just after his inauguration as the president for the second term, signed an agreement with the President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan on behalf of the people of America. In this agreement, Americans will reduce their spending on Afghani security, leaving much of the security issues and responsibilities on the hands of the Afghani police and military.

As the country’s CEO, the president has the powers and responsibilities of taking care of the American environment in order to ensure that every American citizen enjoys a good environment free from pollution. However, it is important to note that this is not possible without the involvement of other nations, given that nations in the world share the same natural environment.

In this context, the president has involved Russia in negotiating for New START Treaty. The aim of this agreement is to limit deployment of nuclear arsenals starting right after the agreement and reducing these arsenals by 1,550 by the end of 2018.4 It has also been announced that the President is already negotiating with Russia in an effort to seek further reductions in the number of nuclear arsenals each country has.

Finally, the president has already announced his efforts to increase the strength of the nation’s boarder security. For instance, starting this February, the President has started deploying a number of security and intelligent personnel and facilities to the Mexican boarder in order to ensure real immigration reforms promised in 2008, but did not actually take place during his first term as the president and chief executive of the United States.5 This is an indication of how the president can utilize his constitutional powers as the nation’s chief executive.

From the above analysis, it is clear that President Obama, in his first few weeks in office as the country’s CEO, has taken a number of steps to ensure that security, spending and foreign involvement is reduced, while national and social affairs receive boosting to improve the lives of the middle and lower class citizens.

However, it is equally clear that President Obama’s agenda as America’s Chief executive in the next four years is based on his promises prior to 2008 general elections are still in his agenda, although much remains to be seen of his tenure.

Bibliography

Agyeman-Fisher, Abena. “NewsOne Breaks Down President’s Plans For Black Community In Second Term.” NewsOne (Washington, DC), Jan. 29, 2013.

Cohen, Ariel. “U.S. Policy on Russia for Obama’s Second Term.” Heritage (New York, NY), Feb. 2, 2013.

Korb, Lawrence. “President Obama’s Commitment to Veterans Must Remain a Second-Term Priority.” American Progress (Springfield, MA), Feb. 13, 2013.

Mason, Jeff. “Obama to meet with Goldman’s Blankfein, other CEOs Tuesday.” Reuters (Washington, DC), Feb. 4, 2013.

McGreal, Chris. Obama’s second term begins in earnest as he takes his pitch to the people.” The Guardian (London, UK), Feb. 14, 2013.

Footnotes

1 Chris, McGreal, “Obama’s second term begins in earnest as he takes his pitch to the people,” The Guardian (London, UK), Feb. 14, 2013.

2 Abena Agyeman-Fisher, “NewsOne Breaks Down President’s Plans For Black Community In Second Term,” NewsOne (Washington, DC), Jan. 29, 2013.

3 Jeff Mason, “Obama to meet with Goldman’s Blankfein, other CEOs Tuesday,” Reuters (Washington, DC), Feb. 4, 2013.

4 Ariel Cohen, “U.S. Policy on Russia for Obama’s Second Term,” Heritage (New York, NY), Feb. 2, 2013.

5 Lawrence, Korb, “President Obama’s Commitment to Veterans Must Remain a Second-Term Priority,” American Progress (Springfield, MA), Feb. 13, 2013.