The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises

The Promise:

"Will promote new and innovative ways to increase teacher pay that are developed with teachers, not imposed on them. Districts will be able to design programs that reward accomplished educators who serve as a mentor to new teachers with a salary increase. Districts can reward teachers who work in underserved places like rural areas and inner cities. And if teachers consistently excel in the classroom, that work can be valued and rewarded as well."

Update February 22nd, 2012:

Federally funded programs are underway

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The Promise:

Restore the Deployment Policies Under Which the Reserve and Guard Enlisted: America should recommit to the broken promises made to the men and women who serve in the Guard and Reserves. An Obama administration will: • Limit lengthy deployments to one year for every six years • Restore the 24-month limit on cumulative deployment time • End the "Stop-Loss" program of forcing troops to stay in service beyond their expected commitments.

Update February 22nd, 2012:

Changes have been made

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The Promise:

"Barack Obama will thin the ranks of Washington middle managers, freeing up resources both for deficit reduction and for increasing the number of frontline workers."

Update February 21st, 2012:

No data to demonstrate it was done

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The Promise:

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will create a focused team within the White House that will work with agency leaders and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to improve results and outcomes for federal government programs while eliminating waste and inefficiency. This unit, a SWAT team, will be composed of top-performing and highly-trained government professionals and be headed by a new Chief Performance Officer (CPO) who will report directly to the president. The CPO will work with federal agencies to set tough performance targets and hold managers responsible for progress. The president will meet regularly with cabinet officers to review the progress their agencies are making toward meeting performance improvement targets."

Update February 17th, 2012:

Chief Performance Officer has been busy

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The Promise:

"Will work with the Canadian government, state of Alaska, oil and gas producers, and other stakeholders to facilitate construction of the pipeline. Not only is this pipeline critical to our energy security, it will create thousands of new jobs."

Update February 17th, 2012:

Pipeline project faces hurdles, but Obama's kept promise to keep pushing for it

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The Promise:

Carried interest is a way of compensating executives by giving them ownership stakes, or "interest," in a business. Carried interest is taxed as a capital gain, which has a lower tax rate than ordinary income. Obama proposes taxing carried interest at the same rate as regular income.

Update February 14th, 2012:

It's a long shot

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The Promise:

Will "ensure tax fairness for artists" by supporting the Artist-Museum Partnership Act, introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. "The Act amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow artists to deduct the fair market value of their work, rather than just the costs of the materials, when they make charitable contributions."

Update February 13th, 2012:

House bill exists but long odds of passage this year

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The Promise:

"Obama will fight job discrimination for aging employees by strengthening the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and empowering the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to prevent all forms of discrimination."

Update February 10th, 2012:

Efforts to reverse Supreme Court ruling have fallen by wayside

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The Promise:

"As president, Barack Obama will show U.S. leadership in seeking to negotiate a political settlement on Cyprus. He believes strongly that Cyprus should remain a single, sovereign country in which each of the two communities on the island is able to exercise substantial political authority within a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation."

Update February 10th, 2012:

Settlement talks are continuing, but they're struggling

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The Promise:

Automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans for workers whose employers offer retirement plans.

Update February 10th, 2012:

Promise was overtaken by events

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The Promise:

Require employers who do not offer retirement plans to offer their workers access to automatic IRAs and contribute via payroll deduction.

Update February 10th, 2012:

Proposal hasn't fully reemerged after being overshadowed by health care debate

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The Promise:

"Will work with Congress and auto companies to ensure that all new vehicles have flexible fuel (FFV) capability . . . by the end of his first term in office."

Update February 8th, 2012:

Flex-fuel vehicles are nowhere near universal

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The Promise:

"Government should lead the way here. I showed up at this event in a government vehicle that does not have a flexible-fuel tank. When I'm president, I will make sure that every vehicle purchased by the federal government does."

Update February 7th, 2012:

Federal government's flex fuel vehicle purchases actually down since 2009

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The Promise:

"Will provide critical support to young children and their parents. Unlike other early childhood education plans...places key emphasis at early care and education for infants, which is essential for children to be ready to enter kindergarten. Obama and Biden will create Early Learning Challenge Grants to promote state "zero to five" efforts and help states move toward voluntary, universal pre-school."

Update February 2nd, 2012:

Money, guidelines dedicated to pre-school

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The Promise:

"Half of all cars purchased by the federal government will be plug-in hybrids or all-electric by 2012."

Update February 1st, 2012:

Big gains for alternative-fuel vehicles, but not for electric plug-ins

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