Financial reform, with the unemployment extension and another measure to provide small business tax benefits, are the three major legislative objectives the president and Democratic leaders agreed to focus on before the long summer recess.
VOA: standard.2010.07.19
Having failed to deliver either of his party's key constitutional objectives, electoral reform and Lords reform, could he survive?
The chancellor's partial redesign of benefits as tax credits has proved to be a costly and error-prone administrative nightmare, so abstruse that a casual observer can be forgiven if they suspect that obfuscation was one of the main objectives of the reform.
But failure to reform the entitlement culture, reaffirm long-run objectives, and re-establish a common purpose will mean a dimming of opportunities for American children today and for future generations.