NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ SỰ HỒI SINH CỦA GIẤC MƠ MỸ DƯỚI NHIỆM KÌ CỦA TỔNG THỐNG BARACK OBAMA

Since America was born, the country has been seen as the land of freedom, of opportunity for everyone with effort. This ideas also was emphasized in the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson (1776) “We hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”. At that time, in the world, people in many countries did not access equal rights and conditions to realize their wish, hope and dream. They started to run away to find the new land where their desire of freedom especially religious freedom could be fulfilled and the departure of their runaway was absolutely the United State of America where desire of freedom, of prosperity and opportunity could come to real life. Overtime, the American Dream has changed. Initially, it was the dream of religious freedom. However, society changed entailed the desire of people changed. The dream was not limited only in the area of religion anymore; the American Dream gradually touched every single aspect of society such as job, education, healthcare, wealth, etc. It was not only the dream of immigrant in America as in the initial time but becoming the dream of every person in the United States. This may be considered the positive changes of American Dream. However, beside the positive changes, American Dream has also suffered negative changes. Some view that “The American Dream Is Dead” (Whitworth, 2011). It is more exact to say that the original and pure American Dream when coming into reality has been distorted. In reality, the dream hasn’t been fulfilled yet because of discrimination, poverty and degraded economy. In addition, critics saw the dream as “overly materialistic while spiritual empty” (Kiger, n.d.). The material improvements are achieved much easier and quickly than the spiritual improvement, which makes material dominate in American Dream. Overtime, people start to question whether American Dream is alive or even exist. However, in 2008, Barack Obama became the first black president of the United States, which instilled the hope that American Dream could be revitalized and the president has been trying his best to save the dream that was ruined. As a student of ULIS who is interested in American Studies, especially American Dream, the writer notices that there have been some studies about the degradation of the dream but nothing about the revitalization of it in contemporary time. Therefore, she wants to dig deeply into this topic to see how the first black American president despite being bequeathed an economy deepened in “the biggest financial and economic meltdown since the Great Depression” (Wood, 2009) and numerous inadequacies in education, healthcare, etc from President Bush who “earns a place in the bottom five” (Kim, 2010) in American president rankings tried his utmost to revitalize the American Dream and to prove that the American Dream is still alive. Above all, his success helped the American people regain their oncelostfaith in their highest ideal.

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

A STUDY ON THE REVITALIZATION OF AMERICAN

DREAM UNDER THE OFFICE TERMS OF

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

Supervisor: Phạm Phương Hoa (M.A.)

Student: Đỗ Thị Diệp

Course: QH2010.F1.E21

HÀ NỘI – 2014

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ SỰ HỒI SINH CỦA GIẤC MƠ MỸ

DƯỚI NHIỆM KÌ CỦA TỔNG THỐNG

I hereby state that I: Do Thi Diep, QH2010.F1.E21, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating

to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library.

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper.

Hanoi, 2014

Do Thi Diep

Firstly, my sincerest gratitude goes to my supervisor, Ms Pham Phuong Hoa for her wholehearted encouragement and support during the time of doing my thesis The graduation paper cannot be completed without her.

Secondly, gratefulness and love are sent to my family From the bottom of my heart, I owe them for all the things they have done for me.

Thirdly, I would like to express my thanks to my classmates, class QH2010.F1.E21, for their advice and encouragement when I was really under pressure.

Lastly, I send my thanks to my teachers for their dedication and support in the last four years.

ABSTRACT

The American Dream is considered one of the highest ideal of American people It isthe Dream of equal opportunity for everyone in United States to attain better life.Originally, it was the dream of people coming to United States for religious freedom.Overtime, the coverage of American Dream has widened and changed as social contextchanged Under the presidency of President George W Bush, through his policies,President Bush degraded the American Dream After him, President Barack Obamatook the office and has fixed President Bush’s mistake to revitalize the AmericanDream The research investigated three areas: healthcare, education and economy underthe office terms of the two presidents and noted that the American Dream on healthcare,education and economy has been revitalized by President Barack Obama via his policiesimplemented to fix President Bush’s flaws

TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

CHAPTER I- INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Scope of the study 2

1.4 Significances of the study 3

1.5 Design of the study 3

Chapter 1: Introduction 3

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Key concepts 5

2.1.1 The original American Dream 5

2.1.2 Different focuses of American Dream in different times of American history 6

2.1.3 Some policies reflecting the degradation of American Dream under George W Bush’s presidency and revitalization under Barack Obama’s presidency 9

2.2 Published materials and previous studies on the American Dream 12

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 16

3.1 Research methods 16

3.2 Data collection instruments 17

3.3 Procedures of data analysis 17

CHAPTER IV: THE CORRUPTION UNDER PRESIDENT BUSH’S OFFICE TERMS AND REVITALIZATION UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA’S OFFICE TERMS OF THE AMERICAN DREAM 18

4.1 The corruption and revitalization of the American Dream on healthcare front ……… 18

4.1.1 The creation of The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) .18

4.1.2 President George W Bush vetoed the authorization of CHIP 21

4.1.3 President Barack Obama reauthorized CHIP 25

4.2 The corruption and revitalization of the American Dream on education front ………28

4.2.1 NCLB of George W Bush destroyed American Dream on American education 28

4.2.2 President Barack Obama fixed No Child Left Behind 33

4.3 The corruption and revitalization of the American Dream on economy front ……… 39

4.3.1 President Bush’s loosing regulation in financial system caused financial crisis in 2007-2009 39

4.3.2 Obama revitalized financial system from 2007-2009 crisis………43

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS 48

5.1 Major findings of the study 48

5.2 Limitations of the study 49

5.3 Suggestions for further studies 49

REFERENCES 50

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Page Figure 1. The average American’s prescriptions cost per capita, 2011 19

Table 1. Number of states agreeing with common concerns about

NCLB

33

Figure 2 How well will the systems in the state’s waiver application

identify schools in need of improvement compared to withNCLB

37

Figure 3. State expectations about impact of waiver requirements on

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AMOs: Achievable Annual Measurable Objectives

ARRA: Recovery and Reinvestment Act

AYP: Adequate Yearly Progress

CCLC: Century Community Learning Center

CEP: Center on Education Policy

CHIPRA: Children's Health Insurance Reauthorization ActCFPB: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

CMS: Medicare & Medicaid Services

ELE: Express Lane Eligibility

FNM: Fannie Mae

FRE: Freddie Mac

FIO: Federal Insurance Office

FSOC: Financial Stability Oversight Council

GSEs: Government Sponsored Enterprises

NAEP: The National Assessment of Educational ProgressNCES: National Center for Education Statistics

NCLB(A): No Child Left Behind (Act)

QE3: Quantitative Easing 3

(S)CHIP: (State) Children's Health Insurance Program

SEC: Securities and Exchange Commission

WHO: World Health Organization

CHAPTER I- INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study

Since America was born, the country has been seen as the land of freedom, ofopportunity for everyone with effort This ideas also was emphasized in the Declaration

of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson (1776) “We hold these truths to be evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator withcertain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit ofHappiness.” At that time, in the world, people in many countries did not access equalrights and conditions to realize their wish, hope and dream They started to run away tofind the new land where their desire of freedom especially religious freedom could befulfilled and the departure of their run-away was absolutely the United State of Americawhere desire of freedom, of prosperity and opportunity could come to real life

self-Overtime, the American Dream has changed Initially, it was the dream of religiousfreedom However, society changed entailed the desire of people changed The dreamwas not limited only in the area of religion anymore; the American Dream graduallytouched every single aspect of society such as job, education, healthcare, wealth, etc Itwas not only the dream of immigrant in America as in the initial time but becoming thedream of every person in the United States This may be considered the positivechanges of American Dream However, beside the positive changes, American Dreamhas also suffered negative changes Some view that “The American Dream Is Dead”(Whitworth, 2011) It is more exact to say that the original and pure American Dreamwhen coming into reality has been distorted In reality, the dream hasn’t been fulfilledyet because of discrimination, poverty and degraded economy In addition, critics sawthe dream as “overly materialistic while spiritual empty” (Kiger, n.d.) The materialimprovements are achieved much easier and quickly than the spiritual improvement,which makes material dominate in American Dream Overtime, people start to questionwhether American Dream is alive or even exist However, in 2008, Barack Obama

became the first black president of the United States, which instilled the hope thatAmerican Dream could be revitalized and the president has been trying his best to savethe dream that was ruined.

As a student of ULIS who is interested in American Studies, especially AmericanDream, the writer notices that there have been some studies about the degradation of thedream but nothing about the revitalization of it in contemporary time Therefore, shewants to dig deeply into this topic to see how the first black American president despitebeing bequeathed an economy deepened in “the biggest financial and economicmeltdown since the Great Depression” (Wood, 2009) and numerous inadequacies ineducation, healthcare, etc from President Bush who “earns a place in the bottom five”(Kim, 2010) in American president rankings tried his utmost to revitalize the AmericanDream and to prove that the American Dream is still alive Above all, his successhelped the American people regain their once-lost-faith in their highest ideal

1.2 Aims of the study

The study aims to bring the comprehensive and clear look about the originalAmerican Dream, then the degradation of American Dream in term of healthcare,education and economy during President George W Bush’s presidencies and finallyexpresses the vitalization of the dream under the office terms of the president BarackObama by presenting his policies on healthcare, education and economy Morespecifically, the study aims to find the answers to three questions:

1 What are the policies on healthcare, education and economy implemented by President George W Bush that degraded the American Dream?

2 What are the policies on healthcare, education and economy implemented by President Barack Obama that helped to revitalize the American Dream?

1.3 Scope of the study

The researcher aims to study the revitalization of American Dream in term ofhealthcare, education and economy performed by President Barack Obama However,

before that, the researcher will look back to the office terms of President George W.Bush to show corruption of the dream on these three areas in order to highlight theintegrity of President Obama’s actions.

1.4 Significances of the study

Firstly, the study helps the researcher reinforce knowledge about AmericanStudies in particular and about America the biggest English-speaking nation in theworld through the American Dream which is considered one of identity of the nation ingeneral The researcher will gain a comprehensive view about the dream from origin tocurrent context, how it has changed and how it is different in reality from the theory.The researcher focuses on some policies of Barack Obama and George W Bush so thestudy will help to accumulate the knowledge about American government under theirterms

In the second place, the study hopes to set a background or a base for furtherstudies about American Dream in the future The next studies going around this topicmay base on the findings of this study to continue developing and finding out newfindings

Finally yet importantly, studying this topic, the researcher hopes to bring a close anddeep look into the American Dream to the people who are interested in the matter.Simultaneously, the researcher wants to challenge the pessimists’ opinion about a non-existent or dead American Dream

1.5 Design of the study

The thesis is framed in five following chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter includes the rationale, the research questions, the scope, the

significances, and the design of the study

Chapter 2: Literature Review

This chapter presents some key concepts used in the study, background and

literature materials related to the American Dream

Chapter 3: Methodology

This chapter presents research method, data collection instrument and the

procedures of data analysis

Chapter 4: Corruption under President Bush’s office terms and revitalization under President Obama’s office terms of the American Dream

This chapter provides major findings of the study

Chapter 5: Conclusion

The chapter includes the summary of major findings, the limitations of the study andsuggestions for further research

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

To clean up the mess in education, healthcare and economy left by fore-comerGeorge W Bush and revitalize American Dream in these sectors, President Barack

Obama has executed several laws, acts namely Children's Health Insurance Program

(CHIP) on healthcare, Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act oneconomy In education, President Barack Obama has been fixing the No Child LeftBehind Act (NCLB) which was implemented by George W Bush in 2001 The policiesmade by President Obama bring significant positive changes to healthcare, educationand economy of the United of States In this chapter, the researcher provides some keyterms that are relevant to healthcare, education and economy used to support researchanalysis In addition, some previous studies about American Dream will be presented

2.1 Key concepts

2.1.1 The original American Dream

In 17th century, envisioning American as a land of freedom and opportunity,some Europeans sailed to westward and put their very first steps on Massachusetts tofind the freedom of religion Gradually, the land of freedom attracted many colonistsand slaves to come to fulfill their desire The ideas of freedom, equality for everyonethemselves became a foundation for the birth of a nation In 1776, The United States ofAmerica was officially born, in the Declaration of Independence written by ThomasJefferson (1776) once again emphasized “all men are created equal, that they areendowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” This became the motto of America and turnedthe country be a departure of anyone who desired to fulfill their dream of materialprosperity and spiritual freedom Immigrants from every corner of the world arrivedAmerica to settle new life and to make dream come true, they called it AmericanDream However, it was not until 1931, when James Truslow Adam, a historian wrote a

book named “The Epic of American”, the term “American Dream” came to life Theideology which constituted American Dream rooted from 17th century as mentioningabove, but the official name and definition of its just originated since 1931 In his veryfirst definition of American Dream James Truslow Adam (Adam, 1931) defined dream

of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, withopportunity for each according to ability or achievement

After Adam’s, American Dream was redefined many times with other words butstill same implication These definitions are all listed in some prestigious dictionaries.Oxford dictionary defined “The values and social standards that people traditionally try

to achieve in the US, such as democracy, equal rights and wealth” (Hornby, 2005) InCambridge dictionary: “The belief that everyone in the US has the chance to

be successful, rich, and happy if they work hard” (Walter, 2009) In Merriam-Websterdictionary: “An American social ideal that stresses egalitarianism and especially

material prosperity; also: the prosperity or life that is the realization of this ideal”

(Merriam-Webster, n.d.)

The above definitions may be different in words but the meanings are the same.The common factors of an original American Dream are equality, opportunity foreveryone to achieve their goals to attain life better These goals include both materialand spiritual

2.1.2 Different focuses of American Dream in different times of American history

Overtime, the view of people about American Dream changed as Americansociety changed

Before the Great Depression, for many people in America, American Dream washouse ownership, stable job, happy family with spouse and children However, when itcame to Great Depression, many people in the world in general and in America inparticular were hit Due to financial crisis, many factories, companies, institutions wentbankrupt, which stripped jobs of many people Therefore, during this time, American

Dream was viewed as people had job to do and earn money to cover bills Stock marketcrashed leading to housing crisis At that time, thousand of American were pushed out

of their house and became homeless “The Depression had destroyed the fortunes oflegions of self-made millionaires and cost Americans of humbler means their homes andjobs, forcing them to live in hobo camps and beg for spare change on street corners”(Kiger, 2011) so together with the dream of stable job, American Dream also includedhouse ownership; people themselves owned their house and were their boss in theirland Also, American lost their hope in the future “what was once the land of hope andoptimism had become the land of despair” (Sutton, 1999) so American Dream in thistime included hope

In 1941, President Franklin D Roosevelt in his speech in front of Congressexpressed his vision of the new American Dream, in which the government would bethe assistant helping people to achieve their dream Specifically, this American Dreamincluded full employment for everyone who had the desire of job In addition, for theelderly and homeless, the government would give them a hand The president alsoarticulated that “enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantlyrising standard of living" (Roosevelt, 1941) Soon later after his vision, when the WorldWar II (1939-1945) ended, America was prosperous than ever because of spending ofthe war America economy sprung up that made many American from every walk of lifebecome affluent, they had job with stable earning and many of them could afford tomove to more spacious house The fruit of science and technology pleased people’s lifemuch Therefore, the way to activate American Dream also changed Instead of workinghard to achieve success like before, at that period time of mushrooming technology,people dreamed to be able to access and expert on technologies

In the 21st century, when “health care, college and housing — have gone upfaster than income” (Amadeo, 2013) American Dream has become the dream ofaccessing fully health care and going to college in particular, accessing high qualityeducation in general Therefore, for many people, especially the young, American

Dream is to have college degree and get good job with high enough income to buyinghouse and cover their bills For the adult, “nearly half of adults define the dream as acomfortable retirement” (Kadlec, 2013)

In general, the definition of American Dream has different focuses overtime TheDream is characterized by the features of society, economy and politics, but still sticks

to the principle of a better life for everyone

As mentioned above, in the 21st century, Americn Dream is ensured when

“children are well cared for and well educated, and every American adult – irrespective

of gender or color – has the opportunity to compete for and enjoy the riches of thissociety” (Jill, 2004) However, under his presidency, George W Bush vetoed Children'sHealth Insurance Program (CHIP) on healthcare that supported children especially inlow-income families twice In education, President Bush implemented No Child LeftBehind Act (NCLB) aiming to enhancing American education standard However,

“nearly all people in the education world believe to be fatally flawed” (Valerie Strauss,2013) In term of economy, George W Bush didn’t do well, which resulted in astagnant economy with weak banking system The policies implemented by George W.Bush seemed to be contrary to principle of American Dream In another word Bushdegraded American Dream After George W Bush, President Barack Obama hasexecuted some policies on healthcare, education and economy to revitalize AmericanDream

2.1.3 Some policies reflecting the degradation of American Dream under George

W Bush’s presidency and revitalization under Barack Obama’s presidency

For Bush, what makes people associate to him most have been wars inAfghanistan and Iraq and his generous investment in them During his office terms, herepeatedly urged Congress to fund for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with the total sum

of $ 196 billion In contrast, he vetoed domestic spending bills for the reason of tightbudget Some bills vetoed by President George W Bush were supporting people with

low income significantly on healthcare, education In term of economy, President Bushhas been famous for adding 4,900 billion dollars to the debt of the nation Under Bush’sadministration, banking system of American was hurt massively by financial crisis in

2008 The collapse of leading financial institution, Lehman Brothers at that timeshocked the whole world market and pushed financial market, one of the strengths ineconomy of America, to the verge of collapse Considering what George W Bush hasdone and reflected in the mirror of American Dream, it sounds that American Dreamwas broken The chance for everyone to achieve their goals in life, to get rich materiallyand spiritually and finally to better their life were stripped of when the funding forhealthcare program supporting uninsured children was vetoed, when war spending gotpriority over education spending, when education act was launched to enhanceeducation outcome turned out to become “test and punish” act and when economy wasnot stable President George W Bush left his presidency in 2009 left behind hispolicies and also his mess for President Barack Obama The nomination of PresidentObama has become turning point in American history and made a big bang in the world.President Barack Obama is the first black President of America, which is a strongevidence for the existence of American Dream with no discrimination between the blackand the white During his presidency, President Obama always struggles to fight forrights and benefits of American in general and for middle class, low-income citizensand legal immigrant in particular He has signed bills that support these people for theaim of bringing equal chance for everyone to get better life in America Also, he isfixing what George Bush had done to corrupt American Dream The policy that wasvetoed by George Bush but then signed and expanded by President Barack Obama in

2009 was Children’s Health Insurance Program In term of education, Obama is fixingthe No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) launched by Bush in 2001 by giving waiver for

32 states from the requirement of the NCLBA For economy, president Obama hasfound that the cause of economic crisis in 2008 was financial system that was out ofcontrol of government Therefore, he implemented the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reformand Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) to rebuild the system that nearly collapsed

The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) on healthcare, Dodd-FrankWall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on economy, the waivers from NoChild Left Behind (NCLB) requirement for more than thirty states in United States areprominent policies executed by President Barack Obama that can obviously illustratethe revitalization of American Dream from degradation in George W Bush’spresidency.

2.1.3.1 Acts on Healthcare

 Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

This program was created in 1997 under the Clinton administration with the purpose ofcovering uninsured children in low-income family but not eligible for Medicaid Insome states, CHIP is also awarded to parents, pregnant women and poor adults ThisAct has significantly stripped off costly healthcare burden of poor children and adultsAlthough this program has been a lifebuoy for healthcare needs of children in low-income families, during his office terms, President George W Bush vetoed funding forthis program twice for the reason of budget deficit However, in 2009, President BarackObama reauthorized the act that has known as Children's Health InsuranceReauthorization Act 2009 (CHIPRA) The Act was expanded to “4 million children andpregnant women, including legal immigrants” (Medicaid, 2009) The reauthorization ofPresident Barack Obama has helped uninsured children who are in low-income familiesaccess full healthcare services with significant reduction in cost

The CHIPRA is another evidence of the revitalization of American Dream which wastwice vetoed by George Bush Obama reauthorized the act to obey the principle ofAmerican Dream that is equal right for everyone to attain better healthcare

2.1.3.2 Act on Education

 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)

This is an Act about education born by President George W Bush in 2001 inorder to entirely improve education outcome of schools in America This Act sets a goalthat all students will reach standard scores of reading and doing math and to define thescores, students have to take NCLBH test Students sit for the test annually, thisprogress is called “Adequate Yearly Progress” (AYP) If any school does not reach thestandard score of the year, it will receive some punishments namely being listed in

“school improvement” list

After nearly decade of implementation, the Act has been considered a fraud formany reasons Critics believe that the Act is not an improvement but just “test andpunish” that scares many school especially schools in poor areas The Act will widenthe gap in education between classes in American society Therefore, in administration

of President Obama, he decided to give waivers from requirement of NCLB for morestates The waivers have stripped pressure off many schools, but to get waivers schoolshave to commit to raise standards, improve studying and teaching quality

2.1.3.3 Act on Economy

It was unfortunately for Barack Obama to become President of America amidfinancial crisis in 2008 At that time, with the death of the most giant financialinstitution of America, Lehman Brother, baking system of American was on the verge

of collapse Numerous obstacles were posed challenging Obama to overcome ThePresident has launched some laws as tools to clean up the mess and rebuild USeconomy

 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

The Act normally is called with the name of Dodd-Frank (“Dodd” in “ Chris Dodd”the former chairman of Senate Banking Committee, “Frank” in “Barney Frank”Financial Services Committee chairman They together revised the bill so members ofCongress voted to name the Act after their names Dodd-Frank includes 16 provisionswhich reform financial and banking system of America which are essentially located inWall Street According to the Act, the financial stability, liquidity authority andtransparency in banking system will be consolidated The Act also gives consumers of

financial services protections from risk of loss and bankruptcy The Act graduallyrescued banking system of USA and regained the belief of financial consumers.

2.2 Published materials and previous studies on the American Dream

As mentioning above, American Dream originated from ethos of the nation: Liberty,Opportunity and Equality for everyone Therefore, it is a very holly dream embracingcore American values There have been many published books and works takingAmerican Dream as topic In 1931 the historian James Truslow Adams wrote the non-

fiction work named The Epic of America, from this book, the term “American Dream”

was popularized American Dream described in this books as “being able to grow tofullest development as men and women, unhampered by the barriers which had slowlybeen erected for the benefit of classes rather than for the simple human being of anyevery class” (Adams, 1932) The Dream targeted to gender equality and nodiscrimination in class order, equal opportunities for everyone to achieve their goals inlife For Adams, he considered economic success the first among other values becausethe publishing time of the book was in the early stages of the Great Depression “WallStreet had melted down, personal saving and investment had been vaporized, businesswere going bust” (Adams, 1932) Also for this reason, the book of Adams could nothave been better at depicting American Dream The viewpoint about American Dream

of Adams has become leading concepts of American Dream which are still appliednowadays

Two outstanding studies on American community named Middletown in Transition conducted by Robert and Helen Lynd published in 1937 and Yankee City of W Lloyd

Warner in 1929 Both of these studies mentioned American Dream While the firststudy was in Middletown where the Lynds found that most successful businessmen inthe town were “from comparative poverty to great wealth” ( the Lynds, 1937) Thestudies was conducted five years after the publish of “The epic of America” so theLynds referred point of view of Adams and concluded that successful men inMiddletown achieved their American Dream For the study of the Lynds, AmericanDream quickly spread and became familiar to American The second study of Warner

focused on men’s status in society rather than economic aspect According to Warner

“A man by applying himself, by using the talents he has, by acquiring the necessaryskills can rise from lower to higher status and that his family can rise with him”(Warner, 1929) The study of Lynd focused on economic aspect while the study ofWarner focused on social status Actually, these two aspects have tight relationship inAmerican Dream because a man with strong finance can easily get high status insociety

In 1995, Princeton University Press published a book named Facing up the American Dream: Races, Class, and the Soul of the Nation of Jennifer L Hochschild,

she is the Professor of African and African American Studies, and Harvard CollegeProfessor at Harvard University In this book, Henry approached American Dream inpessimistic view For her, American Dream in reality has been threatened race and classdiscrimination Hochschild questioned “whether African Americans achieve theirversion of dream and the effort they undergo to do so, tells us much about America’sdeepest and most bitter social divide” (Hochschild, 1995, p.4) However, theHochschild’s perspective was one-sided or just appropriate for the social context at thewriting time

In the event of Obama became the first black president of America in 2008 was amilestone in politics of USA The event caught interest of people around the world sosince the election in 2008, many writings about President Obama’s life, and his dreamwere published that the “Obama Studies” field has harvested a giant number of works

Among them, it is a flaw when not mention the book Critical Essays on Barack Obama Re-affirming the Hope, Re-vitalizing the Dream The book is a collection of essays

written by professors, scholars about every facets of President Obama’s life, a symbol

of revitalizing American Dream The book Letters to President Obama: Americans Dream share their hopes and dreams with the First African-American President also a

worth-mentioned book about Obama and the revitalization of American Dream President Obama has proved that every child regardless class, religion, race can become

a president in the future time

Each book and study mentioned above focuses on one or some aspects, values ofAmerican Dream, but all go around the original concept of chance for everyone to gainbetter in every aspect of life: wealth, education, healthcare and social status The Dream

is an ideal so sometimes it is hard to achieve that is when American Dream is corrupted

or unfulfilled However, the American always tries to revitalize the Dream of their

founding fathers The book What happens to American Dream? written by Robert L.

Hamlett in 2012 is also a worth-mentioned book about the degradation of AmericanDream In the book, especially in chapter 4, the author repeatedly emphasized on whatGeorge W Bush and his administration had done to destroy national budget At thesame time, Hamlett addressed the effort of President Barack Obama in fixing Bush’sfault In his presidency, President Bush spent all his effort and budget of the nation onthe wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan and forget the domestic affairs namely education,healthcare, economy Hamlett (2012, p.20) saw Bush’s expense for wars as “burst thebudget” The author also compared the way President Bush and his administrationspending money like “drunk sailors” Hamlett heavily criticized George W Bush forcutting taxes for the rich, which made the wealth gap wider While criticizing Bush, theauthor sympathized for President Obama because of “his every effort to solve thenation’s enormous problem and to stimulate the economy and correct the wrongs ofPresident George W Bush’s disastrous tenure in office” (Hamlett, 2012, p.21) Thebook gives an obvious contrast between what President George W Bush did to degradeAmerican Dream and the effort of President Barack Obama to revitalize the dream

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

In this part, the researcher is going to present the methodology used to conduct theresearch Specifically, this part includes research methods, data collection instrumentsand procedures of data analysis

3.1 Research methods

The research is about revitalization of American Dream in term of healthcare,education and economy so the researcher focused on investigating materials goingaround these areas The main methods used in the research will be qualitative takingcontent analysis as the core direction Ole Rudolf Holsti, an American political scientistand academic defined content analysis approach as “Any technique for makinginferences by objectively and systematically indentifying specified characteristics of

messages” (Holsti, 1969, .14) In his Basic content analysis, Robert Philip Weber

mentioned content analysis as “A research technique that uses a set of procedures tomake valid inferences from text” (Weber, 1990, p.9) Given these definitions, contentanalysis can be interpreted a research approach investigating text materials to infermeaningful conclusions

Employing content analysis, the researcher is going to read materials namelyarticles, journals, studies and books related to healthcare, education and economy of

America during administrations of two presidents Bush and Obama to infer thedegradation and revitalization of American Dream For instance, the researcher

investigated the book Saving Our Schools: The Case For Public Education, Saying No

to "No Child Left Behind (Godman, 2004) to conclude that No Child Left Behind Act of President Bush was flaw While studied the article 5 Ways No Child Left Behind Waivers Help State Education Reform (Hana, 2013) to infer that NCLB waivers given

by President Obama really helped to revitalize American Dream on education

The study is about degraded American Dream in the office terms of President George

W Bush and then show up how President Barack Obama has revitalized the dream sothis method will be applied to compare and bring to light the positive changes of

American Dream under Obama’s term of office The research will use some books The epic of America (1932) written by James Truslow Adams, Saving Our Schools: The Case For Public Education, Saying No to "No Child Left Behind" by Ken Goodman (2004), What happens to American Dream? written by Robert L Hamlett in 2012 as

material in analysis In addition, the researcher utilized materials from other sourcessuch as New York Times, Bloomberg, CNN, Business Insider, and BBC

3.2 Data collection instruments

For the features and topic of the research, the researcher decides to use books,articles, journals and other kinds of text as data collection instruments In addition,findings of previous studies about this matter will also be useful sources of material

3.3 Procedures of data analysis

The data analysis stage is divided into three steps:

Firstly, the researcher searches and chooses the most prominent Acts, Laws onhealthcare, education that both George W Bush and Barack Obama used If there is nothe exact the same act and law that the two presidents complemented, the researcher willsearch for the acts and laws that strongly show up effort to revitalize American Dream

of President Barack Obama

Secondly, the researcher analyzes the Acts, Law and materials denoting how these toolswere utilized in presidency of both George Bush and Barack Obama.

Thirdly, the researcher makes comparisons between the implementation of George Bushand Barack Obama in order to highlight the achievement that Barack Obama has gain inhis path of revitalize American Dream

CHAPTER IV: THE CORRUPTION UNDER PRESIDENT BUSH’S OFFICE TERMS AND REVITALIZATION UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA’S OFFICE TERMS OF THE AMERICAN DREAM

4.1 The corruption and revitalization of the American Dream on healthcare

front

4.1.1 The creation of The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

4.1.1.1 Healthcare expenditure in America ranks first in the world

In 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) published World Health Reportthat ranked the world’s healthcare system in term of two criteria: overall performanceand overall expenditure per capita According to the World Health Organization “the

US healthcare system came in 15th in overall performance”(WHO, 2000) This highrank resulted from the modern durable medical equipment, high quality medicines andhigh-qualified doctors David Cutler, the Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics

in the Department of Economics commented that “Americans receive more medical carethan people do in other countries, not so much in terms of doctor visits, but if a personhas a heart attack in the United States, they’re much more likely to get open heartsurgery than they are in most other countries.” (Cutler,2013) However, in term ofoverall expenditure per capita, American healthcare ranked the first For this ranking,the overall ranking was 37th among 191 nations The following statistics can illustratehow costly healthcare in America in being drawn parallels with other countries:

Figure 1: The average American’s prescriptions cost per capita, 2011

For the rich or the insured, the cost does not matter them, but for the poor or theuninsured, healthcare expenditure is always a great burden Back in 1990s time, UnitedStates’s economy came into strong growth with steady job creation, low inflation.Together with many growths, cost of healthcare was also up rapidly For that reason,employers particular in small business stripped health insurances of their workers The

study The Rising Number of Uninsured Workers: An Approaching Crisis in Health Care Financing conducted by by Kenneth E Thorpe, director of Tulane University's

Institute of Health Services Research in 1997 showed that “In 1995, the percentage ofAmericans without insurance climbed from 15.7 percent to 17.3 percent, an increase of

5 million uninsured people It appears that economic growth, by itself, will not decreasethe percentage of uninsured Americans” (Thorpe, 1997) In 1995, more than 40 millionAmericans did not have healthcare insurance and almost 60 percent of these wereworkers According to Current Population Survey “9.8 million or 13.8% of all childrenunder age 18 were uninsured in 1995, and 10.6 million or 14.8% of all children wereuninsured in 1996.” (CPS, 1996) Healthcare has been always considered one of themost- wanted needs of human being including children However, there was still a greatamount of American children not accessing or accessing but not fully this need

4.1.1.2 States Children’s Health Insurance Program Act (SCHIP) was designed

to help poor children.

For the reason of costly healthcare expenditure, in 1997, the Balanced BudgetAct of 1997 as Title XXI of Social Security Act created States Children’s HealthInsurance Program (SCHIP) which “provides health coverage to nearly eight millionchildren in families with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid, but can't affordprivate coverage.” (Children's Health Insurance Program , n.d.) In America, there is agroup called eligible group who fit the criterion of being covered healthcare cost by

Medicaid they may be “being aged or disabled, and who meet certain common

requirements, such as having income and assets below certain levels” (MedicaidEligibility, n.d.) In spite of struggling to live, these groups of people do not suffer theburden of healthcare cost because Medicaid sponsors them Other group is the rich, thisgroup can purchase themselves private insurances and even uninsured they still canafford their healthcare cost Therefore, there is a group stuck between two above groups.They are not rich enough to cover themselves cover but not poor enough to besponsored by Medicaid Therefore, SCHIP was created for this group

SCHIP came out like a lifebuoy saving billions of uninsured American childrenfrom sky-high healthcare cost The Act obviously practiced the better-life-for-everyoneprinciple of American Dream SCHIP was designed to provide health insurances forchildren living in families whose incomes are low but too high for Medicaid and cannotafford private insurances SCHIP was for children in the gap between public and privatehealthcare coverage The Act really made it easier for uninsured children to touchAmerican Dream of accessing fully healthcare without burden of expenditure Just in ashort time, the program achieved a great success After three years of implementationsince 1997, “nearly 2.5 million children were enrolled in SCHIP programs” (Almanac

of Policy Issues, n.d.) In the period time of 1997-2004 “As a result of SCHIP, health

insurance has been extended to millions of children from low-income families, and rates

of the uninsured among this population have declined by 2.2 million, from 23% in 1997

to 14.4% in 2004.” (The American Academy of Pediatrics, 2007) and in 2005 “SCHIP

programs provided health insurance to 4 million children nationwide” (The American

Academy of Pediatrics, 2007) Till 2007, 6.6 million children were covered by state

SCHIP programs but 9 million more remained uninsured

Under SCHIP, children in low-income families had chances to enjoy moremedical home, preventive care, immunization, dental care, etc When the number ofchildren with obesity, mental problem, diabetes, asthma is increasing, the SCHIPbecomes more important than ever The act insures that all healthcare need of childrenincluding these in poor or near-poor families will be met In addition, during the time ofeconomic crisis in 2008, CHIP would be lifebuoy for numerous of children whoseparents were jobless because of the crisis Giving every child equal chance to access thesame full medical care means giving them equal ground to grow up That is the reason

of CHIP’s creation that ensures the happening of American Dream on healthcare forchildren in particular and better life for American people in general

4.1.2 President George W Bush vetoed the authorization of CHIP

Despite the importance of SCHIP to healthcare needs of poor children and to thepractice of American Dream, during his presidency (January 20, 2001- January 20,2009) President George W Bush vetoed to extend funding for the program twice In

2007, two houses of Congress passed bipartisan proposal to reauthorization SCHIPexpanding the program with more funding and for more children groups Theauthorization would have expanded “new expenditures of $35 billion over the next fiveyears for a total of $60 billion, enabling states to cover more than three millionadditional children” (American’s Agenda Health Care for Kids, n.d.) In spite of,receiving a number of opposition from governors and public, President George W Bushvetoed the bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Bush’s decision “heartlessveto” and said in a statement “"By vetoing a bipartisan bill to renew the successfulChildren's Health Insurance Program, President Bush is denying health care to millions

of low-income kids in America” (Reid, 2007)

In his budget speech in Lancaster, Bush (Bush, 2007) argued that the Act would

be a move toward socialized medicine by expanding the program to higher-incomefamilies President Bush thought the expansion would involve the children whoseparents could afford private-insured healthcare might switch to federal-funded subsidyand healthcare would be socialize Actually, the worry of the President seemed to beexacerbating In 2007, there were “over 43 million people nationwide who lack healthinsurance” (Associated Press, 2007) These people were low-income people who couldnot buy them health insurance even though they obviously knew that once they gotdiseases, the cost would be sky-high For people whose income were higher and couldpurchase private insurance, they certainly bought them one to avoid high cost in badcircumstances Still, there were people who could afford health insurances but they didnot buy However, this group accounted only small fraction in over 43 millions.Therefore, the expansion of the program still was for the sake of poor children andhealthcare socialization was impossible In responding to argument of Bush, Democratsclaimed that the expanded bill just aim to “cover more of the millions of uninsuredchildren and noting that the bill provides financial incentives for states to cover theirlowest-income children first Of the over 43 million people nationwide who lack healthinsurance, over 6 million are under 18 years old That's over 9 percent of all children”(CNBC, 2007)

President Bush also acted as a Pooh-Bah for his veto by reasoning that the bill

was “too costly” and might dry out states budget However, during his presidency, Bushwas spending trillions dollar on wars in Iraq and Iran The President signed $459 billionbill to increase the Pentagon’s non-war funding Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid(Moscoso, cited in Reid 2007) said that the money proposed for SCHIP under thelegislation "is the equivalent of what the President spends in less than four months inIraq" While generously investing in wars, President Bush refused to spend a smallfraction on healthcare insurances for poor children Obviously, the reason of budgetexcess was unacceptable It was a cover to hide the underneath reason of President’sveto The program would be funded by tobacco tax so to expand funding the federal

state would “raising the federal cigarette tax by 61 cents to $1 per pack “(CNBC, 2007).That meant if the program had been expanded, tobacco companies would have beensuffered higher tax This situation posed a question was President Bush’s policy for thesake of tobacco companies rather than that of poor children

In addition, President George W Bush posed some restrictions of eligibility Theoriginal eligibility of State Children’s Healthcare Insurance regulated that children infamilies whose annual income was 200% to 250% of Federal Poverty Level ($20,650for a family of four) would be under the coverage of SCHIP However, “this figure isfar too low in many states to be realistic; many families surpassing this income stillcannot afford private health plans.” (Carpenter, 2007) Most states wanted to expand theeligibility limitation so that more children would be under SCHIP coverage In August

2007, “Pennsylvania recently raised its limit to 300 percent, from 200 percent NewJersey has had a limit of 350 percent for more than five years” (Pear, 2007) However,the expansion intentions were hurdled by new rules introduced by Bush that restrictedthe reach of healthcare plan The new policy regulated “a state seeking to enroll a childwhose family earns more than 250 percent of the poverty level or $51,625 for afamily of four must first ensure that the child is uninsured for at least one year Thestate must also demonstrate that at least 95 percent of children from families makingless than 200 percent of the poverty level have been enrolled in the children's healthinsurance program or Medicaid” (Lee, 2007) The new policy made it much harder foruninsured children to get coverage and even stripped of many others According toDeborah S Bachrach, a deputy commissioner in the New York State HealthDepartment, said, “No state in the nation has a participation rate of 95 percent”(Bachrach, 2007) Cindy Mann a research professor at the Health Policy Institute

of Georgetown University, said, “No state would ever achieve that level of participation

under the president’s budget proposals.” (Pear, cited in Mann 2007) Many officialswere angry about new restriction of Bush Ann Clemency Kohler, deputy commissioner

of human services in New Jersey shared “"We are horrified at the new federal policy.This will cause havoc with our program and jeopardize coverage for thousands of