Obama’s Top 50 Accomplishments

Washington Monthly

March/ April 2012  

 

Obama’s Top 50 Accomplishments

By Paul Glastris, Ryan Cooper, and Siyu Hu

(Also check out the main article, The Incomplete Greatness of Barack Obama, and the issue’s Editor’s Note.)

1. Passed Health Care Reform: After five presidents over a century failed to create universal health insurance, signed the Affordable Care Act (2010). It will cover 32 million uninsured Americans beginning in 2014 and mandates a suite of experimental measures to cut health care cost growth, the number one cause of America’s long-term fiscal problems.

2. Passed the Stimulus: Signed $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009 to spur economic growth amid greatest recession since the Great Depression. Weeks after stimulus went into effect, unemployment claims began to subside. Twelve months later, the private sector began producing more jobs than it was losing, and it has continued to do so for twenty-three straight months, creating a total of nearly 3.7 million new private-sector jobs.

3. Passed Wall Street Reform: Signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010) to re-regulate the financial sector after its practices caused the Great Recession. The new law tightens capital requirements on large banks and other financial institutions, requires derivatives to be sold on clearinghouses and exchanges, mandates that large banks provide “living wills” to avoid chaotic bankruptcies, limits their ability to trade with customers’ money for their own profit, and creates the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (now headed by Richard Cordray) to crack down on abusive lending products and companies.

4. Ended the War in Iraq: Ordered all U.S. military forces out of the country. Last troops left on December 18, 2011.

5. Began Drawdown of War in Afghanistan: From a peak of 101,000 troops in June 2011, U.S. forces are now down to 91,000, with 23,000 slated to leave by the end of summer 2012. According to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, the combat mission there will be over by next year.

6. Eliminated Osama bin laden: In 2011, ordered special forces raid of secret compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in which the terrorist leader was killed and a trove of al-Qaeda documents was discovered.

7. Turned Around U.S. Auto Industry: In 2009, injected $62 billion in federal money (on top of $13.4 billion in loans from the Bush administration) into ailing GM and Chrysler in return for equity stakes and agreements for massive restructuring. Since bottoming out in 2009, the auto industry has added more than 100,000 jobs. In 2011, the Big Three automakers all gained market share for the first time in two decades. The government expects to lose $16 billion of its investment, less if the price of the GM stock it still owns increases.

8. Recapitalized Banks: In the midst of financial crisis, approved controversial Treasury Department plan to lure private capital into the country’s largest banks via “stress tests” of their balance sheets and a public-private fund to buy their “toxic” assets. Got banks back on their feet at essentially zero cost to the government.

9. Repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”: Ended 1990s-era restriction and formalized new policy allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military for the first time.

10. Toppled Moammar Gaddafi: In March 2011, joined a coalition of European and Arab governments in military action, including air power and naval blockade, against Gaddafi regime to defend Libyan civilians and support rebel troops. Gaddafi’s forty-two-year rule ended when the dictator was overthrown and killed by rebels on October 20, 2011. No American lives were lost.

11. Told Mubarak to Go: On February 1, 2011, publicly called on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to accept reform or step down, thus weakening the dictator’s position and putting America on the right side of the Arab Spring. Mubarak ended thirty-year rule when overthrown on February 11.

12. Reversed Bush Torture Policies: Two days after taking office, nullified Bush-era rulings that had allowed detainees in U.S. custody to undergo certain “enhanced” interrogation techniques considered inhumane under the Geneva Conventions. Also released the secret Bush legal rulings supporting the use of these techniques.

13. Improved America’s Image Abroad: With new policies, diplomacy, and rhetoric, reversed a sharp decline in world opinion toward the U.S. (and the corresponding loss of “soft power”) during the Bush years. From 2008 to 2011, favorable opinion toward the United States rose in ten of fifteen countries surveyed by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, with an average increase of 26 percent.

14. Kicked Banks Out of Federal Student Loan Program, Expanded Pell Grant Spending: As part of the 2010 health care reform bill, signed measure ending the wasteful decades-old practice of subsidizing banks to provide college loans. Starting July 2010 all students began getting their federal student loans directly from the federal government. Treasury will save $67 billion over ten years, $36 billion of which will go to expanding Pell Grants to lower-income students.

15. Created Race to the Top: With funds from stimulus, started $4.35 billion program of competitive grants to encourage and reward states for education reform.

16. Boosted Fuel Efficiency Standards: Released new fuel efficiency standards in 2011 that will nearly double the fuel economy for cars and trucks by 2025.

17. Coordinated International Response to Financial Crisis: To keep world economy out of recession in 2009 and 2010, helped secure from G-20 nations more than $500 billion for the IMF to provide lines of credit and other support to emerging market countries, which kept them liquid and avoided crises with their currencies.

18. Passed Mini Stimuli: To help families hurt by the recession and spur the economy as stimulus spending declined, signed series of measures (July 22, 2010; December 17, 2010; December 23, 2011) to extend unemployment insurance and cut payroll taxes.

19. Began Asia “Pivot”: In 2011, reoriented American military and diplomatic priorities and focus from the Middle East and Europe to the Asian-Pacific region. Executed multipronged strategy of positively engaging China while reasserting U.S. leadership in the region by increasing American military presence and crafting new commercial, diplomatic, and military alliances with neighboring countries made uncomfortable by recent Chinese behavior.

20. Increased Support for Veterans: With so many soldiers coming home from Iraq and Iran with serious physical and mental health problems, yet facing long waits for services, increased 2010 Department of Veterans Affairs budget by 16 percent and 2011 budget by 10 percent. Also signed new GI bill offering $78 billion in tuition assistance over a decade, and provided multiple tax credits to encourage businesses to hire veterans.

21. Tightened Sanctions on Iran: In effort to deter Iran’s nuclear program, signed Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act (2010) to punish firms and individuals who aid Iran’s petroleum sector. In late 2011 and early 2012, coordinated with other major Western powers to impose sanctions aimed at Iran’s banks and with Japan, South Korea, and China to shift their oil purchases away from Iran.

22. Created Conditions to Begin Closing Dirtiest Power Plants: New EPA restrictions on mercury and toxic pollution, issued in December 2011, likely to lead to the closing of between sixty-eight and 231 of the nation’s oldest and dirtiest coal-fired power plants. Estimated cost to utilities: at least $11 billion by 2016. Estimated health benefits: $59 billion to $140 billion. Will also significantly reduce carbon emissions and, with other regulations, comprises what’s been called Obama’s “stealth climate policy.”

23. Passed Credit Card Reforms: Signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act (2009), which prohibits credit card companies from raising rates without advance notification, mandates a grace period on interest rate increases, and strictly limits overdraft and other fees.

24. Eliminated Catch-22 in Pay Equality Laws: Signed Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009, giving women who are paid less than men for the same work the right to sue their employers after they find out about the discrimination, even if that discrimination happened years ago. Under previous law, as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., the statute of limitations on such suits ran out 180 days after the alleged discrimination occurred, even if the victims never knew about it.

25. Protected Two Liberal Seats on the U.S. Supreme Court: Nominated and obtained confirmation for Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic and third woman to serve, in 2009; and Elena Kagan, the fourth woman to serve, in 2010. They replaced David Souter and John Paul Stevens, respectively.

26. Improved Food Safety System: In 2011, signed FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, which boosts the Food and Drug Administration’s budget by $1.4 billion and expands its regulatory responsibilities to include increasing number of food inspections, issuing direct food recalls, and reviewing the current food safety practices of countries importing products into America.

27. Achieved New START Treaty: Signed with Russia (2010) and won ratification in Congress (2011) of treaty that limits each country to 1,550 strategic warheads (down from 2,200) and 700 launchers (down from more than 1,400), and reestablished and strengthened a monitoring and transparency program that had lapsed in 2009, through which each country can monitor the other.

28. Expanded National Service: Signed Serve America Act in 2009, which authorized a tripling of the size of AmeriCorps. Program grew 13 percent to 85,000 members across the country by 2012, when new House GOP majority refused to appropriate more funds for further expansion.

29. Expanded Wilderness and Watershed Protection: Signed Omnibus Public Lands Management Act (2009), which designated more than 2 million acres as wilderness, created thousands of miles of recreational and historic trails, and protected more than 1,000 miles of rivers.

30. Gave the FDA Power to Regulate Tobacco: Signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (2009). Nine years in the making and long resisted by the tobacco industry, the law mandates that tobacco manufacturers disclose all ingredients, obtain FDA approval for new tobacco products, and expand the size and prominence of cigarette warning labels, and bans the sale of misleadingly labeled “light” cigarette brands and tobacco sponsorship of entertainment events.

31. Pushed Federal Agencies to Be Green Leaders: Issued executive order in 2009 requiring all federal agencies to make plans to soften their environmental impacts by 2020. Goals include 30 percent reduction in fleet gasoline use, 26 percent boost in water efficiency, and sustainability requirements for 95 percent of all federal contracts. Because federal government is the country’s single biggest purchaser of goods and services, likely to have ripple effects throughout the economy for years to come.

32. Passed Fair Sentencing Act: Signed 2010 legislation that reduces sentencing disparity between crack versus powder cocaine possessionfrom100 to1 to 18 to1.

33. Trimmed and Reoriented Missile Defense: Cut the Reagan-era “Star Wars” missile defense budget, saving $1.4 billion in 2010, and canceled plans to station antiballistic missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic in favor of sea-based defense plan focused on Iran and North Korea.

34. Began Post-Post-9/11 Military Builddown: After winning agreement from congressional Republicans and Democrats in summer 2011 budget deal to reduce projected defense spending by $450 billion, proposed new DoD budget this year with cuts of that size and a new national defense strategy that would shrink ground forces from 570,000 to 490,000 over the next ten years while increasing programs in intelligence gathering and cyberwarfare.

35. Let Space Shuttle Die and Killed Planned Moon Mission: Allowed the expensive ($1 billion per launch), badly designed, dangerous shuttle program to make its final launch on July 8, 2011. Cut off funding for even more bloated and problem-plagued Bush-era Constellation program to build moon base in favor of support for private-sector low-earth orbit ventures, research on new rocket technologies for long-distance manned flight missions, and unmanned space exploration, including the largest interplanetary rover ever launched, which will investigate Mars’s potential to support life.

36. Invested Heavily in Renewable Technology: As part of the 2009 stimulus, invested $90 billion, more than any previous administration, in research on smart grids, energy efficiency, electric cars, renewable electricity generation, cleaner coal, and biofuels.

37. Crafting Next-Generation School Tests: Devoted $330 million in stimulus money to pay two consortia of states and universities to create competing versions of new K-12 student performance tests based on latest psychometric research. New tests could transform the learning environment in vast majority of public school classrooms beginning in 2014.

38. Cracked Down on Bad For-Profit Colleges: In effort to fight predatory practices of some for-profit colleges, Department of Education issued “gainful employment” regulations in 2011 cutting off commercially focused schools from federal student aid funding if more than 35 percent of former students aren’t paying off their loans and/or if the average former student spends more than 12 percent of his or her total earnings servicing student loans.

39. Improved School Nutrition: In coordination with Michelle Obama, signed Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010 mandating $4.5 billion spending boost and higher nutritional and health standards for school lunches. New rules based on the law, released in January, double the amount of fruits and vegetables and require only whole grains in food served to students.

40. Expanded Hate Crimes Protections: Signed Hate Crimes Prevention Act (2009), which expands existing hate crime protections to include crimes based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender, or disability, in addition to race, color, religion, or national origin.

41. Avoided Scandal: As of November 2011, served longer than any president in decades without a scandal, as measured by the appearance of the word “scandal” (or lack thereof) on the front page of the Washington Post.

42. Brokered Agreement for Speedy Compensation to Victims of Gulf Oil Spill: Though lacking statutory power to compel British Petroleum to act, used moral authority of his office to convince oil company to agree in 2010 to a $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; $6.5 billion already paid out without lawsuits. By comparison, it took nearly two decades for plaintiffs in the Exxon Valdez Alaska oil spill case to receive $1.3 billion.

43. Created Recovery.gov: Web site run by independent board of inspectors general looking for fraud and abuse in stimulus spending, provides public with detailed information on every contract funded by $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Thanks partly to this transparency, board has uncovered very little fraud, and Web site has become national model: “The stimulus has done more to promote transparency at almost all levels of government than any piece of legislation in recent memory,” reports Governing magazine.

44. Pushed Broadband Coverage: Proposed and obtained in 2011 Federal Communications Commission approval for a shift of $8 billion in subsidies away from landlines and toward broadband Internet for lower-income rural families.

45. Expanded Health Coverage for Children: Signed 2009 Children’s Health Insurance Authorization Act, which allows the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to cover health care for 4 million more children, paid for by a tax increase on tobacco products.

46. Recognized the Dangers of Carbon Dioxide: In 2009, EPA declared carbon dioxide a pollutant, allowing the agency to regulate its production.

47. Expanded Stem Cell Research: In 2009, eliminated the Bush-era restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, which shows promise in treating spinal injuries, among many other areas.

48. Provided Payment to Wronged Minority Farmers: In 2009, signed Claims Resolution Act, which provided $4.6 billion in funding for a legal settlement with black and Native American farmers who the government cheated out of loans and natural resource royalties in years past.

49. Helped South Sudan Declare Independence: Helped South Sudan Declare Independence: Appointed two envoys to Sudan and personally attended a special UN meeting on the area. Through U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, helped negotiate a peaceful split in 2011.

50. Killed the F-22: In 2009, ended further purchases of Lockheed Martin single-seat, twin-engine, fighter aircraft, which cost $358 million apiece. Though the military had 187 built, the plane has never flown a single combat mission. Eliminating it saved $4 billion.

Paul Glastris, Ryan Cooper, and Siyu Hu collaborated on this article. Glastris is the editor in chief of the Washington Monthly. Cooper and Hu are interns at the magazine.

The Quest for the Good Political Life

The Challenge of Politics

AN INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL SCIENCE

The Quest for the Good Political Life

One of the key ways to gain a better appreciation of politics is to explore the thinking of the great political philosophers. These philosophers have illuminated what the good political life is, and they have bequeathed to us a heritage of profound reflection on the meaning and importance of politics.

The earliest political thinkers in the Western tradition include such philosophers as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Each of these men was dedicated to the idea of excellence and to the belief that human excellence and happiness could be achieved as part of a greater political community. Plato is famous for his classic work The Republic, which has as its central theme the question: What is justice? Plato believes that justice is the harmonious ordering of the different classes in a political community. He argues that justice would be achieved when cities are ruled by philosopher-kings, who can use their wisdom to see and do what is right. Plato places much importance on the role of education and intelligence in overcoming the problems that sometimes arise between power and justice. Aristotle, a student of Plato, was critical of his teacher for being unrealistic about what the just community would look like. Aristotle believes that the best regime combines elements of democracy and oligarchy. Plato and Aristotle represent two sides of the ongoing debate about how political ideals should guide our actions and the need to be realistic about politics.

These questions continued to concern the Christian tradition that dominated Europe for over a thousand years. Two of the most important Christian thinkers were St. Augustine and St. Aquinas. St. Augustine argued that the best that people could hope for on earth was peace and order. Aquinas was more optimistic about the good political life on earth and believed that political communities were necessary to fulfill man’s nature.

The Renaissance and the modern era, which in important ways shaped modern thinking about politics, opened with a deep concern about order and with the belief that, in thinking about politics, people should be realistic. Machiavelli, although a complex thinker, was clearly a proponent of realism and a champion of the lion and fox approach to politics. Hobbes, who lived through the turbulent seventeenth century, was an exponent of the need for order and the need for an all-powerful sovereign who can guarantee that order.

While the contributions of these thinkers are vital to our thinking about politics, modern political theory involves a concern for democracy, freedom, and the difficulties (and hopes) posed by a changing economy. John Locke praised limited government, defended the right to property, and insisted that governments can only exist by the consent of the people. Rousseau articulated what he called the general will, which supposedly reflects the true will of all the people. As such, Rousseau is a great defender of democracy. Edmund Burke, the founder of modern conservatism, believed that the French Revolution had gone too far, that a healthy politics was built upon tradition--the successful inheritance of those who had gone before, and that we must be prudent in statesmanship.

In On Liberty John Stuart Mill defended the ideal of personal liberty, which he took to mean that, “the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” Karl Marx reminds us that economic forces shape politics to a significant degree. For Marx, human freedom can only be achieved when a classless society becomes reality after the inequalities of capitalism are overcome.

What each of these great writers reminds us is that when we think about what to do in politics, we need to understand what ideas are guiding our actions. Do we want to achieve excellence, freedom, equality, or justice? Of course, these are not necessarily mutually exclusive ideals; however, reality has a way of making us decide how to prioritize our goals.

Chapter Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be able to...

• discuss what the great thinkers, such Plato, Machiavelli, and Mill, thought politics was about.
• explain some of the important shifts that occurred over the past 2,000 years in thinking about politics and the good life.
• offer criticisms about what each of these thinkers argued and see weaknesses in their points of view.
• compare the different political priorities that can exist.

'What Good' Does Congress Do? Don't Ask

'What Good' Does Congress Do? Don't Ask

April 28, 2012 8:00 AM

Host Scott Simon speaks with reporter Robert Draper, the author of the new book Do Not Ask What Good We Do. In the book, Draper follows the 112th Congress and the 2010 Republican takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Copyright © 2012 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

The U.S. Congress doesn't win any popularity contests. Approval ratings for the legislative branch run the gamut from dismal to embarrassing. Nine percent at their lowest, and all the chaos and discord in the 112th Congress have distressed a lot of its members too. Democratic representative Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri called the last-minute deal to raise the debt ceiling, quote, "a sugar-coated Satan sandwich. If you lift the bun, you will not like what you see."
Well that not-so-small zinger is among many that appear in a new book by a reporter who essentially embedded himself in Congress after Republicans won control of the House of Representatives. That new book is "Do Not Ask What Good We Do" by Robert Draper. Mr. Draper, a correspondent for GQ and a contributor The New York Times Magazine says it all started in a Washington, D.C. steakhouse.

ROBERT DRAPER: This is January the 20th, 2009, the night that Barack Obama had been inaugurated earlier that day, and 15 Republicans, most of them members of the House of Representatives, gathered really I think just to kind of be among friends to sort of drown their sorrows. A number of them had been at the inauguration. They'd seen that spectacle of 1.8 million people out on the Mall and they thought: we're at an all-time low, how do we dig ourselves out?
And in the course of that four-hour meal, they began to strategize, and what they ultimately came up with was a plan to attack the president's agenda, say no to everything and stick together.

SIMON: Mr. Draper says the strategy worked. Republicans won the house in 2010, including 87 freshman - many of whom had Tea Party support - and they believe intensely in cutting spending to reduce deficits. The new members would drive a bitter showdown with both House Speaker Boehner and President Obama over raising the debt ceiling. A Republican consultant, Frank Luntz, met with the new class during freshman orientation and talked strategy.

DRAPER: And he just took an informal poll amongst the 87 freshman and said how many of you guys will vote to raise the debt ceiling and four freshman raised their hands. And this displeased Majority Leader Eric Cantor who knew that really the debt ceiling would have to be raised, and so what ensued were months and months of, as Cantor himself would put it to Joe Biden and some of the other Democrats, of educating these guys, of making them understand the consequences of failing to raise the debt ceiling while not being coercive about it.

SIMON: So you have a situation here in Congress where you have a large number of Republican members at the House of Representatives, principally supported by the Tea Party, could be a thorn in the side of Speaker Boehner. You have a number of Democrats who are openly put out with and annoyed by their party leader, Nancy Pelosi, and then you have it seems like Nancy Pelosi sometimes leading the charge against the Democrat in the White House.
DRAPER: Well, I think Minority Leader Pelosi has tried to be a good team player, despite the fact that at certain junctures she felt like she was being cut out of the negotiations. She basically has gone along with Obama and she hasn't always respected his skills as negotiator, in fact, there's a moment where blue dog Democrat Dennis Cardoza, just after the debt ceiling deal was consummated, pulls Pelosi aside in the House chamber and says that President Obama has to be the worst negotiator of anyone who's ever held that position, and Pelosi replies, yeah, but he doesn't think so.

SIMON: But the advantage of your experience there in the trenches, were, near as you can tell President Obama and Speaker Boehner ever really close to reaching some kind of grand bargain over the debt ceiling and debt reduction?

DRAPER: See, I don't think they were, Scott, because at times, Speaker Boehner was simply speaking without authority, and he had to be reminded that he did not have the votes within his conference. Many members of the freshman class of 87 as well as senior conservative members were very, very hostile to any notion of any kind of deal that might include revenue increases of insufficient cuts.

In fact, there was a certain point where some members of the Republican House who were allied with Speaker Boehner came to his office and warned him, that said, John, if you cut a deal with Obama, the kind of deal that fails to get let's say half of the Republican votes, you could have a mutiny on your hands. And they warned him that Eric Cantor is - and his staff are, you know, spreading rumors, fomenting divisions. And it very much sobered Boehner and it wasn't long after that that he broke off talks he was having with Obama at the White House.

SIMON: Recollecting everything you say about discord and chaos in the House of Representatives, on the other hand, it's hard to argue that the process hasn't become more transparent, that representatives in Congress aren't immediately responsive to public opinion in their districts, and that earmarks that people have been decrying for decades have been eliminated. So why is Congress so unpopular if they just did a bunch of stuff that people say they want done?

DRAPER: That's a very well-framed question and I would sort of add to it. The more generalized paradox that what we're talking about, Scott, is the most democratic institution in America. I mean where the representatives are maximally hotwired to the electorate. They have to face the music every two years. I think that there's a lot of blame to go around. The media shares some of the blame since I think they reward extremists. I think as well that the public deserves some blame. I mean here was Congress in October of last year with a 9 percent approval rating. But do we think that these representatives will fear their wrath? To some degree. But we'll see. The final thing I will add on this is that redistricting has played a major role in this because more and more swing districts are being eliminated as redistricting results in state legislatures turning congressional districts into much redder districts or much bluer districts. What this means is that what matters is that you prevail in the primary. To win a primary this means you have to appeal to your base, which means you have to go to the most extreme position. These are the people who then come to Washington - not bent on compromise, not spent on governance, but instead, more hotwired to the extreme elements of their party.

SIMON: And finally, is it really worse than it used to be? Is it more bitter? Is it more partisan? I mean, you know, we've had threatened duels on the House of Representatives

DRAPER: That's exactly right. And the title of my book, "Do Not Ask What Good We Do," comes from one of the first federal congressman, Fisher Ames from Dedham, Massachusetts, who wrote the First Amendment but after four terms decided he'd had enough and wrote a friend and said, do not ask what good we do, that is not a fair question in these days of faction. So partisan divisions have been there since the beginning, Scott. You're right. At the same time, you could be provided and still be productive. And so I do think that partisanship, it's always been there but it has resulted now in a full-on paralysis that we did not see in earlier years.

SIMON: Robert Draper. His new book, "Do Not Ask What Good We Do."
Thanks so much for being with us.

DRAPER: My pleasure.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: You're listening to NPR News.

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Pope Francis says Atheists are good if they ‘do good’

deathandtaxes

In News by Robyn PennacchiaDec 23, 2013 

 

Pope Francis says Atheists are good if they ‘do good’

Pope Francis continued down the road of awesomeness this weekend with an especially existentialist statement regarding non-believers in his papal homily this Sunday:

He told the story of a Catholic who asked a priest if even atheists had been redeemed by Jesus.

“Even them, everyone,” the pope answered, according to Vatican Radio. “We all have the duty to do good,” he said.

“Just do good, and we’ll find a meeting point,” the pope said in a hypothetical conversation in which someone told a priest: “But I don’t believe. I’m an atheist.”

Now, some atheists may take offense at the idea of someone saying they’ve been redeemed by Jesus. I don’t, because I think that a statement like that is coming from a good place in someone’s heart. At least when it’s put this way. It’s certainly more preferable than someone openly stating that they hope you burn for all eternity. Pope Francis seems like a genuinely kind person, and I am happy to take a kindness in the spirit in which it was given.

I’ve always been a big believer in the idea of “existence precedes essence”– that what you actually do is far more important that an intangible thing like “who you are deep down.” This seems to be what the Pope is saying, and I think that’s pretty freaking cool of him. Personally, I care a lot more about how people act and what they do than I care about what they happen to believe in.

Although a lot of people are very surprised at the Pope’s attitude–particularly given the attitude of his predecessor–I’m really not. His attitude is far more representative of the attitude of most of the Catholics I’ve known in my life, particularly those affiliated with the Catholic Worker movement.