As President Obama celebrates his 50th birthday today, our nation celebrates the many successes of his administration.
1. The Stimulus Package
After the Bush Administration took President Clinton's $200 billion surplus and turned it into a $1 trillion deficit, our economy at the end of 2008 was losing over 700,000 jobs a month.
To prevent another Great Depression, President Obama's first action in office was to relieve the economy and focus on job creation. Therefore, his stiumulus package included:
-investments in Infrastructure (long term job growth; immediate employment)
-the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act (tax cuts and lending approval for businesses)
-the Emergency Jobs Bill (gave states relief to keep 150K teachers and government employees on payroll)
-the Emergency Homeowner Loan (helped millions avoid foreclosure)
-the US Auto-Industry Bailout (saving an entire industry and saving American jobs from being outsourced)
-extending Unemployment benefits (providing relief for those who were forced out of work due to the corporate greed on Wall Street)
-Credit Card Reform (protecting Americans from unfair and misleading credit card practices)
-Student Loan Reform (making college more affordable for students and families)
2. Wall Street Reform
By holding Wall Street accountable and ending "too big to fail" bailouts, this reform enacts the strongest consumer protections in history.
3. The new START Treaty
By setting aside important national interests to achieve shared international ones, Obama was able to find a compromise with Russia and other nations to reduce the world supply of nuclear weapons and increase our global security.
4. Supreme Court Justices
Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor (the First Latina justice)
5. Repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Moving one step toward "Liberty and Justice for All".
6. Capturing Osama bin Laden
7. Ending combat operations in Iraq
Bringing our brave men and women home from a war that began on false pretenses.
8. the Affordable Care Act
Provides uninsured Americans with coverage, under-insured Americans with fairer insurance practices, and insured Americans with better care, all while strengthening the American medical industry and reducing health-care costs.
9. the Debt Ceiling Compromise
By putting aside partisan bickering, Obama showed true leadership by bringing together both sides of the aisle to find a common solution to our nation's debt ceiling crisis and preventing an economic collapse.
Due to his persistance and perserverance, Obama recently signed a debt-ceiling compromise that did not place a greater burden on Americans while continuing to give relief to the wealthiest.
This was all in the first 3 years of his presidency. Happy Birthday Mr. President and a job well done!
President Obama, with much roadblocks, has been able to get necessary stuff done! Happy Birthday to him and good luck to his legacy!
ReplyDeleteA joke of a President he is. You mentioned about passing stimulus bill. What exactly did that do? Even Obama himself, was joking around about that. That was over $700 billion in waste. Now they come out with this joke of a number of job creation. Look at our credit rating. It's downgraded !!! At some point, even you as a supporter for Obama, must admit his faults.
ReplyDeleteWhen Obama took office back in 2008, the economy was in a freefall. We were suffering from a trillion dollar deficit, losing over 700,000 jobs a month, and a more than 10% unemployment rate. Without any government action, the U.S. Labor Department predicts we would have lost more than 11 million jobs.
ReplyDeleteInstead, the stimulus package was passed, which invested in every major sector of economy. Specifically, this focused on improving our infrastructure, thus providing immediate employment to a struggling workforce; the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act, providing tax cuts and lending approval for small businesses; the Emergency Jobs Bill, giving states relief to keep over 150,000 teachers and police officers employed; and the Emergency Homeowner Loan Bill that helped millions avoid foreclosure.
By focusing on long term job creation, Obama prevented another Great Depression.
Thanks to comprehensive healthcare reform, 32 million Americans are now insured, and millions more, like me, will no longer be denied or rationed care due to a pre-existing condition; Medicare funds will last longer than expected; students can stay on their parents’ insurance plan until the age of 26; and taxpayers, patients, businesses, and hospitals pay less in insurance fees. Further, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that repealing the Affordable Care Act would “probably increase federal budget deficits over the 2012–2019 period by a total of roughly $145 billion…and through 2021 brings the projected increase in deficits to something in the vicinity of $230 billion,” (Congressional Budget Office, 1/6/2011).
Thanks to Obama’s auto-industry bailout, we saved millions of American jobs as GM and Chrysler have repaid their debts and have turned out profits.
What GOP leaders do not understand is that Democrats are also in favor of cutting spending. The real question, however, is what to cut. Instead of providing tax cuts to the wealthiest 2% of Americans (which they have had since 2003), by cutting spending on education and other programs that provide relief to the middle class, Democrats want to focus on strengthening and educating our workforce, and rebuilding America's roads, bridges and other infrastructure (which contribute to long term job growth). These are essential factors that keep America prospering.
well said. i'll join you in congratulating our President on all these things (especially #4, i am SO PLEASED with elena kagan). i hate to even bring this up because it is almost as convoluted an issue as the economic stimulus package, however; one of the main reasons i voted for this President was because our two wars in the middle east need to end, and he's said some very sensible things regarding that. i'm not trying to downplay all the very important work he has accomplished, but i feel the wars and all that is wrapped up in them (defense spending and the way it affects the economy comes to mind) haven't gotten the attention and leadership they've needed.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Ashwani and E.e. Schleiffer said. Although President Obama should have done more for the 2 wars, he WAS able to end the combat operations in Iraq and bring back about 30,000 troops from Afghanistan.
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