What Obama Has Done
Since he took office President Obama has faced a bitter headwind from the right wing in this country. They have taken a cut and burn approach to opposition in the Congress. They have attacked everything he says, does, and is.
The right wing media has pushed their policy of saying a lie enough times that people start to believe it to try to make and reinforce a claim that he hasn't done anything as President. Even some Democrats have fallen for the gimmick.
Despite the refusal of the GOP to do anything to help find progress in the Congress in tough times, President Obama and his administration have done quite a lot in his time in office. We are listing just a few. I you want to research this for yourself, we are providing some of the links here for you to do research. You can use some of our information to find more links. A much more comprehensive, detailed, and scholarly list can also be found from Professor Robert P. Watson Here and more on the Obama jobs record can be found Here
President Obama has driven through these accomplishments and much more:
- Saved us from an impending deep depression (On January 19, 2009, the last day of President Bush's presidency, the Dow closed at 8,218.22. In December 9, 2011, the Dow closed at 12,184.26) Do the math.
- Shifting the focus of the war from Iraq to Afghanistan, where terrorism actually had a home
- Ending the war in Iraq
- Making education a national priority (check out here all that has been done for education)
- Won the Nobel Peace Prize (Donated his $1.4 million Nobel Prize to nonprofits)
- Saving from collapse the American automotive industry
- Renewing loan guarantees for Israel
- Instituting the
Cash for clunkers
program to get rid of gas guzzlers and stimulate the - Providing better body armor to the troops
- Authorizing SEALS to kill Somali pirates to release prisoners
- Relaxing Anti-American tensions internationally
- Making sure the environment was a national priority, and source for job creation
- Appointment of first Latina to the Supreme Court
- Ordering the SEALS operation that killed Osama Bin Laden
- Tax write-offs for buying hybrid automobiles
- Renewed relationships and interaction with NATO and other allies and partners
- Beginning the process of reforming, restructuring and modernizing military technology and weapons
- Changing the misguided military command in Afghanistan
- Ending media
blackout
on war casualties - Cleaning up war region practice of awarding no-bid defense contracts
- Ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and clearing the way for gays to serve openly in the military
- Stopping the policy of cutting back the FDA and big companies ignoring FDA rules
- Slowed the deterioration of the influence of the FCC to keep broadcasting abuse in check realizing hundreds of millions in savings by ending the practice of not allowing Medicare to negotiate with drug manufacturers for cheaper drugs.
- Stopping the practice of having White House aides rewriting scientific and environmental rules, regulations, and reports to make them conform to political agendas
- Instituted policy of labeling and regulating carbon dioxide
- Ending previous policy of offering tax benefits to corporations who outsource American jobs; the new policy is to promote in-sourcing to bring jobs back
- Providing additional health centers to care for veterans
- Ended Bush administration policy to torture prisoners to bring us back in compliance with the Geneva Convention
- Creating millions of jobs through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
- Expanding vaccination programs
- Providing VA more than $1 billion to improve services to America’s Veterans and ending
stop-loss
policy that kept soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan longer than their enlistment date - Also provided improvements in educational opportunities for veterans
- Requiring energy producing companies to begin to produce 15% of their energy from renewable sources>/li>
- Establishing a cyber security office
- Closing offshore tax safe havens for corporations
- Providing through Recovery.gov an unprecedented way to provide transparency and accountability in government.
- Expanding the SCHIP Program to health care for millions more children
- Supporting stem-cell and new biomedical research
- Establishment of a national Chief Performance Officer whose job is to save the federal government money by modernizing and making the federal government more efficient
- Improving general benefits for veterans
- Improved housing for military personnel
- Phasing outdated and very expensive weapons systems in favor of more efficient and effective technologies
- Increasing spending on our neglected infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc) as a way of stimulating the economy
- Increasing chances for American youth to participate in the AmeriCorps program Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009 to stimulate the housing market and provide buying assistance to qualifying home buyers
- Established Business.gov - to enable online collaboration between small business owners, government representatives and industry experts
- Increasing pay and benefits for military personnel
- Increasing student loans
- Instituted a new policy on Cuba, allowing Cuban families to return
home
to visit loved ones - Cracking down on companies that deny sick pay, vacation and health insurance, Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance taxes to workers by abusing the employee classification of independent contractor
- Cutting salaries of Senior White House aids to no more than $100,000
- Limiting lobbyists’ access to the White House
- Protecting 300,000 education jobs, such as teachers, principals, librarians, and counselors through the Recovery Act (jobs that would have been lost)
- Limiting of White House aides working for lobbyists after their tenure in the administration