Republicans may not have done anything to create jobs but they have done such a good job at tearing down President Barack Obama, blaming him for the “weak” recovery that they so zealously ensured, and creating a myth that Obama has not done anything, I had failed to realize all that Obama has accomplished in this first term.
But sitting in the Democratic National Convention Hall in Charlotte, it all came flooding back – a record that if George W. Bush had had it, or George H.W. Bush or any of the Republicans, they would have trumpeted from the rooftops and declared their leader a savior.
Here’s just a sampling:
Health Care Reform. The Affordable Care Act, the Obamacare that Republicans deride so much – is the greatest thing to happen to America since Medicare in 1965, impacting every single American. For the first time in American history, health care is a right, not a privilege; 32 million more Americans have access to health care; it ended insurance company abuses such as denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions, cancelling coverage when someone gets sick, ending lifetime caps on coverage, enables young people to stay on their parents’ plans until 26; and shifts focus from expensive care to less expensive prevention with free wellness exams, vaccinations, screenings like mammograms.
Medicare is strengthened and the viability extended by eight years by eliminating $716 billion in overpayments to private insurers and hospitals; ended the Prescription D “donut hole,” for 2.6 million seniors, saving an average of $550 each; and (little acknowledged), the administration has gone after Medicare cheats, recovering billions of dollars for taxpayers.
Women’s Rights: preserving right to choose and make decisions for her reproductive health, eliminating the ability of insurance companies to make being a woman a “pre-existing condition” in order to deny coverage or charge more; giving women the opportunity to sue when they have been cheated out of pay equity (the Lilly Ledbetter Act).
Saving the American automobile industry, which saved 1.2 million jobs and what is more, after nearly collapsing, the U.S. auto industry is back leading in production and has added nearly 160,000 jobs — the fastest pace of job growth in the industry since 1998
“When things hung in the balance, the president understood it was about a lot more than the automobile industry,” Vice President Joe Biden said “It was about restoring America’s pride. He knew what it would mean to leave 1 million people without hope or work if we didn’t act. He knew the message it would have sent to the rest of the world if the United States of America gave up on the industry that helped put America on the map.”
Doubling the fuel efficiency standards so that cars will get 55 m.p.g. That means that Americans will pay half the amount they would have paid on gasoline, while going a long way to reducing carbon emissions and reducing America’s dependency on foreign oil, and at the same time making cars more competitive and increasing demand for new American-manufactured cars.
Rebuilding American manufacturing – through incentivizing returning manufacturing to the U.S. (Republicans block eliminating tax credits that go to corporations that outsource and off-shore jobs). As a result, American manufacturers have added 334,000 jobs in the past two years, growing for the first time since the 1990s.
Jobs Creation – 4.5 million private sector jobs created after losing 8 million jobs due to the Bush Recession; 30 consecutive months of private-sector jobs growth. There would have been 2 million more jobs created if Obama would have gotten his American Jobs Act passed and if Republicans hadn’t brought the government to near collapse in 2011, and had passed the Transportation Bill in a timely way and created the Infrastructure Bank. Then, the unemployment rate, rather than hover above 8 percent (which would have gone well above 10 percent without Obama’s actions), a rate at which no incumbent has ever won re-election, it would have been around 6 percent.
Energy Policy: Thanks in part to the Obama Administration’s investment in clean energy – the largest in American history – the U.S. has nearly doubled renewable energy generation from wind, solar, and geothermal sources since 2008. Last year, the U.S. reclaimed the title as the world’s leading investor in clean energy technologies, besting countries like China, India, and Germany. U.S. wind power capacity has reached 50,000 MW, enough electricity to power 13 million homes annually. Obama’s Better Buildings Challenge incentivized local communities to retrofit buildings for greater efficiency, conserving energy, reducing carbon emissions and creating job opportunities.
Domestic oil and natural gas production has increased every year President Obama has been in office. In 2011, American oil production reached the highest level in nearly a decade and natural gas production reached an all-time high. In addition, in response to the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama Administration has launched the most aggressive and comprehensive reforms to offshore oil and gas regulation and oversight in U.S. history to ensure that our nation can safely and responsibly expand development of offshore energy resources. The administration is also taking steps to ensure we can safely develop our vast supplies of domestic natural gas.
Increasing American Energy Independence: Since President Obama took office, America’s dependence on foreign oil has decreased every year. In 2010, the United States imported less than half of all oil consumed – a first in 13 years. In fact, net imports as a share of total consumption declined from 57 percent in 2008 to 45 percent in 2011 – the lowest level in 16 years. In the last year alone, net oil imports were cut by 10 percent – a million barrels per day.
Killing Osama bin Laden. When George W. Bush had said “I just don’t think much about him” and Romney had said it was not worth “moving heaven and earth” to get him, Obama had made bringing bin Laden to justice a priority. As Biden said, “Barack understood that the search for bin Laden was about a lot more than taking a monstrous leader off the battlefield. It was about righting an unspeakable wrong, healing a nearly unbearable wound in America’s heart. He also knew the message we had to send to terrorists around the world – if you attack innocent Americans, we will follow you to the ends of the earth. Most of all, the president had faith in our special forces–the finest warriors the world has ever known.”
Veterans – the expanded GI Bill; jobs training, counseling, mentoring and database programs to help veterans get civilian jobs and ease transition to civilian life, connect with private businesses for jobs, getting private companies to commit to hire veterans and expedited licensing to transition from military to civilian roles. Michelle Obama and Jill Biden have made it their personal campaign to work on behalf of veterans and military families.
Financial Reform: Passing Dodd-Frank Financial Reform to protect from unfair lending practices, rein in excesses, establishing rules so that credit card companies can’t unilaterally raise interest rates. Established the Consumer Financial Protection Board, to give ordinary investors and consumers someone to fight for them (already had Capital One refund millions of dollars in payment).
College Affordability: Obama lowered the cost of student loans by removing for-profit banks from student loans and reinvesting that money in Pell Grants, doubling the amount available; kept interest rates at 3 percent; created a repayment program on student loans that is tied to income; forged partnerships between community colleges and private companies so colleges offer programs that train for available jobs; created a voluntary Know Before You Owe program so parents/students can comparison shop the cost of a college education, challenging colleges to keep tuition increases low (which have been running three times the CPI);
Education: Race to the Top Education reform – trying to fix (when Congress refuses) No Child Left Behind, which would have every school in America a failing school by 2014 (and can’t be doing such a great job if 12 years after passage, Republicans are still complaining public schools stink and taxpayers should pay for private and parochial schools and for-profit charter schools). Instead, Obama incentivized states to come up with programs to achieve the objectives of accountability and improvement; 46 states have received waivers from NCLB.
Immigration Reform: When Republicans obstructed passage of the Dream Act (which Pelosi’s House had passed), Obama came up with an innovative way to give Dreamers, young people brought here as children, a way to stay and work, go to the military and study, without fear of deportation. Meanwhile, much to the chagrin of progressives, he has stepped up deportations to record levels and fortified the border, so that the number of people coming in illegally into the US is down considerably.
Expanding Equality: Ending Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (“because who you love shouldn’t keep you from serving the country you love); standing up for the right to marry, and ending prosecution of DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act).
Small Businesses – 18 tax cuts; contracting changes and sped up the time in which small businesses get paid from government; HIRE Act; tax credits for health care coverage.
Ended the War in Iraq responsibly and honorably, as promised, and is winding down the war in Afghanistan, as promised. And while he proposes to continue to increase defense spending (unless the Republicans force the Sequester to kick in which would cut $500 billion), he plans to use the “peace dividend” to invest in nation building at home.
Foreign Policy – Obama has managed to restore America’s reputation and leadership in the world; supported the Arab Spring, forged a coalition to assist in the toppling of Qaddafi and freeing Libya without a losing a single American soldier;
Nuclear Arms Reduction Treaty: Let’s not forget that Obama negotiated a Nuclear Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia early in 2010, only to have Senate Republicans hold it up until the 2010 Lame Duck session; Obama has worked to contain loose nukes when Republicans could care less.
Israel – To strengthen Israel’s qualitative military advantage, Obama has increased security assistance to Israel to record levels– more than any other president, said Robert Wexler, a former Democratic Congressman who is now President of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace.
“He has stood up for Israel In the international community. When the anti-Israel goldstone report was released, questioning Israel’s right to self-defense, President Obama challenged it. When the U.N. held the Israel-bashing Durban conference, President Obama led an international boycott of it. When a violent Egyptian mob stormed the Israeli embassy In Cairo, it was President Obama who intervened to ensure the safety of the Israelis trapped inside.”
Preventing Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions: Obama has pledged to mobilize all instruments of U.S. power – economic, diplomatic, Intelligence, and military – to prevent, not contain, a nuclear Iran, Wexler said. He has already reportedly mobilized a cyber offensive against Iran’s nuclear program.
“Due to the president’s strong leadership, Iran is more isolated than ever,” said Wexler. “He has marshaled the international community to impose the most crippling sanctions in history. Iran’s oil exports have plummeted and its currency value has been slashed in half.
Tax cuts for 160 million Americans have brought tax rates to the lowest levels in generations; small businesses received 18 separate tax cuts.
Rescuing towns and states ravaged by natural and manmade disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes, wild fires, floods and the BP/Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf – managing to contain the spread and have the spill cleaned up by BP, not taxpayers. And let’s not forget that the swine flu could have been a tragedy of epic proportions, but the Obama administration, just months into tenure, put into place a public health operation so that the threat passed with minimal consequence.
Cutting Government Waste, Fraud and Abuse: Obama instituted a “Campaign to Cut Waste” to hunt down and eliminate misspent tax dollars in every agency and department across the federal government. Already, the administration has identified $3 billion in information technology cost reductions, is shutting down hundreds of duplicative data centers, and getting rid of excess federal real estate.
For the first time in 13 years, the federal government decreased contract spending. In 2010, contract spending was $80 billion less than it would have been, had it continued to grow at the same rate as it did under the Bush Administration.
Federal agencies are using the latest technology to combat fraud and slash erroneous payments and have made significant strides, tripling the amount of improper payments to contractors recaptured last year.
As a result, growth in government spending is at the lowest rate since Eisenhower was in office.
What is significant is that all of these achievements were more than a simple matter of saying “yes” or “no” based on priorities and values. These are all required complex solutions, innovative collaborations between agencies, layers of government, private and nonprofit entities.
They required a completely different way at looking at a problem, without being shackled by ideology. This is most apparent in the solution Obama formed for Health Care Reform.
And contrary to the image painted by Republicans, that Obama is tyrannical, he has actually left much of the innovation up to the states.
If your state doesn’t like Obamacare, well come up with your own plan that achieves the same goal of full access to health care. Don’t like No Child Left Behind? Well, come up with your own solutions and you’ll get a waiver; Clinton-Era Workfare Requirements which you crowed so much about not working for you? Well come up with an innovation that gets even more welfare recipients working and we’ll give you a waiver.
You know what, it isn’t an issue of Big Government or Small Government – any party that believes that government has the right to make a woman’s choice in whether or not to have a baby, is by definition Big (Brother) Government.
It’s a question of smart government. A government that is doing what it is supposed to do, efficiently – and that is insuring the common welfare of the people. Because government is supposed to be the people.
This is only a partial list, but It’s also a remarkable list of accomplishments – probably the most expansive since Franklin Delano Roosevelt – and FDR had a Democratic Congress and merely had to contend with a Great Depression, not a war, in his first term.
