In November 2012, we will again elect a new President and that has left me wondering:
What has President Obama done for us during the past three years?
My Republican friends say he has just been playing golf but the record does not support this rhetoric. In fact, the Democrat-controlled 111th US Congress was one of the most productive in modern American history.
In that short period of time:
President Obama tackled Wall Street reform which politicians have been trying to do for 60 years. He pushed for and signed the Affordable Care Act into law. He signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which saved our economy from the brink of destruction and pumped 100 billion into the national infrastructure. It contained billions for science and tech research including renewable energy.
President Obama funded an experimental energy research agency Bush created, which like Bush’s Medicare Part D prescription drug plan, he never actually paid for. This President gave a giant investment to NASA and the National Science Foundation. He expanded state health insurance for children and signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay act. He negotiated and signed a nuclear arms deal with Russia to reduce both countries arsenals by a third and pushed for a global nonproliferation treaty. This President ordered the incursions that led to thedeath of Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki. He’s also dismantled al Qaeda and partnered with NATO to put Ghadaffi into the history books. President Obama has accomplished more in foreign policy in 3 years than Bush did in 8 without starting any wars.
What else? The Hate Crimes Protection Act that’s been stuck in Congress for years? Passed. Food and Drug regulation of Big Tobacco? Passed. And now, following the Deepwater Horizon disaster, he’s reworking the MMS and increasing oversight of our energy policy. President Obama pushed an overhaul of the Student Loan program and cancelled the F22 program which was irrelevant to both wars we’re fighting. He’s ended “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” stopped defending DOMA and will probably get to energy reform before his first term is up. And now he’s removing US troops from Iraq and accelerating a troop drawdown in Afghanistan.
This Administration has accomplished all of this despite relentless partisan bickering so severe it led to a downgrade in our credit rating (thank you Tea Party,) and despite inheriting an economy so damaged by Bush that it was on the verge of collapse. Whether you agree with him or not, President Obama has shown us that when he isn’t dealing with Republicans who have “making the President fail” as their primary goal he can deliver many of his campaign promises.
In 2012 the American people have a difficult decision to make, but they have a right to know what this President has done. And President Obama has done quite a bit.