PRESIDENT OBAMA'S TOP 50 ACCOMPLISHMENTS

I admit to being quite annoyed, in 2009, that it took so long for President Obama to completely give up on bipartisanship and move like he had limited time to get things done.

In fact, I was livid that he didn't get Obamacare done with THE PUBLIC OPTION as part of it -- which he could have done had he moved faster when Ted Kennedy was still alive -- or not.

Little did I know, until I watched the problematic "DIVIDED STATES OF AMERICA" on PBS that, YES, republicans did their best to scuttle any sort of healthcare plan and failed to contribute any positive ideas. But it was a democrat, Joe Lieberman that actually demanded THE PUBLIC OPTION be removed.  It was Lieberman that made sure there would be no competition created between THE PUBLIC OPTION and lock-step-walking Health Insurance Corporations.  This democrat made sure that health insurance prices are high for all of us including those who desperately need the financial assistance of Obamacare.

But, I never blamed him for not being able to get gun control passed. 

Who would have guessed that the white majority would let a vocal white minority given a racist megaphone through people like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and the brainless rest of them stop sweeping gun control changes after two dozen white children were killed in Sandy Hook? According to "The Divided States Of America" he had republican votes for gun control -- but then Beck, Limbaugh, and Hannity and the gang scared the  5 republican votes needed away from the bill.  

Just five votes 

However I can't say the same thing about the stimulus package that stopped us from sliding into the depression.  

According to "THE DIVIDED STATES OF AMERICA" 5.1 billion jobs were lost at the end of Bush Jr.'s presidency.  The new president had to get the economy back on track. That meant President Obama could not take the TIME to fix the crooked system. He had to repair the crooked system as it was.  Creating a new foundation for a wholesome(?) new financial system  --which is what's required to truly fix "too big to fail"-- probably would have meant leaving people out of work for a longer period of time, letting more banks and financial institutions collapse, letting the foreclosures roll on. Letting the economy keep sliding down hill for a while.   Maybe that would have been better in the long run. But I doubt I'd have had the guts to experiment with a new financial system right after 5.1 billion jobs were lost and houses were being foreclosed on left, right, and center. 

However, I don't understand was why there weren't ANY conditions put on getting the bail out. The banksters should have been made to use some percentage of our federal tax dollar bail money for debt forgiveness for the public. The banks should have been made to eat some losses over time, something they could easily absorb so the economy and stockmarket stayed on track.  BUT,  Barack Obama was new to the job of president. And maybe I'm underestimating how shocky the market and economy would have been with any demand for making banks and their investors take the hit ---- even spread out over time.   

Besides, the economy tanking wasn't the only thing going on at the time. There were people to stop torturing at Guantanamo, two wars to stop, a terrorist who killed nearly 3000 of us. President Obama had to have inherited one of the worst messes since George Washington. And we're all still here. 

President Obama hung in there and kept hope alive. And he kept the U.S. from going into a depression. That's major all by itself. 

And I believe, no matter what happens next, some sort of healthcare will have to be made available to every American.  I knew Obamacare 1.0 was going to have to go to Obamacare 1.1, Obamacare 1.2, and Obamacare 2.0 once things settled down -- because the health insurance companies really are making money hand over fist without the some sort of COMPETITION coming from something like THE PUBLIC OPTION. But if they kill Obamacare and bring in Trumpcare and it's better, that's fine. But Obamacare is the vehicle that made sure Americans have access to healthcare. We cannot go back to nothing. President Obama made that happen.

And I think Trumpcare will probably be a version of Obamacare. Trump will just lie and say it's a brand new thing rather than Obamacare 1.1. That's okay too. Eventually we will make sure the record is set straight. 

OBAMA'S TOP 50 ACCOMPLISHMENTS

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.

http://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/marchapril-2012/obamas-top-50-accomplishments/