What has Obama Done For Me Lately?

By Dave

I wanted to spend some time on this because a lot of people mistakenly believe that little has been accomplished in the last year.

Remember how bad things were this time last year? It was awful! The economy was in a tailspin. The banking sector was on the verge of collapse. Massive job loss and foreclosure. Health care costs were strangling our nation. The deficit was growing unchecked. The government didn't care or didn't believe in climate change. World opinion of America was abysmal. We were engaged in two failed wars. We were torturing people for bogus information. Remember all this? Then Obama became president.

What has he done? Well, he:

• Passed a $800b Stimulus Bill that:
• Invested in infrastructure like roads and bridges
• Invested in green, renewable technology
• Invested in new High Speed Rail corridors
  
• Invested in an electric smart grid, weatherizing homes, and alternative energy
  
• Computerized medical records
• Helped cities and states to close gaps in their budgets to maintain services
• Gave $237 Billion in tax cuts for small businesses, college students, and 95% of working families
• Billions for Pell Grants, Headstart, increased teacher salaries and to prevent school layoffs
  
• Expanded Job training programs, unemployment insurance, and food stamp programs
  
• Put people to back work and helped pull our economy back from the brink
  
• Repaired America's damaged image in the world
• Engaged the Muslim world
• Banned the use of torture, including waterboarding, and restricted interrogation to the Army Field manual
  
• Expanded SCHIP to include an additional 4 million children
• Passed new regulation preventing credit card companies from ripping people off
• Proposed new laws in place to protect consumers from mortgage fraud and predatory lending.
• Passed national service legislation which boosted funding for volunteers and for AmeriCorp members
  
• Passed stronger hate crimes law
  
• Reformed defense spending to cut out waste like the F-22
• Had more spending cuts than Bush
• Changed strategy in Afghanistan and increased the number of troops fighting the war
• Withdrew some troops and set a timetable for further withdrawal in Iraq.
  
• Proposed financial regulatory reform.
• Is on the verge of real health care reform. This reform will:
• Prevent insurers from refusing coverage for preexisting conditions for children or from dropping coverage when people get sick and need it the most. 
• No restrictive annual limits or lifetime limits
• Insurers will be required to offer free preventive care like checkups, routine tests and mammogram
• Lower costs for most people
• Insure an additional 30 Million people
  
• Bring down the deficit by $100 Billion in the first 10 years and by a trillion in the second ten years.
• That's not going to appeal to seniors who are now seeing the possibility of that doughnut hole finally closing and so they can finally get discounts on their prescriptions. 
• Tax credits for employers who provide coverage to their employees
  
• Allow kids to stay on their parents plan until they are 26 

Quibble with what you'd like on the list. Not all of it is perfect and there is plenty of room for more work.  But the fact of the matter is this is not a do-nothing congress or a do-nothing president. They have done more good in one year than Bush did in eight and they did it without the help of the Republicans. In fact, they did all of it despite the fierce opposition of Republicans.

Updated: The Guardian has a pretty good timeline of Obama's first year in office. It's worth checking out.