In wake of meltdown, Obama transforms nation
Derek Anderson
Journal Staff
A lot of people have been wondering what President Obama and his administration have been doing for the almost two years he’s been in office. I hear people, both on the right and left, say that he hasn’t done much of anything. Between the media, the Republican Party, and the general public, Obama has been criticized and beaten down. The poor guy just can’t seem to catch a break.
What’s really difficult to understand is why the majority of people feel this way. If anyone actually took the time to look at the facts, they would be blown away by what Obama and his administration have accomplished in less than two years. They would see that most presidents in our past have not come close to the progress that’s been made thus far.
There is this heavy stress on unemployment and all the so-called “broken promises” Obama made throughout his campaign. An anti-Obama ad made by the Republican National Committee calls him “The Deficit of Hope”, throwing out multiple stats regarding unemployment and debt. Even the media has smashed him over and over again, with his depiction on Saturday Night Live stating, “When you look at my record, it’s very clear what I’ve done so far and that is nothing. Nada.” When it comes down to it, however, his accomplishments just aren’t being recognized. Apparently the public needs a little help seeing success.
First off, the man passed Health Care Reform. This is an extraordinary accomplishment and it is a first from any president in the last 60 years. We’ve all witnessed history and it’s all because of Obama and his team.
Then we have the Stimulus Bill, which saved our dying economy, a thing so destroyed and shattered that the future seemed hopeless. Rachel Maddow said in a segment of her show, The Rachel Maddow Show that the Stimulus Bill “…didn’t just throw a lasso around our entire economy and yank it back from the brink, but it also pumped about $100 billion into the crumbling embarrassment of our national infrastructure and transportations system.” The package also included one of the largest investments in renewable and clean energy and science technology.
Everyone seems to be pinning this economic disaster on Obama, but people need to realize that he was handed the reins after the damage was already done. The GOP is arguing that the administration has led America into “$13 trillion dollars in national debt”.
Well, I have a bit of shocking news for you: This is far from Obama’s fault. The man at fault was our president’s predecessor, the lovely George W. Bush. Yes, it was he and his crew who bled this country dry of funds and then left it to die once his reign was over. The Bush Administration threw away our country’s money, and, according to an article from CBS in September of 2008, added an extra $4 trillion dollars to the country’s debt. Thanks, W.
But back to the accomplishments, shall we? Adding to Maddow’s list of Obama’s successes, Obama has expanded state children’s health insurance to cover another 4 million kids, signed a nuclear arms deal with Russia reducing “both countries arsenals by a third,” and has made leaps and bounds in foreign relations. “In a series of foreign trips and speeches… he replaced George W. Bush’s unilateral, moralistic militarism with an approach that is multilateral, pragmatic, and conciliatory,” stated an article in Slate. “Obama has already significantly reoriented policy toward Iran, China, Russia, Iraq, Israel, and the Islamic world.”
There are also countless legislative and policy achievements. The Obama Administration has passed “The Hate Crime Prevention Act” that had sat in Congress for years, got the FDA to regulate tobacco products, passed credit card reform, signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which expands workers rights to sue over wage discrimination, and has eliminated wasteful spending of the government. The Washington Times reported that Obama managed “to get Congress to ax several programs that had bedeviled President George W. Bush for years”.
With all those accomplishments, plus numerous that haven’t even been mentioned, I don’t understand how our president hasn’t accomplished anything. The man is not “The Deficit of Hope”. I would say he is the opposite of that. He takes the criticism of the country and continues to push through it all, fighting for what’s right for America.
CQ Politics reporter Taegan Goddard said, “not since FDR has any president done so much to transform the country.”
I could not agree more.
Alex • Sep 23, 2010 at 9:39 pm
I think for a lot of us the “Rock Star” shine of Obama has worn off… Obamacare is mainnly based on the Mandatory Health Reform that is in Massachusetts. This health reform is bankrupting our state, they are already talking about making cuts to the commonwealth care (that is subsidized care for people who can’t afford it, they are already sending letters to those on this health care letting them know there may be months waiting list to get onto this health ins and then there is months waiting lists to get your first appointment with a doctor, these doctors will not fill your prescriptions before your first visit either). If it doesn’t work on a state level it’s not going to work on a National level.
Something a lot of people forget is during the Presidential Debates, Obama was different from Clinton and Romney the way he was different was because he (Obama) was against mandating Health Ins. That was one major issue as to why some people chose him over other candidates because he openly stated during debates that it was wrong of Romney to mandate health ins on people. Then he (Obama) turned around and did the very thing he said he would never do in his campaign he mandated it, instead of going a smaller route which would have been to start by selling ins across state lines to cause a competitive market which would have lowered the cost of health ins allowing more to buy it.
As for the economy and the stimulus package. Roughly 20% of the population are out of work right now (about 9% of that are people who have exhausted ALL unemployment and still do not have a job). Something that is NOT taught in schools today and something that some people might find interesting was the Depression of the 20’s. President Harding inherited a worse economy with an unemployment rate at 20% he was able to pull our country out of this depression in 18 months he did it by Lowering taxes as well as cutting government in half. Here are a few other things he did:
1) A call for a national budget program (which was vetoed by his predecessor).
2) National debt reduction
3) Tax reduction
4) An emergency tariff to protect American industry and farm commodities.
5) Farm relief legislation (farm bankruptcies were up 20% from 1914).
6) Immigration restrictions to protect American jobs.
Because of these actions Harding not only pulled our country out of a depression the result was the majority of people were able to make more money in turn this is what caused the “Roaring 20’s”…
Many people are angry with Obama for Suing AZ who are overwhelmed with Illegals instead of enforcing the laws that are already on the books. 3 of our past presidents deported mass amounts of illegals when Americans couldn’t get work. Obama wants to give them amnesty. Obama wants to push bills like Cap and Trade on us (that’s a tax on AIR) yet if you support amnesty for illegals you can’t justify passing bills like cap and trade since cap and trade taxes us on our carbon footprint if you really believe in that then you don’t unnecessarily allow millions of people to stay here when they are here illegally if anything you crack down on the amount of people you allow to come here legally never mind illegally. But again that’s if you believe in bills like cap and trade.
What took Bush 8 years to accumulate in Debt took Obama only 2 years to double. The stimulus package…. Is giving people in Africa jobs, that is in no way stimulating OUR economy. There is HUGE waste spending in the stimulus package. Bush wasn’t a prize but neither is Obama. Take a look at our history at what worked and what didn’t work. Lowering taxes, cutting government spending and down sizing the government are what have been proven to work. Raising taxes, growing government and spending uncontrollably have proven to fail and hurt the people more then anything else has. Obama stated in his state of the union address he was going to take the tax breaks away from companies shipping our jobs overseas I have yet to see him even mention that again never mind actually do anything about it.
abbycio • Sep 30, 2010 at 3:56 pm
What an idiot you are. How can you not see the damage from the previous administraion?? How can you not see that if all that money had not been pumped into our economy we would be in an incomprehensible mess? This man saved our economy! Literally kept it from an entire collapse. The Bush tax cuts for the ultra wealthy(which includes himself)did NOTHING for this nation. But it cost us a FORTUNE. The tax cuts need to be aimed at the middle class and poor. It has already been proven that tax cuts for top earners do NOTHING for an economy. It does not create jobs. The wealthiest simply bank that money while the middle class, when given a tax cut, go out and spend it. Go ahead and keep wishing for republican control-they will make sure we become a 3rd world nation.