Since the right has been painting Obama as a useless leader that has driven this country into the ground, I thought I would list some of the notable accomplishments of this administration in its first 2 years.
1. Health Care Reform
2. Medicare Expansion
3. Added $4.6 billion to the VA budget for mental health care
4. Increased funding for the Violence Against Women Act
5. Lifted travel restrictions for Cuban Americans to visit family and send remittances
6. Eliminated student load middle men allowing more students access to loans for education
7. Increased national parks funding by 10%
8. Expanded Pell Grants to help low income students pay for college
9. Expanded hate crime law through the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
10. Established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
11. Banking reform
12. Cut Medicare drug costs by 50%
13. Provided $12.2 Billion in new funding for Individuals With Disabilities Education Act
14. Extended benefits to same-sex partners for federal employees
15. The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009: a $789 billion economic stimulus plan
16. Created more private sector jobs in 2010 than during entire Bush years
17. Voluntary disclosure of White House visitors for the first time in US history
18. Promoted social responsibility through creation of serve.gov, a national database of volunteer opportunities
19. Reversed 'global gag rule', allowing US aid to go to organizations regardless of whether they provide abortions
20. Signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, giving the FDA the authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of tobacco for the first time
21. Signed New START Treaty - nuclear arms reduction pact with Russia
22. Increased average fuel economy standards from 27.5mpg to 35.5mpg, starting in 2016
23. Signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, restoring basic protections against pay discrimination for women and other workers
24. Provided travel expenses to families of fallen soldiers to be on hand when the body arrives at Dover AFB
25. Reversed the policy of barring media coverage during the return of fallen soldiers to Dover Air Force Base
26. Launched recovery.gov to track spending from the Recovery Act, providing transparency and allowing the public to report fraud, waste, or abuse
27. Signed the Children's Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, which provides health care to 11 million kids -- 4 million of whom were previously uninsured
28. Issued executive order to repeal Bush era restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research
29. Developed stimulus package, which includes approx. $18 billion for non-defense scientific research and development
30. Issued executive order to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay
31. Ended Bush administration's CIA program of 'enhanced interrogation methods' by requiring that the Army field manual be used as the guide for terrorism interrogations
32. Tax cuts for up to 3.5 million small businesses to help pay for employee health care coverage
33. Tax credits for up to 29 million individuals to help pay for health insurance
There you go - the single most legislatively effective period in American history. More accomplished for more Americans than ever before and the right is still trying to play the same sad song. What will it take for people to wake up and realize that when Democrats are in power, they work to get things done for all of us?
I hope that they take advantage of this lame duck session and push through as much legislation as possible before the right comes into power in the house and stagnates any and all progress.
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