Here is the list of accomplishments from our current administration. They are working hard for us damn it! Sure there are things we won't be happy with, things that won't get done exactly like we want, but read this list and then tell yourself the "glass IS half full" afterall. We have a long way to go people but hold on and don't turn your backs on the progress at hand, it would be suicide for our party!!
Quick Summary of 2009 Progressive Victories
- Three major health bills (SCHIP, tobacco regulation, and stimulus funds for Medicaid, COBRA subsidies, health information technology and the National Institutes of Health) enacted even before comprehensive reform
- Stimulus contained myriad other individual policy victories, not only preventing a far worse depression but also:
- Delivered key new funds for education
- Expanded state energy conservation programs and new transit programs
- Added new smart grid investments
- Funded high-speed Internet broadband programs
- Extended unemployment insurance for up to 99 weeks for the unemployed and modernizing state UI programs to cover more of the unemployed
- Made large new investments in the safety net, from food stamps (SNAP) to affordable housing to child care
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- Clean cars victory to take gas mileage requirements to 35mpg
- Protection of 2 million acres of land against oil and gas drilling and other development
- Executive orders protecting labor rights, from project labor agreements to protecting rights of contractor employees on federal jobs
- Stopping pay discrimination through Lilly Ledbetter and Equal Pay laws
- Making it easier for airline and railway workers to unionize, while appointing NLRB and other labor officials who will strengthen freedom to form unions
- Reversing Bush ban on funding overseas family planning clinics
- Passing hate crimes protections for gays and lesbians
- Protecting stem cell research research
- Strengthening state authority and restricting federal preemption to protect state consumer, environmental and labor laws
- Financial reforms to protect homeowners and credit card holders
- Bailing out the auto industry and protecting unionized retirees and workers
These are just summeries, if you want to read descriptions about each entry go here
32 comments:
Our Prez is working very hard to get things done. This so called surge he is asking for or whatever you want to call it.. is just what he stated he would do in the campaign. I don't believe it is a promise he felt he had to keep, I think it is something he feels he has to do to keep us safe. That is what he said during his speech the other night.
It is very easy for us to sit here and say he is wrong.. it is easy to arm chair quarterback and state that he shouldn't do this or that.. but remember, we don't have the information he does.
The previous occupants of 1500 PA Ave. took the eye off the ball in AF/Pak and went to Iraq, now this great man is winding it down and trying to bring those troops home.. no one thinks it is fast enough, even though it is faster than the schedule calls for.. everyone wants things done.. NOW... however it just doesn't happen that way.. you can't move people and equipment quite that quickly.
No one, least of all the Prez, wants to send more troops into battle, and if you think he is enjoying that job.. you didn't pay attention to him when he was at Dover, or at Ft. Hood when he was honoring the dead soldiers.. He honored them more than the Shrub or Dickless ever did..
So, don't get angry with him for sending troops to Afghanistan.. think about how it is tearing his heart out to do it.. and remember him in your thoughts as he struggles with his emotions..
Then celebrate what he has accomplished with the help of congress and all of us pushing on him.. and continue to push them all to get more done.. That's what we need to be doing, not screaming about him keeping us safe.
thanks for coming by Annette. I thought about you as I was doing this posting. I'm trying real hard to think positive thoughts, you know how much I admire our president!
What I really love about that list is everything on it pisses off republicans. That's enough reason for me to continue my support of President Obama.
every step we take, every thing we say, every thing we do, pisses off rethugs, YAY!!! LOL
I guess some people are easy to please.
I can only hope I am right and you are wrong RZ, but I still luv ya
LOL; Same here.
I have told you many times that i hope i am wrong. trust me i want to be wrong on this one. Time will tell.If we are all still sitting near a key board 18 months from now i will still be yelling the same thing. STOP THE ENDLESS WARS WITHOUT BORDERS. Please listen to Dylan's tune Masters of War. They have no party affiliation, nor do they have blood in their vanes. Just greed, and evil.
I hate the wars without borders too, you know that. But I want Obama to be the one who can stop them, I can't believe he is Bush in disguise.
SUE; i am not saying he is Shrub in disguise. I guess i have not gotten my point across.
It is not his call. The shadows behind the curtains are making this call. Not he himself.
I'm glad to see all the traffic on this. Was begiimimg to think no one wanted to know. Maybe they aren't all a big-a-deal but I'd like to compare what he's accomplished to what Bush accomplished during the same amount of time. And whether or not it was for the good of the people.
Try the 2nd one re McCain.
Sue, your point about letting the right tear us apart is an important one.
There are a lot of things I don't like about Obama, but keep the political reality in mind.
Look at what the right is actually doing now. They are devising ideological purity tests and purging people who aren't quite ideologically perfect and talking about third-candidate challenges. This is how people lose elections. NY-23 was a microcosm. In a historically-Republican district, the hard-line right backed a third candidate because the Republican wasn't conservative enough -- and the Democrat won.
When we on the left start proposing purity tests, or declaring people "not real liberals" because they have the wrong position one one or two issues, or talking about backing third candidates or forming a third party -- that's when you'll know it's our turn to start losing.
The right may very well back a third Presidential candidate in 2012. If they do, Obama will win in a landslide. But if they don't, and Democrats back a third candidate due to anger over Afghanistan or whatever, then the Republican will win in a landslide.
And in the end, the only thing of any practical importance is who wins, not how. We learned that in 2000-2008.
If you're not impressed with the list of Obama's accomplishments, ask yourself if you're unimpressed enough to want to see a Republican replace him three years from now.
Progressives have been winning in the last year. We just need to keep reminding ourselves and the public of how full the cup is-- and planning to fill it the rest of the way as we win more elections in the future. It's worth remembering that large parts of what we consider the New Deal were not enacted until many years into FDR's Presidency. Social Security and the National Labor Relations Act were enacted only in 1935, three years into his term, while the federal minimum wage was enacted only in 1938, in FDR's sixth year in office. But along the way, progressives won individual victories that continually fed progressive energy for the next fight. That's the challenge now for progressives, to claim existing victories and build on that energy for fights to come.
This paragraph is from the TPM post, I hope you all go there and read, it's really good.
Infidel I wrote about the purging on Nov.5th. They are commiting political suicide, it's gonna be fun to watch!
Anon, do I know you? I've seen your little dots and line around blogland and even at my friends who don't talk politics.
OKay RZ, I see your point. Obama has surrounded himself with Bush regime leftovers and he needs to do some serious house cleaning, right??
Leslie this is from Liberal Values,
If he [Obama] can add the passage of health care reform, his record will probably wind up achieving more than any president other than FDR.
Did you read the explaination from each entry? I think the accomplishments are big!
They never listen.
http://theterroristsadvocate.blogspot.com/
Obama is not losing voters because he's black, he's losing them because he's a socialist. He can do whatever he wants for blacks and it's unlikely to cause him a problem, however it's obvious his priorities are not directed toward better race relations but toward bringing down capitalism and installing some form of fascism/socialism.
It's not his race, it's his policies, his inexperience, his total disrespect for the military, his dislike of America and his disdain from just about everyone not in his little Chicago circle. And it doesn't help that the MSM elevated him to the status of messiah, in their eyes anyway. It's not ALWAYS about race you know.
Frodo, maybe for the very first time, truly feels that a thousand-mile journey has just begun. Already his feet hurt. It will take more than water in plastic bottles to refresh him along the way. He expects that passersby will continue to throw things out of car windows at him, and it will be difficult to keep from flashing them "the bird."
At least Frodo is not alone. None of us are. Somebody has to carry the band-aids for our blisters. Somebody else will check the map to ensure our course. We will stumble, of that Frodo is sure. How fast we travel, depends only on us, and our realization that the journey never truly ends.
Whenever Prez O does something to rattle us lefties, I keep remembering things he said during the campaign which was something like... I won't always do things that will please my base.
I still support my president.
malcontent where in this post or comments does it say anything about race??
I can tell by your talking points you are a Beck fan, NO?? Obama is a president for the people, for ALL the people of this country, not just the black and the poor. AND if the independants are jumping ship its because he's not far enough to the left, NOT TOO far left. Thats what progressives are impatient about too, he sometimes leans too far right and wants to be a pleaser. Well the right certainly never cared about pleasing the left now did they! Don't come here with stupid comments about Obama hating America, thats fuckin insane!!
Frodo you are a wise man! We do have a long journey ahead of us but if we stop listening to the fearmongering and listen to our president we become more hopeful. I refuse to be kicked in the face by the fuckers who want us to believe Obama is a disaster in the making! We will survive if we stay united, we must stay UNITED!! keep walkin Frodo, but put a smile on your face!!
AND I might add malcontent, Obama has more respect for the military then Buch/Cheney and crew had in their tiny little pinkies!! That is about as insane as your love for Sean Hannity!
malconten
President Obama is not a socialist.
The only things Cheney, Bush & Co. cared about was oil and making more money to line their own pockets.
Thanks Sue. I've certainly been a critic of what his administration has done wrong. It's nice to be reminded of what he has done right. Every time I feel angry at him, I think of where we would be if McConJob had won. Then the anger dissipates. No President since Lincoln has inherited such a mess.
I find myself not so angry at obama (what he has, will and does do. I had high hopes for change. It is so obvious that america is stuck in quick-sand. It would not have mattered if Mccain had won, we still would be in the same spot as we are today. when the majority of US are pacified, then all we squabble about is beck and palin. Do we really want change? Or do we really want sunday NFL and great tasting beer? How far are we willing to go as we cry for change?
I hear ya Susan but you have to admit this list of accomplishments would no way be done by McCain, NO WAY. The only thing McCain would be giving us now is another war, Iran. We really need to be patient and supportive and Obama will be the change we voted for, I'm sure of it.
Tom you are right, the inherited mess will take YEARS to fix, another rethug would have been DOOMSDAY for America. Remember guys, Obama is very smart, he knows what he wants, he knows what we want from him also.
I don't have time to read the 26 comments (so far) so I'll just say I am very happy to see this post. BJ
Both the libs and the Islamofascists have an ingrained and indoctrinated belief in being victims of US oppression. They use this "humiliation" of them and other whiny groups to justify any attacks on the Great Satan. Thus, they treat global terrorism as a joke.
The liberal self-loathing and their entitlement style of thinking wherein they are "OWED" and their taking for granted all the prosperity, security, stability, and opportunities of the US, while damning each one of us who disagrees with them, shows them to be the true fascists and the enemy in our midst. To the spineless and apologetic politically correct leftists, America is the problem in the world! This is ironic since WE are the place where millions from around the world are welcomed to the most open, diverse, and hitherto prosperous nation on earth. Yet you liberals will seize any opportunity to curse it and castigate us!
But in the spirit of the Holiday season that is upon us, let me say this to the liberals, who, even though they are misguided, blissfully ignorant, and in love with a socialistic nanny state. We are still all Americans, so have a Happy Holiday, what ever your Holiday may be.
I will speak for myself Kody when I say I don't think terrorism is a joke, but I do think occupying other countries and being the worlds "bully" doesn't help and only fuels the fire. We libs do not believe in entitlement, thats a right-wing myth. We are not self-loathing and we believe in God, Jesus Christ, Christmas, Easter, AND we love America and do not curse it. BUT as we are a crumbling nation indebted to China why is it we MUST call ourselves the GREATEST nation on earth or we are America haters and unpatriotic? Personally I would like to see all the superpowerful nations on this earth to work together to make a better world then one nation in domination of all the others. Which also can lead to the question of why we can have nuclear weapons but other countries can not. Is it because we are humane and trustworthy and will only use such force in a dire situation, unlike uncivilized nations? That does not mean I hate America. Have a blessed Merry Christmas.
Hmm hating America. Obama loves it as much as Rev Wright,Louis Farrakhan,Father Pfleger,Rashid Khalidi.Bill Ayers and of course Michelle Obama an American who is proud of her country. for the first time in her adult life.
Yep they love it so much they want to fundamentally transform it no questions.
And they call anyone who questions it the radicals? Mirror anyone.
lisa your ignorance is showing, BIG TIME!!
Call it what you want Sue. I call it for what it is. I am not in denial.
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