Points per number of US Presidents shines light on Accomplishments

Taken from a list compiled by Colleen Connell but revised by me, omitting any personal comments/opinions and just focusing on the list of actual facts:

Barack Hussein Obama, the 43rd president of the United States of America, accomplished the following in his FIRST term: 

1. He passed Health Care reform which allows people who have pre-existing conditions to not be denied health care insurance, does not allow them to continue to charge more if you are a woman or if you have a pre-existing condition, does not allow them to deny children who were born with disabilities, does not allow them to kick people off their insurance when that become catastrophically ill (which they have done to a lot of people with cancer), allows kids to remain on their parents insurance while in college and getting on their feet afterward. The 32 million Americans currently going without insurance will now be covered and able to afford insurance for themselves and their families, which will lower costs, since there will be no more need to use hospital emergency rooms for free and those costs will no longer impact the rest of us.

2. Signed the Stimulus Act, which did not completely recover us, but did stop us from slipping into a deeper recession. It stabilized unemployment rates and did help to create nearly 4 million private-sector jobs.

3. Passed Wall-Street reform and Consumer Protection Act, tightening regulations on the banking system so that the abuse that led to the banking failure of 2008 will not happen again. The faulty loss of Chase-Morgan in the last few months was an example of why we need this.  
4. Ended the war in Iraq.

5. Began the withdrawal of troops in the war in Afghanistan.

6. Killed Osama Bin Laden.

7. Saved the auto industry. The GM bailout was mostly a loan that had to be paid back. If they had failed, thousands would have been added to the unemployment rolls, food stamps and welfare rolls. It would have collapsed the U.S. economy. Instead, since the bailout, GM recovered, paid the money back and added over 100,000 jobs. 

8. Recapitalized the banks by approving a plan to lure private capital into the largest banks. It got the banks back on their feet and cost us nothing.

9. Repealed “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”

10. Got rid of Qaddafi.

11. Publicly called on Mubarak, the Egyptian President, to resign, which weakened his position and ultimately ended his 30 year rule. 

12. Ended Bush’s policies of torture to detainees in Guantanamo.

13. Improved our image around the world. He is STILL considered the best choice for us now by other countries who hated us or were angry with us during the Bush years.

14. Kicked banks out of the Federal Student Loan Program saving us 67 billion per year of which 36 billion of that goes toward expanding Pell grants. 

15. Created Race to the Top grants to encourage education reform in the individual states.

16. Boosted fuel efficiency standards.

17. Increased support for Veterans by increasing their budget to help veterans get medical care when they return home as well as offering tuition assistance and tax credits to businesses who hire veterans. 

18. Tightened sanctions on Iran.

19. Passed new EPA restrictions on mercury and toxic pollution, mostly coming from the dirtiest and oldest coal-fired power plants.

20. Passed credit card reform preventing them from raising interest rates without adequate notice to the consumer and provides strict restrictions on fees.

21. Signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act for women.

22. Nominated two women to serve on the Supreme Court, which, on approval/appointment, helped to balance the court system with more women’s voices.

23. The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act increasing food inspections, food recalls, and reviewing food safety practices of foods that are imported.

24. The START Treaty with Russia limiting warheads, launchers and establishing a cooperative monitoring system between countries. 

25. Expanded AmeriCorps.  

26. Expanded wilderness and watershed protection.

27. Gave the FDA the power to regulate tobacco.

28. Made federal agencies soften environmental impacts by boosting green energy.

29. Trimmed missile defense.

30. Reduced defense spending by shrinking ground forces, while increasing lower cost intelligence gathering and cyber warfare.

31. Cut the dangerous shuttle program and killed the moon mission's exorbitant expense to allow for less expensive but needed research on unmanned exploration, such as the one on Mars now.

32. Invested in renewable energy.

33. Created new school tests based on the latest research rather than continuing with the ones currently being used.

34. Cracked down on bad “for profit” colleges, cutting off funding if they are using predatory practices with students and their loans.

35. Improving school nutrition, doubling fruits and vegetables and whole grain foods for student lunches.  

36. Expanded hate crimes protections.

37. Gave compensation to those who suffered in the Gulf oil spill. He has no authority to compel BP to do anything, but he did all he could to help those affected by their loss of business during the event.

38. Created Recovery.gov, a web site run by inspectors looking for fraud and abuse from the stimulus. Because of this transparency, very little fraud occurred. The least fraud from any government program in memory.

39. Expanding the CHIP program to cover children’s health insurance needs for those who did not have coverage.

40. Expanded stem cell research.

41. Helped South Sudan declare independence.

42. Killed the F-22 aircraft, saving 4 billion dollars.

43. The first president in decades without a single scandal attached to him.

44. With YOUR vote, he will be the 44th President of the United States of America!

Thank you and whatever your decision...Get Out To Vote on Tuesday, Nov. 6!