To hear some people tell it, President Barack Obama is the worst president in U.S. history who has done absolutely nothing to strengthen the country and much to weaken us.
What kind of cave have these people been living in?
Some of that willful blindness could be changing, however. In just the past five months, Obama’s approval rating has increased by 12 points and has been at 50 percent or higher since March 1.
How could anybody turn such blind eyes and deaf ears to the following accomplishments – and others – that occurred under Obama’s seven-year watch?
- A national calamity was averted after the massive recession-depression that started in 2007 largely caused by Wall Street recklessness. The nation was teetering on the verge of catastrophic financial collapse. Measures proposed by Obama stopped the massive hemorrhage, saving the financial system and rescuing the automobile industry. Banks were required to pay back bail-out money.
- Partly through Obama’s insistence, the Dodd-Frank laws and reforms were passed to rein in the greedy behavior of Wall Street crooks.
- A renewed focus on the imminent dangers of climate change, including a historic climate-change conference in Paris at which just about every country in the world signed onto agreements to do something about over-dependence on fossil fuels and resultant global warming.
- Ended the stupid boycott against Cuba after 50 years of non-communication.
- Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, the rate of the uninsured dropped dramatically to the lowest percentage in American history. Nearly 18 million people now have insurance for the first time in their lives, taking away the terrible anxiety, stress and fear of the unknown they had to endure for so long. (Is it a perfect system? No, but it’s better than nothing, and it’s ready for ongoing improvements. Hopefully, it’s a step to a universal, one-payer system.)
- About 13.7 million jobs were added during a 70-month period. Unemployment is now down to about 5 percent.
- Obama pushed ahead with an agreement with Iran concerning its nuclear program. (Will it work? That’s debatable, but it’s worth a try, as long as Iran is kept to every word of the document, which gives us and the rest of the world some muscle and leverage to pressure Iran.)
- Hundreds of top terrorist leaders, including the vile Osama bin Laden and ISIS goons, have been destroyed under Obama’s watch. Thousands more terrorists and wannabe terrorists, torturers, rapists and plunderers have been killed in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
- A trade deal was signed with 12 countries on the Pacific Rim, with provisions to protect workers and the environment. (Will it work? Maybe, maybe not, but it’s an accomplishment that took hard work and savvy to work out.)
- Under Obama, fuel efficiency standards were doubled.
- Credit card reforms were made, thanks in huge part to Sen. Elizabeth Warren. A Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created.
- The water-boarding torture methods used during the Bush Administration were stopped.
- A new START Treaty with Russia was signed.
- The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act for women workers was passed.
- The Fair Sentencing Act was passed.
- Obama appointed two Supreme Court justices.
- Funding was provided to prevent the layoffs of thousands of jobs for firefighters and police officers in the nation.
- Federal contractors are now required to pay a minimum hourly wage of $10.10 an hour.
- The budget deficit has been reduced by two-thirds in the past seven years.
- A Highway Bill was passed, providing $305 billion for vital projects and creating hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs.
- New initiatives and incentives made possible rapid developments in the “Green Revolution,” making solar, wind and other forms of non-polluting power more inexpensive and more efficient than ever before.
Those are just some of Obama’s achievements. Imagine what he could have accomplished if the U.S. Congress hadn’t been so stuffed with sourpuss obstructionists. To see hundreds more achievements that occurred under Obama’s seven-year watch, go online to pleasecutthecrap.com, and you will see citations backing up every one of the accomplishments.
Of course, many people will view the accomplishments listed above as bad things, terrible things that will weaken the nation. But, not to forget, some of those spoilsport naysayers are the ones who would blame Obama for everything from a tornado outbreak to the lack of a cure for cancer. History will show them just how wrong they are.
