As President Obama gives his farewell address, let's look at some of the things he has done in his eight years:
1) Preserved Medicare and Social Security from Republicans who want to do away with those.
2) Implemented a flawed health care act that has resulted in millions obtaining insurance. It needs tweaking - such as doing away with the individual mandate penalty. But keep the act.
3) Led us out of the worst recession since the Great Depression. Economy is booming, though not perfect. Unemployment is significantly down from 2009. And he has done that while spending at a slower rate than previous presidents, including both Bush’s, Clinton, Reagan and LBJ. See this Cato report.
4) Kept us out of a major war, though there are regional battles.
5) Caught Bin Laden.
6) Answered his critics with skill and grace, despite having no help from Republicans in Congress who blocked most of his moves.
7) To those who say Obama went on vacation too much – he was on vacation less than half the number of days that George W. Bush was. CBS Mark Knoller tracks this: Obama 217 vacation days, W. Bush 533 days, Clinton 174 days, Reagan 390.
8) To those who say Obama did nothing to stem illegal immigration, under his administration almost 3 million illegal immigrants have been deported. That’s almost 1 million more than the number during W. Bush’s eight years.
A survey by the Brookings Institute of presidential scholars - people who actually study the lives of the presidents rather than base their opinions on politics - rated Obama as the 18th best in history among 43 presidents. That’s slightly above average.
Republicans thought that as soon as Obama stepped foot inside the White House he was going to take away their guns and other freedoms, declare martial law, put everyone in FEMA camps, bomb South Carolina, give African-Americans whatever they wanted, and turn the country into a socialist haven.
None of that has happened. Tell me, what rights did you enjoy under Bush that have been taken away by Obama? About the only thing that he took away that Bush didn't was Osama Bin Laden.
1) Preserved Medicare and Social Security from Republicans who want to do away with those.
2) Implemented a flawed health care act that has resulted in millions obtaining insurance. It needs tweaking - such as doing away with the individual mandate penalty. But keep the act.
3) Led us out of the worst recession since the Great Depression. Economy is booming, though not perfect. Unemployment is significantly down from 2009. And he has done that while spending at a slower rate than previous presidents, including both Bush’s, Clinton, Reagan and LBJ. See this Cato report.
4) Kept us out of a major war, though there are regional battles.
5) Caught Bin Laden.
6) Answered his critics with skill and grace, despite having no help from Republicans in Congress who blocked most of his moves.
7) To those who say Obama went on vacation too much – he was on vacation less than half the number of days that George W. Bush was. CBS Mark Knoller tracks this: Obama 217 vacation days, W. Bush 533 days, Clinton 174 days, Reagan 390.
8) To those who say Obama did nothing to stem illegal immigration, under his administration almost 3 million illegal immigrants have been deported. That’s almost 1 million more than the number during W. Bush’s eight years.
A survey by the Brookings Institute of presidential scholars - people who actually study the lives of the presidents rather than base their opinions on politics - rated Obama as the 18th best in history among 43 presidents. That’s slightly above average.
Republicans thought that as soon as Obama stepped foot inside the White House he was going to take away their guns and other freedoms, declare martial law, put everyone in FEMA camps, bomb South Carolina, give African-Americans whatever they wanted, and turn the country into a socialist haven.
None of that has happened. Tell me, what rights did you enjoy under Bush that have been taken away by Obama? About the only thing that he took away that Bush didn't was Osama Bin Laden.
More on Obama’s record is at this FactCheck site, a nonpartisan project of the Annenberg Public
Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. It’s much more objective and
truthful than all the hatred and lies being spread by the right-wing.
Can we change the 22nd Amendment really fast? Four more years, as Trump goes down in impeachment.
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