What A COLOSSAL IMBECILE.

Health Care Reform: After five presidents over a century failed to create universal health insurance, Obama signed the Affordable Care Act in 2010. It covered 32 million uninsured Americans and mandated a suite of experimental measures to cut health care cost growth— the number one cause of America’s long-term fiscal problems.

He passed the Stimulus package in 2009 to spur economic growth amid the greatest recession since the Great Depression. Twelve months later the private sector had begun producing more jobs than it was losing, and it has continued to do so for twenty-three straight months, creating a total of nearly 3.7 million new private-sector jobs.

He signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010) to re-regulate the financial sector after its practices caused the Great Recession. It tightens capital requirements on large banks and other financial institutions, requires derivatives to be sold on clearinghouses and exchanges, mandates that large banks provide “living wills” to avoid chaotic bankruptcies, limits their ability to trade with customers’ money for their own profit, and creates the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to crack down on abusive lending products and companies.

Though you say we “got more wars,” Obama ended the War in Iraq: He ordered all our forces out, and the last troops left on December 18, 2011.

He also began a draw-down of the War in Afghanistan. He eliminated Osama bin laden.

He turned Around the U.S. Auto Industry. Since bottoming out in 2009, the auto industry has added more than 100,000 jobs. In 2011, the Big Three automakers all gained market share for the first time in two decades.

He repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and formalized new policy allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military for the first time.

He toppled Moammar Gaddafi. Gaddafi’s forty-two-year rule ended when the dictator was overthrown and killed by rebels on October 20, 2011. No American lives were lost.

He publicly called out Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to accept reform or step down, thus weakening the dictator’s position and putting America on the right side of the Arab Spring. Mubarak’s thirty-year rule ended when he was overthrown.

He reversed Bush and Cheney’s Torture Policies two days after taking office— nullifying rulings that had allowed detainees in U.S. custody to undergo certain “enhanced” interrogation techniques considered inhumane under the Geneva Conventions.

He improved America’s image abroad with new policies, diplomacy, and rhetoric, reversed a sharp decline in world opinion toward the U.S. Favorable opinion toward the U.S. rose in ten of fifteen countries surveyed by the Pew Global Attitudes Project.

He kicked Banks Out of Federal Student Loan Program, Expanded Pell Grant Spending.

He created Race to the Top, a $4.35 billion program of competitive grants to encourage and reward states for education reform.

He released new fuel efficiency standards in 2011 that will nearly double the fuel economy for cars and trucks by 2025.

He passed Mini Stimuli to help families hurt by the recession and spur the economy as stimulus spending declined, to extend unemployment insurance and cut payroll taxes.

He increased support for Veterans, increasing the 2010 Department of Veterans Affairs budget by 16 percent and 2011 budget by 10 percent; he also signed a new GI bill offering $78 billion in tuition assistance over a decade, and provided multiple tax credits to encourage businesses to hire veterans.

He tightened Sanctions on Iran: In effort to deter Iran’s nuclear program, signed Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act (2010) to punish firms and individuals who aid Iran’s petroleum sector. In late 2011 and early 2012, coordinated with other major Western powers to impose sanctions aimed at Iran’s banks and with Japan, South Korea, and China to shift their oil purchases away from Iran.

He created conditions to begin closing the dirtiest power plants: (Estimated health benefits: $59 billion to $140 billion. Will also significantly reduce carbon emissions.”)

He passed Credit Card Reforms: Signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act (2009), which prohibits credit card companies from raising rates without advance notification, mandates a grace period on interest rate increases, and strictly limits overdraft and other fees.

He signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009, giving women who are paid less than men for the same work the right to sue their employers after they find out about the discrimination, even if that discrimination happened years ago.

He nominated and obtained confirmation for Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, the first Hispanic and third woman to serve, and Elena Kagan, the fourth woman to serve.

In 2011 he signed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, which boosts the Food and Drug Administration’s budget by $1.4 billion and expands its regulatory responsibilities to include increasing number of food inspections, issuing direct food recalls, and reviewing the current food safety practices of countries importing products into America.

He achieved a new START Treaty with Russia (2010) and won ratification in Congress (2011), that limits each country to 1,550 strategic warheads (down from 2,200) and 700 launchers (down from more than 1,400), and reestablished and strengthened a monitoring and transparency program that had lapsed in 2009, through which each country can monitor the other.

He expanded National Service: Signed the Serve America Act which authorized a tripling of the size of AmeriCorps. Program grew 13 percent to 85,000 members across the country by 2012.

He expanded Wilderness and Watershed Protection by signing the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act, which designated more than 2 million acres as wilderness, created thousands of miles of recreational and historic trails, and protected more than 1,000 miles of our rivers.

He gave the FDA Power to Regulate Tobacco by signing the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (2009) long resisted by the tobacco industry. The law mandates that tobacco manufacturers disclose all ingredients, obtain FDA approval for new tobacco products, and expand the size and prominence of cigarette warning labels, and bans the sale of misleadingly labeled “light” cigarette brands and tobacco sponsorship of entertainment events.

He passed Fair Sentencing Act: Signed 2010 legislation that reduces sentencing disparity between crack versus powder cocaine possession from100 to1 to 18 to1.

He trimmed and reoriented our Missile Defense: by cutting the Reagan-era “Star Wars” missile defense budget, saving $1.4 billion in 2010, and canceled plans to station antiballistic missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic in favor of sea-based defense plan focused on Iran and North Korea.

He began Post-Post-9/11 Military Build-down: After winning agreement from congressional Republicans and Democrats in summer 2011 budget deal to reduce projected defense spending by $450 billion, proposed new DoD budget this year with cuts of that size and a new national defense strategy that would shrink ground forces from 570,000 to 490,000 over the next ten years while increasing programs in intelligence gathering and cyberwarfare.

He let the Space Shuttle die— the expensive ($1 billion per launch), badly designed, dangerous shuttle program to make its final launch on July 8, 2011.
He axed a planned moon mission: Cut off funding for even more bloated and problem-plagued Bush-era Constellation program to build moon base in favor of support for private-sector low-earth orbit ventures, research on new rocket technologies for long-distance manned flight missions, and unmanned space exploration, including the largest interplanetary rover ever launched, which will investigate Mars’s potential to support life.

He invested heavily in Renewable Technology: As part of the 2009 stimulus, invested $90 billion, more than any previous administration, in research on smart grids, energy efficiency, electric cars, renewable electricity generation, cleaner coal, and biofuels.

Crafted Next-Generation School Tests: Devoted $330 million in stimulus money to pay two consortia of states and universities to create competing versions of new K-12 student performance tests based on latest psychometric research. New tests could transform the learning environment in vast majority of public school classrooms beginning in 2014.

He cracked Down on Bad For-Profit Colleges: In an effort to fight predatory practices of some for-profit colleges.

He improved School Nutrition: In coordination with Michelle Obama, signed Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010 mandating $4.5 billion spending boost and higher nutritional and health standards for school lunches.

He expanded Hate Crimes Protections: Signed Hate Crimes Prevention Act (2009), which expands existing hate crime protections to include crimes based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender, or disability, in addition to race, color, religion, or national origin.

He brokered an agreement for Speedy Compensation to Victims of Gulf Oil Spill: Though lacking statutory power to compel British Petroleum to act, used the moral authority of his office to convince BP to agree to a $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Created Recovery.gov: Web site run by independent board of inspectors general looking for fraud and abuse in stimulus spending, provides public with detailed information on every contract funded by $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Thanks partly to this transparency, board has uncovered very little fraud, and Web site has become national model: “The stimulus has done more to promote transparency at almost all levels of government than any piece of legislation in recent memory,” reports Governing magazine.

He pushed Broadband Coverage away from landlines and toward broadband Internet for lower-income rural families. He proposed and obtained approval for a shift of $8 billion in subsidies.

He expanded Health Coverage for Children: He signed the 2009 Children’s Health Insurance Authorization Act, which allows the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to cover health care for 4 million more children, paid for by a tax increase on tobacco products.

In 2009, his EPA declared carbon dioxide a pollutant, allowing the agency to regulate its production.

He expanded Stem Cell Research: eliminated the Bush-era restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, which shows promise in treating spinal injuries, and many other areas.

He ended any further purchases of Lockheed Martin’s single-seat, twin-engine, F-22 fighter boondoggle, which cost $358 million apiece— a plane that has never flown a single combat mission. Eliminating it saved $4 billion.

He also served longer than any president in decades without a scandal, as measured by the appearance of the word “scandal” (or lack thereof) on the front page of the Washington Post; not fictitious crap generated by Fox News or other fake media.

I could go on Mel, but I think you’ll agree you missed some stuff. I also hope you’ll be paying more attention to reality, now that you think we’re at an “amazing time.” Good luck.

(Thanks to Paul Glastris, Ryan Cooper, and Siyu Hu for originally compiling these points.)

We got more wars, more graft, more bankster cronyism, more criminal policital mafias

From where I sit, we are at an amazing time! best planet ever!

Were has it gone in the entire 4.5 million years except into the every better, always changing future.

I’m not afraid.

Its a wondrous time to be alive.