The recovery of the Dow Jones which almost doubled since its lows during the end of the Bush presidency and the start of the Bush recession (Dow gained 30% in one year)
If you are in the investor class this is a good thing. Of course, if you were in the investor class you were having a good time before the crash got a chance to buy VERY LOW and then recovered all your investments. If however you were the employee class and assuming you still have a job you did not see anything nearly as spectacular happen with your income. In addition the costs of various goods and services has eaten into wages and I'm not even discussing the cost of gasoline. Lets not even get into the fact that much of these corporate profits have occurred with a very high unemployment rate particularly for African-Americans.
The GDP contracted as much as 6.8% in the final quarter of the Bush Presidency to within A YEAR we had expanded 5% which is almost a 12% turnaround – the largest turnaround in such a short of a time frame in the history of this country
This is essentially the same argument as above. Again, this GDP growth has come at persistent high unemployment and under-employment (people working jobs they are overqualified for and for salaries that are far below what they commanded pre-crash.
We have created 2 million jobs in the past year with almost a third of those jobs coming from the first quarter of this year alone
I am a follower of Paul Craig Roberts who's reports on job creation often show up in Counterpunch. He has demonstrated over many years that the so called job creation are generally speaking not in manufacturing (which not a few politicians have been caught on record saying they expect to stay gone) but are in relatively low wage areas like services Here's an example from 2008 Here's a nice one on exporting "middle class" jobs from 2005. It's one thing to brag about job creation it is another one entirely to discuss what kind of employment is happening. Also we have to realize that the employment numbers are affected by those who get "dropped" from the records for various "official" statistical reasons. I will not discuss the fact that much of the job creation going on does not even begin to touch the new people coming into the job market.
Through it all TARP funds were almost all returned (have to give President Bush half the credit on this) and will only cost approximately $25 billion
This is an entirely philosophical issue. If you believe that the govt ought to have bailed out these institutions that were "too big to fail" then I suppose this is a good thing. If you are not of such an opinion, then this is not.
He signed the Lily Ledbetter Act for equal pay for women
I thought he was president of everybody not just one group of people....*snicker*
The drastic increase in investments in alternative energy that will finally decrease our dependence on foreign oil
That's kind of a future-cast. We certainly do not know what role this administration's "funding' is going to do about dependency on foreign oil. I'm neutral on this point.
He has issued the toughest ethics requirements for those working in his administration than any other previous President
Ethics are a relative thing. And loopholes are legendary across parties. I'll remain neutral on this one as well.
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell…gone!
Don't care. Doesn't put a dime in my pocket. Besides...Isn't Obama the president of everybody?....*snicker*
He signed into law the State Children’s Health Insurance Program
Not entirely sure what this is (and too lazy at the time of this writing to look it up) but I live in a state that provides health insurance to children so excuse me if I'm not exactly impressed.
I'm going to combine the next two because they are related:
He enacted the largest reform in the history of this country of the student loan program through the Student Aid and Financial Responsibility Act (SAFRA) making college more affordable for those who wish to further their education (Dr. West…I assumed you would have loudly praised this as the banks lost billions of dollars on this legislation because they were previously the middle man in the transaction between the US Government and students….President Obama took them out of the equation. A clear example of you Dr. West highlighting how the banks profit under President Obama but disregarding discussing with as much assertiveness those instances that disprove your argument of his “selling out” to the oligarchs.)
He instituted the largest reform of oversight through the Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act in 2009 which also caused the banks to lose out on billions in revenue (Where was the praise from this Dr. West and Mr. Smiley? He certainly didn’t sell out to the oligarchs with this legislation.)
Lets understand that whatever the banks "lost" by not being able to be middlemen for govt. source student loans, they still make money off the non-govt. loans that many will require simply due to the ever increasing costs of education and the previously discussed stagnation in wages. But even better for the banks is that they no longer are restricted in the amount of interest they can charge on credit lines. Where 22% or so was the highest they could charge, banks are now hitting 30% or more. Remember that around 2001, credit card companies were steady offering 0,1 and 2% interest for their cards. Now, good luck with that. Anyone who thinks banks (or healthcare companies) are getting the proverbial shafts by recent legislation is still high on the kool-aid.
He was able to accomplish the most comprehensive nuclear arms treaty with the Russians making us more safe through smaller amounts of nuclear arms availability (START Treaty ratification)
How many of these treaties have their been? C'mon man this is not really all that special particularly since Russia is not the enemy du-jour.
He has improved America’s image and reputation abroad
Why it's American Idol....Worldwide.
He has started construction on a new high speed rail system
Well there are plans, the one in Florida appears to be off the table. Oh well.
He actually put $4.3 billion into the previously unfunded “No Child Left Behind” legislation to help schools improve their performance
Well NCLB was not loved by many educators (and none that I know personally). On top of that many of us are concerned about Charter Schools and the diversion of funds from already underfunded public schools to these schools. If this $4.3 billion is being used to further this nonsense then no, this is not a good thing.
Don’t forget about the negotiated rescue of the Americans from Somali pirates
Ahh it's always refreshing to see "black" folk join the imperial line now that a black face is in the big house. I pointed out in an earlier post that until Obama gave the OK to kill the Somalis, no one had ever been physically harmed during these piracy events. That was a line that no one appeared willing to cross. Of course, since then there have been more piracy so a lot of good that did. I wont even get into the discussion of the Somali complaints about the dumping going on in their waters. Again if you're doing the "patriot" thing, then I suppose killing a barely clothed "pirate" on a dingy is a positive thing, then this is positive. I do not.
He has made more major terrorist captures in two years than the entire 8 years of the Bush presidency including the most obvious Bin Laden
He has also taken drone warfare to a level unseen under an administration before him (mostly for technical reasons). I won't even begin to discuss the number of civilians who have been killed by these UAVs which had they happened under say "Ghaddafi's watch would be condemned worldwide as crimes. I've shared my concerns about "remote warfare" here: http://garveys-ghost.blogspot.com/2009/04/pw-singer-on-military-robots.html
He SAVED the Detroit automotive industry from collapse through bailouts of Chrysler, GM, and GMAC which have largely been paid back (Don’t many of those in my home town who still have jobs count as assistance to working poor and the working class Dr. West?)
In full agreement here. I have been a long time advocate of this bail out and the savings of millions of manufacturing jobs not only in Detroit but around the country in companies that are either directly are indirectly affected by auto sales. No argument from my on this point.
He poured $18 billion in tax breaks for small businesses into a jobs bill through the HIRE Act to spur hiring and also gave $20 billion for transit and highways programs (Dr. West and Mr. Smiley…I do a lot of work in providing jobs for those in construction and many of these jobs are filled by people who would be considered “working poor”…doesn’t this count?)
In my opinion, small businesses have A LOT going for them already. My long time position in regards to business taxes is that if your ability to stay in business and produce a profit is dependent upon not paying taxes then there is something very wrong with your business.
He extended unemployment insurance again in the middle of one of the most productive lame duck sessions in the history of the country (More money given to the unemployed…aren’t they are part of the impoverished since they don’t have a job? Doesn’t assistance towards them count as help for the underserved? How much more tangible can you get outside of directly giving them a check and putting billions into community colleges and job readiness programs which our President has done?)
I'm one of those who said Obama caved when he allowed the tax cuts for "the wealthy" to be extended. Yes this may have put a hurt on a lot of people dependent upon unemployment benefits and yes, it's easy for me as someone not dependent upon that to make my claim, but I believe Obama was being tested by Republicans and I believed he failed that test. I believe that the last budget threat and the current one is a direct result of that cave in. Remember that Obama campaigned on this issue and by making him roll back on this issue in a very public manner, without even making Republicans make good on filibuster threats was a bad thing. And even though Obama is threatening once again to expire the tax cuts on the wealthy, I'm 70% certain that the Republicans will call his bluff on it by threatening some portion of the population.
Of course it is certainly "amusing" to see someone argue on the one hand about the high DOW and the "millions" of jobs created and then talk about the need for extending unemployment benefits. One could make the argument that they are not mutually exclusive but there are all kinds of arguments that could be made, which of course is the point of being a "critical supporter of president Obama".
Oh and for those wondering about the "snicker" comments I just want to point out that while black folk run around talking about how Obama's not the president of "just" black people but a president for "all America" it sure seems that other groups (two represented in this list) are more than willing to get this president to cater visibly and vocally to their concerns. Expecting a politician to cater to your group! Where they do that at?