Posted on 10/19/2014 1:38:05 PM PDT by ModernDayCato
Despite the president's low approval ratings, and the continuing cacophony of hate directed toward him by Republicans and racists, any reasonable assessment of Barack Obama's accomplishments to date would conclude that his presidency could well go down as a time of historic achievement.
The Affordable Care Act, the Lilly Ledbetter Act, the Dodd-Frank Financial Regulation Bill -- the largest since the New Deal -- and his economic policies bolstered by yeoman's work of the Federal Reserve, place Obama solidly in the company of presidents like FDR and LBJ.
Despite widespread Republican disinformation about and unrelenting opposition to the Affordable Care Act, it clearly is a success -- and where it is not succeeding as well as it might, it is just as clearly the fault of the right-wing rather than the law itself.
About 2.1 million Americans have gained health insurance by signing up on state and federal exchanges. Another 4.4 million have obtained Medicaid coverage.
And under the provision that allows parents to cover their children up to the age of 26, another 3.1 million persons receive health coverage, totaling more than 9 million newly insured Americans through the Affordable Care Act.
And the recently released annual report from the actuaries at the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services showed that for the fourth year running the amount of growth in annual health care expenditures is significantly declining.
In 2012, health care spending totaled $2.79 trillion, up just 3.7 percent over the previous year.
By comparison, before the recent recession, we were averaging annual increases in health care spending more than 7 percent during the calendar years 2000 to 2008.
The current numbers represent the slowest rate of growth since the government began tracking the data in 1960.
But in a fit of ideological madness, a study by the Robert Wood Johnson foundation and the Urban Institute showed that 24 states that have refused to expand their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act are depriving their citizens of $423 billion through 2022, as well as depriving nearly 8 million citizens of health care coverage.
Under the law, the federal government picks up all the costs of Medicaid expansion through the first three years, and then its share gradually drops to 90 percent. Not only could those billions be put to use in their respective states for education, infrastructure improvement, and other state needs, but it is estimated that the absence of health care coverage among many low-income residents will result in as many as 717,000 preventable deaths each year in the holdout states.
The right-wing majority on the United States Supreme Court, and one of its several wrongheaded decisions in recent years, allowed states to opt out of the Affordable Care Act's requirement to expand Medicaid.
Several Republican governors were wise enough to understand the financial and human advantages to their states of opting into the Medicaid expansion -- Jan Brewer of Arizona, Rick Snyder in Michigan, John Casey in Ohio, Susana Martinez in New Mexico, Bill Haslam in Tennessee, and Terry Branstad in Iowa. None has been hurt politically despite anger expressed by right-wing ideological purists in their states.
Under Obama's stewardship and the 2009 passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, there has been a net gain of 5 million new jobs, more than in the administrations George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush combined.
Obama's American Jobs Act, which continues to be undermined by anti-Obama Republicans, would increase employment by roughly another 2 million jobs according to numerous economists, including Republican Mark Zandi.
The Obama stimulus program, a payroll tax cut in 2010, emergency unemployment benefits, and targeted tax credits, along with the Federal Reserve's efforts to resuscitate the financial sector, helped jumpstart the economy and avert a depression as well as helping to create jobs for millions.
The president's extraordinary record will long outlast vicious partisan and racist attacks on his administration. Only now, as he is seemingly softening on his mantra of "don't do stupid stuff" in foreign affairs, is he in danger of besmirching his brilliant achievements by allowing himself to be goaded into another war.
Despite the brutality of ISIS and other extreme jihadist groups, they present no existential threat to the United States.
Obama should back off and push those nations like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and others in the Middle East that are directly threatened by these dangerous groups to stand up and defend themselves with reasonable assistance from the United States, but with no further involvement of American troops.
Looks like a lesbian.
I happened to be in Danbury, last week, for a funeral. The most dyed in the wool blues were disgusted with the Obamanation.
P.S. My Dad used to call this newspaper the “News Crimes”, even though my brother and I stayed off of his allowance dole, by delivering 35+ copies, a week ;)
Just....WOW
“continuing cacophony of hate directed toward him by Republicans and racists”
This guy Leshar wrote a book about Alabama’s gov. George Wallace.
Democrat.
If Obamacare is so great, then why is much of it coming into full implementation AFTER the November elections? Can you say “Employer Mandate?” It was deviously conceived, deviously voted upon, rewritten by a Chief Justice and demanded bribery to even become law. Geez.
Is this what that call blowing smoke . . . I won’t even go there! These gay blade pundits will so anything to promote their allies; especially if they perceive they are one of them.
And we haven’t forgotten that the Democrats rammed it through on Christmas Eve, 2010.
Clinton and Obama are always claiming mulligans on muffed shots.
We want one here, on the inaptly named `Affordable Care and Patient Privacy’ act, which isn’t affordable or protective of our privacy.
Leftism is a religion. It Is True because It Is Written. It Is Written because It Is True. No counterarguments will be heard, heretic!
Delusional!
0bama may well turn out to be more destructive to the U.S. than both of them combined.
The government is their god
The ends justify the means
Gotta breaks some eggs to make an omelet
It's for the common good
You must hate sick people
You're a racist
I'm sure that I missed some things.
Please...someone from this clown-author’s family up his meds. He is an embarrassment to him self, his family and to logic. What a clown. What a worthless waste of space. I do hope he is involuntarily committed for he is dangerous to others’ sanity in his current state.
governor john casey in ohio?
Laz... Or he is smokin’ dem dere funny cigs. :-)
I truly believe he some medical mental issues. I would like to find out what medications he takes.
Ebola = O’Bola
The libtards know this will be his legacy.
wow total disconnect !
so... an act that was designed to insure the 30 million un-insured is a success because it signed up 2.1 million?
(and did he forget the 8 million who lost their coverage?)
And a half billion dollar website that still does not work right?
I had to check (several times) if this was satire and OMG ITS NOT~!!!
” -————refused to expand their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act are depriving their citizens of $423 billion through 2022-—”
And saving the working people $423 billion.
Seems like a great deal to me.
.
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