Contrary to the Lies propagated by Donald Trump and Republican Leaders, history will hold Barack Obama as one of the Great American Presidents.
He started at the height of a great economic recession.
In 8 years
Over 10 million new jobs added,
Unemployment rate below 5%, down from 9%,
Most U.S. troops pulled out of fighting war zones,
20 million more people have Health Insurance, number of un-insured dropped below 9% (lowest ever),
Annual budget Deficit cut by nearly 1 Trillion dollars,
Corporate after tax profits increased by 144% .
President Obama has been accused of not providing good leadership. This writer considers that, particularly in his first term, he tried too hard to be conciliatory with the opposition. This effort was futile, because the Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell repeated many times on TV, "We will never agree to anything Obama proposes." . From the very beginning he should have pushed much harder to get his programs enacted by Congress.
Both presidents Reagan and Johnson were very clever at forcing Congress to enact legislation they desired.
Nevertheless, he was a great leader in many other areas, as shown below.
This legislation which has enabled 20 million previously uninsured citizens to obtain insurance coverage is President Obama's most significant accomplishment. Agreed that there are problems resulting from compromises made in order to obtain passage through Congress, but those problems could be fixed by later amendments.
The President's greatest achievement is the taking out of Bin Laden. The decision to send the Special Forces into Pakistan was a bold one fraught with danger, many of his advisors counseled against it. Fortunately the skilled Seals, with careful planning, were successful.
A major campaign promise had been to withdraw troops out of the war zones where too many American lives had been lost. Events delayed carrying out these commitments. But once local governments appeared to be stable and local forces trained, most U.S. forces were returned home, leaving only small special contingents for training and liaison.
Barack Obama has been accused of being too cautious. In fact his stated objective was to avoid doing something stupid, that would engage America in another major armed conflict, with no clear successful exit. He also wanted to improve America's standing in the world, damaged by the Iraq war disaster. He achieved both of these objectives.
His major successes (all criticized by Republicans) were:
President Obama planned major construction jobs to upgrade the deteriorating national infrastructure and to provide hundreds of thousands of new well paying jobs. Congress, with a Republican majority after the 2010 mid-term elections, refused to provide funds in the budget. Now president-elect Trump is making the same promises - will Congress suddenly find the funds available?
President Obama promised major reform of policy towards immigration and resolving the question of close to 12 million illegals. Congress refused to cooperate. By executive order, in 2012, he established "Deferred Action for Chilhood Arrivals". This enabled 650,000 small children, who had come with their parents, to receive documentation for 2 years, allowing them to legally attend school.
Actually 2.5 million illegal immigrants have been deported by Obama, more than by any other president, half of them detained shortly after crossing the border.
In the final weeks of his presidency, by executive order he cancelled the preferential treatment for Cubans entering the U.S.A. without visas.
Detailed documentation to support above statements may be found at the following links:
Statistical facts - October 2016.
Review of Obama's foreign policy succeses and failures - Huffington Post, December 2016.
Center for Arms Control - who supports Iran Nuclear Agreement.
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Last page revision:
Jan. 14, 2017
