When President Obama entered office in 2009, the U.S. economy was in the midst of the worst recession since the 1930s. Jobs were being lost at a rate of 800,000 a month. The president proposed, and the Democratic-controlled Congress passed, legislation to prevent our country from entering a full-scale depression.

As a result of the president’s policies, massive job losses were replaced by a steady stream of job creation. Starting in early 2010, there have been 71 consecutive months of private sector job growth, the longest sustained period of private sector job growth on record.

The president and the Congress passed legislation (Dodd-Frank) that created significant barriers to a repeat of the “too big to fail” debacle that led to the economic meltdown. More needs to be done, but this legislation was a very important step in the right direction.

Another important accomplishment of the Obama presidency was the passage of the Affordable Care Act. As a result of this legislation, millions of previously-uninsured Americans now have health insurance, and many more will be added in the coming years. In addition, this legislation mandated that no one can be denied insurance because of a “pre-existing condition,” insurance policies can’t be cancelled when an individual comes down with a serious (and expensive) illness, women can’t be charged higher premiums than men, children can stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26, and seniors will increasingly gain relief from the dreaded Medicare Part D “donut hole”.

When President Obama took office, our country was actively fighting two wars, in Afghanistan and Iraq. The toll that those wars took was enormous — thousands of deaths and injuries to our young men and women in uniform and the expenditure of trillions of dollars.

The President promised to wind down our participation in those wars, and he has done so. Now, instead of the United States being an active combatant in Afghanistan and Iraq, we are supporting those countries’ forces as they wage war against terrorists.

These are just a few of the many accomplishments of the Obama presidency. In order to preserve and build on these accomplishments, we need to elect a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress this November.

 

Larry Feldman

Lakeside