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42+ Democratic Accomplishments You May Not Know About

by rescuetruth on November 1st, 2010

Democrats: Change that Matters (Logo)This is not your father’s Republican Party. We’ve heard the phrase from a variety of people in recent years, yet it has never rung more true. In fact, my father and stepmother, both lifelong Republicans have expressed feelings of discontent and disconnect from the modern Republican Party, largely due to the string of radical Sarah Palin-backed Tea Party candidates.

While, historically speaking, the kind of mood suggested by recent polls derive from a bad economy, this election has no shortage of frights.  Between O’Donnell in Delaware, Sharron Angle in Nevada, and Carl Paladino in New York, among others, Republicans and Democrats alike have something to worry about, and vote against.  All of the labor completed by the 111th Congress is under siege, and their legislative accomplishments, many of which benefit the average family, could be overturned or underfunded.

Our current economic situation, which was created over the course of about a decade of Republican rule, cannot be fixed in 21 months.  Although we have not seen economic instant gratification, we have seen consistent improvement.

From tax cuts to health care reform, Republicans have spread massive amounts of misinformation using Fox, and corporate-funded campaign ads.  Additionally, not enough people know that Democrats have reduced the deficit and federal spending, or that 25 tax cuts were passed just last year.

Below are a few of the accomplishments Obama and the 111th Congress have made:

25 Tax Cuts Passed By Obama & Democrats[3]

Individuals

  1. “Making Work Pay” tax credit
  2. Earned Income Tax Credit increased
  3. Increased Eligibility for Refundable Portion of Child Credit
  4. “American Opportunity” Education Tax Credit
  5. First-time Home Buyer Credit
  6. Temp. Suspension of Taxation of Unemployment Benefits
  7. Tax Credits for Energy-Efficient Improvements to Existing Homes
  8. Sales Tax Deduction for Vehicle Purchases
  9. Premium Credits for COBRA Continuation Coverage for Unemployed Workers
  10. Economic Recovery Credits to Recipients of Social Security, SSI, RR Retirement, and Veterans Disability Compensation Benefits
  11. Computers as Qualified Education Expenses in 529 Education Plans
  12. Plug-in Electric Drive Vehicle Credit
  13. Tax Parity for Transit Benefits
  14. Health Coverage Tax Credit Expansion

Small Business

  1. Extension of Enhanced Small Business Expensing
  2. 5-Year Carryback of Net Operating Losses for Small Businesses
  3. Extension of Bonus Depreciation
  4. Exclusion of 75% of Small Business Capital Gains from Taxes
  5. Temporary Small Business Estimated Tax Payment Relief
  6. Temporary Reduction of S Corporation Built-In Gains Holding Period from 10 Years to 7 Years

Other Business

  1. Advanced Energy Investment Credit
  2. Tax Credits for Alternative Refueling Property
  3. Work Opportunity Tax Credits for Hiring Unemployed Veterans and Disconnected Youth
  4. Delayed Recognition of Certain Cancellation of Debt Income
  5. Election to Accelerate Recognition of Historic AMT/R&D Credits

Fun Fact: 1/3 of the $862 billion stimulus was for tax cuts, something Republicans claim to support … although they still stand against stimulus.  I suppose it depends on who gets the tax cuts.

Women’s Rights

  • Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
    • Protection against pay discrimination
    • Restores interpretation of Title VII of Civil Rights Act that protected women and other workers

Financial Rights

  • Credit CARD Act
    • Prevents retroactive rate increases
    • Requires companies to provide 45 days notice before changing rates and other contract provisions
    • Additional restrictions placed on fees
    • Prevents companies from taking advantage of students
    • Ends unfair double-cycle billing practices
  • Financial reform bill
    • Establishes Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which seeks solely to ensure financial institutions are being fair to consumers, and improvement in the simplicity in contracts
    • Prevents taxpayer bail out of financial institutions
    • Allows the GAO to audit the Federal Reserve
    • Various mortgage and derivatives reform, etc.

Education

  • Student loans[1]
    • Ends “socialistic” federal subsidies to banks and other financial institutions (Interestingly, Republicans are okay with the kind of socialism that redirects taxpayer money to banks and other financial institutions.)
    • Eliminates unnecessary “middle-man” in student loan process, which placed financial burden on taxpayers while banks took in profits
    • Annual student loan payment capped at 10% of income
    • Saves an estimated $61 billion over 10 years

Health Care

  • Children’s health insurance bill[2]
    • CBO said bill will allow states to cover more than four million uninsured children by 2013, in addition to seven million already covered
    • Requires states to provide dental and mental illness coverage to children
  • Tobacco regulation
    • Provides graphic warnings on tobacco use risks
    • Restricts advertising to prevent marketing to minors
  • Health care reform
    • Insurers cannot cancel coverage when a person gets sick
    • Requires health insurance corporations to cover preexisting conditions
    • Eliminates lifetime limits
    • Allows insurance purchase across state lines
    • Allows young adults to stay on parents’ health insurance policy until 26

Crime & Civil Rights

  • Hate crime legislation[4]
    • Provides protection for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people
  • Tribal Law and Order Act

Other

  • The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act
    • Expands service and voluteer opportunites
    • Benefits education, health care, energy, etc.
  • Stimulus
    • Cash for Clunkers successfully contributed to 680,000+ vehicle sales in summer 2009
    • Largest clean energy investment ever made
  • Reduced deficit by $122 billion[5]
  • Reduced federal spending by 2%[5]

What didn’t get passed because of Republican obstructionism?

  • Health Care for 9/11 Emergency Responders
  • DISCLOSE Act (transparency in elections, specifically campaign financing)
  • Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal
  • Removal of $75 million cap on oil spill payouts
  • Elimination of tax incentives for companies shipping American jobs overseas, and creation of tax incentives to businesses bringing jobs home

Sources
[1] ABC News. Obama Highlights Student Loan Reforms Within the Health Care Bill
[2] Obama Signs Children’s Health Insurance Bill
[3] PolitiFact. Axelrod claims Democrats passed 25 tax cuts last year without the help of Republicans
[4] CNN. Obama signs hate crimes bill into law
[5] Raw Story. Democrats shrank US spending, deficit in last fiscal year, figures show

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From → Politics

  • http://www.MusicByDay.com Anonymous

    If the news would report the facts of all of the good things Obama and the admin have done instead of just going on and on about all of the complete BS that the Tea Party idiots spread… well – the polls would look quite a bit different.

  • LICKEM

    None of which helps the people who have good paying jobs in the media…so they didn’t report it.

  • Joestrosser

    Some small good things O has done, but most of what you list is transfer of wealth. Devil is in the details. O has proposed $1.1 trillion in tax increases over 10 years in his 2011 budget. HC raids Medicare of $500 billion that is double counted by the OMB. They, not me, said so. 70% of employees will lose their company provided HC plans resulting in a tax increase of app. 15k per family. And so on, just don’t have time.

  • http://twitter.com/rescuetruth Chris Strosser

    A transfer of wealth? That’s a very misleading claim, if not outright false. The TAX (singular) you refer to, the $1.1 trillion dollars, is solely a result of letting the Bush tax cuts expire.

    We are talking about letting taxes go back to Clinton years, not the tax rates of the 40s and 50s, or even the 60s/70s for that matter. We are talking about an increase from 33% to 36%, and 35% to 39.6%. The other four tax brackets remain the same for the most part, although one of the lower brackets would be widened under Obama’s plan, easing some burden on suffering middle-class families.

    Both the CBO and Joint Committee on Taxation have concluded that tax cuts financed with money from China, or any other source for that matter, are detrimental to the economy, not stimulative. Based on current budget estimates, the Bush tax cuts will comprise 55% of the deficit in 2019. You can’t be a deficit hawk, and exclude the Bush tax cuts. You can’t have it both ways.

    I find it sad that people in your arena ignore the growing problem of economic inequality. When Reagan took office in 1980, the wealthiest 1% of Americans received roughly 9% of total income. By 2007, we saw this number increase to 23.5%, which is almost as high as what we saw right before the Great Depression. Simply extending the tax cuts is not an intelligent decision, and is downright dangerous.

    As for health care, Obama and Democrats made what I feel was a bold and necessary decision. Let’s not forget that 54% of Americans voted Obama into office with health care reform as one of the top issues. Additionally, if you look at polls, you’ll find that the majority of Americans actually support the health care provisions individually with the exception of the mandate; however, the right-wing media has demonized the bill to the point that voters don’t even understand it. There’s something to be said when Americans want preexisting conditions and preventative measures covered, health plan exchanges, to allow young adults up to age 26 to stay on their parents’ plan, etc. According to the CBO, health care reform will reduce the deficit by $130 billion over the first 10 years.

    No accomplishment listed in this article was a small feat by any stretch of the imagination. In my opinion, student loan reform was one of the biggest accomplishments, and something that directly affects me as I return to school.

    Student loan reform also reduced deficit, and eliminated something Republicans claim to be against – “socialistic” subsidies. Although all of the money for the student loan program was supplied by tax payers, banks were taking in the profit, while we took the risk. When Obama and Democrats brought this bill up, Republicans fought against it…they fought against reducing the deficit, freeing up more money for students, and eliminating bank/lender subsidies. Education should be first and foremost in the minds of Americans, and to our detriment, I’m afraid many don’t hold that same value.

    When the system is rigged against the American people, it doesn’t matter who is in office. At the very least, we put a small dent in that system. In the end, we will not have a healthy economy or lasting prosperity until the issue of economic inequality is dealt with.

  • Joestrosser

    Ok, some base points that you either don’t understand or out right disagree with.

    Premise:Transfer of wealth = taking money from one group and giving it to another. Agree?

    So even if I was, which I wasn’t, talking about the Bush tax cuts expiring, you have to cede the point if you agree with the premise. Taxes are a redistribution of wealth, period. If you can’t cede that point then academic discussion is pointless.

    Credit card/financial laws. Ugh. The unintended consequences are screwing the “on time, not late” payers because their fees are rising dramatically. Those who pay late, are over drawn, delinquent, rue the day and get great deals. WTF, this is the opposite of what encourages good lending/borrowing.

    Love the mortgage breaks. Know many families that did the right thing and sold their second car, cancelled the ballet lessons or autism classes to make tha mortgage payment. Know an unbelievable number of families that said screw this and kept the second car, got the kids guitar,piano lessons but let the mortgage go. Guess what? The ones who made the sacrifice got screwed and the ones that screwed us got rewarded and got loan modifications. This is O at his best. I have to go. It would take me a lifetime to show you the flaws in this Congress and Presidents accomplishments(only Chaves sees them as accomplishments). I pray the house stops every penney this admin tries to spend in the next 2 years not related to national defense or emergent priorities.

  • http://twitter.com/rescuetruth Chris Strosser

    Can’t argue w/ emotion, anecdote, and flat out speculation, so like Lawrence O’Donnell always says, “You get the last word.”

  • Joestrosser

    Please respond to these three basic truths. Do you believe the following statements to be accurate and truthful. Please stay on point.

    Feb, 2009 O said we need to pass the stimulus to get the $169 billion in Shovel ready projects.
    October 2010 O says “There’s no such thing as a shovel ready project.”

    O has been saying that everyone will get to keep their current Healthcare plan.
    CBO(your gold standard) now says up to 70% of Americans will lose or have to change their employer coverage.

    O, using fear mongoring, looked Americans straight in the eye and said if you don’t pass the Stimulus plan unemployment could reach 8%.
    Unemployment is 9.6% and will only get worse.

  • Joestrosser

    Uhm, anecdotel evidence like this? Chris says “While historically speaking the kind of results suggested by polls derive from having a bad economy, this election has no shortage of frights. Between O’Donnell in Delaware, Sharron Angle in Nevada, Carl Paladino in New York, among others.”

    That’s like saying Democrats are kooks and using Kucinich, Grayson, Maxine Waters and other frights!

    FYI – The election was mosly about Obama’s policies. Most Americans still blame GWB for the economy, but can’t stand the government taking everything over.

    Also, the Federal government taking over the student loan process is pure socialism not the other way around so you have that backwards. Also, they will now force universities to comply with their “group think” or students applying their won’t be eligible for government money. All why actually taking a higher percentage of profit than the banks did. It’s a lose lose unless you believe in group conformity and totalitarian thinking.

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  • marge

    and these are not the democrats of yesteryear..

  • marge

    O proposed a $1.1 trillion tax increase? Amazing since we now $14 trillion in debt since he came aboard.  wake up people. Don’t buy the brainwashing. Your smarter than that..

        You can’t argue facts…

    After two years of Obama … Here’s your change! January 2009 TODAY % chg Source Avg.. Retail price/gallon gas in U.S. $1.83 $3.44 84% 1 Crude oil, European Brent (barrel) $43.48 $99.02 127.7% 2 Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel) $38.74 $91.38 135.9% 2 Gold: London (per troy oz.) $853.25 $1,369.50 60.5% 2 Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL $3.56 $6.33 78.1% 2 Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL $9.66 $13.75 42.3% 2 Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. $13.37 $35.39 164.7% 2 Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall 7.6% 9.4% 23.7% 3 Unemployment rate, blacks 12.6% 15.8% 25.4% 3 Number of unemployed 11,616,000 14,485,000 24.7% 3 Number of fed. Employees 2,779,000 2,840,000 2.2% 3 Real median household income $50,112 $49,777 -0.7% 4 Number of food stamp recipients 31,983,716 43,200,878 35.1% 5 Number of unemployment benefit recipients 7,526,598 9,193,838 22.2% 6 Number of long-term unemployed 2,600,000 6,400,000 146.2% 3 Poverty rate, individuals 13.2% 14.3% 8.3% 4 People in poverty in U.S. 39,800,000 43,600,000 9.5% 4 U.S. Rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings 5 9 n/a 10 Present Situation Index 29.9 23.5 -21.4% 11 Failed banks 140 164 17.1% 12 U.S. Dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate 89.76 82.03 -8.6% 2 U.S. Money supply, M1, in billions 1,575.1 1,865.7 18.4% 13 U.S. Money supply, M2, in billions 8,310.9 8,852.3 6.5% 13 National debt, in trillions $10.627 $14.052 32.2% 14 Just take this last item: In the last two years we have accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as during the rest of our entire nation’s history.Over 27 times as fast. Metaphorically speaking, if you are driving in the right lane doing 65 MPH and a car rockets past you in the left lane 27 times faster, it would be doing 7,555 MPH! Sources:(1) U.S. Energy Information Administration; (2) Wall Street Journal; (3) Bureau of Labor Statistics; (4) Census Bureau; (5) USDA; (6) U.S. Dept. Of Labor; (7) FHFA; (8) Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller; (9) RealtyTrac; (10) Heritage Foundation and WSJ; (11) The Conference Board; (12) FDIC; (13) Federal Reserve; (14) U.S. Treasury THE PRESIDENCYSOME WILL APPRECIATE THIS AND SOME WILL NOT. HOWEVER, ALL OF IT IS TRUE. So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can’t think of anything? Don’t worry. He’s done all this in 24 months — so you’ll have one year and ten months to come up with an answer. Every statement in this email is factual and directly attributable to Barrack Hussein Obama. Every bumble is a matter of record and completely verifiable. EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS… I WONDER HOW MANY WILL FORWARD THIS ?
     
    You can’t argue facts…

    After two years of Obama … Here’s your change! January 2009 TODAY % chg Source Avg.. Retail price/gallon gas in U.S. $1.83 $3.44 84% 1 Crude oil, European Brent (barrel) $43.48 $99.02 127.7% 2 Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel) $38.74 $91.38 135.9% 2 Gold: London (per troy oz.) $853.25 $1,369.50 60.5% 2 Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL $3.56 $6.33 78.1% 2 Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL $9.66 $13.75 42.3% 2 Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. $13.37 $35.39 164.7% 2 Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall 7.6% 9.4% 23.7% 3 Unemployment rate, blacks 12.6% 15.8% 25.4% 3 Number of unemployed 11,616,000 14,485,000 24.7% 3 Number of fed. Employees 2,779,000 2,840,000 2.2% 3 Real median household income $50,112 $49,777 -0.7% 4 Number of food stamp recipients 31,983,716 43,200,878 35.1% 5 Number of unemployment benefit recipients 7,526,598 9,193,838 22.2% 6 Number of long-term unemployed 2,600,000 6,400,000 146.2% 3 Poverty rate, individuals 13.2% 14.3% 8.3% 4 People in poverty in U.S. 39,800,000 43,600,000 9.5% 4 U.S. Rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings 5 9 n/a 10 Present Situation Index 29.9 23.5 -21.4% 11 Failed banks 140 164 17.1% 12 U.S. Dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate 89.76 82.03 -8.6% 2 U.S. Money supply, M1, in billions 1,575.1 1,865.7 18.4% 13 U.S. Money supply, M2, in billions 8,310.9 8,852.3 6.5% 13 National debt, in trillions $10.627 $14.052 32.2% 14 Just take this last item: In the last two years we have accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as during the rest of our entire nation’s history.Over 27 times as fast. Metaphorically speaking, if you are driving in the right lane doing 65 MPH and a car rockets past you in the left lane 27 times faster, it would be doing 7,555 MPH! Sources:(1) U.S. Energy Information Administration; (2) Wall Street Journal; (3) Bureau of Labor Statistics; (4) Census Bureau; (5) USDA; (6) U.S. Dept. Of Labor; (7) FHFA; (8) Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller; (9) RealtyTrac; (10) Heritage Foundation and WSJ; (11) The Conference Board; (12) FDIC; (13) Federal Reserve; (14) U.S. Treasury THE PRESIDENCYSOME WILL APPRECIATE THIS AND SOME WILL NOT. HOWEVER, ALL OF IT IS TRUE. So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can’t think of anything? Don’t worry. He’s done all this in 24 months — so you’ll have one year and ten months to come up with an answer. Every statement in this email is factual and directly attributable to Barrack Hussein Obama. Every bumble is a matter of record and completely verifiable. EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS… I WONDER HOW MANY WILL FORWARD THIS ?
              
            

     For God and Country 

               
     
       
      
     

          

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  • Mazzour2002

    f them bastards..

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  • Common Sense

    I would like to see the Democrates cut the military at least in half for now we pay twice what the whole rest of the world combined on military. what are we afraid of with such unlimited power and military bases throughout the world? Shouldn’t we do what’s good for American and not police the rest of world with our hypocritical policies of making money over human rights?
    I am sick and tired of war rackets and waste which only makes us enemies faster than we can kill them!!!

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  • calvin Henderson

    I would like to see in my life time (i am 57) all forms of lobbying out lawed as well as the unlimited amounts of money allowed for political campaigning from corporations and from the filthy rich Actually from anyone). This allows a select few to buy into and control what’s suppose to be (which it is not) a democratic system.  Lets move on to a progressive/logical form of limiting money into our political system.

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