1. Passed Health Care Reform: After five
presidents over a century failed to create universal health insurance, signed
the Affordable Care Act (2010). It will cover 32 million uninsured Americans
beginning in 2014 and mandates a suite of experimental measures to cut health
care cost growth, the number one cause of America’s long-term fiscal
problems.
2. Passed the Stimulus: Signed $787 billion
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009 to spur economic growth amid
greatest recession since the Great Depression. Weeks after stimulus went into
effect, unemployment claims began to subside. Twelve months later, the private
sector began producing more jobs than it was losing, and it has continued to do
so for twenty-three straight months, creating a total of nearly 3.7 million new
private-sector jobs.
3. Passed Wall Street Reform: Signed the
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010) to re-regulate
the financial sector after its practices caused the Great Recession. The new law
tightens capital requirements on large banks and other financial institutions,
requires derivatives to be sold on clearinghouses and exchanges, mandates that
large banks provide “living wills” to avoid chaotic bankruptcies, limits their
ability to trade with customers’ money for their own profit, and creates the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (now headed by Richard Cordray) to crack
down on abusive lending products and companies.
4. Ended the War in Iraq: Ordered all U.S.
military forces out of the country. Last troops left on December 18, 2011.
5. Began Drawdown of War in Afghanistan: From a
peak of 101,000 troops in June 2011, U.S. forces are now down to 91,000, with
23,000 slated to leave by the end of summer 2012. According to Secretary of
Defense Leon Panetta, the combat mission there will be over by next year.
6. Eliminated Osama bin laden: In 2011, ordered
special forces raid of secret compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in which the
terrorist leader was killed and a trove of al-Qaeda documents was
discovered.
7. Turned Around U.S. Auto Industry: In 2009,
injected $62 billion in federal money (on top of $13.4 billion in loans from the
Bush administration) into ailing GM and Chrysler in return for equity stakes and
agreements for massive restructuring. Since bottoming out in 2009, the auto
industry has added more than 100,000 jobs. In 2011, the Big Three automakers all
gained market share for the first time in two decades. The government expects to
lose $16 billion of its investment, less if the price of the GM stock it still
owns increases.
8. Recapitalized Banks: In the midst of
financial crisis, approved controversial Treasury Department plan to lure
private capital into the country’s largest banks via “stress tests” of their
balance sheets and a public-private fund to buy their “toxic” assets. Got banks
back on their feet at essentially zero cost to the government.
9. Repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”: Ended
1990s-era restriction and formalized new policy allowing gays and lesbians to
serve openly in the military for the first time.
10. Toppled Moammar Gaddafi: In March 2011,
joined a coalition of European and Arab governments in military action,
including air power and naval blockade, against Gaddafi regime to defend Libyan
civilians and support rebel troops. Gaddafi’s forty-two-year rule ended when the
dictator was overthrown and killed by rebels on October 20, 2011. No American
lives were lost.
11. Told Mubarak to Go: On February 1, 2011,
publicly called on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to accept reform or step
down, thus weakening the dictator’s position and putting America on the right
side of the Arab Spring. Mubarak ended thirty-year rule when overthrown on
February 11.
12. Reversed Bush Torture Policies: Two days
after taking office, nullified Bush-era rulings that had allowed detainees in
U.S. custody to undergo certain “enhanced” interrogation techniques considered
inhumane under the Geneva Conventions. Also released the secret Bush legal
rulings supporting the use of these techniques.
13. Improved America’s Image Abroad: With new
policies, diplomacy, and rhetoric, reversed a sharp decline in world opinion
toward the U.S. (and the corresponding loss of “soft power”) during the Bush
years. From 2008 to 2011, favorable opinion toward the United States rose in ten
of fifteen countries surveyed by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, with an
average increase of 26 percent.
14. Kicked Banks Out of Federal Student Loan
Program, Expanded Pell Grant Spending: As part of the 2010 health care reform
bill, signed measure ending the wasteful decades-old practice of subsidizing
banks to provide college loans. Starting July 2010 all students began getting
their federal student loans directly from the federal government. Treasury will
save $67 billion over ten years, $36 billion of which will go to expanding Pell
Grants to lower-income students.
15. Created Race to the Top: With funds from
stimulus, started $4.35 billion program of competitive grants to encourage and
reward states for education reform.
16. Boosted Fuel Efficiency Standards: Released
new fuel efficiency standards in 2011 that will nearly double the fuel economy
for cars and trucks by 2025.
17. Coordinated International Response to
Financial Crisis: To keep world economy out of recession in 2009 and 2010,
helped secure from G-20 nations more than $500 billion for the IMF to provide
lines of credit and other support to emerging market countries, which kept them
liquid and avoided crises with their currencies.
18. Passed Mini Stimuli: To help families hurt
by the recession and spur the economy as stimulus spending declined, signed
series of measures (July 22, 2010; December 17, 2010; December 23, 2011) to
extend unemployment insurance and cut payroll taxes.
19. Began Asia “Pivot”: In 2011, reoriented
American military and diplomatic priorities and focus from the Middle East and
Europe to the Asian-Pacific region. Executed multipronged strategy of positively
engaging China while reasserting U.S. leadership in the region by increasing
American military presence and crafting new commercial, diplomatic, and military
alliances with neighboring countries made uncomfortable by recent Chinese
behavior.
20. Increased Support for Veterans: With so
many soldiers coming home from Iraq and Iran with serious physical and mental
health problems, yet facing long waits for services, increased 2010 Department
of Veterans Affairs budget by 16 percent and 2011 budget by 10 percent. Also
signed new GI bill offering $78 billion in tuition assistance over a decade, and
provided multiple tax credits to encourage businesses to hire veterans.
21. Tightened Sanctions on Iran: In effort to
deter Iran’s nuclear program, signed Comprehensive Iran Sanctions,
Accountability, and Divestment Act (2010) to punish firms and individuals who
aid Iran’s petroleum sector. In late 2011 and early 2012, coordinated with other
major Western powers to impose sanctions aimed at Iran’s banks and with Japan,
South Korea, and China to shift their oil purchases away from Iran.
22. Created Conditions to Begin Closing
Dirtiest Power Plants: New EPA restrictions on mercury and toxic pollution,
issued in December 2011, likely to lead to the closing of between sixty-eight
and 231 of the nation’s oldest and dirtiest coal-fired power plants. Estimated
cost to utilities: at least $11 billion by 2016. Estimated health benefits: $59
billion to $140 billion. Will also significantly reduce carbon emissions and,
with other regulations, comprises what’s been called Obama’s “stealth climate
policy.”
23. Passed Credit Card Reforms: Signed the
Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act (2009), which
prohibits credit card companies from raising rates without advance notification,
mandates a grace period on interest rate increases, and strictly limits
overdraft and other fees.
24. Eliminated Catch-22 in Pay Equality Laws:
Signed Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009, giving women who are paid less than
men for the same work the right to sue their employers after they find out about
the discrimination, even if that discrimination happened years ago. Under
previous law, as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire
& Rubber Co., the statute of limitations on such suits ran out 180 days
after the alleged discrimination occurred, even if the victims never knew about
it.
25. Protected Two Liberal Seats on the U.S.
Supreme Court: Nominated and obtained confirmation for Sonia Sotomayor, the
first Hispanic and third woman to serve, in 2009; and Elena Kagan, the fourth
woman to serve, in 2010. They replaced David Souter and John Paul Stevens,
respectively.
26. Improved Food Safety System: In 2011,
signed FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, which boosts the Food and Drug
Administration’s budget by $1.4 billion and expands its regulatory
responsibilities to include increasing number of food inspections, issuing
direct food recalls, and reviewing the current food safety practices of
countries importing products into America.
27. Achieved New START Treaty: Signed with
Russia (2010) and won ratification in Congress (2011) of treaty that limits each
country to 1,550 strategic warheads (down from 2,200) and 700 launchers (down
from more than 1,400), and reestablished and strengthened a monitoring and
transparency program that had lapsed in 2009, through which each country can
monitor the other.
28. Expanded National Service: Signed Serve
America Act in 2009, which authorized a tripling of the size of AmeriCorps.
Program grew 13 percent to 85,000 members across the country by 2012, when new
House GOP majority refused to appropriate more funds for further
expansion.
29. Expanded Wilderness and Watershed
Protection: Signed Omnibus Public Lands Management Act (2009), which designated
more than 2 million acres as wilderness, created thousands of miles of
recreational and historic trails, and protected more than 1,000 miles of
rivers.
30. Gave the FDA Power to Regulate Tobacco:
Signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (2009). Nine years
in the making and long resisted by the tobacco industry, the law mandates that
tobacco manufacturers disclose all ingredients, obtain FDA approval for new
tobacco products, and expand the size and prominence of cigarette warning
labels, and bans the sale of misleadingly labeled “light” cigarette brands and
tobacco sponsorship of entertainment events.
31. Pushed Federal Agencies to Be Green
Leaders: Issued executive order in 2009 requiring all federal agencies to make
plans to soften their environmental impacts by 2020. Goals include 30 percent
reduction in fleet gasoline use, 26 percent boost in water efficiency, and
sustainability requirements for 95 percent of all federal contracts. Because
federal government is the country’s single biggest purchaser of goods and
services, likely to have ripple effects throughout the economy for years to
come.
32. Passed Fair Sentencing Act: Signed 2010
legislation that reduces sentencing disparity between crack versus powder
cocaine possessionfrom100 to1 to 18 to1.
33. Trimmed and Reoriented Missile Defense: Cut
the Reagan-era “Star Wars” missile defense budget, saving $1.4 billion in 2010,
and canceled plans to station antiballistic missile systems in Poland and the
Czech Republic in favor of sea-based defense plan focused on Iran and North
Korea.
34. Began Post-Post-9/11 Military Builddown:
After winning agreement from congressional Republicans and Democrats in summer
2011 budget deal to reduce projected defense spending by $450 billion, proposed
new DoD budget this year with cuts of that size and a new national defense
strategy that would shrink ground forces from 570,000 to 490,000 over the next
ten years while increasing programs in intelligence gathering and
cyberwarfare.
35. Let Space Shuttle Die and Killed Planned
Moon Mission: Allowed the expensive ($1 billion per launch), badly designed,
dangerous shuttle program to make its final launch on July 8, 2011. Cut off
funding for even more bloated and problem-plagued Bush-era Constellation program
to build moon base in favor of support for private-sector low-earth orbit
ventures, research on new rocket technologies for long-distance manned flight
missions, and unmanned space exploration, including the largest interplanetary
rover ever launched, which will investigate Mars’s potential to support
life.
36. Invested Heavily in Renewable Technology:
As part of the 2009 stimulus, invested $90 billion, more than any previous
administration, in research on smart grids, energy efficiency, electric cars,
renewable electricity generation, cleaner coal, and biofuels.
37. Crafting Next-Generation School Tests:
Devoted $330 million in stimulus money to pay two consortia of states and
universities to create competing versions of new K-12 student performance tests
based on latest psychometric research. New tests could transform the learning
environment in vast majority of public school classrooms beginning in
2014.
38. Cracked Down on Bad For-Profit Colleges: In
effort to fight predatory practices of some for-profit colleges, Department of
Education issued “gainful employment” regulations in 2011 cutting off
commercially focused schools from federal student aid funding if more than 35
percent of former students aren’t paying off their loans and/or if the average
former student spends more than 12 percent of his or her total earnings
servicing student loans.
39. Improved School Nutrition: In coordination
with Michelle Obama, signed Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010 mandating $4.5
billion spending boost and higher nutritional and health standards for school
lunches. New rules based on the law, released in January, double the amount of
fruits and vegetables and require only whole grains in food served to
students.
40. Expanded Hate Crimes Protections: Signed
Hate Crimes Prevention Act (2009), which expands existing hate crime protections
to include crimes based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender, or disability,
in addition to race, color, religion, or national origin.
41. Avoided Scandal: As of November 2011,
served longer than any president in decades without a scandal, as measured by
the appearance of the word “scandal” (or lack thereof) on the front page of the
Washington Post.
42. Brokered Agreement for Speedy Compensation
to Victims of Gulf Oil Spill: Though lacking statutory power to compel British
Petroleum to act, used moral authority of his office to convince oil company to
agree in 2010 to a $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the Deepwater
Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; $6.5 billion already paid out without
lawsuits. By comparison, it took nearly two decades for plaintiffs in the Exxon
Valdez Alaska oil spill case to receive $1.3 billion.
43. Created Recovery.gov: Web site run by
independent board of inspectors general looking for fraud and abuse in stimulus
spending, provides public with detailed information on every contract funded by
$787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Thanks partly to this
transparency, board has uncovered very little fraud, and Web site has become
national model: “The stimulus has done more to promote transparency at almost
all levels of government than any piece of legislation in recent memory,”
reports Governing magazine.
44. Pushed Broadband Coverage: Proposed and
obtained in 2011 Federal Communications Commission approval for a shift of $8
billion in subsidies away from landlines and toward broadband Internet for
lower-income rural families.
45. Expanded Health Coverage for Children:
Signed 2009 Children’s Health Insurance Authorization Act, which allows the
Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to cover health care for 4 million
more children, paid for by a tax increase on tobacco products.
46. Recognized the Dangers of Carbon Dioxide:
In 2009, EPA declared carbon dioxide a pollutant, allowing the agency to
regulate its production.
47. Expanded Stem Cell Research: In 2009,
eliminated the Bush-era restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, which
shows promise in treating spinal injuries, among many other areas.
48. Provided Payment to Wronged Minority
Farmers: In 2009, signed Claims Resolution Act, which provided $4.6 billion in
funding for a legal settlement with black and Native American farmers who the
government cheated out of loans and natural resource royalties in years
past.
49. Helped South Sudan Declare Independence:
Helped South Sudan Declare Independence: Appointed two envoys to Sudan and
personally attended a special UN meeting on the area. Through U.S. ambassador to
the United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, helped negotiate a peaceful split in
2011.
50. Killed the F-22: In 2009, ended further
purchases of Lockheed Martin single-seat, twin-engine, fighter aircraft, which
cost $358 million apiece. Though the military had 187 built, the plane has never
flown a single combat mission. Eliminating it saved $4 billion.
Paul Glastris, Ryan Cooper, and Siyu Hu
collaborated on this article. Glastris is the editor in chief of the Washington
Monthly. Cooper and Hu are interns at the magazine
