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Showing posts with label romney-ryan cabal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label romney-ryan cabal. Show all posts
ONE more article on how the tea party contributed to the defeat of the romney-ryan cabal and an increase in the Democratic seats in the US Senate and the future of the gop in American politics. This from Mother Jones...
Odds are Republicans won't get back from crazytown for a while. Will Dems take advantage?
Its
birth certificate says that the tea party was born one month after
Barack Obama's inauguration, on the day that CNBC's Rick Santelli
delivered a blistering on-air tirade against Obama's mortgage bailout
plan. But that's only the official story. In reality, we've seen the tea party before.
When FDR was president, it was called the American Liberty League. When
JFK was president, it was the John Birch Society. When Bill Clinton was
president, it was the Vince Foster conspiracy theorists. America's far
right fluoresces like this whenever a Democrat is in the White House,
and Obama's first term was no exception.
But the tea party burned bright and fell fast. Sure, it galvanized
opposition to Obama in a media-friendly kind of way, and helped power
the Republican Party to a big majority in the House of Representatives
in the 2010 midterms. But given the state of the economy this was a
victory they probably would have won anyway. And on the other side of
the Capitol building, the tea party was almost certainly responsible for
the loss of three winnable Senate seats that year. By 2012,
after tea party forces nominated several more "wackadoodles" (in
Republican strategist Steve Schmidt's phrasing) and helped the GOP lose
two more winnable Senate seats, its name was officially mud.
But none of that matters. The tea party has done its job, and for all
practical purposes its hard-nosed, no-compromise ideology now controls
the Republican Party in a way that neither the Birchers nor the Clinton
conspiracy theorists ever did. It's no longer a wing of the Republican Party, it is the Republican Party.
So what's next? Having now lost two presidential elections in a row,
conventional wisdom says Republicans have two choices. The first is to
admit that tea partyism has failed. 2012 was its best chance for
victory, and evolving demographics will only make hardcore conservatism
less and less popular. As South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has put it,
"We're not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for
the long term." So the party will need to moderate or die.
The second option is to double down. Party activists will tell
themselves that Mitt Romney was never a true conservative, and that's
what voters sensed. But Republicans can win again in 2016 if they stay
true to their principles, moving farther right and amping up the
obstruction of all things Obama even more. In Congress, Paul Ryan will
be their pied piper and Eric Cantor will be their enforcer.
To most liberals, it seems obvious that if the GOP's leaders are
smart, they'll choose the first option. But the truth is that this isn't
as obvious as we'd like to believe. After all, moving to the right has
worked out pretty well for the party. In 1980, the Reagan revolution
gave them control of the Senate for the first time in decades. In 1994,
the Gingrich revolution gave them control of the House. In 1998 they
impeached Bill Clinton, and two years later won the presidency. In 2009
the tea party took over, and in 2010 they won a landslide midterm
victory. The truth is that an ever more radicalized GOP seems to have
done at least as well as a more normal GOP probably would have done.
Maybe better.
So for now, at least, it seems probable that we're stuck with Option
2. Republican Party elders will probably try to be a little more careful
about vetting candidates for political Tourette syndrome (no more
"legitimate rape," please), but otherwise the tea party strain will
remain ascendant even if the name itself is relegated to the ash heap of
history. Republicans will continue to deny climate change, continue to
insist that tax cuts pay for themselves, and continue to believe that
Barack Obama is a socialist revolutionary. They will once again hold
America's economy hostage over the debt ceiling and tax cuts for the
rich, and they will continue to filibuster every single bill that
Democrats introduce in the Senate.
That much is, frankly, so predictable as to be uninteresting. What is interesting is this: Why doesn't the American electorate punish this behavior? After all, polls don't suggest
that the public has moved much to the right over the past few decades,
and yet it continues to give an ever more right-wing Republican Party
about 50 percent of the vote. What's going on?
At this point we enter the realm of guesswork. One guess is that the
public treats unhinged behavior from Republicans these days as merely a
kind of brand marker, not something to be taken seriously. Based on past
experience, they figure that once Republicans are actually in office
they'll talk crazy but mostly act like a fairly normal conservative
party.
For liberals, a more unnerving guess is that we simply haven't made
ourselves into a consistently appealing alternative for persuadable
centrists. We're too eager to raise taxes. We display too much public
contempt for things like religion and gun ownership. We don't offer the
middle class enough in the way of concrete benefits, and when we do (as
with Obamacare) we sell it so poorly that people barely even realize
what they're getting.
If either—or both—of these things are true, it's easy to see why
Republican extremism hasn't hurt them very much. The next few years,
however, could finally be different. If Republicans hold the American
economy hostage over the debt ceiling again, their crazy talk might
start to sound a little more worrisome. If voters start taking climate
change more seriously in the wake of Sandy, concerned independents might
abandon a denialist GOP. If the growth of the black and Hispanic
electorate causes Republicans to double down on efforts to suppress the
nonwhite vote, they could provoke a serious backlash. And if Obamacare
gets implemented competently and Democrats make serious progress on
reining in the deficit, centrists might not have much reason left to
vote against them.
In any case, there's a simple message here for lefties: Don't worry
so much about Republicans. Worry about getting the public on our side.
If we do that, the GOP will either back away from crazytown or else it
will die a natural death. To borrow James Carville's famous epigram,
It's Public Opinion, Stupid.
IT has been painfully obvious to me and many others that the gop / tea-bagger campaign propaganda has been funded by the plutocrats, the extremely wealthy in America. Yes, these people spent tens of millions of their own money in an attempt to buy this election in a vain attempt to increase their wealth and power. But the money these people and corporations gave to candidates and extreme right wing super-pacs is nothing compared to the value of their investment in and sponsorship and / or ownership of right wing media. grover norquist united the uber rich, individuals and corporations and channeled their lust for more wealth and power into a political platform. The koch brothers, sheldon adelson and others like them provided the funding for the tea party and it's extreme right wing political candidates, all vetted for their willingness to sell out their values and accept control of their political agendas for campaign contributions and guarantees of lucrative corporate lives after their political careers. But it was their extreme right wing media machine that brought the right wing agenda to life with lies, deception, and by misleading the electorate with misrepresenting the facts on issues as well as playing on their fears as well as taking advantage of existing racism and voluntary ignorance. The romney-ryan cabal conceded control of their campaign to the plutocrat's agenda and campaign tactics, thanks be to God this time a majority of the voters were not duped. Here is a great read from Mother Jones on the damage gop / tea-bagger extremism has done to the republican party.
With
President Obama's victory over Mitt Romney, many pundits are already
engaging in clichéd talk of "soul-searching" for the GOP. What they mean
by this phrase differs depending on who says it: Pundits on the left as
well as moderate reform-oriented Republicans are claiming the party
needs to move back to a pragmatist set of policies; tea partiers and
others on the right, talk radio, and Fox News are claiming that Mitt
Romney, like John McCain before him, was simply too moderate to win, and
that only a true, principled conservative can lead the charge to
victory.
But what Republicans really need to learn from Romney's defeat is
not that their candidate was too weak or too moderate. They need to
learn that their candidate was forced to adopt far more extreme
policies than he previously held due to a primary process that enslaves
pragmatism and electability to a rigid ideology. And at the heart of
this rigid ideology is a conservative movement that's become the
creature of the right-wing media.
Fox
News is often described as little more than a mouthpiece for the
Republican Party. Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything,
the reverse is the case, with the Republican Party serving as unwitting
puppets of the self-serving right-wing controversy machine. Fox News and
the talk radio shock-jocks across the country win whether or not
conservatives are in power; these purveyors of political entertainment
thrive under a Democratic president, perhaps even more so than under
their preferred candidates. There's big money in controversy, and
controversy is what the Glenn Becks of the world do best.
At some point, Republicans will need to wake up to the current state
of affairs and realize they're being held hostage to a powerful,
self-sustaining entertainment industry and that the interests of the
party and the interests of Fox News are not one and the same.
Indeed, the spin-offs of this conservative movement/media behemoth can be seen far and wide as bloggers like Dean Chambers take up the mantle of "true conservatism" and begin telling Republicans only what they want to hear—even if that means twisting the polling data beyond anything remotely recognizable as the truth.
Even the Tea Party was largely the result of a concerted effort on
the part of conservative media to foment dissatisfaction and resentment.
Sure, this may have helped sweep the House to the right in 2010, but
more importantly it drove traffic to conservative websites and eyeballs
to Fox News. And while Romney may have lost the election last night, Fox
is guaranteed a strong viewership through Obama's second term.
This is what conservative writer John Derbyshire described as far back as 2009 as "Happy Meal conservatism"
a lowbrow and ultimately harmful approach to rallying the conservative
troops. "Reason has been overwhelmed by propaganda," Derbyshire wrote at
the time, "ideas by slogans." Happy Meal conservatism, he argued, is
one of the major contributors to this state of affairs.
It does so by routinely descending into the ad hominem—Feminazis
instead of feminism—and catering to reflex rather than thought. Where
once conservatism had been about individualism, talk radio now rallies
the mob. "Revolt against the masses?" asked Jeffrey Hart. "Limbaugh is
the masses."
Derbyshire trafficked in paranoid, lowbrow, and deeply racist tactics
of his own, but his point remains intact nonetheless. And while
Derbyshire may have ultimately ignored his own advice, there are others
on the right who need to begin the process of distancing themselves from
the right-wing media machine that's taken over their movement.
Republicans need to wake up to their damaged brand, and then they
need to follow the money. It doesn't take a degree in economics to see
how the shockjocks play their audiences. You don't have to listen to
many Glenn Beck tirades about going back to the gold standard and their
accompanying advertisements about trading in your gold jewelry for cash
to see how cynical this act has become. But gold schemes are small
potatoes compared to the much larger con being played on the Republican
Party.
The problem is one of revolving doors. Failure for Republican
politicians doesn't always have to end in tears. Play to the cameras
well enough, and you might just land yourself a job at Fox News—that is,
if you're not already lined up with a cozy consulting job at a lobbying
firm (something politicians across the spectrum are guilty of too often
than we'd care to admit.)
And so Happy Meal conservatism becomes as cyclical as it is cynical.
It may bite the hands that feed it, but it shares enough of the wealth
to keep up appearances.
Meanwhile, conservatives continue to grow more and more dependent on a
steady diet of this fast-food political fare, further deepening the politics of resentiment,
as libertarian writer Julian Sanchez describes it. Far from being a
coherent political philosophy, Sanchez argues that modern conservatism
is a "farce currently performing under that marquee [that's] an
inferiority complex in political philosophy drag."
But why does this play so well on the right? Even admitting that all
human beings have a penchant for the controversial and that all good
narrative is driven by conflict—contrived or otherwise—why has Fox News
and Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the rightwing bloviators become so
enormously powerful?
Sanchez argues that it's a status grievance first and foremost.
Conservatives feel under attack and have "internalized the enemy's
secular cosmopolitan value set and status hierarchy."
In other words, conservatives have begun to see the writing on the
wall as demographics shift and they begin to lose ground in the culture
wars. Fox News is banking on this, capitalizing on the unspoken fears
this may provoke, and giving those fears voice. They didn't invent fire,
they just learned how to stoke it and make sure that it generates far
more heat than light.
But as Sanchez points out, this is a doomed project:
Even if conservatives retook power, they wouldn't be able to provide a
political solution to a psychological problem, assuming they're not
willing to go the Pol Pot route. At the same time, it signals a
resignation to impotence on the cultural front where the real conflict
lies. It effectively says: We ceded to the bogeyman cultural elites the
power of stereotypical definition, so becoming the stereotype more fully
and grotesquely is our only means of empowerment.
What Republicans need to realize in the wake of their defeat is that
it's not a means to empowerment, it's only a means to one end: making
conservative media buckets full of money, come rain or shine.
Erik Kain writes about politics at The League of Ordinary Gentlemen, and technology and video games at Forbes. His work has also appeared in The Atlantic and elsewhere. For smaller doses, you can follow him on Twitter. RSS | Twitter
THANK GOD HE WON!!!! We can celebrate for a few days, and then it is
time for healing our great nation, to bring all Americans together, to
work together to restore America to what we once were and have the
potential to be again. This nation, with all it's people, has so much to
offer each and every one of it's citizens, together we can make America
great again, to make us that shinning beacon on the hill! Here is the President's election night speech and the rest is from the Washington Post.....
There are some voters who are still undecided in this election. Some
voters believe there's no difference between the candidates. There are
voters in red states who think there's no point in voting and there's
voters in blue states who think there's no point in voting. Across the
country, some voters are leaning toward just sitting this one out.
This post is for them.
There are fundamental policy differences between the candidates and
only one of them deserves your vote. This post isn't going to get into
the snark or fluff that too often dominates election coverage. You'll
find no section on strapping a dog to a roof, or silly gaffes, or which
candidate is more fun to have a beer with. This is, for the most part,
straight up policy, compiled to present to why Barack Obama not only deserves your vote but needs it to keep moving our country forward.
The list, far from exhaustive, continues below the fold and lists the
first 400 reasons. The next 100 listed are from a collaborative effort
in the comments. Read it, share it, and add your own suggestions in the
comments below. ROMNEY SIMPLY CAN'T BE TRUSTED ON THE ISSUES. HE FLIP-FLOPS AND WILL SAY ANYTHING HE THINKS VOTERS WANT TO HEAR.
1. You can't trust Mitt Romney on whether he's a moderate or a conservative.
"Relative to the leading candidates, some people see me as
being more conservative." (source)
"[I am] just as conservative as I was four years ago. Maybe more so." (source)
"I think people recognize that I'm not a partisan Republican. That I'm
someone who is moderate and that my views are progressive." (source)
"I'm severely conservative." (source)
2. You can't trust Mitt Romney on protecting choice.
"Roe v. Wade has gone too far." (source)
"I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years we should
sustain and support it." (source)
"I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose and am devoted and dedicated to honoring my word in that regard." (source)
"I respect and will protect a woman's right to choose." (source)
"I never really called myself pro-choice." (source)
"There's no legislation with regards to abortion that I'm familiar with that would become part of my agenda." (source)
- (later the same day) "Governor Romney would of course support legislation aimed at providing greater protections for life." (source)
3. You can't trust Mitt Romney on stem cell research.
"I will work and fight for stem cell research." (source)
"In the end, I became persuaded that the stem-cell debate was grounded in a false premise." (source)
4. You can't trust Mitt Romney on whether he'd embrace failed Reagan policies.
"I'm not trying to return to Reagan-Bush." (source)
"Ronald Reagan is also my hero." (source)
5. You can't trust Mitt Romney on the minimum wage.
"My view has been to allow the minimum wage to rise with the
[Consumer Price Index] or with another index so that it adjusts
automatically over time." (source)
"There's probably not a need to raise the minimum wage." (source)
6. You can't trust Mitt Romney on healthcare mandates.
"I like mandates. The mandates work." (source)
"I think it's unconstitutional on the 10th Amendment front." (source)
7. He didn't have a clear position on killing Osama bin Laden.
"It's not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars
just trying to catch one person." (source)
"He's going to pay, and he will die." (source)
8. You can't trust Mitt Romney on whether he'd put your Social Security in the hands of risky Wall Street investors.
"I'm not in favor of privatizing Social Security or making cuts." (source)
"You call it privatization, I call it a private account." (twenty-nine seconds later) (source)
"Social Security's the easiest and that's because you can give
people a personal account." (source)
9. You can't trust Mitt Romney on immigration reform.
"Those… paying taxes and not taking government benefits should begin a process toward application for citizenship." (source)
"Amnesty only led to more people coming into the country." (source)
10. You can't trust Mitt Romney on Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
Q: Governor Romney, you said in nineteen ninety four that
you look forward to the day when gays and lesbians could serve and I
quote, "openly and honestly in our nation's military". Do you stand by
that?
Romney: This isn't that time. This is not that time." (source)
"When I first heard of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, I thought
it sounded awfully silly." (source)
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell has worked well." (source)
11. You can't trust Mitt Romney on civil unions.
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said yesterday he was ready
to work with lawmakers to craft a 'civil union'-style law to give some
marriage rights to homosexual couples, even though he also supports a
constitutional amendment to preserve traditional marriage. [...] Mr.
Romney yesterday told TV news stations that he would support a
Vermont-style civil union law in Massachusetts..." (source)
KONDRACKE: He was never specifically for marriage, but it was never
an issue. But he pretty clearly was in favor of something like
Vermont-style civil unions, which he now denies that he was in favor.
But he is in favor, to his credit, of domestic partnership provisions
for hospital visitation and inheritance rights and stuff like that. So
he's not as far right as you can get, but he's definitely tilting right
for the purposes of running for president. (source)
12. You can't trust Mitt Romney on marriage equality.
Mitt Romney, in b-roll at the end of his interview with a
Colorado reporter with whom he got testy for not asking him about issues
of "significance" as she pressed him on civil unions, medical marijuana
and other issues, clearly describes marriage as a "state issue," in a
catch by Andrew Kaczynski. The problem with this, as Allahpundit notes,
is that Romney has told conservatives he will fight for a federal
amendment banning gay marriage, which is contrary to considering it a
state issue. (source)
13. You can't trust Mitt Romney on gay adoption.
"If two people of the same gender want to live together,
want to have a loving relationship and even want to adopt a child, in my
state individuals of the same sex were able to adopt children," "In my
view that's something which people have the right to do..." (source)
(a day later) Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Friday
backed away from his support of adoptions by same-sex couples, saying
that he simply "acknowledges" the legality of such adoptions in many
states. (source)
14. You can't trust Mitt Romney on banning assault weapons.
"I support the assault weapons ban...I would have supported
the original assault weapon ban...I signed an assault weapon ban in
Massachusetts governor..." (source)
"I don't support any gun control legislation, the effort for a new
assault weapons ban, with a ban on semi-automatic weapons, is something I
would oppose. There's no new legislation that I'm aware of or have
heard of that I would support. In regards to guns, I think we have
enough legislation and should enforce the laws as they exist." (source)
15. You can't trust Mitt Romney on whether he supports the National Rifle Association.
"I don't line up 100% with the NRA." (source)
"I support the NRA. I'm a member of the NRA." (source)
16. You can't trust Mitt Romney on election reform and campaign spending limits.
" I would like to have campaign spending limits and to say
we're not going to spend more than this in certain campaigns. I also
would abolish PACS. I don't like them. I don't like the influence of
money--whether it's business, labor, or any other group. I do not like
that kind of influence." (source)
"The American people should be free to advocate for their candidates and their positions without burdensome limitations." (source)
17. You can't trust Mitt Romney on bank bailouts.
"TARP was the right thing to do." (source)
"When government is… bailing out banks… we have every good reason to be alarmed." (source)
18. You can't trust Mitt Romney on whether Muslims should serve in the president's cabinet.
"Based on the numbers of American Muslims… I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified." (source)
"A person should not be elected because of his faith nor should he be rejected because of his faith." (source)
19. You can't trust Mitt Romney on helping the nation's auto industry.
"Let Detroit go bankrupt." (source)
"I'm going to take burdens off the back of the auto industry." (source)
"Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check." (source)
20. You can't trust Mitt Romney on flat taxes.
"It's a tax cut for fat cats." (source)
"When he unveiled his economic agenda this year, Romney said he would
pursue a 'long-term goal' of a 'flatter, fairer, simpler structure.'...
On Wednesday in Fairfax, Va., he said, 'I'll lay out some additional
ways to make the tax code more flat.'" (source)
21. You can't trust Mitt Romney on the payroll tax cut.
"Look, I don't like temporary little Band-Aids." (source)
"I would like to see the payroll tax cut extended." (source)
22. You can't trust Mitt Romney on the stimulus.
"The all-Democrat stimulus that was passed in early 2009 will accelerate the timing of the start of the recovery…" (source)
"The all-Democrat stimulus passed in early 2009 has been a failure." (source)
23. You can't trust Mitt Romney on his Massachusetts health care law.
"…the costs of health care will be reduced." (source)
"We were unable to deal with and didn't have any pretense that we would
somehow be able to change health care costs in Massachusetts." (source)
"If Massachusetts succeeds in implementing it, then that will be a
model for the nation." (source)
"What works in one state may not be the answer for another." (source)
24. You can't trust Mitt Romney's position on climate change.
""I believe that climate change is occurring — the reduction
in the size of global ice caps is hard to ignore. I also believe that
human activity is a contributing factor." (source)
"These carbon emission limits will provide real and immediate
progress." (source)
"My view is that we don't know what's causing climate change on this
planet. And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to
try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us." (source)
"Republicans should never abandon pro-growth conservative principles in an effort to embrace the ideas of Al Gore." (source)
"We should not take extreme measures when we are unsure of the human role in global warming." (source)
25. You can't trust Mitt Romney's position on the Iraq War.
In an interview with MSNBC's Chuck Todd today, Mitt Romney
asserts that "of course" invading Iraq was a bad idea now that we know
Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. ("If we knew at the
time of our entry into Iraq that there were no weapons of mass
destruction, if somehow we had been given that information, obviously we
would not have gone in.") Four years ago, Romney said just the
opposite. ("It was the right decision to go into Iraq. I supported it at
the time; I support it now.") I can't think of any important
substantive facts that have changed between now and then that would lead
Romney to alter his opinion. (source)
26. You can't trust Mitt Romney to try and get hunter's votes.
"I've been a hunter pretty much all my life." (source)
"Any description of my being a hunter is an overstatement of capability." (source)
27. You can't trust Mitt Romney on Vietnam service.
"It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam." (source)
"I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there." (source)
28. You can't trust Mitt Romney on whether his father marched with Martin Luther King.
"I saw my father march with Martin Luther King." (source)
"I did not see it with my own eyes." (source)
29. You can't trust Mitt Romney on federal spending.
According to memos, emails, and other records now housed in
the state archives, the Romney administration made the pursuit of
federal funding a top priority, establishing a federal grants office to
scour for opportunities and bolstering its presence in DC by retaining a
powerful lobbying shop for help. Internal documents show the
administration bemoaning its low ranking in an annual "pork list"
detailing which states brought home the most federal bacon, and
aggressively planning to boost that ranking. Which they did: Between
2003, when Romney took office, and 2006, Massachusetts climbed as high
as nine spots in the pork rankings. (source)
30. You can't trust Mitt Romney on the whether our students need more teachers.
"He [Obama] says we need more firemen, more policemen, more
teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people
did. It's time for us to cut back on government and help the American
people." (source)
"I reject the idea that I don't believe in great teachers or more teachers...I'm not going to cut education funding." (source)
31. You can't trust Mitt Romney on Pell Grants for college.
He previously praised the Ryan budget that gutted the Pell
Grant program (even picked Ryan as his running mate), "criticized
President Obama for doubling funds for Pell grants," and lambasted the
program's "expanding entitlement mentality." (source)
"I want to make sure we keep our Pell Grant program growing." (source)
32. You can't trust Mitt Romney on FEMA and disaster relief funding.
"We cannot -- we cannot afford to do those things without
jeopardizing the future for our kids. It is simply immoral, in my view,
for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on
to our kids, knowing full well that we'll all be dead and gone before
it's paid off," Romney responded. "It makes no sense at all." (source)
Yesterday, we noted that even as a massive super storm was bearing
down on the East Coast, Mitt Romney's campaign was standing by his
suggestion in a GOP debate last year that he would end FEMA and make the
states handle disaster relief on their own. But how much has changed in
24 hours. As we wake up to see the disaster Hurricane Sandy had
wrought, we also find a new position for Romney, who now says he wants
to keep FEMA. (source)
33. You can't trust Mitt Romney on whether he supports a timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan.
"Announcing a withdrawal date, that was wrong,...The Taliban may not have watches, but they do have calendars." (source)
"Gov. Romney supports the 2014 timetable as a realistic timetable and a
residual force post-2014..." - Romney campaign spokesperson. (source)
34. You can't trust Mitt Romney on signing tax pledges.
"Republican Mitt Romney says he will not sign a no-new-taxes
pledge." A campaign spokesperson called such pledges "government by
gimmickry." (source)
"I'm proud to be the only major candidate for president to sign the tax pledge." (source)
35. You can't trust Mitt Romney's position on his own tax rate.
"I don't pay more than is legally due and frankly, if I had
paid more than are legally due I don't think I'd be qualified to become
president. I'd think people would want me to follow the law and pay only
what the tax code requires." (source)
"Even though Mitt Romney paid a low tax rate, he actually voluntarily
paid more in taxes than he had to... this year, it turns out Romney did
pay more than is legally due. A lot more." (source)
36. You can't trust Mitt Romney on the role of government in creating jobs:
"As president, I will create 12 million new jobs." (source)
"Government does not create jobs. Government does not create jobs." (source)
37. You can't trust Mitt Romney on whether he's consistent.
"I'm a strong believer in stating your position and not wavering."
"I changed my position." (source)
"I don't remember what I said, but I stand by it." (source:
ROMNEY REFUSES TO GIVE VOTERS INFORMATION ABOUT HIS MASSIVE WEALTH, TAX LIABILITIES, AND OVERSEAS ACCOUNTS AND INVESTMENTS
38. According to the assets Mitt Romney has actually disclosed, he's worth almost a quarter billion dollars. (source)
39. Romney refuses to release his full tax returns. (source)
This is in stark contrast to presidential candidates in the
past.Indeed, when Romney's own father was running for president, he
released 12 years of tax returns. Romney hasn't even releases one full
year. (source)
40. Republicans have called on Romney to release his full returns and he has refused. (source)
41. In the returns he has released (2010 and 2011), he has not
released the required Report on Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. (source), (source), (source)
42. In 2011, from the materials Romney did release, Romney
manipulated his taxes and paid a 14.1% effective tax rate on an income
of over $13.7 million in 2011. That's actually higher than what he was
supposed to pay. Had he taken all his deductions, his tax rate would
have been slightly over 10%. He didn't fully deduct all his charitable
contributions for PR purposes in order to make sure his effective rate
stayed above 13 percent. (source)
43. Mitt Romney had a Swiss bank account worth $3 million. (source)
44. He established his corporation, Sankaty High Yield Asset
Investors Ltd., in Bermuda but only transferred it out of his name the
day before he became Massachusetts. (source)
45. He failed to disclose his Bermuda interests on seven different financial disclosure forms. (source)
46. Romney holds interests in at least a dozen Bain Capital funds organized in the Cayman Islands. (source)
47. These investments are worth as much as $30 million and are shielded by confidentiality disclaimers. (source)
48. Romney held interests in Bain Capital in Luxembourg. (source)
49. He claims "I have inherited nothing. Everything Ann and I have
we have earned the old-fashioned way." Romney in fact is the son of
George Romney, who as president of American Motors, governor of
Michigan, and funded and supported Mitt Romney's education at Harvard
and helped Romney buy his first home in an affluent Boston suburb. (source) MORE REASONS TO VOTE AGAINST MITT ROMNEY
50. This photo is real: (source)
51. Mitt Romney's Middle East strategy: "We kick the ball down the
field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and
resolve it." (source)
52. Romney won't give details on his economic plan and won't specify
which tax loopholes he'd close. "Asked yesterday which tax deductions
he would eliminate to offset his massive proposed tax-cuts for the rich,
Romney refused to offer any specifics on a plan that he has admitted is
so vague it cannot even be scored, saying only, 'We'll go through that
process with Congress.'". (source)
53. He was a bully. "His campaign spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, said in a
statement that 'anyone who knows Mitt Romney knows that he doesn't have
a mean-spirited bone in his body. The stories of fifty years ago seem
exaggerated and off base and Governor Romney has no memory of
participating in these incidents.' Campaign officials denied a request
for an interview with Romney. They also declined to comment further
about his years at Cranbrook. [...] Saul, Romney's campaign spokeswoman,
said the candidate has no recollection of the incident." (source)
54. "I cannot see that a Cabinet position would be justified" for an American of Muslim faith. (source)
55. Flamed false conspiracy theories about Obama's birth: "I love
being home in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us
were born. Ann was born in Henry Ford Hospital, I was born in Harper
Hospital. No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know
that this is the place that we were born and raised." (source)
56. Mitt Romney made millions investing in companies that did business in Iran. (source), (source).
Also, "Mitt Romney's trust invested in Cnooc at a time when the US was
growing concerned about the Chinese oil company's multibillion-dollar
dealings with Tehran." (source), (source)
57. "Though he left the firm in 1999, Romney has continued to
receive large payments from it—in early June he revealed more than $2
million in new Bain income." (source)
58. As Romney continues to receive money from Bain investments, Bain maintains its China ties. (source)
59. As Romney continues to receive money from Bain investments,
Sensata, one of those Bain investments, is offshoring American jobs and
forcing American workers to train their Chinese replacements. (source)
60.
MORE BELOW THE FOLD...
61.
62.
CIVIL RIGHTS
63. Romney has said he opposed a law ending workplace discrimination
based on sexual orientation and gender identity because the law, ENDA,
"would be an overly broad law that would open a litigation floodgate
& unfairly penalize employers..." (source), (source)
64. As governor of Massachusetts, Romney got rid of "the state's long-standing affirmative action policy." (source).
65. "Romney … I can't remember one person of color he had in a high-ranking position in his administration." He had just 3.6%. (source)
66. He does not have agenda or plan on his website for protecting civil rights. (source)
67. "Some people have said we ought to close Guantanamo. My view is we ought to double Guantanamo." (source) DEFENSE / HOMELAND SECURITY / FOREIGN POLICY
68. Almost all of Romney's foreign policy team members served in the Bush-Cheney administration. (source)
69. Adam Smith at Foreign Policy Magazine: "As Romney considers
possible running mates, it's worth remembering that he pointed to Dick
Cheney as the "kind of person I'd like to have" working with him.
Likewise, the policies that Romney has advocated -- like indefinitely
leaving our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, for example -- are
continuations of the Bush-Cheney doctrine, version 2.0....The idea of
Bolton and other Bush-Cheney officials serving in a Romney
administration should be a scary prospect for all Americans." (source)
70. "Romney has called Russia our 'number one geopolitical foe' --
an outlandish statement that stunned foreign policy experts across the
political spectrum." (source)
71. "Romney's team? These are the guys who brought us torture, black
sites, damaged alliances, open sneering at international institutions,
and two bloody, financially ruinous wars. And in this uncertain world,
you can be sure of one thing: If Mitt Romney wins, they'll do their best
to bring it all back." (source)
72. Romney wants to dramatically increase defense spending, even above the levels asked for by the Pentagon. (source)
He wants America to spend a minimum of 4 percent of the U.S. gross
domestic product on defense. He would pay for that massive increase by
slashing domestic programs here at home. (source).
73. "Guided by a Republican Party virtually devoid of moderate
centrists, Romney has embraced a global assessment distorted by
ideological excess, pledged to wield power in a way that will leave the
nation weakened and isolated, and demonstrated a failure to appreciate
the key linkages between strength at home and influence abroad." (source)
74. Colin Powell has said "I have concerns about his views on
foreign policy...I'm not sure which Governor Romney we would be getting
with respect to foreign policy...My concern is that sometimes I don't
sense that he's thought through these issues as thoroughly as he should
have...I think there are some very strong neo-conservative views that
are presented by the governor that I have problems with." (source)
75. Madeleine K. Albright, former U.S. secretary of State, and
Samuel R. Berger, former U.S. national security adviser, believe Romney
has "demonstrated the flawed nature of his approach to national
security" and has failed to offer "a clear and coherent vision of what
he would do as commander in chief." (source).
76. DISABILITIES
77. As governor, Romney "pushed to eliminate or gut more than 20 state
programs serving veterans, disadvantaged children, and adults with
severe physical disabilities." (source)
78. "He also sought to cut money for breast cancer screenings,
suicide prevention and programs that assisted the blind and the deaf.
[(source) He also sought to cut money for breast cancer screenings,
suicide prevention and programs that assisted the blind and the deaf]
79. "These cuts would have totaled $26.8 million -- 2.2 percent of
the $1.2 billion state budget deficit that Romney inherited upon taking
office. None of these cuts were necessary for balancing the state's
budget. All were overriden by the Democratic state legislature, and the
state still closed its budget gap with room to spare." (source)
80. "Romney successfully slashed services for people living with AIDS/HIV by 23 percent during his time in office." (source)
81. "Romney wanted hundreds of thousands of dollars in cuts for
services for adults with intellectual and physical disabilities. The
cuts included reductions in funds for agencies that link disabled adults
with jobs, day programs and transportation." (source)
82. "Romney's failure to maintain mental health services for poor
children in Massachusetts landed him in a historic court battle. For
nearly all of his tenure in office, Romney aggressively fought a
class-action lawsuit seeking to improve services for more than 30,000 of
the state's poor children. Romney lost, with a federal judge ordering
the governor to end shortcomings in the state system, which was breaking
up families and wasting taxpayer money." (source)
83. The non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy priorities has
found that Romney's economic plan would result in "cuts in programs such
as veterans' disability compensation, Supplemental Security Income
(SSI) for poor elderly and disabled individuals, the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps), school
lunches and other child nutrition programs, and unemployment
compensation would cause the incomes of large numbers of households to
fall below the poverty line. Many who already are poor would become
poorer." (source) ECONOMY & TAXES 84.
85. Romney believes corporations and the wealthiest Americans to pay too much in taxes. (source)
86. According to his website, he wants to cut taxes for the wealthy by 20% and lower the corporate tax rate to 25%. (source)
87. Romney wants to dramatically lower corporate tax even though the
10 most profitable U.S. corporations paid an average effective tax rate
of just 9% in 2011. (source)
88. Romney wants to dramatically lower corporate tax rates even
though 26 companies on the Fortune 500 list paid zero federal income tax
in each of the last four years (companies like General Electric,
Boeing, Verizon, and Mattel). (source)(source)(source)
89. Romney wants to dramatically lower corporate tax rates even
though some 280 companies on the Fortune 500 list pay only about half of
the corporate tax rate. (source)
90. Romney believes corporations are people: "Corporations are people, my friend." (source)
91. Nonpartisan analysts have tried and tried to make sense of
Romney's economic plan but they agree the math simply doesn't add up. (source)(source)(source)(source)(source)(source)(source) In other words, Mitt Romney has no viable plan for the economy.
92. Even Romney's "revised" plan announced at one of the debates
would still disproportionately benefit the wealthy and the super wealthy
top .01%, studies have concluded. (source)
93. Even Republican Bruce Bartlett, who served in the Reagan and
George H.W. Bush administrations, has called Mitt Romney's economic plan
"nonsense." (source)
94.
95. He thinks that veterans, seniors, the unemployed, students and
any one else who voted for Barack Obama "believe they are victims" (source):
"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the
president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with
him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are
victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for
them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to
housing, to you-name-it. ... My job is not to worry about those people.
I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and
care for their lives."
He also has said "I am not concerned about the very poor." (source)
96. Mitt Romney thinks those who are do not pay federal income tax,
such as the working poor, the disabled, U.S. military personnel
deployed in war zones, seniors on Medicare and Social Security, etc.
will "kill the country." (source)
97.
98. Romney's position on foreclosures: "Don't try to stop the
foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom." (source)
99. Romney's claim that his plan creates 12 million jobs has been thoroughly debunked as false. (source), (source), (source), (source), (source)
100.
101. Under Mitt Romney's leadership, Massachusetts ranked 47th among the 50 states in job creation. (source)
102.
(source)
103. Greg Mankiw is one of Mitt Romney's top economic advisors and a
leading candidate to become chairman of the Federal Reserve if Romney
is elected. (source)
Mankiw has said the "offshoring" of American jobs is a positive thing
and that "Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade." (source)
104. Mitt Romney would repeal the Dodd-Frank bill, which regulates the risky practices that led to the 2008 crisis. (source)
105. As governor, Mitt Romney vetoed a minimum wage increase to $8 an hour. (source)
106.
107. The economies that benefit most from Romney's job plan are in foreign countries. (source)
108.
(source)ROMNEY'S OUT OF TOUCH WITH MIDDLE CLASS AMERICANS
109. He casually made a $10,000 bet on live TV during a debate. (source)
110. "[My wife] drives a couple of Cadillacs." (source)
111. "I have some friends who are NASCAR team owners." (source)
112. "I get speaker's fees from time to time, but not very much." (he earned $374,000 in speaking fees in one year) (source)
113. Romney, who is worth almost a quarter billion dollars, believes that "middle-income" is $200,000 to $250,000 a year. (source). The median U.S. household income is around $50,000. EDUCATION
114.
"He [Obama] says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers.
Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It's
time for us to cut back on government and help the American people." (source)
115. "More spending is the last thing our schools need," writes Romney in his campaign whitepaper. (source)
116. Mitt Romney has endorsed Paul Ryan's budget and selected him as
his running mate. Ryan's budget " The Ryan budget would both cut Pell
benefits and eligibility and freeze the maximum grant at $5,550 per
student per year, apparently on a permanent basis. … It would repeal the
entire $101 billion in existing mandatory funding for Pell over the
next ten years—both the permanent, open-ended funding and the temporary
pools of fixed funding." (source)
117. Romney doesn't think we need smaller classroom sizes. He says
there is "no relationship" between class size and student performance. (source)
118.
119. "Paul Toner, president of the Massachusetts Teachers
Association, says there were no policy or funding initiatives under
Romney - in fact, he says, state support for public schools and colleges
was actually cut during Romney's time as governor." (source)
120. "People viewed his [education] proposals as political talking points, and no one took Romney seriously..." (source)
121. As governor, Romney abolished bilingual education. The Boston Globe reports that "the effort proved to be a failure." (source).
122. "Romney did not adequately account for the complexities of
language acquisition, and without providing adequate money to train
teachers, non-English speaking students quickly floundered." (source)
123. Romney thinks political contributions by teachers should be
limited, but has no problems with corporations, lobbyist and other
professions donating what they'd like. (source)
124. Romney's plan for students struggling with the skyrocketing
cost of college is that they should "shop around" or "borrow money from
your parents."
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
125. "Romney's plan caters heavily to oil and coal interests, and oil executives are some of his biggest benefactors." (source)
126. "Under the plan, the federal government would remove or loosen environmental statutes and regulations..." (source)
127.
128. Mitt Romney opposes regulating carbon dioxide, even though the
EPA found that such greenhouse gas emissions "threaten the public health
and welfare of the American people." (source)
He mocked efforts to regulate the harmful emission: "I know there is
also a movement to say that carbon dioxide should be guided or should be
managed by the Environmental Protection Agency. I disagree with that. I
exhale carbon dioxide...I don't want those guys following me around
with a meter to see if I'm breathing too hard." (source)
129. Mitt Romney wants to allow leading of and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (source)
130. Mitt Romney's campaign is influenced by what analysts have
called "the dirty dozen," "the lobbyists, CEOs and advisers" who are
driving his agenda. The list includes the Koch brothers, who made their
billions off of dirty energy, Harold Hamm, an advocate of fracking and
mining on federal lands, Jim Talent, a top lobbyist for the coal
industry, Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute and
more. (source)
131. "Both Romney's plan and the House-passed Ryan budget would
retain $2.4 billion in annual tax breaks for the big five oil companies –
BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Shell – that made a record
$137 billion in profits last year, and over $60 billion so far in
2012." (source)
132. "The Romney-Ryan proposed cut in the corporate tax rate would
provide a $2.3 billion tax cut for the big five oil companies. With the
existing tax breaks, the big five companies would skim over $4 billion
annually from the U.S. Treasury." (source)
133. "Romney plan gives Americans' lands and waters to dirty energy interests." (source)
134. "Romney and Ryan oppose the extension of the Production Tax
Creditto encourage wind energy. The PTC helped the U.S. double its wind
electricity generation over the past four years, and ending it could
cost at least 37,000 jobs this year." (source)
135. "Romney plan won't reduce oil and gasoline prices". (source)
136. Romney and Ryan support rolling back regulations like those
implemented by the Obama administration to reduce mercury and cancer
causing pollutants from power plants. (source)
137. "Ryan's latest budget would slash those allocations an
additional 14.8%, cutting $380 million (and over 70,000 jobs) starting
in 2014 and forcing hundreds of parks to shut down for part of the year.
It would also cut funding to national forests by up to $678 million a
year starting in 2014, threatening programs designed to fight wildfires,
provide clean drinking water and support recreational hunting and
fishing." (source) ETHICS
138. Romney's campaign is propped up by millionaires, billionaires and mega-rich corporations. (source), (source)
139. His campaign is funded the financial sector, banks, oil & gas companies, etc. (source) :
141. Romney refuses to release the names of campaign bundlers -- those
who raise millions for his campaign. Obama discloses the names of each
and every one of his bundlers. (source)
142. Through its own independent research, USA Today discovered that
1 out of every 4 bundlers on Romney campaign hail from the financial
sector. (source)
143. Romney's campaign is funded by the wealthy while Obama's is
funded by average Americans. 45% of Obama's campaign money comes from
people donating $200 or less while just 9% of Romney's money comes from
that bracket. In fact, 66% of Romney's campaign money comes from people
who can afford to donate the maximum $2,500 to his campaign. (source)
144. 69% of outside money spent during this election has benefited Mitt Romney and Republicans. (source) HEALTH CARE
145. Romney has promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), which has saved and will save countless of lives. (source)
146. "72 million Americans would be uninsured by 2022 if Republican
presidential nominee Mitt Romney wins the election and has his health
care plan enacted." (source)
147. "Romney's plan would cost Americans more money. People who
choose to buy health insurance on their own would pay 14 percent of
their income, compared to only 9 percent under the ACA." (source)
148. Families USA finds in its own study that Romney's plan would cost families 92 percent more than the ACA by 2016. (source)
149. "The Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on
Taxation added that repealing the ACA would cost a federal budget
deficit of $109 billion between 2013 and 2022." (source)
150. Romney's plan does not cover pre-existing conditions. (source)
151. Romney's plan would empower insurers again to scour through your medical records and find reasons to turn you down. (source)
152. When asked what he would do about Americans who lack health
insurance, Romney says "that the country already had a system in place
for them: emergency rooms. 'We pick them up in an ambulance and take
them to the hospital and give them care.'" (source)
153. Romney's plan would, according to Reuters, "mak[e] consumers pay more of their own medical bills." (source)
154. Reuters also found that Romney's use of "heath savings accounts
favors the affluent, while statistics indicate that high-deductible
plans can mean big out-of-pocket costs for people with lower wages and
little disposable income." (source)
155. Medicaid provides health care for the poorest Americans,
including millions of children. Romney "plans steep reductions to
Medicaid's with no weighing of the consequences for human life. Of all
the cuts that Romney proposes, what he would do to Medicaid is the
cruelest and it would hit Americans hard." (source)
156. Indeed, the plan would "end Medicaid as we know it - forcing
many seniors to be kicked out of their nursing homes and leaving
low-income infants and children with no health coverage at all." (source)
157. Romney's Medicare voucher plan would raise healthcare costs for most seniors, according to studies. (source)
158. Romney's Medicare plan would shift "more costs onto seniors and
handing out $4.6 trillion in tax breaks over the next decade to big
corporations and millionaires." (source)
159. "Senior's healthcare costs would double under Romney/Ryan. For
example, in ten years, 65-year-olds would be forced to pay twice as much
for care than they would under current Medicare: $12,500 compared to
$6,150." (source), (source) FEMA
160. "At a Republican primary debate in June of 2011, CNN's John King
asked Mitt Romney for his views on disaster relief. "FEMA is about to
run out of money, and there are some people who say, 'Do it on a
case-by-case basis.' And there are some people who say, 'You know what,
maybe we're learning a lesson here that the states should take on more
of this role.' How do you deal with something like that?" Mr. Romney
responded ""Absolutely. Every time you have an occasion to take
something from the federal government and send it back to the states,
that's the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it
back to the private sector, that's even better." (source) IMMIGRATION
161. "Romney promised to make life so miserable for undocumented
immigrants that they would "self-deport.": At the Florida Republican
Debate, Romney said that he would enforce stringent documentation
policies that would make it difficult for illegal immigrations to find
work, eventually spurring them to "self-deport." According to Romney,
"If people don't get work here they're going to self-deport to a place
where they can get work." [January 2012, Huffington Post] The answer is
self-deportation, which is people decide they can do better by going
home." (source)
162. Romney attacked Governor Rick Perry for supporting the DREAM Act, calling it a 'magnet for illegal immigration.' (source)
163. Romney pledged to veto the DREAM Act. (source)
164. "Romney consults author of extreme anti-immigrant legislation on immigration issues." (source)]
165. "My dad, as you probably know, was the governor of Michigan and
was the head of a car company. But he was born in Mexico... and had he
been born of, uh, Mexican parents, I'd have a better shot at winning
this. But he was unfortunately born to Americans living in Mexico. He
lived there for a number of years. I mean, I say that jokingly, but it
would be helpful to be Latino." (source)
166. "I'm running for office for Pete's sake, we can't have
illegals" –Mitt Romney describing his reaction when he learned that his
lawn company employed undocumented immigrants. (source) VETERANS
167. Romney didn't mention American troops once during his speech at the Republican National Convention. (source)
168. He didn't think it was a thing that "was important": "When you
give a speech you don't go through a laundry list, you talk about the
things that you think are important." (source)
169. "Romney and Ryan might gut by up to 20 percent investments in
the Department of Veterans Affairs...Let's be clear, Romney and Ryan
would be disastrous for America's service members, veterans and military
families," says former Republican Senator and veterans advocate Larry
Pressler. (source)
170. Romney has suggested he wants to privatize the Veterans Administration (source)(source)
171. "Romney Proposed Increasing Fees On Hospitalized Veterans" (source)
172. "Romney Proposed Cutting State Hiring Preferences For Veterans" (source)
173. "Legislators Overturned Romney Veto Of Tens Of Thousands In Funding For Veterans Cemetery." (source)
174. "Romney Tried To Cut $165,000 From Veterans Outreach In 2003." (source)
175. "From all accounts, Mitt Romney's visit to that veterans
shelter just behind Boston's City Hall Plaza was not one of the brighter
moments of his campaign for US senator. When director Ken Smith told
him that one of the things the shelter needed was fresh milk,Romney
replied jokingly that maybe the veterans should be taught how to milk
cows." (source) SOCIAL SECURITY
176. Romney's plan for Social Security is to raise the retirement age, cut benefits and benefit the top earners. (source)
177. According to Bloomberg's analysis, "Romney's approach will hit middle-income workers harder than the wealthiest..." (source)
178. Under Romney's Social Security plan, "Romney would implicitly raise taxes on the middle class." (source) WOMEN
178. "I went to a number of women's groups and said 'Can you help us
find folks?' and they brought us whole binders full of women." —Mitt
Romney, on staffing his cabinet while he was governor of Massachusetts. (source)
179. Romney lied about asking for female candidates when he took
office as governor. He tried to take credit for women's groups work in
Massachusetts. (source)
180. "A UMass-Boston study found that the percentage of senior-level
appointed positions held by women actually declined throughout the
Romney administration, from 30.0% prior to his taking office, to 29.7%
in July 2004, to 27.6% near the end of his term in November 2006." (source)
181. When Rush Limbaugh bullied Sandra Fluke, a female student who
testified about contraception on Capitol Hill, by calling her a "slut"
and a "prostitute" on national radio, Romney refused to address the
matter. When he finally did, he did not condemn Limbaugh's attack,
simply saying instead that "It's not the language I would have used." (source)
182. Almost 90% of the people Romney nominated to become judges during his term as governor were men. (source)
183. Romney did not hire a single female partner as CEO of Bain Capital during the 1980s and 1990s. (source)
184. "Planned Parenthood, we're going to get rid of that." (source)
185. Romney's top legal advisor says won't aren't discriminated against anymore. (source)
186. Romney's position on choice has evolved so much it's hard to
know exactly what his exactly what his plan will be for choice as
president, except that it will focus on limiting choice and perhaps even
appointing justice who will ban abortion all together. (source)(source)
187. Romney has said that Roe v. Wade is "bad law and bad
medicine" and "a misguided ruling that was the result of a small group
of activist federal judges legislating from the bench." (source)
188.
VICE-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE PAUL RYAN
189. Paul Ryan has consistently scored low on interest group scorecards
on the environment, education issues, women's issues, legal issues,
worker's rights issues, and health issues. (source)
190. In the annual scorecard by the Human Rights Campaign, "vice
presidential nominee Paul Ryan scored zero percent every year, except
the 110th Congress, when he scored 10 percent. While Ryan received a 10
percent that Congress for voting for the Employment Non-Discrimination
Act, it is important to note that he first voted to reject the
legislation by voting for a procedural motion Republican leaders put
forward to kill the bill. " (source).
191. The American Civil Liberties Union gave a 0% score to Paul Ryan for 2011. (source)
192. Paul Ryan made his name on the national stage by presenting a
budget that would slash programs for seniors, the poor and students.
193. Paul Ryan's budget plan would have cut SNAP grants by 18%. (source)
194. Paul Ryan voted to ban same-sex marriage. (source)
195. He voted to ban adoption by gay couples. (source)
196. He voted against repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. (source)
197. "Ryan heaped praise on Ayn Rand, a 20th-century libertarian
novelist best known for her philosophy that centered on the idea that
selfishness is "virtue." (source)
198. Ryan proposed a budget that "would extend the Bush tax cuts,
which are due to expire at the end of this year, he would not extend
President Obama's tax cuts for those with the lowest incomes, which will
expire at the same time." Households "earning more than $1 million a
year, meanwhile,could see a net tax cut of about $300,000 annually." (source)
199. Ryan co-sponsored a "personhood" amendment, an extreme anti-abortion measure.(source) WHY PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA DESERVES A SECOND TERM
In just four years, President Obama and his administration have accomplished so much for Americans. It's easy to forget just how much
with the 24/7 news cycles. Here is a compilation of accomplishments
from various government websites. These are taken verbatim from sources
like WhiteHouse.gov and factsheets published by various government
bodies. You can pour through all the data yourself at WhiteHouse.gov, Data.gov, Recovery.gov, and other government websites.
200.
CIVIL RIGHTS
201. Signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate
Crimes Prevention Act, which extends the coverage of Federal hate crimes
law to include attacks based on the victim's actual or perceived sexual
orientation or gender identity. (source)
202. Pushed for and signed into the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal
Act of 2010 into law. Now gay men and women can serve openly in the U.S.
military. (source)
203. Decided that his administration would no longer defend Section 3
of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) against equal protection
constitutional challenges brought by same-sex couples married under
state law. (source)
204. Supports the Respect for Mrraige Act, that would repreal DOMA (source)
205. First sitting president to voice support for same-sex marriage. (source)
206. Issued a presidential memorandum which led to the framework
allowing same-sex domestic partners to visit their sick loved ones in
the hospital. (source)
207. Expanded federal benefits to all same-sex partners of Foreign Service and executive branch government employees. (source)
208.
I don't know what it's like to be picked on for being gay,
but I do know what it's like to grow up feeling that sometimes you don't
belong. It's tough. And for a lot of kids the sense of being alone or
apart, I know it can just wear on you. And when you're teased or bullied
it can seem like somehow you have brought it on yourself for being
different or for not fitting in with everybody else. But what I want to
say is this: You are not alone, you didn't do anything wrong, you didn't
do anything to deserve being bullied, and there's a whole world waiting
for you filled with possibilities. There are people out there that love
you and care about you just the way you are...The other thing you need
to know is things will get better, and more than that, with time you are
going to see that your differences are a source of pride and a source
of strength. You'll look back on the struggles you've faced with
compassion and wisdom, and that's not just going to serve you, but it'll
help you get involved and make his country a better place. [...] As a
nation, we're founded on the belief that all of us are equal and each of
us deserves the freedom to pursue our own version of happiness, to make
the most of our talents, to speak our minds, to not fit in; most of
all, to be true to ourselves. That's the freedom that enriches all of
us. That's what America is all about,and every day it gets better.
209.
I want to start off by saying, first and foremost, I'm proud
of you. There's not a single thing about you that's not normal, good
and decent. And you are not alone. There are tens of millions of people
around the world and millions of people right here in America, and
people right in your neighborhood, who may be or are perceived to be
gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender. They are normal people, but so many
people - so many people in your circumstance are experienced being
bullied or ridiculed. And I know it's not only hurtful, but sometimes it
can be literally frightening and there's absolutely no justification
for it.
210. Signed the Fair Sentencing Act, which reduces the disparity in the
amounts of powder cocaine and crack cocaine required to trigger certain
penalties in the federal system, including imposition of mandatory
minimum sentences. For years, this arbitrary discrepancy had an unfair
and a disproportionate impact on racial minorities. (source).
Also supports funding for drug courts, which give first-time,
non-violent offenders a chance to serve their sentence, if appropriate,
in drug rehabilitation programs that have proven to work better than
prison terms in changing behavior. (source)DEFENSE / HOMELAND SECURITY
211. Authorized raid to kill Osama bin Laden, mastermind behind the September 9/11 attacks and countless other acts of terror.
212.
Today, at my direction, the United States launched a
targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A
small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary
courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to
avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin
Laden and took custody of his body. For over two decades, bin Laden has
been al Qaeda's leader and symbol, and has continued to plot attacks
against our country and our friends and allies. The death of bin Laden
marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to
defeat al Qaeda. (source)
213. Ended the combat mission in Iraq. (source)
214. Ratified a landmark nuclear arms treaty with Russia, New START. (source) DISABILITIES
215. Signed into law the National Alzheimer's Project Act to accelerate
research on Alzheimers and to improve care for those current suffering
from the disease. (source)
216. Signed into law the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act,
the first piece of comprehensive legislation aimed at improving the
lives of Americans living with paralysis. (source)
217. Signed into law the reauthorization of the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Act. (source)
218. Through the Affordable Care act, established the Community
Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program, a self-funded
and voluntary long-term care insurance choice that would help people
with disabilities remain in their homes, communities and jobs through
cash benefits to pay for community support services. (source)
219. His Department of Labor proposed a new rule that would require
federal contractors and subcontractors to set a hiring goal of having 7
percent of their workforces be people with disabilities. (source)
220. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=womXEh8jnTg&feature=player_embedded ECONOMY
221. The president's stimulus prevented a second Great Depression. (source), (source), (source)
223.
224. American businesses have added 5.4 million jobs in the past 32 months. (source)
225. Rescued the American auto industry from collapse, saving more
than 1 million jobs around the country. U.S. automakers have added
nearly 250,000 jobs since June of 2009 -- the best period of growth in
more than a decade. (source)
226. Federal spending growth has actually been slower under President Obama than under any other president since Eisenhower. (source)
227.
(source)
228. Strengthened trade relationships with countries around the
world to help U.S. businesses boost their exports by 33.5% and support
1.2 million additional jobs since 2009.(source)
229. Helped small businesses expand and hire by increasing access to
loans and signing 18 tax breaks, including tax credits for hiring
unemployed workers and veterans with disabilities. (source)
230. Freed up $473 million in unspent earmarks for states to spend on infrastructure projects. (source)
231.
(source)
232. Directed federal agencies to use the Do Not Pay tool to prevent
payment errors like sending funds to dead people or contracting with
companies who have attempted to defraud the government. (source)
233. Directed the federal government to increase the purchase of products made from materials produced by American Farmers. (source)
234. Announced new resources for companies that want to hire and invest in America. (source)
235. Launched Summer Jobs+ to provide employment opportunities for nearly 180,000 young people. (source)
236. Launched two initiatives to provide startup companies with $2 billion in resources. (source)
237. Announced four new actions to help further reduce waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid. (source)
238. Introduced new rules to help responsible borrowers with little
or no equity in their homes take advantage of current low mortgage
rates. (source)
239. Launched a centralized, one-stop shop (BusinessUSA.gov) to make
it easier than ever for businesses of all sizes to access services to
help them grow, hire, and export. (source)
240. Supported lending to more than 166,000 small businesses through
community banks, state-run loan programs, and the Small Business
Administration. (source)
241. Reformed patent law to help entrepreneurs bring their
inventions to market sooner, reduce patent application backlog, and
protect U.S. intellectual property abroad. (source)
242. Cut red tape to help small businesses and entrepreneurs raise
capital from investors more efficiently so they can expand and hire more
quickly. (source)
243. Small business tax credit: Jumpstarted small business hiring by
cutting taxes for businesses that hire new workers or pay higher wages.
(source)
244. Renew tax breaks that allow companies to immediately write off
the total cost of certain purchases like computers and machines to
encourage investment (100% expensing). (source)
245. In 2014, small business will be able to shop for affordable
health insurance plans through state-based marketplaces, and be eligible
tax credits that cover up to 50% of the cost of providing health care
for employees. (source)
246. The Recovery Act provided a one-time payment of $250 to
retirees, other Social Security beneficiaries, disabled veterans, and
SSI recipients. Fifty-six million retirees and other individuals
received this one-time payment, totaling $14 billion. (source)
247. Fought for and implemented historic financial reforms to create
a more stable and responsible financial system that holds Wall Street
accountable, discourages irresponsible financial risk-taking, and ends
taxpayer-funded bailouts.(source)
248. Ended more than $60 billion in wasteful subsidies for big banks
and used the savings to put the cost of college within reach for more
families. (source)
249. Helped launch the Startup America Partnership, an independent
alliance of entrepreneurs, corporations, universities, foundations, and
other leaders that has mobilized well over $1 billion in business
services available through a national network, designed to serve as many
as 100,000 startups over the next few years. (source)
250. President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act into law (source):
251. Signed The Credit CARD Act (the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights) into law. (source)
252. Signed the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, which gives the
federal government more tools to crack down on the kind of fraud that
put thousands of hardworking families at risk of losing their homes
despite doing everything right to live within their means, into law. (source)
253. Implemented the first Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
(CFPB) to make sure that the financial products and services that
Americans depend on every day —including credit cards, mortgages, and
loans—work better for the people who use them. (source)
254. Supported and signed the Credit Card Accountability,
Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009, marking a turning
point for American consumers and ending the days of unfair rate hikes
and hidden fees. (source).
The act bans unfair rate increases, prevents unfair fee traps, has
plain sight/plain language disclosure requirements and have increased
protections for students and young people. EDUCATION
255. Expanded Pell Grants to reach an additional 3 million students and
raised the current maximum award to $5,550, up from $4,730 in 2008. (source)
256. Capped monthly student loan payments for responsible borrowers
who make their payments on time so they aren't held back by debt as they
start their careers. (source)
257. Ended more than $60 billion in wasteful subsidies for big banks
and used the savings to put the cost of college within reach for more
families. (source)
258. Created a tax credit worth $10,000 over four years that helps 9 million families cover the cost of college. (source)
259. Race to the Top: President Obama's Race to the Top initiative
has dedicated over $4 billion to 19 states that have created robust
plans that address the four key areas of K-12 education reform as
described below. These states serve 22 million students and employ 1.5
million teachers in 42,000 schools, representing 45 percent of all K-12
students and 42 percent of all low-income students nationwide. (source)
260. With President Obama's leadership, rates on new subsidized
Stafford loans remained at 3.4 percent — instead of doubling to 6.8
percent — this past summer. (source)
261. The Department of Education and the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau is designing a College Scorecard containing key
indicators of student success and financial outcomes about every
institution of higher education nationwide. (source) ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
262. Domestic oil and natural gas production has increased every year
since President Obama took office. In 2011, U.S. oil production reached
the highest level in 8 years and natural gas production hit an all-time
high. On Federal lands and waters alone, oil production is up 13%. (source)
263. U.S. dependence on foreign oil has decreased every year since
President Obama took office. We now import less than half of the oil we
consume and in 2011, imports as a share of total consumption declined to
a 16-year low. (source)
264. New fuel economy standards for cars and trucks, the first in 30
years, will cut oil consumption by 2.2 million barrels a day, slash
emissions by 6 billion metric tons, and save the average driver $8,000
at the pump by 2025. (source)
265. New programs to improve energy efficiency in our homes,
buildings, factories, and transportation systems will reduce pollution
and save money for businesses and families. (source)
266. The U.S. has doubled renewable energy generation from wind,
solar, and geothermal sources since 2008 thanks to the President's
record investments in clean energy. (source)
267. His Better Building Initiative will create jobs, save money,
and cut pollution by improving energy efficiency in our non-residential
building space. (source)
268. Wants to make more than 75% of our potential offshore oil and
gas resources available for exploration and development and permit clean
energy projects on public lands that will generate enough renewable
energy to power 3 million homes. (source)
269. Signed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, the
most extensive expansion of land and water conservation in more than a
generation, designating more than 2 million acres of federal wilderness,
thousands of miles of trails, and protecting more than 1,000 miles of
rivers. (source)
270. Directed the Federal Government – the largest energy consumer
in the U.S. economy – to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions from direct
sources such as building energy use and fuel consumption by 28 percent
by 2020. (source)
271. He also directed Federal agencies to reduce their greenhouse
gas emissions from indirect sources, such as those from employee
commuting, by 13 percent by 2020.
272. (source)
273. Through a Memorandum of Understanding signed by EPA, the
Department of the Interior and the Army Corps of Engineers on June 11,
2009, Federal agencies are taking action to minimize adverse
environmental and health impacts of mountaintop coal mining. (source)
274. The Administration established the first-ever national limits
for mercury and other toxic air pollution from power plants, which will
prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths, 4,700 heart attacks, and 130,000
cases of childhood asthma symptoms each year. (source)
275. After more than a decade of inaction, the Administration
reconvened the Environmental Justice Interagency Working Group and
engaged more than 100 environmental justice leaders at a White House
forum. (source)
276. Established the first comprehensive National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, our Coasts, and the Great Lakes. (source) ETHICS
277. By Executive Order, set forth the strictest ethics rules in this history of the office. (source)
278. Launched Ethics.gov to help make the government more accountable and open [(source) ethics.gov]
279. Signed an Executive Order on Regulation said the following:
Always consider costs and reduce burdens for American businesses and
consumers when developing rules; expand opportunities for public
participation and public comment; simplify rules; promote freedom of
choice; and ensure that regulations are driven by real science. (source)
280. Classification: The executive order on "Classified National
Security Information" (the Order) addresses the problem of
over-classification in numerous ways and allows the public to gain
timelier access to formerly classified records. (source) FOREIGN POLICY
281.
282. Announced a plan to responsibly end the War in Iraq and kept
our promise to end combat operations there by August 31, 2010 and to
remove all US troops by the end of 2011. (source)
283. Built an international coalition to stop a massacre in Libya,
and to support the Libyan people as they overthrew the regime of Moammar
Qadhafi. (source)
284. Announced a strategy to address the international nuclear
threat and convened a Nuclear Security Summit that took concrete steps
toward securing nuclear material worldwide. (source)
285. Announced new policy steps towards Cuba. (source)
286. Built a broad coalition to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear
program, including unprecedented sanctions by Congress, the UN Security
Council, and a host of other nations and regional bodies. (source)
287. Refocused American foreign policy on the Asia Pacific , the world's fastest-growing region. (source)
288. Announced a comprehensive international strategy for cyberspace issues. (source)
289. Reaffirmed our unwavering support for the military as well as their families. (source) HEALTH CARE
290. 105 million Americans no longer have lifetime dollar limits on their coverage. (source)
291. More than 17.6 million children with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied coverage. (source)
292. Private insurers that provide coverage for nearly 174 million
Americans must now justify double-digit premium increases, and nearly 76
million Americans are covered by insurers that are now required to
spend at least 80% of premium dollars on health care.
293. 360,000 small businesses received a tax credit in 2011 to help
them pay for health insurance for an estimated 2 million workers. (source)
294. 54 million Americans now can receive a free preventive service,
such as cancer screenings, through their private insurance plan. (source)
295. 3.1 million young adults have coverage on a parent's plan through age 26. (source)
296. More than 50,000 Americans with pre-existing conditions have
gained coverage through the new Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan. (source)
297. 3.6 million people received a 50% discount—worth an average of
$604 each—on brand name prescription drugs after hitting the Medicare
donut hole in 2011. (source)
298. More than 32.5 million seniors received one or more free preventive services. (source)
299. The average person with Medicare will save about $4,200 from 2011 to 2021. (source)
300. Those with high prescription costs will save up to $16,000. (source)
301. Starting in 2014, no American can be discriminated against due to a pre-existing condition. (source)
302. Insurance companies can no longer drop your coverage when you get sick due to a mistake you made on your application. (source)
304. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act's 80/20 rule, if insurance
companies don't spend at least 80 percent of your premium dollar on
medical care and quality improvements rather than advertising, overhead
and bonuses for executives, they will have to provide you a rebate. The
first rebates were made in the summer of 2012. (source)
305. In every State and for the first time ever, insurance companies
are required to publicly justify their actions if they want to raise
rates by 10 percent or more. (source)
306. Small businesses have long paid a premium price for health
insurance – often 18 percent more than larger employers. The tax credit
will benefit an estimated 2 million workers who get their insurance from
an estimated 360,000 small employers who will receive the credit in
2011 alone. (source)
307. Insurers are now required to cover a number of recommended
preventive services, such as cancer, diabetes and blood pressure
screenings, without additional cost sharing such as copays or
deductibles. Already, 54 million Americans with private health coverage
have gotten better preventive services coverage as a result. (source)
308. Under the law, most young adults who can't get coverage through
their jobs can stay on their parents' plans until age 26 – a change
that has already allowed 3.1 million young adults to get health coverage
and given their families peace of mind. (source)
309. Affordable Insurance Exchanges are one-stop marketplaces where
consumers can choose a private health insurance plan that fits their
health needs. Starting in 2014, they will offer to the public the same
kinds of insurance choices members of Congress will have. (source)
310. In 2010, nearly four million people in the donut hole received a $250 check to help with their costs. (source)
311. In 2011, 3.6 million people with Medicare received a 50 percent
discount worth a total of $2.1 billion, or an average of $604 per
person, on their brand name prescription drugs when they hit the donut
hole. (source)
312. Seniors will see additional savings on covered brand-name and
generic drugs while in the coverage gap until the gap is closed in 2020.
(source)
313. Under the new law, seniors can receive recommended preventive
services such as flu shots, diabetes screenings, as well as a new Annual
Wellness Visit, free of charge. (source)
314. The health care law helps stop fraud with tougher screening procedures, stronger penalties, and new technology. (source)
315. The administration recovered $4.1 billion in taxpayer dollars
in 2011 pursuing health care fraud, the second year recoveries hit this
record-breaking level. (source)
316. Prosecutions are way up, too: the number of individuals charged
with fraud increased from 821 in fiscal year 2008 to 1,430 in fiscal
year 2011 – nearly a 75 percent increase. (source)
317.
I criticized the Affordable Care Act, and the very thing that I criticized is what is going to save my life.
Because President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, I get to keep
my house. I won't go bankrupt. My kids are going to go to college.
And I'm going to live.
HOMELAND SECURITY
318. Launched a comprehensive, cutting-edge strategy to fight transnational organized crime. (source)
319. Presented President Obama's National Strategy for
Counterterrorism in a speech at SAIS named "Ensuring al-Qa'ida's
Demise." (source)
320. The Administration successfully has managed several natural
disasters and ongoing relief efforts, including deadly tornados in
Joplin, MO and Tuscaloosa, AL. The DHS played a lead role in federal
response efforts following the BP oil spill in the Gulf. (source) IMMIGRATION
321. Announced a new Department of Homeland Security policy that will
allow certain young people who were brought to the United States as
young children, do not present a risk to national security or public
safety, and meet several key criteria to be considered for relief from
removal from the country or from entering into removal proceedings. (source)
322. Supports the DREAM Act. (source)
323.
TAXES
324. Launched a Federal Taxpayer Receipt to help American taxpayers
understand exactly how their federal tax dollars are being spent. (source)
325. Increased the value of a tax credit that helps workers keep
more of what they earn by expanding the credit for married couples and
larger families. (source)
326. Overcame fierce opposition to extend the payroll tax cut for
160 million American workers, saving the typical worker earning $50,000 a
year about $40 with each paycheck. (source)
327. Expanded a credit that provides tax relief for 35 million
families with children. 12 million working families receive a larger
credit, including 5 million previously ineligible families. (source)
328. Ensure the wealthiest Americans do their fair share by paying
at least the same tax rate as middle class families so we can reduce the
deficit in a balanced way while preserving investments in education,
clean energy, manufacturing, and small businesses. (source) RURAL
329. The USDA and Department of Labor (DOL) partnered to offer job
training information and better utilize the rural footprint of the USDA
field offices across the country to provide them with greater access to
job search resources by reducing the driving times and distances for
rural customers seeking program information. (source)
330. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) expanded
eligibility for the National Health Service Corps loan repayment program
so that Critical Access Hospitals, those with 25 beds or fewer, can
recruit new physicians, using student loan repayment incentives. (source)
331. The Navy, the Department of Energy, and USDA have joined forces
to spur the creation of an advanced biofuels industry that will support
commercial aviation, with a pledge of $510 million, over three years,
under the Defense Production Act of 1950. (source)
332. USDA's Forest Service, in conjunction with the White House
Rural Council, released a strategy to increase the scale of restoration
treatments like forest thinning, reforestation, and other activities to
restore and sustain the health of our forests. (source)
333. On January 19, the President signed an Executive Order creating
a Task Force charged with developing a National Travel and Tourism
Strategy with recommendations for new policies and initiatives to
promote domestic and international travel opportunities throughout the
United States. (source)
334. The Administration extended more than $400 million in FY 2011
of investments in rural America through the Small Business Investment
Company (SBIC) Impact Investment Program, at no cost to taxpayers.
Nearly $2 billion in additional funding will be invested by the end of
fiscal year 2016. (source)
335. On June 14, 2012 President Obama signed an Executive Order to
make broadband construction along Federal roadways and properties up to
90 percent cheaper and more efficient. (source) VETERANS
336. During Obama's first term, businesses had a new Returning Heroes
Tax Credit for firms that hire unemployed veterans (maximum credit of
$2,400 for every short-term unemployed hire and $4,800 for every
long-term unemployed hire). (source)
337. They also had a Wounded Warriors Tax Credit which will increase
the existing tax credit for firms that hire veterans with
service-connected disabilities who have been unemployed long-term
(maximum credit of $9,600 per veteran) and continue the existing credit
for all other veterans with a service-connected disability (maximum
credit of $4,800). (source)
338. The President challenged businesses to commit to hire or
provide training to unemployed veterans or their spouses. In August of
2012, First Lady Michelle Obama announced the Joining Forces initiative
had blown past that goal -- 2,000 private sector businesses had already
hired or trained 125,000 veterans and military spouses. (source)
339. The White House Rural Council partnered with the U.S Department
of Education to deliver a new online community of practice groups for
rural schools. (source)
340. The President has also proposed the Veterans Jobs Corps, with a
goal of putting 20,000 servicemembers to work rebuilding American
infrastructure and serving as cops and firefighters. (source)
341. The Administration launched the Veterans Jobs Bank, at National
Resource Directory (NRD.gov), an easy to use tool to help veterans find
job postings from companies looking to hire them. It already searches
over 500,000 job postings and continues to grow. [(source) NRD.gov]
342. President Obama signed the Veterans Skills to Jobs Act on July 12, 2012. (source), (source) TECHNOLOGY
343. The Administration has created an Internet Policy Task Force to
bring together industry, consumer groups, and policy experts to identify
ways of ensuring that the Internet remains a reliable and trustworthy
resource for consumers and businesses. (source)
344. President Obama signed the America Invents Act into law on
September 16, 2011 after nearly a decade of effort to reform the
Nation's outdated patent laws. The patent reform law helps companies
and inventors avoid costly delays and unnecessary litigation—letting
them focus instead on innovation and job creation. (source)
345. Launched a series of new "Lab to Market" initiatives. The
initiatives are aimed at helping to achieve the President's goal of
strengthening "commercialization of the nearly $148 billion in annual
federally-funded research and development", as first proposed in January
2011 at the launch of the White House-led Startup America campaign. (source)
346. Obama has committed to making high-speed wireless services
available to at least 98 percent of Americans. The availability of new
wireless broadband services will allow more Americans to use the
Internet to learn, work and play—regardless of where they live. (source)
347. Through $7 billion in targeted investments from the Recovery
Act, the Administration has expanded broadband access nationwide,
improved high-speed connectivity in rural areas and public computer
centers, and increased Internet capacity in schools, libraries, public
safety offices, and other community buildings. (source)
348. As part of the Recovery Act, this Administration invested $4.5
billion in electricity delivery and energy reliability modernization,
with total public-private investment amounting to over $10 billion. (source)
349. Launched in May 2009, Data.gov has increased access to information that the public can readily find and use. (source)
350. As part of this initiative, the National Science Foundation,
the National Institutes of Health, NASA, and the Department of
Agriculture are funding $70 million of research for next-generation
robotics. (source)
351. Part of being efficient involves shutting down projects that
are no longer performing, and one responsibility of the Federal CIO and
his office has been to use so-called TechStat sessions to look into such
projects and figure out how to either fix them or terminate them. (source) WOMEN
352. "I didn't run for President so that the dreams of our daughters
could be deferred or denied. I didn't run for President to see
inequality and injustice persist in our time. I ran for President to put
the same rights, the same opportunities, and the same dreams within the
reach for our daughters and our sons alike. I ran for President to put
the American Dream within the reach of all of our people, no matter what
their gender, or race, or faith, or station." -President Obama, March
8, 2010 (source)
353. "Equal pay is by no means just a women's issue -- it's a family
issue....And in this economy, when so many folks are already working
harder for less and struggling to get by, the last thing they can afford
is losing part of each month's paycheck to simple and plain
discrimination." - President Obama, Upon Signing the Lilly Ledbetter
Bill (source)
354. Signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law as his first bill signed into law. (source)
355. Created the National Equal Pay Task Force to crack down on
violations of equal pay laws. Since then, "Enforcement actions have
increased, the government has recovered unprecedented monetary
recoveries, and investments in education and outreach for both employers
and employees are paying huge dividends." (source)
356. The President continues to advocate for the passage of the
Paycheck Fairness Act, which is common sense legislation that gives
women the tools they need to fight pay discrimination. (source)
357. In the Recovery Act, the President extended expansions of the
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for larger families and reduced the
marriage penalty, benefiting over 7 million people and making the Child
Tax Credit (CTC) available to more low income families, benefiting 14
million children. (source)
358. In December 2010, the President signed the Tax Relief,
Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010.
The expansions in the EITC and the CTC that were extended as part of
this legislation benefitted an estimated 12 million women – 4 million of
them single mothers. (source)
359. President Obama has proposed a rule to provide minimum wage and
overtime protections for workers who are employed providing in-home
care services for the elderly and infirm. (source)
360.
(source)
361. As a result of the Affordable Care Act the President signed
into law, many women will now be provided reasonable break times and
private space at work to express breast milk, up until a child's first
birthday. (source)
362. As part of the Affordable Care Act, in 2014, it will be illegal
for insurance companies to discriminate against anyone with a
pre-existing condition. Before the law, insurance companies could deny
coverage to women due to pre-existing conditions, such as having cancer,
or being pregnant. (source)
363. In 2014, many insurers will not be able to charge women higher premiums than they charge men. (source)
364. For the first time, the Institute of Medicine has set forth
guidelines for women's preventive health care, and, as part of the
Affordable Care Act, new insurance plans must cover these services with
no deductibles, copayments, or coinsurance, including mammograms, HIV
testing and counseling, domestic violence counseling, and testing for
gestational diabetes. (source)
365. Starting in 2014, many health plans will be required to cover
the cost of a pregnancy–a monumental win for women because 68 percent of
enrollees in individual market plans today lack such coverage. (source)
366. Obama has consistently supported and defended Title X Family
Planning clinics that provide crucial health services to persons from
low-income families. In both FY 2011 and FY 2012 funding bills, he
refused to allow language barring funding for Planned Parenthood to be
included in the Federal budget. (source)
367. The SBA has opened 10 new Women's Business Centers around the
country, for a total of 110 centers that trained and/or counseled over
139,000 people in 2011, primarily underserved and economically
disadvantaged women. (source)
368. The administration has implemented the Women-Owned Small
Business Federal Contract program, which helps level the playing field
for women-owned small businesses in over 300 industries where women are
underrepresented by giving them greater access to Federal contracting
opportunities. (source)
369. Signed the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act which
provides funding for nearly 1,700 shelters and service programs for
victims of domestic violence and their children. (source)
370. Released new rules that provide protection to victims living in
subsidized housing and allow landlords to evict perpetrators of abuse
and ensure victims do not lose their housing due to crimes committed
against them. (source)
371. In February 2012, the Department of Defense announced it intends
to eliminate the "co-location exclusion" barring women U.S. military
service members from being co-located with ground combat units, a change
that will open over 13,000 new positions to women soldiers. (source)
372. In December 2011, President Obama released the first-ever U.S.
National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security and signed Executive
Order 13595 directing the Plan's implementation. (source)
373. 1.1 million women between the ages of 19 and 25 who would have
been uninsured currently receive health coverage under a parent's
health insurance plan or through an individually purchased health
insurance plan. (source)
374. More than 16,000 Small Business Administration Loans totaling
more than $4.5 billion were granted to women- owned small businesses. (source)
375. $62.5 million in monetary relief has been obtained for victims
of sex-based wage discrimination by the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission since January 2010. (source)
376. Through the Recovery Act, more than 185,000 low-income young
women received summer employment and more than 215,000 women were placed
in subsidized jobs. (source)
377. Additionally, through the Recovery Act and the Education Jobs
Fund, the President supported more than 400,000 teacher jobs, the
majority of which were held by women. (source)
378. The Administration has also invested in employment and training
programs to put women to work in under-represented industries. (source)
379. The president advanced $260 million for teen pregnancy prevention and related efforts. (source)
380. His administration funded the National Dating Abuse Helpline to
provide services by phone, chat, or text message 24 hours a day. Teens
can text "LOVEIS" to 77054 to talk to a peer advocate. (source)
381. Publishing the First Ever Report on Economic Benefits of Workplace Flexibility. (source)
382. Signed the Telework Enhancement Act, which requires federal
agencies to take steps to promote teleworking, including appointing a
senior telework managing officer in each federal agency. (source)
383. Launched the Equal Futures Partnership to expand women's political and economic participation (source) VICE-PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN
384. Biden was tasked with implementing the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act and chaired the Middle Class Task Force which has set
out numerous proposals to strengthen and protect the middle class. (source)
385. Has traveled to Iraq eight times since being elected VP to help end the war in a responsible fashion. (source)
386. For example, Biden's task force has focused on collage affordability, green jobs, and getting Americans back to work. (source)
389.
390. The Vice President has taken a lead role in preventing dating
violence and sexual assault on college campuses nationwide. In April
2011, Vice President Biden and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
introduced comprehensive guidance to help schools, colleges, and
universities nationwide better understand their obligations under
federal civil rights laws (Title IX) to prevent and respond to campus
sexual assault. (source) MICHELLE OBAMA & JILL BIDEN
391. The First Lady has made reversing America's obesity trend a cornerstone of her works in the White House. (source), (source)
392. To promote the effort, she planted a vegetable garden at The
White House, the first one since Eleanor Roosevelt's victory garden in
World War II. (source), (source)
393. Michelle Obama and Jill Biden launched Joining Forces, and initiative to aid military families. (source)
394. Their initiative this fall included a program to include
information about military children in the training curriculums for
student teachers (source)
395.
TOP 5 VIDEOS VOTERS SHOULD WATCH
396.
397.
398.
399.
400.
What about the other 100 reasons? Let's round out the list with personal reasons from the Daily Kos community. How have President Obama's policies improved YOUR life? Why are you voting against Mitt Romney?
Let us know in the comments and together, we'll have over 500 reasons
why every voter should turn out and vote for President Obama on
Tuesday. Don't forget to sign up to help get out the vote! P.S. A huge thank goes out to all the sources that were used in the compilation, including the Daily Kos staff and community, MultipleChoiceMitt.com, MittRomneyFlipFlops.com, WhichMitt.com, TheMittFlops.com, the great research teams at ThinkProgress.org and MediaMatters.org, HuffingtonPost.com, the team over at OFA and the DNC, OpenSecrets.org and many more. UPDATE: And here are the last 100 reasons! Thanks to all who emailed & responded in the comments!
401. "When Obama signed the VOW to Hire Heroes Act last November,
part of that act was creating a program for older vets called Veterans
Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP). It's not smooth, it's not perfect
-- but it is actually helping me right now toward earning an
associate's degree in Paralegal Studies, which when combined with the
BAs in History and Russian I earned 20 years ago should help me get a
good job. Finally." (Mongo DeNizen)
402. "Mandating that 26-year olds stay on parent's health insurance
was a gawd-send to our family. My son has a pre-existing condition
(juvenile glaucoma), is unemployed and never could have gotten his own
insurance. My husband is 77-years old today, retired, and in order to
pay my son's medical bills, we would have had to take it out of our
meager retirement savings. I thank gawd every single day for President
Obama." (edwardssl).
403. "Thanks to the widening of the freeway between my house and
work (paid for by stimulus money), I now have a much quicker and less
stressful daily commute." (Rolandz)
404. "if romney wins this election and you are a woman, minority,
person of color, or a person that is not a consistent voter this might
be the last time you are able to vote without having to jump through
hoops that make it if not impossible but improbable to vote as you have
historically." (PC)
405. "I give President Obama [credit] from saving this country from a
fall off the financial cliff. Yes, I have other things that I'm not so
happy about his performance. But, he saved America. Pure and simple."
(Boris49)
406. "I trust President Obama to keep fighting for all Americans. I don't trust Mitt Romney." (darthstar)
407. "Ray LaHood ... Pres. Obama's choice of Republican Ray LaHood
for Secretary of Transportation was brilliant. LaHood has not been a
token or a placeholder, but a genuine progressive who has moved the
Federal transportation agenda in a positive direction." (Dhavo)
408. The Supreme Court. (tiggers thotful spot)
409. " On Thursday, I went into the booth and voted for Obama. If
you don't want four years of unbridled, out of control capitalism that
makes the Bush years look downright socialist, I suggest you do the
same." (MargaretPOA)
410. Armando reminds us what's at stake with future Supreme Court appointeeshere.
411. Justice Sonia Sotomayor! read more.
412. Justice Elena Kagan! read more.
413. "Obama says what he means and he means what he says. With
Mitt, all is uncertainty and that's bad for the economy and everything
else." (akmk)
414.
415. Appointing Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. (source)
416. Nominated Janet C. Wolfenbarger to become the Air Force’s first female four-star general. (source)
417. Nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to the DC court, and "Jackson
would become only the second African American woman to serve as a full
judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and would
be the first to be robed in more than 30 years." (source)
418.
420. Kept his promise to create an international tax haven watch list and crack down on tax evaders. (source)
421. As governor, Romney "issued some 800 vetoes, and the Legislature overrode nearly all of them, sometimes unanimously." (source)
422. As governor, Romney vetoed flood prep funding. (source)
423. As governor, Romney "signed an agreement with federal
authorities allowing Massachusetts State Police troopers to arrest and
seek deportation of suspected undocumented immigrants they encounter
during their normal duties." (source)
424. Obama has pledged to veto anti-net neutrality legislation. (source)
425. Obama has called for filibuster reform to break up gridlock in Washington. (source)
426. Obama has expedited the construction of wind and solar projects that can create jobs. (source)
427. Paul Ryan is rated only 36% by NAACP, "indicating a mixed record on affirmative-action." (source)
428. Paul Ryan voted against expanding the definition of hate crimes to include crimes committed against LGBT victimes. (source)
429. Paul Ryan has received a low single-digit score from the
National Education Foundation, "indicating anti-public education votes."
(source)
430. Voted no on expanding the successful "Cash for Clunkers" program. (source), (source)
431. Obama appointed Craig Fugate to head up FEMA, a man whose
"hyper-focus on local preparation long before disasters hit has been the
key to his success. "(Cali Scribe), (source)
432. His administration, through HUD, is giving homeowners affected
by Sandy "a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures and forbearance on
foreclosures of Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured home
mortgages." (source)
433. "Before the Obama presidency I was fighting GA for my day in
court to get SSDI that I was to but GA had the longest wait in the
country. I also had no medical insurance for five years. See the red
state of GA were hoping that I would just die or give up. But the Obama
administration pressed states like GA to give people hearings even in
different counties if necessary. So I was finally awarded my SSDI and
have Medicare. I'm need another heart procedure this week so yes the
Obama administration is indeed saving my life." (Kquark)
435. "The stimulus bill had a provision (since expired,
unfortunately) subsidizing COBRA payments for those who lost their jobs
but needed to keep their insurance. Which I did, to both, and kept
health care coverage for myself and my wife in 2008 and 09 when we both
badly needed it." (eataTREE)
435. "Opening diplomacy & dialogue with Myanmar (formerly Burma)
so that the long placed crippling economic sanctions are lifted.
This is the country republican president George W. Bush called Axis of Evil and refused to talk with for years with no result.
Today, the country is on the way to Democracy. With diplomatic
engagement, that country is no longer closed off to the world, a win for
the whole international community.
Economically, good for the US too, because China has been the sole
trade partner with previous sanctions and US is losing out on this
emerging resource-rich country to trade with." (zawmoo)
436. Mitt Romney is against net neutrality (source)
437. Mitt Romney's silence on NASA has troubled even Republicans:
"As has been the case for most of the campaign, presidential candidate
Mitt Romney largely ignored the issue — heightening anxiety even among
Republicans about how a Romney administration would impact NASA and
Kennedy Space Center." (source)
438. Mitt Romney doesn't support the equal pay act. (source)
439. Mitt Romney "invested in 10 Chinese companies
recently—including ones that embezzled, partnered with Iran, and stole
US trade secrets." (source)
440. Mitt Romney opposes the use of marijuana in all cases, including medical uses. (sources)
441. Paul Ryan voted against the Lily Ledbetter Act. (source)
442. Paul Ryan voted against the DREAM Act. (source)
443. Paul Ryan voted against 9/11 heroes: "The James Zadroga 9/11
Health and Compensation Act, the law that created the World Trade Center
Health Program to provide compensation for illnesses for the first
responders and residents of the surrounding neighborhoods, has been
expanded to include coverage for a variety of cancers." It was passed in
2010 and Ryan voted against it twice, calling it a "health care
entitlement." (source)
444. Paul Ryan voted against extending unemployment benefits during these tough economic times.
445. Paul Ryan criticizes China as a currency manipulator but voted
against legislation in 2010 that would have addressed the issue. The
bill was the Currency Reform Fair Trade Act. (source)
446. Another Wisconsin congressman on Paul Ryan: "“I’m stunned by
how oblivious he is to the pain his policies would cause people,” said
David R. Obey, a Democrat from Wisconsin who jousted often with his
downstate colleague before retiring from the House at the end of 2010.
“What amazes me is that someone that nice personally has such a cold,
almost academic view of what the impact of his policies would be on
people.” (source)
447. Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman says Paul Ryan's
economic plan "Paul Ryan’s vision depends an awful lot on unicorn
sightings — belief in the impossible." (source)
448. Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman has also said that
Paul Ryan's economic plan is "almost inconceivably cruel priorities, the
way it slashes taxes for corporations and the rich while drastically
cutting food and medical aid to the needy." (source)
449. "Even aside from all that, the Ryan budget purports to reduce
the deficit — but the alleged deficit reduction depends on the
completely unsupported assertion that trillions of dollars in revenue
can be found by closing tax loopholes." (source)
450. Paul Ryan falsely believes that raising interest rates will increase lending. (source)
451. Paul Ryan supported the Sensenbrenner bill, a draconian immigration bill. (source)
452. Paul Ryan "received a meager 3 percent rating on the League of
Conservation Voters scorecard for 2011 and a 20 percent rating for all
years." (source)
453. Paul Ryan has "voted to speed up forest thinning." (source)
454. Paul Ryan has voted for "deauthorizing critical habitat for endangered species." (source)
455. Paul Ryan's voted against AMTRAK improvements. (source)
456. Paul Ryan has "voted to eliminate EPA limits on greenhouse gases." (source)
457.
458. Mitt Romney endorsed Indiana Senate candidate Richard Murdock, a
Tea Party candidate who said that "even when life begins in the
horrible situation of rape, that is something God intended to happen." (source)
459. Paul Ryan "was forced to pull his endorsement (via a spokesman)
of State Rep. Roger Rivard (R-WI 75th), who told a newspaper that “some
girls, they rape so easy.” (source)
460. Paul Ryan co-sponsored "H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding for
Abortion Act." "The Act originally contained language restricting the
exception for federally-funded abortions to “an act of forcible rape or,
if a minor, an act of incest,” and offered no further clarification of
the term....Under tremendous public pressure, they dropped the “forcible
rape” language before passing the measure 251-175." (source)
461. "Mitt Romney dodged a question...on whether he would have
vetoed a bill that included indefinite detention, even though he has
previously said he would have signed it." (source)
462. Bloomberg reported that Mitt Romney used "a popular tax shelter
that allowed rich people to take advantage of the exempt status of
charities without actually giving away much money." (source)
463. Mitt Romney vetoed in 2005 the ability to obtain the morning after pill without a prescription. (source)
464. Romney has called the morning after pill "abortive." (source)
465. Massachusetts abolished the death penalty in 1984, but as governor Romney tried to reinstate it. (source)
466. Mitt Romney "was the first governor in modern Massachusetts to deny every request for pardon or commutation." (source)
467. Mitt Romney endorses voter ID laws that experts agree disenfranchise voters. (source)
468. Romney thinks if a mother is on welfare, she should be required
to work or lose benefits. "Even if you have a two year old child, you
should go to work." (source)
469. Romney thinks private companies should be hired to run state prisons. (source:).
470. Romney: "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me." (source)
471. Romney crippled Massachusetts anti-smoking program. (source)
472. As CEO of Bain, Romney made millions off of Big Tobacco in the U.S. and Russia. (source)
473. "Several early indicators raise red flags that Romney might
permit lobbyists to serve on his transition teams, with only limited
ethical guidelines and insufficient restrictions on conflicts of
interest." (source)
474. "Industry insiders believe that Mitt Romney will unshackle the
revolving door and give lobbyists a shot at the government jobs their
Democratic counterparts have been denied for the past four years." (source)
475. Mitt Romney would likely rescind Obama's order banning torture and reinstate waterboarding. (source)
476. Mitt Romney's "blind trust" isn't so blind -- he invested "more
than $10 million of Romney’s money in an investment fund managed by
Romney’s son Tagg." (source)
477. "As president, Mitt will nominate judges in the mold of Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito." (source)
478. Romney wants to end the small subsidy to PBS that includes Sesame Street. (source)
479. Romney "vetoed $220K for state-run homelessness projects." (source)
480. "As governor, Romney vetoed a bill giving rape survivors information about and timely access to emergency contraception." (source)
481. "Romney told the Des Moines Register that he would reinstate
the global gag rule, the policy that blocks U.S. family-planning funds
to any overseas health center that provides, refers for, or even takes a
pro-choice position on abortion." (source)
482. Barack Obama launched We The People, a way for ordinary citizens to directly petition the White House for change. (source) :
483. Barack Obama has been praised by New Jersey Republican governor
Chris Christie for his help and "great efforts" to help the state
recover from Hurricane Sandy. (source)
484. "Governor Romney vetoed a bill that would have banned state contractors from outsourcing state work overseas." (source)
485. "Under Romney, Massachusetts outsourced jobs in child support
enforcement, food stamps, and unemployment insurance overseas." (source)
486. "Under Mr. Romney, state spending went from $22.3 billion to $28.1 billion, an annual increase of 6.5 percent." (source)
487. During his first year as governor, Massachusetts increased fees more than any other state in the nation. (source)
488. "Once in office [Romney] created or raised more than 1,000 taxes and fees." (source)
489. Romney's record: "In all, taxes and fees increased by as much
as $750 million per year—and the average citizen saw their state and
local taxes increase by $1,227." (source)
490.
491.
492.
493.
494.
495. President Obama inspires people: "I write today to thank you
for what you have done for our country, and more importantly, what you
stand for." (source)
496. "The day that you were inaugurated, I remember talking with my
dad and him saying, "You watch. President Obama's going get us back to
work."
Well, Mr. President, four years have gone by, and my dad is back to
work. I'm back to work. I bought my first home, and my mom and dad—a
Navy veteran and a housewife—will be celebrating their 40th wedding
anniversary on October 27th, 2012. So, Mr. President, when someone asks
us if we are better off than we were four years ago, I tell them
absolutely—thanks to you believing in the American people." (source)
497. "My son, Eddie, would be alive today if the Affordable Care
Act, which exempts lifetime limits on coverage, had been in effect when
my son's health insurance coverage vanished. [...] I thank you,
President Obama, for having the fortitude to stand behind your
Affordable Care Act. As a result, not only will you help my other five
children, but also many more Eddies, who will benefit greatly from
continued health insurance during their serious illnesses." (source)
498.
Dear President Obama,
I have two daughters. My older daughter, 22, lost her hearing three
years ago while a student at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. She
struggled without any accommodations and graduated in May, the only deaf
student in her graduating class. Because of the uncertainty regarding
health care, she underwent cochlear implant surgery in one ear two weeks
before the Affordable Care Act decision. We rushed the surgery to make
sure she could get coverage.
Now she will be able to get her second implant because, under your bill,
our insurance will cover it. My other daughter, 19, is asthmatic and
bipolar. Her medications are very expensive. We were worried as to how
she would afford her meds when she turned 22.
You have given my children a new lease on life. Thank you. God bless you.
Mr. President, I'm so proud and thankful for what you have done for the LBGT community.
I can now feel safer with the Matthew Shepard hate crimes bill enacted. I
know my friends can serve openly defending this country they love. LGBT
children and teenagers know their President is on their side and that
it will get better. And I know I won't be turned away to see my partner
in the hospital if anything should happen. All of that is, in part,
thanks to you.
When you stood up for marriage equality, you not only opened the
floodgates to acceptance in this country and around the world, but were
brave to stand up for what you believed in. That shows true character.
There is still much more to be done, but I can trust in you—we will move
forward.
You have created a great path for the LBGT community and this country. I
promise to stand up for you, like you have stood up for me—time and
time again.
I am a college student, and I have never voted for anything in my entire
life—not even for prom queen and king. I want to tell you that I
believe in you completely, and I will not only vote for you this
November, but I am actually very excited to.
I want you to know that it's not simply that I disagree with the
opposing party—it's you as a President, a human, and a leader that
inspires me and makes me actually think our country and our future have
potential and hope.
I think you're doing an amazing job. You are true to your words and
beliefs, and that is very respectable. I want you to know how much you
have done for me, my peers, my faith in the government, and how much I
believe you have done for this country. I never considered myself a
patriot, or even a "team player," but you being the person you are and
the President during my young adulthood has drastically changed my
opinions. I have passion now to do what I can, whereas I used to shrug
off the issues at hand.
Please, stay awesome, true to your beliefs, and keep our country
running—because you have already done so much for all of us, and for me
personally. I believe in you, and because of you I believe in myself and
my country.
