Republicans are wrong about Obama
August 24, 2016
Republican rhetoric is like the piece of gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe: You just need to wait for it to dry, harden and fall off. Republicans have been at war with President Barack Obama since he was first elected in 2008, and have tried to find any flaw that they can in his successful tenure as president since.
However, those flaws are unfounded; I believe Obama will go down as one of the top ten presidents in history at the end of his term.
Obama has not always been perfect. He authorized over 500 drone strikes which killed hundreds of civilians in the Middle East. In 2011, he overthrew Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, which eventually led to the destabilization of the country. The country has since been in a constant state of civil unrest and war.
Critics have also said Obamacare is a giant failure, that Obama caused the inflated national debt and that he created a rift between whites and black, but they’re wrong and here’s why.
Obamacare has provided insurance and medical care to roughly 20 million Americans since its 2010 inception, according to Obamacare Facts web page. The 20 million are mainly comprised of Marketplace patients who pay for their own plans, and young adults who are allowed to remain on their parents’ plan until age 26.
Those covered by Medicaid saw a $600 to $1000 decline in the amount of debt they owed, according to findings released by the National Bureau of Economic Research in April. For the most part, the people who need to save money are actually able to do so; however, some families are still forced to pay high premiums because the system isn’t perfect.
In 2014, Robert Tracinski of the Federalist, said that Obamacare would cause states to go bankrupt due to the number of people who were enrolled under Medicaid. That has not happened as of today and may never happen. There are more Americans insured today than ever before in American history. For reference, in 2008, George W. Bush’s last full year as president, 15.4 percent of the nation was uninsured, according to the U.S. Census. Today only 9.1 percent of the nation is currently uninsured, a record low. Republicans also like to complain about the $19 trillion national debt. They are quick to shout that under Obama, we are now in greater debt than ever before in American history. While that is true, it does not tell the entire story and paints a false narrative of Obama’s real financial track record.
There are more Americans insured today than ever before in American history. For reference, in 2008, George W. Bush’s last full year as president, 15.4 percent of the nation was uninsured, according to the U.S. Census. Today only 9.1 percent of the nation is currently uninsured, a record low. Republicans also like to complain about the $19 trillion national debt. They are quick to shout that under Obama, we are now in greater debt than ever before in American history. While that is true, it does not tell the entire story and paints a false narrative of Obama’s real financial track record.
Republicans also like to complain about the $19 trillion national debt. They are quick to shout that under Obama, we are now in greater debt than ever before in American history. While that is true, it does not tell the entire story and paints a false narrative of Obama’s real financial track record.
When Bush left office in 2008, we had a national debt of $10 trillion and a deficit — which occurs when the country spends more money than it makes — of $459 billion, according to the White House historical tables. The national deficit increased to $1.412 trillion by the end of Obama’s first term in 2009. However, that increase in the deficit was directly related to policies such as the bank bailout bill that Bush Jr. enacted before he left the White House.
The truth is, Obama was only responsible for $203 billion of that increase at most, according to factcheck.org. That is about a quarter of the total national increase under his administration. Bush signed a bank bailout bill on Oct. 3, 2008 that authorized $700 billion to stop another financial collapse. Since then, Obama has brought the deficit down to $438 billion, which continues to decline. This trend will eventually bring the economy into a surplus, which occurs when a country makes more money than it spends, and will begin the process of debt elimination.
The United States has averaged 191 million jobs created every month since Feb. 2010, when Obama brought our country out of its greatest recession since the Great Depression, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. There were 255 million jobs created just last month. American gross domestic product is also at its highest point since Bush destroyed the American economy.
Finally, it is asinine to believe that Obama caused a rift in American race relations. Blacks are killed by the police at disproportionate rates today and have been since the days of slavery. Social media and the ease of access to the internet has exposed the fact that minorities continue to be plagued by racism.
The only thing that Obama is responsible for is giving a voice to the disenfranchised black Americans who have seen this system fail them time and again, like when he defended BLM at the Dallas Police Memorial in July. Obama can also be credited for his policies geared toward immigrants, such as the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, which helps young undocumented immigrants achieve permanent residency.
Obama may not be known as the greatest president of all time, but he will be remembered as a great one for many reasons. He introduced health care to millions of Americans, he en- acted the DREAM Act, he brought us out of a Republican-induced recession and he is the first president to actually try to pass real measures to ensure a green planet, such as the Clean Power Plan. He will go down as one of the top ten presidents and Republicans are afraid to admit it.
