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My summary (and the reasons for my discontent) of Obama's Presidency
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greekboi wrote
at 7:45 PM, Wednesday May 18, 2011 EDT
Can someone PLEASE tell me what good Obama has done for this country since the start of his Presidency? You can write an essay or list bullets, either way is fine. I'm not sure you will be needing more than a sentence though.
Without further ado, here's my summary of Obama's Presidency (in no particular order of importance or chronology) : -he's shown a lack of convictions/decisiveness (very diplomatically stated) that has been displayed through his failure to implement any of the changes he advocated in his campaign that made him such an attractive candidate -->his health care reform is good in theory, but it is constitutionally offensive, and it won't work without tort reform (did i mention the bill was over 2000 pages long and didn't even begin to explain how the program would be implemented?) -->he did not close Guantanamo Bay, nor did he investigate if any human rights abuses occurred during GWB's term -->he did NOT end American involvement in the ongoing wars in the Middle East -->he bombed Gaddafi's personal dwelling (where his family lives) -->he dropped immigration reform -->he dumped his energy policy -->he is now caving in to the demands for increased oil drilling and less regulations, which is not only something that Liberals have historically been opposed to, but also can potentially endanger Americans while NOT dropping gasoline prices at all -->he announced a new national policy this week in which he promises to reduce drug use by focusing on prevention and treatment YET the $10 BILLION of spending on interdiction and law enforcement out of his $15.5 BILLION dollar drug-control budget is a record high in terms of dollars and percentage -->he showed an inability to react quickly to a major crisis - the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico - yet the media coverage left him relatively unscathed (which is very interesting considering the amount of blame placed on Bush for the lack of cohesiveness surrounding Katrina) -->he used the aforementioned major crisis to promote green energy (instead of cleaning it up, lol) -->he created an "economic stimulus" plan (not to be confused with President Bush's "bailout") that he said would not allow unemployment to exceed 8%, although last month it reached 9% (A HISTORIC HIGH) The only thing clear about Obama's agenda is his vision of increasing entitlement program benefits and paying for it through increased taxation of those providing the most value to society (the high income earners) and over-taxing corporations. This is a great policy, if you support socialism. |
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fcuku_ wrote
at 5:41 PM, Friday May 20, 2011 EDT IMO, we just need to demolish the Dept of Education. The whole system needs to be stripped down and made to work better. There is way too much deadweight in tx education. Just at the school district I work at, we have at least 5 programs at our school that contribute nothing to education, not to mention the 6 technology directors that do absolutely nothing outside of send us emails about this cool website they found.
The current solution from the govt is to cut the funding to education and it will make itself more efficient, but unfortunately the people in charge of how education money gets spent haven't been in the classroom in the last 15 years. I think the education system needs the equivalent of a full scale socialization German-style, but sadly having real classroom teachers deciding the future of education is a bit too logical of an idea to ever get any traction in the real world |
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fcuku_ wrote
at 5:41 PM, Friday May 20, 2011 EDT Posted from my iPhone
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K8Dice wrote
at 7:23 PM, Friday May 20, 2011 EDT Would be freaking hard to do chase.
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fcuku_ wrote
at 8:09 PM, Friday May 20, 2011 EDT I know, but the sure-fire way to make education fail is to leave it like it is. A lot of people know how important education is to maintaining a democracy, so hopefully that will spur the polity to do what they can to fix it.
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Boner Oiler wrote
at 8:15 PM, Friday May 20, 2011 EDT Everything is hard with that attitude Kate.
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Boner Oiler wrote
at 8:21 PM, Friday May 20, 2011 EDT Also Greek, Obamacare is closer to what they did in fascist Italy and Germany than socialized medicine, which is what Italy and Germany have today. Obamacare and Romneycare put the emphasis on the individual as opposed to the collective/commune that socialized medicine would foster. Honestly though we have socialized police, fire departments, national security, mail, and education... what's your objection to a more progressive healthcare system Harry?
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greekboi wrote
at 1:07 AM, Saturday May 21, 2011 EDT i dunno Alex...it takes 4 hours to renew my license at the DMV, but you think think obamacare will work?
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Cal Ripken wrote
at 9:17 AM, Saturday May 21, 2011 EDT and as soon as we shut down hospital, urgent cares, pediatrics, and every other clinic and start relying on the DMV for healthcare, then that'll be an argument that makes sense.
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Cal Ripken wrote
at 9:18 AM, Saturday May 21, 2011 EDT there should be an "every" in there, haha
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Boner Oiler wrote
at 10:09 AM, Saturday May 21, 2011 EDT The DMV is run by states no the federal government. How long does it take you to get a letter from California? 2 days I bet.
Point is, there are plenty examples of local and federal government failures, at the same time nobody talks about their successes. Look at the high way system, it was a federal project. Today you can drive from Maine to San Diego and anywhere in between. Try something like that in China or Brazil. But let me ask you this Harry, when you buy the best beer or the best wine or the best car that you can get is it American? Probably not for the most part. In America we have a tradition of buying/consuming the best, regardless of what nation it comes from. Why can't be use the best healthcare system, even if it's not an American one (read: we are the only nation in the western world without socialized healthcare). I personally feel we're better off with corporations not running the police department and I frankly think the USPS keeps the private mail carriers honest. Why can't we have a similar private/public system in the healthcare industry (like the UK or Canada or Australia has)? Now I know some people will say: Hey Alex we have the best specialists in the world, people from all over the world go to some of our doctors. My response would be, sure if you're a millionaire or billionaire you could afford to go to these doctors. But the vast majority of the population cannot, and our average doctors aren't as good as the average doctors in say, Cuba (yes Cuba), France, the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Australia, Canada, etc. Our healthcare system is ranked 36th but we pay the most of any country per capita. Tell me something isn't amiss there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHO%27s_ranking_of_health_care_systems Point is, we could literally copy another more efficient system from another country, it would instantly eliminate the deficit and we would have better health service. And honestly, do you think we should let corporations decide whether we get service or not, in some cases live or die? |