8 years of suffering under Barack Obama
I posted this on a political page on FB for all the naysayers; thought someone here might need/want to share.
https://tericarter.wordpress.com/2017/07/10/8-years-of-suffering-under-obama/
8 years of suffering under Barack Obama
Teri Carter
Photo credit: The Associated Press
The sentence I hear most from well-meaning, conservative friends since President Trump’s election is this: “We suffered 8 years under Barack Obama.”
Fair enough. Let’s take a look.
The day Obama took office, the Dow closed at 7,949 points. Eight years later, the Dow had almost tripled, closing at 21,414.
General Motors and Chrysler were on the brink of bankruptcy, with Ford not far behind, and their failure, along with their supply chains, would have meant the loss of millions of jobs. Obama pushed through a controversial, $8o billion bailout to save the car industry. The U.S. car industry survived, started making money again, and the entire $80 billion was paid back, with interest.
While we remain vulnerable to lone-wolf attacks, no foreign terrorist organization has successfully executed a mass attack here since 9/11.
Obama ordered the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.
He drew down the number of troops from 180,000 in Iraq and Afghanistan to just 15,000, and increased funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
He launched a program called Opening Doors which, since 2010, has led to a 47 percent decline in the number of homeless veterans.
He set a record 73 straight months of private-sector job growth.
Due to Obama’s regulatory policies, greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 12%, production of renewable energy more than doubled, and our dependence on foreign oil was cut in half.
He signed The Lilly Ledbetter Act, making it easier for women to sue employers for unequal pay.
His Omnibus Public Lands Management Act designated more than 2 million acres as wilderness, creating thousands of miles of trails and protecting over 1,000 miles of rivers.
He reduced the federal deficit from 9.8 percent of GDP in 2009 to 3.2 percent in 2016.
For all the inadequacies of the Affordable Care Act, we seem to have forgotten that, before the ACA, you could be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition and kids could not stay on their parents’ policies up to age 26.
Obama approved a $14.5 billion system to rebuild the levees in New Orleans.
All this, even as our own Mitch McConnell famously asserted that his singular mission would be to block anything President Obama tried to do.
While Obama failed on his campaign pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, that prison’s population decreased from 242 to around 50.
He expanded funding for embryonic stem cell research, supporting groundbreaking advancement in areas like spinal injury treatment and cancer.
Credit card companies can no longer charge hidden fees or raise interest rates without advance notice.
Most years, Obama threw a 4th of July party for military families. He held babies, played games with children, served barbecue, and led the singing of “Happy Birthday” to his daughter Malia, who was born on July 4.
Welfare spending is down: for every 100 poor families, just 24 receive cash assistance, compared with 64 in 1996.
Obama comforted families and communities following more than a dozen mass shootings. After Sandy Hook, he said, “The majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old.”
Yet, he never took away anyone’s guns.
He sang Amazing Grace, spontaneously, at the altar.
He was the first president since Eisenhower to serve two terms without personal or political scandal.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
President Obama was not perfect, as no man and no president is, and you can certainly disagree with his political ideologies. But to say we suffered?
If that’s the argument, if this is how we suffered for 8 years under Barack Obama, I have one wish: may we be so fortunate as to suffer 8 more exactly like it.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Not with all that breaking stuff 
Thanks Babylon Sister. I believe that future historians will consider Barack Obama one of our very best Presidents ever.
Maybe not in my lifetime, I'm already 66 years old.
But Obama himself may live to see the day.
I certainly hope so!
Thank you
Peace
for his use of a closed public beach and the criticism it drew. Really? I'm not sure any anti-American pro-Russian Republican should be calling anyone by that term. F*ck You Chris Christie!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/07/10/new-jersey-is-calling-chris-christie-names-and-now-hes-calling-them-names-right-back/?utm_term=.e7ada74429de
This, America, is the Grand Old Party of Republicans. Do as I say and not as I do.
They are also the party the brought on the Great Depression of 1929 and the Great Recession of 2007 - 2009. And yet, the public still falls for their well crafted grifting ads during election season and they continue "winning." It defies logical thought how a republican, any republican gets elected at all. They are a national embarrassment and unfit to serve on any level.
PBO 
And that's what drives them so nuts. The fact that, deep down inside, they KNOW he was a great President; but he was ON THE OTHER TEAM. So, all of his victories just made them madder and more frustrated. Whether they realize it or not, that's what they mean by 'eight years of "suffering" under Obama.'
Dare I hope that the events of the last few days may be the beginning of the end of this Nightmare? 
They need to be called out on just WHY they were "suffering".
...look back.
It feels like he's been gone forever -
Now thanks to the fucking assholes we have it's somehow socially acceptable to be a racist douchebag out in the open. 
to give the rabid right another dose of reality, babylonsister!
I WISH we could "suffer" under Trump like we did with President Obama. 
But that's not to be, and we're finding out what REAL suffering is like under the Trump crime family's control.
I shouldn't really say "control", because everything with the Trump crime family is totally OUT OF CONTROL! 
How I miss having a REAL President in the White House, with a family the country could be proud of. A President who conducted himself with dignity and class, knowledge and foresight. I've almost forgotten what it was like, and he's only been 6 months removed. Six months of Trump and his mis-administration has already seemed like an eternity. 
So what was wrong with President Obama? They usually dont have a good answer. They can bitch but they dont know why
