Obama is building a legislative record worthy of FDR & LBJ

New Deal Programs, 1933-1934

United States bank holiday, 1933: closed all banks until they became certified by federal reviewers
Abandonment of gold standard, 1933: allowed more money to be put in circulation to create a mild inflation
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), 1933: employed young adults to perform unskilled work for the federal government
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), 1933: a government program that ran a series of dams built on the Tennessee River
Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), 1933: provided breadlines and other aid to the unemployed
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), 1933: paid farmers to not grow crops
National Recovery Act (NRA), 1933: created fair standards in favor of labor unions
Civil Works Administration (CWA), 1933: provided temporary jobs to millions of unemployed
Public Works Administration (PWA), 1933: employed middle-aged skilled workers to work on public projects, cost $4 billion
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) / Glass-Steagall Act: insures deposits in banks in order to restore public confidence in banks
Securities Act of 1933, created the SEC, 1933: codified standards for sale and purchase of stock, required risk of investments to be accurately disclosed
Indian Reorganization Act, 1934




Representative sampling of the laws passed during the Johnson administration to promote the Great Society--November 1963-July, 1965


HIGHER EDUCATION FACILITIES ACT OF 1963 DEC. 16, 1963

PREVENTION & ABATEMENT OF AIR POLLUTION
(THE CLEAN AIR ACT) DEC. 17, 1963

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION ACT OF 1963 DEC. 18, 1963

INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK ACT JAN. 22, 1964

CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964 JULY 2, 1964

URBAN MASS TRANSPORTATION ACT OF 1964 JULY 9, 1964

FEDERAL-AID HIGHWAY ACT OF 1964 AUG. 13, 1964

CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT OF 1964 AUG. 20, 1964

FOOD STAMP ACT OF 1964 AUG. 31, 1964

WILDERNESS ACT SEPT. 3, 1964

NATIONAL ARTS CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 1964 SEPT. 3, 1964

MANPOWER ACT OF 1965 APRIL 26, 1965

OLDER AMERICANS ACT OF 1965 JULY 14, 1965

SOCIAL SECURITY AMENDMENTS OF 1965 JULY 30, 1965





Obama Administration Accomplishments, 2009-July, 2010

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion economic stimulus package aimed at helping the economy recover from the deepening worldwide recession. The largest economic stimulus bill ever passed.

He signed into law the successful Car Allowance Rebate System, known colloquially as "Cash for Clunkers", running from July to August 2009, which not only reduced inventories but set off increased production runs at GM, Ford and Toyota, resulting in the rehiring of laid-off workers.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, relaxing the statute of limitations for equal-pay lawsuits

Obama has appointed two women to the U.S. Supreme Court--including the First Latino to sit on the high court.

Obama reversed a Bush-era policy which had limited funding of embryonic stem cell research to only a small number of lines.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a measure that expands the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

The reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover an additional 4 million children currently uninsured.

Health Care Reform--(Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act)Landmark reform of health care that presidents since Truman have proposed.

The Senate passed last week major overhaul of the Financial Markets--the first major overhaul since the 30's. The House and Senate will recocile a bill which is expected to be passed by July 4.

Three GREAT DEMOCRATS

a few:

• The President delivered health care reform, ending a nearly 100-year quest.
  
  
• The Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
  
  
• Education Affordability Reconciliation Act
  
  
• The Food and Drug Administration permitted for the first time to regulate tobacco.
  
  
• See this for details on the green revolution.

Looking forward to financial reform:

• Creates Consumer Protections with Authority and Independence
  
  
• Establishes The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
  
  
• EstablishesThe Financial Stability Oversight Council
  
  
• Creates an Office of Credit Ratings at the SEC
  
  
• Enacts Volcker Rule
  
  
• Regulates Hedge Funds for the first time ever

To quote Maddow:

...about current dems who complain a lot is they're not willing to work for those numbers for Obama

as they would any president's. FDR and LBJ were giants.

considered landmarks.

The other two are coporatist giveaways masquerading as "reform".

Knowing so much was accomplished in so little time, yet people still complain.

It frankly makes Obama's accomplishments look rather small. HCR and financial reform are nothing to be proud of, since one is going to eviscerate the middle class and the other is doing little about the most egregious offenders. Oh, and that stimulus, let's not forget it was made up of forty percent tax cuts, the least stimulating of recovery tactics.

This would be laughable if not for being so pathetic.

especially when one ignores the full breadth of the President's achievements in only 18 months.

A few:

• The President delivered health care reform, ending a nearly 100-year quest.
  
  
• The Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
  
  
• Education Affordability Reconciliation Act
  
  
• The Food and Drug Administration permitted for the first time to regulate tobacco.
  
  
• See this for details on the green revolution.

Looking forward to financial reform:

• Creates Consumer Protections with Authority and Independence
  
  
• Establishes The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
  
  
• EstablishesThe Financial Stability Oversight Council
  
  
• Creates an Office of Credit Ratings at the SEC
  
  
• Enacts Volcker Rule
  
  
• Regulates Hedge Funds for the first time ever

To quote Maddow:

For instance, HCR, a mandated monopoly handed to the insurance industry with no price controls put in place (except Obama's stern warnings:rofl:) and no public option. This is not an accomplishment, this is a program that will destroy the middle and working class.

Not to mention other accomplishments, like dragging us deeper into the quagmire of an illegal, immoral, unwinnable war, launching an all out attack on public education, and now looking like an attack on Social Security and Medicare.

What this president has done is simply taken us further down the path of government by, of and for corporations.

:woohoo:

FDR, LBJ, :rofl: I think not.

Social Security and Medicare have improved from what they were when first enacted.

What you overlook is that health care reform, when medical costs are bankrupting millions of Americans, will have a significant impact.

Other reforms, credit card, student loan, finanical, will also have a huge impact. There is also potential in the climate/energy bill.

and major investments in high speed rail. Along with cash for clunkers taking gas guzzlers off the road, those were excellent ways to reduce our reliance on oil.
Effectively ending mountaintop removal coal mining.

I believe the environment is his area of greatest accomplishment so far.

As someone who remembers the LBJ administration (and whose mother remembers the FDR administration), neither of us gets that sense of transformative change and wrongs being righted that was in the air during both the LBJ and FDR administrations.

When it comes to QUALITY of legislation versus QUANTITY, I'll take LBJ and FDR any day.

doesn't mean that my opinion isn't as valid as yours. I do consider these substantial accomplishments. Apparently even Rachel Maddow agrees:
"Love this administration or hate it, this president is getting a lot done. The last time any president did this much in office, booze was illegal. If you believe in policy, if you believe in government that addresses problems, cheers to that. Good night."

No one around me seemed to know that.

which is why I did. I'm saying he is building a record--he certainly hasn't achieved a record yet as great as FDR and LBJ, but he is doing more than most new presidents.

in the right direction instead of reinforcing Republican ideas.

The provision about requiring everyone to buy private health insurance is an idea the REPUBLICANS were floating as early as the Reagan administration. I heard about it at the time, and ridiculed it. "Oh, and I suppose the cure for homelessness is to require everyone to buy a house."

Little did I know that 30 years later, a Democratic president and Congress would be institutionalizing this idea and having the gall to brag about it.

as early as the Nixon administration. Reference NHIPA

I mean...really?

Reminds me of the time that all the media (the only exception being small, left-wing magazines) were calling Ronald Reagan "the most popular president since FDR."

Only after RR was out of office did the New York Times admit that his popularity ratings had been about the same as Jimmy Carter's.

On the chance that this narrative is fiction, put forth even in good will to bolster support of a Democrat, wouldn't it act to alter perception and pacify the left, thereby relieving leftward pressure on the Obama administration and legislators?

Even if this type of congratulatory analysis is offered with the best intentions, it could have very negative consequences if believed by Obama's leftist opponents. I simply cannot see this as constructive, by any means. Reality needs to stand on its own, without pre-packaged talking points trying to manipulate the political discussion.

Love this administration or hate it, this president is getting a lot done. The last time any president did this much in office, booze was illegal. If you believe in policy, if you believe in government that addresses problems, cheers to that. Good night--Rachel Maddow.

I don't see what is wrong with pointing out accomplishments, but I guess some people have a problem with everything.

Opposite of "record worthy of FDR & LBJ" is not "terrible President"

Are you trying to suggest now that someone can only think either?

What happened to being realistic, and knowing of both accomplishments and faults?

In terms of accomplishments, Obama is on a track like FDR and LBJ were. They got things done and so is he, plus he's got more time to get even more done. No one is saying he has accomplished more than those two Presidents.

"In terms of accomplishments, Obama is on a track like FDR and LBJ were."

But if that's how you perceived it, whatever.

Quantity (the ability to get things done) is most certainly being emphasized here in this comparison to great liberal leaders of the past. I won't contend this point; its the nature of the reforms that I find fault in.

are all landmarks in legislation--passed in less than a year and half.

Then I definitely agree with you.

been built on over the years and I believe that Obama's programs will be too.

"Building" on the capitalistic (private, for-profit), multi-tiered health insurance reform while keeping spirit with its philosophical foundations simply will not ever produce an egalitarian health care system. Capitalistic health care is simply not compatible with efficient, egalitarian health care.

A "reform" isn't a reform if it takes off in the wrong direction, and "building upon it" will only temporarily shore up a bad idea.

Comprehensive "health care reform" did not pass, and was not really sought by this administration. What we got was a realignment of the for-profit health insurance system we already had.

There is something to be said for the actual execution of those things that needs to be compared, rather than just names and dates. Are Obama's programs and legislation truly similar in scope, magnitude, and effect to those effected by FDR and LBJ?

They NEED people to believe we have EPIC LEADERSHIP making EPIC CHANGES when we actually just have competent managers making some refinements to keep the status quo humming along.

Major Overhaul of the Financial Markets, indeed! This groundbreaking reform doesn't quite get us back to the oversight pre-Clinton. Continued funding for a program from another administration. HCR, no Change, just more money for Insurance and Drug companies for a very small modification of their crooked rules, and reforms to occur far in the future. Hate Crime legislation don't make anything illegal, that wasn't already illegal, but now you can do time for your thoughts - not monumental reform.

These kinds of posts have the slight fragrance of desperation.

This transparent spin attempt is beyond pathetic.

FDR welcomed the hatred of the Bankers.
Obama welcomed them into the White House.

And bailed them out.



Why do you think banks still exists?

Sounds downright "communist" these days...

of the 1927 Yankees.

Not...quite... yet