First Six Months of President Obama’s Administration

It’s important to remember where we were when President Obama took office just about six months ago.

·        The President inherited the worst economic crisis in a generation, and our country was teetering on the edge of another depression.

• The economy was losing 700,000 jobs a month on average.
• The growth rate was negative 6.3 percent – the worst since the 1982 recession.
• Foreclosures had hit record levels and residential investment had dropped by more than 40 percent in just 18 months.
• Banks were in crisis and lending was frozen.
• Nearly $10 trillion in wealth was lost in the stock market which was on a steady downward trajectory.

Now, just six months into his first term in office, President Obama has taken necessary steps to stabilize our economy, put us on the road to recovery, and rebuild a new, stronger foundation for long term growth.

On the economy, equal rights, the environment, valuing science and service, restoring our reputation around the world and setting the special interests straight, President Obama is enacting an ambitious agenda that is helping to get our economy moving again and changing the way things in Washington get done.

Let me give you just a few examples:

President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the most sweeping economy recovery plan in American history.

The Recovery Act has worked to stabilize economic conditions and help those harmed by the economic crisis.

The plan has kept teachers in the classroom, police officers on the street, and put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges and waterways.

Because of the Recovery Act, right now:

• 95 percent of working families are receiving the Making Work Pay tax credit in their paychecks.
• Those dealing with a job loss are collecting an additional $25 a week in unemployment benefits – assistance more than 12 million Americans have already benefited from.
• Families who rely on COBRA health insurance are paying 65 percent less for their health coverage.
• Families who qualifying for food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) have seen their benefits increase by more than 13 percent.
• More than 51 million seniors, as well as veterans and other high-need groups, have received $250 relief payments.
• More than 7 million low and moderate-income students will receive a 15 percent increase in their Pell Grant awards to help pay for college.
• State governments have received more than $34 billion in additional Medicaid funds just as they are facing record budget shortfalls.
• And tens of thousands of teachers, law enforcement officials and firefighters have been able to stay on the job because of the billions of dollars in Recovery Act assistance made available to state and local governments.

President Obama and his team also took steps to address our housing crisis to keep people in their homes. Two landmark pieces of legislation are addressing the problems that that helped set off our economic crisis.

• The Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act (FERA) 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. It expands the Department of Justice’s ability to prosecute at virtually every step of the process from predatory lending on Main Street to the manipulation on Wall Street.
• The Helping Families Save Their Homes Act expands on the success of the Making Home Affordable Program first announced in February.  By reducing foreclosures around the country, the average homeowner could see their house price bolstered by as much as $6,000 as a result of this plan, and as many as 9 million homeowners could get help making their mortgages affordable and avoid preventable foreclosures.

The Obama Administration also took the difficult but necessary action to keep America’s financial and automotive sectors from collapsing, which would only have further shocked our economy.

And moving forward, President Obama’s budget makes historic investments in health care, energy and education to help us move beyond the bubble and bust economy of the past, to one of sustained economic prosperity for all.

President Obama re-authorized and expanded health insurance to four million more low income children through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), an action President Bush vetoed twice. Now, 11 million children are covered under SCHIP.

President Obama lifted a ban on federal funding of stem cell research, ensuring that scientific decisions are based on facts, not ideology.

The President signed a national service bill (Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act) create hundreds of thousands of opportunities for people to serve their communities.

• During his first few weeks in office President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, finally guaranteeing equal pay for equal work -- something activists all over this country have dreamed about for a long, long time.
• The President signed a presidential memorandum that will extend key federal benefits to the same-sex partners of Foreign Service and executive branch government employees. This was just one step, but it is a critical one – and it paves the way for long-overdue progress in our pursuit of equality and a more perfect union.
• President Obama signed comprehensive credit card reform into law – the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD) – that will level the playing field by stopping unfair credit card company practices that have been confusing and unfair to American families for far too long.
• President Obama signed new tobacco legislation – Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act - that will finally give the FDA broad authority to regulate the manufacturing and marketing of tobacco products. This landmark legislation that will prevent tobacco companies from marketing to our kids and do more to protect our kids and improve our public health than any tobacco law in a generation.
• President Obama signed the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009, one of the most sweeping pieces of conservation and public land management legislation in years. Among other things, the bill designates about 2 million acres of new wilderness areas.
• President Obama announced new national emissions and fuel efficiency standards for American cars and light trucks. For the first time ever, limits on greenhouse gas emissions will be combined with fuel economy standards in one single standard.
• These new standards will make the American car fleet cleaner and more efficient, saving families money at the pump, while reducing harmful emissions. (By 2016, the American fleet will be almost 40 percent cleaner and more fuel-efficient than it is today, with an average of 35.5 miles per gallon.)
• President Obama has also taken important steps to restore our alliances and our standing around the world.
• The Obama Administration has prohibited torture, and has begun the work of leaving Iraq to its people, taking the fight to al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, rebuilding our military, and restoring our alliances and our standing around the world.
• President Obama’s first Supreme Court nomination, Sonia Sotomayor. Justice Sotomoyor brings more federal judicial experience to the Supreme Court than any justice in 100 years. She is the Court’s first Latina Justice and the third woman to serve.
• Now, the President is working to pass comprehensive health insurance reform that will lower costs, guarantees choice and ensures all Americans have access to quality, affordable care.
• Every President since Harry Truman has tried and failed to reform our system, but we are closer than ever to passing real reform.
• Reform will end unfair insurance industry practices and provide everyone – people who already have insurance, and those who don’t – with eight basic consumer protections to make sure the American people are getting a fair deal from the insurance companies.
• President Obama will continue to create a new energy policy that will help fuel a lasting economic recovery, break our dependence on foreign oil, jumpstart our clean energy economy with the creation of millions of new good, green new jobs and finally address the dangerous carbon pollution that threatens our planet.
• Working to reform our financial regulatory system, by building on the strengths of our current regulatory structure and correcting its flaws. Reform will fix the gaps and weaknesses in our regulations to help guard against future crises. And give regulators the tools they need to respond quickly to any future crisis, and to prevent that crisis from causing widespread harm.
• Working to reform our education system, so America’s students are competitive and can succeed in the global economy.
• President Obama has done more during the first six months of his presidency than most presidents accomplish during their entire time in office.
• The President is making the tough choices and critical (often long overdue) investments in our infrastructure and in our future. While President Obama and his team continue their work to rescue our economy, they are also working to rebuild it stronger than before so America is ready to compete and lead in the 21st century.
   

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