First, the disclaimer: THIS IS NOT META. {{{DFH}}} I hereby proclaim my affection and admiration for all hippies - regardless of copulatory status or personal hygiene.
This diary is not intended to persuade the reader that President Obama and / or the Democratic Party leadership are wonderful in every way. Rather, I intend to collect a list of things which people engaged in canvassing / phone banking can use. That is, if you discover that your voter cares about jobs, you can cite appropriate facts found herein.
- The stimulus act saved or created, by this summer, approximately 3 million jobs. CEA report See the link for jobs in your state - e.g., Colorado has 50,000 more jobs than it would have
- The health care act prevents discrimination against people for pre-existing conditions
- The health care act allows parents to cover their children through age 26
- The stimulus act included $288 billion in tax cuts
- The first Latino on the Supreme Court, Sonya Sotomayor
- The fourth woman overall and third current female justice, Elena Kagan
- The health care act closed the Medicare prescription "donut hole"
- Expanded loan opportunities for small business
- The health care act gives tax credits to help people afford their premiums
- Improved funding for mental health at the Veteran's Administration
- Fully fund the Veteran's Administration
- End of combat operations in Iraq
- Americans have unlimited rights to visit family in Cuba and send them money
- $2B in funding for child care
- Recruit math and science degree graduates as teachers
- Expand Pell Grants for low-income students to go to college
- Expanded access for hunting and fishing (take THAT, NRA!)
- Matthew Shepard Act
- Another space shuttle flight
- Support commercial access to space flight
- Improved support for the military to speak foreign languages
- Lily Ledbetter Act - equal pay for women
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- FDIC has a mechanism for unwinding the failure of large financial institutions at no cost to taxpayers
- Authority to regulate derivatives
- Barred lobbyist gifts to executive branch employees
- Increased investment in alternative energy
- Saved General Motors, Chrysler, and tens of thousands of American jobs
- Permit stem cell research
- Lenders must verify mortgage applicants employment and credit
- More rational sentences for drug offenders
- Russia is not selling weapons to Iran
- Insurance companies can no longer require you to get permission before seeking emergency treatment
- EPA regulations are no longer run by industry lobbyists before being enacted
- Nuclear arms reduction treaties between US and USSR
- Kept us free from successful terrorist attacks for at least three times as long as the previous administration
I think that's a start. Please feel free to contribute more positive achievements for Democrats in the last two years. And please, keep it positive and meta-free.