Cross-Posted at The Progressive Zionist
Last night while driving, I was listening to the Sirius XM Left (channel 127) Show, Make It Plain with Mark Thompson and he was quoting a piece from Think Progress titled: FACTS: The State Of The Union by Judd Legum
Given the quality of the State of the Union Address last night, I thought it would be a good thing to cite this article and bring some of these facts to any discussion to be had with Republican friends or collegues
So here are some of Pro-President Obama facts Legum cited:
Since the last SOTU, the economy has created 1.9 million private sector jobs.
Source: http://www.bls.gov/...
Also in the Bureau of Labor Report: Government jobs FELL by 280,000 from 2010 (mostly at the State Level and with the Republican attack on the Post Office - thanks Republicans!)
Interesting footnotes:
Healthcare Employment hiring rose by 315,000
Professional and Businesses hiring rose by 420,000
Leisure Industry was up by 240,000 jobs
Manufacturing was up by 196,000 jobs
Sad Footnote: African Americans at 15.8% and Hispanic Americans at 11% unemployment rates lagged behind their Caucasion (7.3%) and Asian counterparts (6.8%) by significant margins.
Private sector job creation under Obama in 2011 was larger than seven out of the eight years Bush was president.
Source: http://thinkprogress.org/...
Politifact (who is seemingly dropping the ball in fact checking lately) though disputes this BUT does have this to say:
We understand the impulse to make such adjustments, but in Pelosi’s formulation, this principle is applied unequally. If the first year of the Bush administration, which also included a recession, were excluded from her calculation-- this would have magically erased a loss of 2.4 million jobs under Bush. The next seven years of the Bush presidency would have shown a gain of nearly 1.8 million jobs, rather than a loss of 653,000 for the full eight-year period.
Interestingly, if Pelosi had started the count for each president at the beginning of the second year of their presidencies, it would not only have been more defensible methodologically, but it would have also backed up Pelosi's argument better. Leaving out the first year for each president, private-sector job growth under Obama would have been 2.4 million, compared to 1.8 million under Bush.
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 2.5 million young adults gained health insurance
Source:http://www.hhs.gov/...
HHS had this to say:
Today, the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released data illustrating that the Affordable Care Act continues to significantly increase the number of young adults who have health insurance.
Because of the health care law, young adults can stay on their parents' insurance plans until age 26. This policy took effect in September 2010. Data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) shows that since September 2010, the percentage of adults aged 19-25 covered by a private health insurance plan increased significantly, with approximately 2.5 million more young adults with insurance coverage compared to the number of young adults who would have been insured without the law.
Also on Healthcare:
2.65 million seniors saved an average of $569 on prescriptions last year thanks to the Affordable Care Act
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/...
The article cited in USAToday had this comment:
WASHINGTON – More than 2.65 million Medicare recipients have saved more than $1.5 billion on their prescriptions this year, a $569-per-person average, while premiums have remained stable, the government plans to announce today.
That's because of the provision of the health care law that put a 50% discount on prescription drugs in the "doughnut hole," the gap between traditional and catastrophic coverage in the drug benefit, also known as Part D.
And, as of the end of November, more than 24 million people, or about half of those with traditional Medicare, have gone in for a free annual physical or other screening exam since the rules changed this year because of the health care law.
Finally for those suffering with Obama Derangement Syndrome (ODS) and their overweening concern that the President is "Soft on Terror".....
“In 2011, the United States killed Al Qaeda’s most effective propagandist, Anwar al-Awlaki; its operating chief, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman; and of course its founder, chief executive and spiritual leader, Osama bin Laden.”
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/...
This from an editorial in the NY Times that had this to say:
Take Al Qaeda, our most consistent adversary (by their definition and ours) since the 9/11 attacks. Despite some severe missteps, we have in 10 years degraded Al Qaeda’s capabilities to the point that they are having difficulty mounting attacks against significant targets. In 2011, the United States killed Al Qaeda’s most effective propagandist, Anwar al-Awlaki; its operating chief, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman; and of course its founder, chief executive and spiritual leader, Osama bin Laden. Moreover, the Arab Spring undercut the notion that political change in the Middle East requires the violent jihad that Bin Laden spent his career espousing.
The fight against extremist Islam is an impossible one in which to declare success. Yet the fact remains that while Al Qaeda began the War on Terror with a horrific assault on the foremost symbols of U.S. economic and military power, it leaves 2011 effectively leaderless, rudderless and reduced to boasting about kidnapping defenseless U.S. aid workers.
This article goes on to make some very salient points regarding actions taken by the Administration to keep our position in the world strong.
ADDITIONALLY in Legum's article there are a number of stats regarding the State of our nation and things that need to be improved. Amongst these - facts that as a Nation we are lagging in University Education, Infrastructure development, that fact that 47% of all families receiving foodstamps have working parents, since citizens united corporations are paying LESS in taxes than they are giving to Political campaigns, amongst other things.
Anyway... Please discuss
Please discuss