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 (any?) 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.
A central site, which I cannot view through my firewall, is:
obamaachievements.org. H/T to ParkRanger. I must credit RhodaA and icemilkcoffee for providing a score or more of suggestions each.
Related to Jobs
- 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
- Expanded loan opportunities for small business
- Saved General Motors, Chrysler, and tens of thousands of American jobs
- Jobs Creation Bill (highway funds, small business tax incentives)
Related to Health Care
- 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 health care act closed the Medicare prescription "donut hole"
- The health care act gives tax credits to help people afford their premiums
- Insurance companies can no longer require you to get permission before seeking emergency treatment
- COBRA subsidized
- End to lifetime limits on coverage
- Phasing out of annual limits on coverage
Related to Taxes / Economy / Finance
- The stimulus act included $288 billion in tax cuts
- Lily Ledbetter Act - equal pay for women
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (and Elizabeth Warren)
- FDIC has a mechanism for unwinding the failure of large financial institutions at no cost to taxpayers
- Authority to regulate derivatives
- Lenders must verify mortgage applicants employment and credit
- CARD Act - Credit Card reform
- Tourism Promotion Act
- Expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit
- First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit increased
- Child tax credit increased
- Unemployment extended several times
- Went after Swiss bank USB and obtained the names of 20,000 American tax cheats
Related to Socio-economic issues
- The first Latino on the Supreme Court, Sonya Sotomayor
- The fourth woman overall and third current female justice, Elena Kagan
- $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!)
- Violence Against Women Act
- Ryan White HIV / AIDS Treatment Extension Act
- NEA funding at highest level since 1992
- Crime rate dropped in 2009 despite bad economy
- HIV travel ban repealed
- Record number of illegal immigrant deportations
- Over 1 million illegal immigrants left the country
- Highest number of border guards ever
- Border crossings at their lowest point in 20+ years
- $3.4B settlement with Native Americans who have been robbed of royalties
- Lowered cost of student loans
Related to LGBT issues
H/T to marabout40
- Hosted a reception for 300 LGBT activists at the White House to honor LGBT Pride, the first such event ever held at the WH
- appointed more openly gay people to his administration than the last two combined, including the first ever transgender appointees
- awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Harvey Milk and Billie Jean King
- signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act ... spoke out against LGBT discrimination at the National Prayer Breakfast
- spoke out about repealing Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell in his first State of the Union Address
- released the first Presidential PRIDE proclamations since 2000 ... invited gay families to the Easter Egg Roll as part of the Obama administration’s outreach to diverse communities
- welcomed four gay couples to its first State Dinner
- publicly invited shunned gay Mississippi high school prom student to the White House
- convened the first-ever anti-bullying summit to craft a national strategy to reduce bullying in schools
- reversed the US’s position by signing the UN Declaration on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
- successfully fought for UN accreditation of IGLHRC (the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission, against Republican attempts to block it ... extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees in 2009 and 2010
- issued diplomatic passports, and provided other benefits, to the partners of same-sex foreign service employees
- banned job discrimination based on gender identity throughout the Federal government (the nation’s largest employer)
- instructed HHS to require any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds (virtually all hospitals) to allow LGBT visitation rights
- extended the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program
- issued a National HIV/AIDS Strategy praised as "long-overdue" by the Task Force, Lambda and others
- eliminated the discriminatory Census Bureau policy that kept gay relationships from being counted, encouraging couples who consider themselves married to file that way, even if their state of residence does not yet permit legal marriage
- produced U.S. Census Bureau PSAs featuring gay, lesbian, and transgender spokespersons
- extended domestic violence protections to LGBT victims ... extended the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover employees taking unpaid leave to care for the children of same-sex partners
- required all grant applicants seeking HUD funding to comply with state and local anti-discrimination laws that protect LGBT individuals
- issued guidance specifically to assist LGBT tenants denied housing on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity...
- Matthew Shepard Act
- FMLA for domestic partners
- Some (minor?) federal employee benefits for domestic partners
- Hospital visitation rights for domestic partners
Related to Military
- Improved funding for mental health at the Veteran's Administration
- Fully fund the Veteran's Administration
- End of combat operations in Iraq
- Improved support for the military to speak foreign languages
- Kept us free from successful terrorist attacks for at least three times as long as the previous administration
- Stop-loss phased out
- PTSD diagnosis and treatment streamlined
- F-22 cancelled
Related to Foreign Policy
- Americans have unlimited rights to visit family in Cuba and send them money
- Russia is not selling weapons to Iran
- Nuclear arms reduction treaties between US and USSR
- Hillary Clinton, SoS
- George Mitchell, Special Envoy to the Mideast
Related to Science / Technology / Environment
- Another space shuttle flight
- Support commercial access to space flight
- Increased investment in alternative energy
- Permit stem cell research
- The Clean Up Act
- Increased funding for NSF
- EPA rules revised to address Climate Change
- Car emission standards revised
- Cash for Clunkers retired 680,000; replaced vehicles getting an average of 15.7 mpg with vehicles averaging 24.9 mpg
- BP escrow account of $20B
- MMS requires more stringent environmental reviews before approving drilling
Related to governing
- Barred lobbyist gifts to executive branch employees
- More rational sentences for drug offenders
- EPA regulations are no longer run by industry lobbyists before being enacted
- Tribal Law and Order Act
- Omnibus Public Lands Management Act
- Edward M Kennedy Serve America Act
- Congressional Ethics Enforcement Commission Act
- Transparency and Integrity in Earmarks Act
- Torture banned
- PAYGO
Version 1.0 of this diary was posted here.
Tiny bit of near-meta: you ought to be able to find something to please almost any Democratic voter on this list.