Governor Martin O'Malley And The Large Foot In His Mouth

So, I only watch Sunday morning political talk shows when Rachel Maddow is on (and she’s not on very often) so not usually.  But yesterday, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley managed to throw President Obama’s re-election campaign under the bus (which he later clarified) The question from Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation was, ”can you honestly say that people are better off today than they were four years ago?” to which O’Malley responded with, “no.”

Hmmm.

I guess Governor O’Malley hasn’t been paying much attention to what’s been going on in the country the last four years.  Really?  No?!  I know I’m a progressive and all, and somewhat “biased,” but let’s be clear here.  If we’re comparing our country now to the Bush years, I would have yelled a resounding “YES!” to Mr. Schieffer.

Just take a look at this graph in terms of job growth.

(and just in case you need some helping reading, George W. Bush is in the red.)

Overall Economy – Courtesy of the Rachel Maddow Show

Private Sector Jobs – Courtesy of the Rachel Maddow Show

Yeah…that’s what I thought.

Now, if that doesn’t help you to understand even more, how successful the Obama presidency has been, here are just a few more accomplishments:

• Donald Trump Humiliated by President Obama
• The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009: a $789 billion economic stimulus plan
• Osama Bin Laden Killed
• Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
• Obama Administration No Longer Defending the Defense of Marriage Act
• Appointed more openly gay officials than any other president in US history
• Created more private sector jobs in 2010 than during entire Bush years
• Signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, restoring basic protections against pay discrimination for women and other workers
• Appointed first Latina to the US Supreme Court
• Signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, giving the FDA the authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of tobacco for the first time
• Voluntary disclosure of White House visitors for the first time in US history 
• Signed New START Treaty – nuclear arms reduction pact with Russia
• Promoted social responsibility through creation of serve.gov, a national database of volunteer opportunities
• Reversed ‘global gag rule’, allowing US aid to go to organizations regardless of whether they provide abortions
• Provided travel expenses to families of fallen soldiers to be on hand when the body arrives at Dover AFB
• Reversed the policy of barring media coverage during the return of fallen soldiers to Dover Air Force Base
• Launched recovery.gov to track spending from the Recovery Act, providing transparency and allowing the public to report fraud, waste, or abuse
• Provided the Department of Veterans Affairs with more than $1.4 billion to improve services to America’s Veterans
• Signed the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, which provides health care to 11 million kids — 4 million of whom were previously uninsured
• Issued executive order to repeal Bush era restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research
• Developed stimulus package, which includes approx. $18 billion for nondefense scientific research and development
• Signed the Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act to stop fraud and wasteful spending in the defense procurement and contracting system
• Increased minority access to capital
• Established Credit Card Bill of Rights, preventing credit card companies from imposing arbitrary rate increases on customers
• Health Care Reform Bill, preventing insurance companies from denying insurance because of a pre-existing condition
• Health Care Reform Bill, allowing children to remain covered by their parents’ insurance until the age of 26
• Tax cuts for up to 3.5 million small businesses to help pay for employee health care coverage
• Tax credits for up to 29 million individuals to help pay for health insurance
• Expansion of Medicaid to all individuals under age 65 with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level
• Require health insurance plans to disclose how much of the premium actually goes to patient care
• Added 4.6 billion USD to the Veterans Administration budget to recruit and retain more mental health professionals
• Significantly increased funding for the Violence Against Women Act
• Eliminated subsidies to private lender middlemen of student loans and protect student borrowers
• Expanded hate crime law in the US to include sexual orientation through the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
• Signed financial reform law establishing a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to look out for the interests of everyday Americans
• Signed financial reform law requiring lenders to verify applicants’ credit history, income, and employment status
• Signed financial reform law allowing shareholders of publicly traded companies to vote on executive pay
• Cut prescription drug cost for medicare recipients by 50%
• Provided $12.2 Billion in new funding for Individuals With Disabilities Education Act
• Extended Benefits to same-sex partners of federal employee

You get my point, right?

This is just a few things President Obama and his administration have done since taking office in January, 2009

Honestly, we could go on and on, but we won’t.  Instead, I will let President Obama and his colleagues do that during this week’s Democratic National Convention.

But to understand all of these accomplishments and the complexities that went with them, you also need to understand empirical evidence, which many American’s don’t even bother with anymore (look at climate change)  We have seen success these last few years.  Instead, American’s sit through hours upon hours of conservative commentators and politicians who just flat out lie, producing no real facts, painting the President and his administration as a failure, instead of helping him and others in Congress do the right thing for America.

No wonder it looks like the President hasn’t done anything!  This is the sort of thing you see on television day in and day out and the media doesn’t bother to fact check.

But honestly, let’s look back at the fall of 2008.  Do you remember what it was like?  America was on the brink of collapse.  I remember driving to work on the 710 freeway in Los Angeles, listening to NPR about how AIG was done.  DONE!

As someone advocating on the front lines of the foreclosure crisis in Los Angeles back then, the middle class were facing incredible challenges already, and by this point, by September 2008, things were only going to get worse.  It was so bad that Senator John McCain, then running for President, decided to take the “day off” of campaigning to fly to Washington, DC to “help out?”

Remember what a disaster that was?

Going back would be a disaster.

If conservatives are sick and tired of hearing us progressives continue to blame the Bush Administration for our great recession, four years after President Obama’s inauguration, it’s because we should never forget.  It was easy for conservatives to forget George W. Bush during last week’s Republican National Convention, but it’s not that simple for us.  President Bush was not mentioned because those Bush years are a reminder to Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan of how his policies (their policies now) have ruined our economy for many years to come, a disaster that was left to the Obama administration to fix and who has done what he can under the circumstances.

I’d rather not throw in any of the football metaphor’s both candidates have been throwing around lately but honestly.  Do you really want to pull the star quarterback from a very important game they’re close to winning? I didn’t think so.

So the question is simple, Governor O’Malley.  Are we better off than we were four years ago?  Absolutely!