“So help you God?
So help me God.
Congratulations Mr. President.”
Barack Obama has had a busy first seven years as President, so in this video I’m just
going to lay out all the things his administration’s been able to accomplish.
President Obama kept his biggest campaign promise and ended the Iraq War.
And he kept the homeland extremely safe unlike his predecessor, who allowed a massive terrorist
attack against both our largest city and our capital.
President Obama also prohibited the use of torture which had been rampant under Bush.
He created the New START treaty with Russia to reduce each country’s nuclear weapons
arsenal.
A year after his inspiring “A New Beginning” speech in Cairo, young people armed only with
smartphones and laptops took to the streets in the Arab Spring uprising in Egypt that
quickly spread throughout the region.
Obama supported the revolutions by ushering Mubarak out of power and protecting the Libyan
people from genocidal madman Muammar Gaddafi.
A similar call for change in Syria turned into a devastating civil war with Bashar al-Assad
committing war crimes against his own people, including using chemical weapons on civilian
population centers.
But instead of involving the American people in another ground war, or bombing the Syrians,
Obama used these credible threats of force, and tireless diplomatic efforts of John Kerry,
to convince the Russian-backed Assad to give up his chemical weapons stockpile completely.
President Obama authorized numerous covert US special operation missions to rescue American
hostages, including the infamous night-time operation at sea to save Captain Phillips
from Somali pirates.
When it became clear the American public was uncomfortable with the reach of the NSA, Obama
reformed it to more clearly conform to the constitution.
Obama has gradually reduced the number of US troops in Afghanistan to around 10,000,
officially ending the American-led war in 2014, in favor of an Afghan-led, NATO-supported,
coalition.
He drastically reduced the number of civilian casualties caused by US air strikes in the
Middle East by using a smarter, more accountable targeting and authorization protocol.
He also ordered a shift to mostly unmanned aircraft, a strategy that both saved money
and removed American airmen from the dangers of the battlefield.
In 2011, President Obama ordered Seal Team 6 to carry out the daring mission that killed
Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Working through UN Ambassador Susan Rice, the President helped negotiate the peaceful,
diplomatic splitting of civil-war-torn Sudan into two independent countries.
He committed the United States to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Through his pivot to Asia, the President reaffirmed America’s commitment to ensuring the region
stays peaceful and healthy economically.
This pivot included more cooperation with emerging powerhouse China on a whole range
of issues, while candidly addressing differences on human rights, cybersecurity, and the South
China Sea.
Key to this pivot is the Trans Pacific Partnership, a 12-country agreement representing nearly
40 percent of global economic output, to increase American trade with the fastest growing region
in the world, and also, to blunt China’s desire for a less fair playing field among
its neighbors.
Obama ended the 50-year embargo of Cuba, normalizing relations with the island nation, reopening
the US Embassy in Havana, and visited the country with his entire family.
After Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea from Ukraine, the U.S. used sanctions to punish Russia for
violating international law, weakening Russia’s economy.
Then, after reinforcing Ukraine with arms and financial aid, Obama bolstered NATO’s
collective defenses and gave a powerful speech in Warsaw’s Castle Square on America’s
unwavering commitment to the security of its NATO allies in Eastern Europe.
When Ebola was overwhelming health workers in Africa and threatening to become a pandemic,
Obama rapidly deployed American assets to West Africa - including thousands of American
military personnel - coordinating a global effort that quickly won the struggle against
the outbreak.
The President developed a strategy to lead a 65-member coalition to degrade and destroy
ISIL, the terrorist group that had gained strength from the chaos of 12 years of war
in Iraq and Syria.
After years of painstaking work to bring Iran to the negotiating table, the Obama administration,
led by Secretary of State John Kerry, reached a deal to stop the Iranians from acquiring
a nuclear weapon.
This prevented a nuclear arms race in the Middle East and kept America’s strongest
ally in the region safe.
After taking office at the depths of the Great Recession, Obama pushed the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act through congress, which created over 2 million jobs and jump-started
an economic recovery that has now produced a record 65 consecutive months of overall
job growth, with unemployment steadily falling below 5%.
A firm believer in teamwork, he put Vice President Joe Biden in charge of managing the stimulus,
which was praised for its extraordinary lack of waste.
With millions facing foreclosure and homelessness at the height of the crisis, Obama and the
democratic congress took measures to help many stay in their homes.
And because states were cutting their budgets back, hundreds of thousands of teachers and
first responders were about to be fired, but the Recovery Act and other measures stopped
this from happening.
With General Motors on the verge of collapse, the President made the risky decision to save
it, and probably the nation’s auto industry as well.
That meant one million people kept their jobs, and last year GM finished repaying its loan,
returning to its rightful place among the world’s leading car companies.
Working closely with other world leaders - particularly the European Union - Obama prevented their
economies from collapsing too during the economic downturn.
He also led the successful effort to get the world’s wealthiest countries to create a
$100 billion World Bank fund to support developing countries’ access to credit during the crisis.
After the Bush bank bailout, the Obama administration forced Wall Street to pay all the money it
borrowed back, with an additional $30 billion in interest, and then he put in place the
strongest Wall Street regulations since the Great Depression which gave the government
a whole host of tools to prevent another Wall Street-caused economic crisis.
The Obama Justice Department’s investigation of financial crimes resulted in big banks
paying more than $200 billion in fines back to the American people.
In the ultra-competitive global economy, Obama has been relentless in promoting the effectiveness
of the American worker, convincing companies like Apple to bring jobs back to the US.
Even China’s largest manufacturer - Foxconn - will build a factory in Pennsylvania.
The President protected consumers from predatory practices like unfair payday loans and credit
card deals, and created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was set up by now
Senator Elizabeth Warren.
He cut taxes for the bottom 95% of Americans to their lowest levels since the 1950’s,
increased funding for food stamps by $20 billion to make sure no-one in America starves, provided
affordable childcare to working families, modernized labor standards, and reformed job
training programs to make them more relevant to the 21st century economy.
With all this Obama has proven that taking care of the poor and working class doesn’t
hurt the economy one bit, and today, the stock market is stronger than it’s ever been,
with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones more than doubling -- and the NASDAQ tripling -- since he took
office.
After the Bush administration’s mismanagement ran up the annual budget deficit, President
Obama’s team has been able to cut it by 2/3ds.
Largely thanks to Obama’s energy policies, the average price for a gallon of gasoline
in America is around $2 now.
More than 13 million new jobs have been created during the Obama presidency, with the economy
growing nearly 10% overall since he took office--that’s double the growth seen by the average country
in the rest of the industrialized world.
As a candidate for President, Barack Obama promised to reform America’s health care
system.
In 2008 that system was broken, with tens of millions of Americans unable to afford
expensive private health insurance, a staggering number of whom were simply denied treatment
they couldn’t pay for and died.
With the Affordable Care Act, President Obama and the democratically-controlled congress
put an end to all that and today, just over two years after people began signing up for
Obamacare, around 20 million people have gained health coverage who didn’t have it before.
The President ended Bush’s restrictions on embryonic stem cell research too, allowing
federal funding for these projects to make significant medical advances; he also signed
the first comprehensive improvements for the lives of Americans living with paralysis,
authorized the FDA to regulate tobacco companies, forced chain restaurants to add calories to
their menus, and oversaw the most sweeping food safety legislation in 75 years.
Inspired by the Human Genome Project, the Obama administration launched the BRAIN initiative
to better understand the human brain and to solve the mysteries behind brain disorders
like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, depression, and traumatic brain injury.
He used the stimulus act to invest $18 billion in scientific research, and opened up space
to the competitive private sector, igniting a now booming private industry.
He used $8 billion to expand access to broadband internet for poor and rural families, sped
up deployment of a more comprehensive broadband infrastructure for the whole country, supported
a free and open Internet through net-neutrality, greatly increased the government's ability
to deal with cyber-threats, set up a National Strategic Computing Initiative to “maximize
the benefits of high-performance computing research, development, and deployment.”
And he created the White House science fair - which he always attends - to encourage kids
to focus on the STEM subjects.
So for good reason, President Obama is sometimes called the Scientist-In-Chief, and nowhere
is that more appropriate than on energy and the environment.
He has doubled spending on clean energy research, created tax incentives to boost adoption of
electric cars, doubled the distance gasoline-powered cars will go on a gallon by 2025, partnered
with the private sector to improve energy efficiency on a massive scale, and guided
a nearly 3-fold increase in wind power capacity and a 30-fold increase in solar energy capacity.
The US government is now investing in R&D for biofuels, offshore wind, wave, and nuclear
fusion energy, and its embrace of natural gas has helped cut US dependence on foreign
oil to its lowest rate since 1985, putting the country firmly on the path toward energy
independence.
President Obama set the first ever limits on CO2 emissions from power plants, limited
mercury emissions and other toxic air pollutants, and introduced rules to limit methane emissions.
Back at the start of his term, when the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded in the Gulf
of Mexico sending millions of gallons of oil gushing out, Obama’s government, in an unprecedented
move, made BP pay $20 billion into a fund for victim compensation and environmental
clean up.
The administration protected 260 million acres of America’s public lands and water, more
than any other presidency in history, strengthened the endangered species act, and increased
funding for national parks and forests.
The President closed a deal with China to limit its carbon emissions for the first time,
laying the groundwork for the historic worldwide agreement in Paris to fight climate change.
And in a similar agreement, the Brazilians committed to reforesting an area of the Amazon
that’s roughly the size of Pennsylvania.
And Obama made good on his commitment to the Paris climate agreement by making a $500 million
payment to the Green Climate Fund, the first of more than $3 billion in contributions America
will ultimately make to help poor countries deal with climate change.
The Obama administration has invested heavily in reforming America’s lagging educational
performance at the K-12 level.
He started off by ending Bush’s much-criticized “No Child Left Behind” law, and instead
created Race to the Top - which encourages states to come up with the most effective
school reforms - and coordinated the states in their creation of higher Common Core standards
so students are better prepared for success in college and the 21st century global economy
where science, math and computer programming skills are becoming increasingly important.
His team also greatly expanded family access to early childhood education; funded the construction
of new schools all over the country; expanded K-12 students’ access to the Internet in
their classrooms; signed the Post-9/11 GI Bill to improve veterans’ access to higher
education; expanded the Pell Grants program so more low and middle income kids could afford
college; enacted reforms so graduates pay lower interest rates on their student loans;
protected students from being deceived by for-profits like The University of Phoenix
that are often very ineffective; and created a new college rating system that emphasizes
value over prestige.
President Obama cut maximum drug sentences for current and future prisoners, paving the
way for the first drop in the federal prison population in 32 years and became the first
sitting president in American history to visit a federal prison, holding a meeting with six
inmates.
After several executions were mishandled, Obama ordered a review of the death penalty
process.
He limited the amount of military-style equipment local police departments could acquire, and
encouraged the widespread use of body cameras on police officers, which has allowed for
unprecedented officer accountability and, thanks to a now constant stream of videos,
has led to a national conversation about excessive use of force, especially against people of
color.
He signed the Blue Alert Law to provide police officers in the field with access to critical
information when their lives were threatened.
And after congress failed to act to prevent gun violence after massacre after massacre,
Obama used executive orders to promote safer gun technology, improved the background check
system in several key areas, and set up a task force to figure out what other measures
can be taken to limit gun violence.
And when Congress wouldn’t act on immigration either, the President concentrated enforcement
on those who committed crimes; streamlined the visa process for those who want to come
here legally; increased border security to make it much more difficult for people to
cross into the United States illegally; and worked hard to lay the political groundwork
for comprehensive immigration reform that almost passed, although Republicans in congress
were ultimately able to block it.
Throughout his Presidency, Obama has put veterans first.
The most obvious example is by ending the two wars that had resulted in a tragic number
of service members dying and suffering life-altering injuries--but he also decreased homelessness
among veterans by 36 percent, decreased the veteran unemployment rate from a post-9/11
peak of 12 percent to just over 4 percent today, increased funding for the Department
of Veterans Affairs by 33 percent, hired more than 1,600 additional mental-health professionals,
and improved access to VA health care reducing average wait times to 4 days for primary care,
5 days for specialty care, and 3 days for mental health care.
On civil rights, President Obama signed and implemented the Hate Crimes Prevention Act;
he reversed the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell ban on gays; he came out in favor of
same sex marriage, then won a landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing it nationwide; he
made affordable housing available to more people; appointed the first ever Special Assistant
to the President for Disability Policy; established the WH Council on Native American Affairs;
cracked down on companies that were abusing the independent contractor employee classification
system; and strengthened rules prohibiting discrimination against pregnant workers.
And the first bill signed into law by President Barack Obama was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair
Pay Act that strengthened rights for workers who suffered pay discrimination.
President Obama also seated the third and fourth female justices in the history of the
US Supreme Court including the first justice, Sotomayor, of Hispanic heritage.
Another one of his first moves as president was launching We the People, which gave Americans
a way to create and sign online petitions to get the White House’s attention on issues.
On day one, Obama signed a memo that began a new era of open and accountable government.
He launched Data.gov to give the public easy access to government information; increased
tracking of how the federal government spends its money; and launched Challenge.gov, a website
where citizens can submit innovative solutions to challenges presented by government agencies,
elected officials, and private businesses.
And in order to root out misspent tax dollars, Obama created the Government Accountability
and Transparency Board.
One of the most important, but undervalued aspects of the Presidency of Barack Obama
is that he restored integrity to the White House after back-to-back administrations became
mired in scandal.
Over and over again, the President, with indispensable First Lady Michelle - and the wise and loyal
Vice President Joe Biden - by his side, chose highly qualified, decent people to work in
his administration, and he led by example, coming to work each day squarely focused on
tirelessly tackling the problems he was elected to solve.
He never lost the trust of his supporters, allowing him to maintain the momentum and
credibility needed to achieve significant accomplishments well into his final two years
in office, a time when most presidents are ineffective lame-ducks running out the clock
on their term.
Obama will leave office with an approval rating over 50 percent, a remarkable number for such
an active Presidency, and a figure that will grow as historians judge his time in office
favorably, especially compared to his Republican predecessor.
The United States was facing a catastrophic economic collapse when Barack Obama took office.
Still, expectations were historically high for the charismatic Illinois Senator who became
the first African American president after emerging with a campaign that inspired the
world in a way few others have.
Not only did Barack Obama save the United States - and the world - from a disastrous
depression, but incredibly, he lived up to the hype set by his own meteoric rise.
And he achieved much more than the major accomplishments I’ve told you about in this video, while
constantly traveling the country and the world, consistently delivering some of the best speeches
in history.
So Obama’s performance in humanity’s most important job has - arguably - allowed him
to affect positive change in the lives of more people than anyone else ever has.
Which is why it’s likely Barack Obama will be remembered as one of the most inspiring
figures in modern history.
Thanks for watching.
Hit that like button if you agree with me and want to help my message spread, and be
sure to subscribe to The Daily Conversation to get my next video.
For TDC, until next time, I’m Bryce Plank.
[President Obama]: “It’s been a long time coming, but tonight - because of what we did
on this day, in this election, at this defining moment - change has come to America.