Definition: "unable to grasp the big picture because of a concern with small (trivial) details".
Democratic Progressive Accomplishments 2009-2010
*Repeal of
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – ends official discrimination against LGBT Americans who wish to serve their country in the military.
START Treaty Ratification – reduces deployed nuclear weapons by 1/3 and ensures that we are able to continue nuclear weapons inspections in Russia in order to verify reductions and help keep nuclear materials out of the hands of rogue nations or terrorists.
*
Affordable Care Act (health care reform) –
expands access to affordable health insurance to 32 million more Americans, ends numerous
abusive health insurance industry practices, provides significant tax credits to make health insurance affordable for families earning less than $88,000 per year and for
small businesses, and creates health insurance exchanges overseen by the government or non-profit entities.
*
Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act - Increases student aid by at least $65 billion over next decade by shifting funding from private student loan companies to students who need assistance affording college.
*
Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act - raises nutritional standards for school lunches and increases school lunch program funding by $4.5 billion over the next 10 years – expands access to school lunch program for at least 115,000 students.
*
Fair Sentencing Act – reduced the sentencing disparity between crack and cocaine, which has a significant disparate impact on African Americans, from 100-1 to 18-1. Eliminates mandatory five-year prison sentences for first time crack possession convictions.
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Wall Street reform, which enables government to step in to liquidate failing financial institutions in order to prevent additional future bailouts, creates a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to curb abusive lending practices by credit card companies and payday lenders, and regulate derivatives trading.
*
Serve America Act - reauthorizes and expands federally-funded national service programs, such as AmeriCorps and VISTA.
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Children’s Health Insurance Program (“CHIP”) – reauthorized and expanded CHIP from providing health insurance for 7 million children to providing health insurance for 11 million children, and allows states to extend benefits to legal immigrants.
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Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act - helps ensure equal pay for equal work by enabling people to challenge unequal pay in court even if the fact that their pay is unequal is not discovered by the employee for a long time.
*
Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act - gives the Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over production and marketing of tobacco products. Also limits advertising that targets children, requires disclosure of ingredients and gives FDA authority to ban some ingredients in cigarettes, and requires larger warning labels on tobacco products.
*
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - A $787 billion economic stimulus package that stabilized our economy, prevented a second Great Depression, created 3.3 million jobs, and avoided greater declines in GDP. The stimulus legislation included:
*
$14 billion in funding for energy efficiency programs, including weatherization of low-income housing, state and local governments, and federal building energy efficiency retrofits.
* $25.8 billion in funding for health information technology development
* A 65% subsidy for the cost of continuation of health insurance under the COBRA program for individuals who lost their jobs
* $2 billion for Community Health Centers
* $15.6 billion increase in Pell Grants
* $2.1 billion for Head Start
* $19.9 billion for the Food Stamp Program, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
* $8 billion for high-speed rail development
* $6 billion for development of energy smart-grid
* Established
meaningful limits and oversight for the use of Troubled Asset Relief Program (“TARP”) funds, thereby ensuring that virtually all of the $700 billion in TARP funds were repaid to the U.S. Treasury.
*
Ended major combat operations in Iraq, and began to bring our troops home from the Iraq War more quickly than the schedule that President Obama had campaigned on.
*
Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act – restricts credit card companies from raising interest rates or charging penalty fees, and requires increased disclosure of credit card terms and conditions.
* Increased automobile
fuel efficiency standards to 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016
*
FDA Food Safety Modernization Act – upgraded food safety procedures in the U.S. for first time since the 1930s.
*
Matthew Sheppard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act - authorizes the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute hate crimes and to aid state and local law enforcement in doing so.
* Established by Executive Order
pollution reduction and efficiency standards for federal government buildings, vehicle fleets, and purchasing.
* Issued an Executive Order
prohibiting torture of prisoners of war, requiring compliance with Geneva Conventions, and rescinding any previous inconsistent Executive Orders.
* Established by Executive Order
strict new ethics standards for federal employees or those seeking federal employment to help end the revolving door between lobbying shops and government agencies.
*
Claims Resolution Act – authorizes funding for the
Pigford II Settlement, which provides $1.15 billion in federal funding to settle approximately 80,000 claims by African American farmers of discriminatory loan practices in the 1980s by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the
Cobell Settlement, which provides $1.9 billion in federal funding to settle claims regarding U.S. Government mismanagement of trust funds and water rights for Native Americans.
*
Equal Hospital Visitation Rights - issued a Presidential Memorandum requiring that all hospitals accepting Medicare or Medicaid funding to provide equal hospital visitation rights for LGBT patients.
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Federal Benefits for Same-Sex Partners – issued a President Memorandum extending federal benefits for same-sex partners to all employees of the Executive Branch and the Foreign Service
* Have started us on the path toward
closing the entire Medicare prescription drug coverage doughnut hole by 2020.
*
Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act - reforms Pentagon procurement policies to prevent billions of dollars in wasteful spending over the next decade.
*
American Opportunity Tax Credit - $2,500 tax credit for working families and students attending college – included in stimulus bill and extended through the recent unemployment benefits/tax cuts compromise.
*
Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act - expands health care services, including mental health services and counseling, available to our veterans.
* Ended the unnecessary
F-22 fighter plane project, saving taxpayers $4 billion.
* Have put in motion a plan to
trim $100 billion in wasteful military spending over the next five years.
*
Saved the U.S. auto industry through an emergency auto industry rescue package.
* Lifted President Bush’s restrictions on
federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
* Repeated extensions of unemployment benefits, the most recent of which will prevent 7 million Americans from losing their safety net
* Put President in office who can speak English
via:
Winning Progressive
