US Action On Economics & Defense

By R.J. Huneke

In brief, there has been an overwhelmingly negative response to the United States President Obama from anti-liberal to liberal-minded conservatives that claim that the President is forever in the wrong because of his detrimental actions with regards to the two most vital areas of governing (in their opinion, not mine): Economics and Defense. It goes beyond having a progressive thinking, democratic, left-leaning makeup and extends an argument that only the conservatives in the US have a mind to protect Americans from terrorism, economic hardship, and all of the myriad threats that the world imposes on the country from without and within.

Though I will admit there are issues that I differ with the views of President Obama on – Guantanamo is still open, for one – I am a strong supporter of this leader who has often looked beyond the prevalent political parties and lobbyists in the US and fought for the betterment of the people, which is something that has been severely lacking in American politics in my lifetime.

I was recently asked to name one significant positive thing that the President has done to benefit Americans with regards to both Economics and Defense, the logic being that only a Republican and a conservative President could hold those two areas in any regard.

Here are a few of the things that President Obama has done to better the United States Economic and Defense state to date:

• Picking up the pieces of President George W. Bush’s diplomatic mess, President Obama hired Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State
•         o   Clinton went about the world for four years, re-instilling an actual diplomatic process for dealing with other countries, not ultimatums, while emanating the goodwill of America in many tumultuous countries around the globe that have utterly hated the US through many past presidencies in order to try and move forward to a more peaceful diplomacy for all sides
•         o   The work Clinton and Obama have done to at the least lessen the view that the US is the "world police force” quells many of the terrorists’ reasons for striking against the west; this issue is not resolved, and has far to go, but their positive work cannot be denied
  
• For the first time since the Pre-Nixon era, President Obama reversed the widening economic gap between the middle class and the upper class by reducing the tax breaks on the wealthiest Americans and raising the income tax on those making more than $400,000
•          o   This alone will have a vast impact on the US economy and the federal budget, because the wealthy elite will finally be paying their share of taxes and this will amount to a lot more money than could ever be gotten from those who make hundreds of percent less
• One of the first things President Obama discovered upon entering the White House, to his utter horror, was that President Bush had the entire building and government center using computers that had been outdated by more than a couple of generations of Windows operating systems and hardware to run that was many years old; President Obama ordered state of the art machines, including Macs, to make sure that all of the White House staff were prepared for the threat of attackers from the Internet and the country’s government and defense was secure from online threats
• Despite the best efforts of President Bill Clinton – who sent assassins – and President George W. Bush – who went to war with whole countries in order to oust terrorist organizations and cells – it was President Obama who ordered the attack on Osama Bin Laden that resulted in the Al Qaeda leader’s death
•          o   This was done without the support of Pakistan, but President Obama boldly ordered the US special ops team to swiftly go in and act on their intelligence before the Jihadist extremist Bin Laden could escape
• President Obama has – going against the most powerful lobbyists in the US and the Congress’s objections as well – ended many of the tax breaks to the oil corporations, like Exxon-Mobil, since they will continue to make record profits without them due to their high-demand product running out on the earth; and to benefit the economy and environment simultaneously, President Obama instilled myriad tax breaks to those who buy gas efficient or electric cars, solar panels, or energy efficient housing, as well as giving huge breaks to usher in a new wave of American technology and industry: the green energy sector
•          o   Without these actions, the burgeoning American industry of solar companies and other green energy sector outfits would be all but non-existent and decades further from succeeding than they are now
• The US has, during President Obama’s tenure, revolutionized the drone aircraft industry, dramatically increasing the safety and defense of those on US soil and soldiers abroad
•          o   The statistics say that by encouraging the use of drones, rather than slowly experimenting with them as President Bush had, President Obama has increased their abilities, their technology, and their everyday usage hundreds of percent; though their use is still somewhat controversial since many deaths and many involuntary pictures can be taken from the unmanned aircraft, look up and see them in New York City if you do not think they are a large part of what is now protecting us
• I hope this remains true: to date there have been no large-scale terrorist attacks on US soil during President Obama’s tenure, and this is irrefutable proof that he is doing something right with regard to the United States defense
•          o   And this is despite the recent 9/11 attacks that issued forth during President Bush’s (lack of) watch and the consequential and controversial wars that rent US diplomacy in the eyes of the world

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