This week, the White House is trying to get passage of the most sweeping financial regulatory change since the aftermath of the Great Depression, a bill that aims to curtail the Wall Street risk-taking that fed the meltdown in 2008. *Sounds like a good idea* - anyway, for those who Don't know what's been done, I found this USA Today run-down helpful. Looks like a lot has been accomplished!
ACHIEVEMENTS FOR THE PRESIDENT (Source: USA Today)
-- American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: The $862 billion "stimulus bill" invested in transportation and energy projects, tax cuts and education grants.
-- Affordable Health Care for America Act: The law $940 billion in the first 10 years will create new health care exchanges, expand insurance coverage to 32 million people who have gone without, close gaps in Medicare prescription-drug coverage and forbid insurance companies from rejecting people for pre-existing conditions.
-- The HIRE Act: A jobs bill that provided $18 billion in tax breaks for small businesses to spur hiring and $20 billion for transit and highways programs.
-- Auto companies bailout: Billions of dollars in government loans to struggling Detroit automakers Chrysler, General Motors and GMAC in an effort to save jobs.
-- Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor: Obama's first Supreme Court nominee was confirmed 68-31 by the Senate and became the first Hispanic justice on the court.
-- Omnibus Public Land Management Act: The most sweeping land-protection act in 15 years designated more than 2 million acres of public land huge tracts of desert and forest across nine states to be official "wilderness."
-- New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia: The Obama administration and Russia negotiated a deal for each country to cut its stock of strategic nuclear warheads by 30%. Ratification is pending in the Senate.
-- Education overhaul: A revamped student loan program and a new $4.3 billion "Race to the Top" competition challenged schools to prove they have taken steps to improve standards and performance.
Source: USA TODAY research
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