Top Ten Reasons Obama's Presidency Was Disappointing

"Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can!"

8 years later...

"No we can't! No we can't! No we can't!"
The Top Ten
1 Healthcare is Still Unaffordable

When the ACA was proposed, Obama promised that it would expand healthcare access to millions, and help lower premiums and deductibles. Well...he was half right. More people now have healthcare thanks to the passage of the ACA, mainly because the expansion of Medicaid in some states, and the offering of tax credits to help low-income people afford insurance. Proponents of the bill conveniently forget that lots of people actually lost their insurance after the passage of the ACA, because the bill puts caps on the amount insurance companies can charge people with pre-existing conditions and the elderly. While this makes insurance more affordable for those two groups, it raises prices for everyone else. So while the ACA did expand access, healthcare is still unaffordable for most and it is still very inefficient, when compared with the healthcare systems of most European countries.

At least this useless healthcare plan is going away...

2 He Continued Most of Bush's Policies

While he did end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. is still heavily involved with both countries. On top of that, he got the U.S. involved in Syria, so now the U.S. is currently involved in three conflicts in the middle east. Guantanamo Bay is still up and running, and the PATRIOT act is still present. Now, the U.S. can also assassinate U.S. citizens accused of terrorism without a trial. If you thought Bush's policies ended in 2008, you thought wrong.

At the end of his presidency, the US was involved in seven interventions and a shadow war in Africa.

3 The Education System is Still Flawed

The United States still ranks horribly in education, though this isn't new. We've been failing at education for decades, though no one will do anything about it. Obama was no exception. Not only did he not help the problem, he made it worse, by supporting Common Core, which has restricted the freedom of schools to innovate, and promotes perverse incentives such as focusing less on bright students and spending more time making sure that the students at the bottom, most of who don't pay attention, get caught up.

I love Obama but this is extremely true. Education in the US is so terrible.

4 The Economy is Growing Slowly

While we are no longer in a recession, the economy is growing the slowest it has been in decades. Jobs are still incredibly difficult to find for some, and the jobs that are available don't pay well. At the same time, wealth inequality is continuing to rise, and the poverty rate is continuing to climb with it.

Slowest recovery from a recession in US history.

5 He Bailed Out the Banks

To help end the 2008 recession, Congress found it necessary to bail out banks that were deemed "too big to fail." By their logic, if the banks went under, so did the economy. So, even though the banks underwent practices that were immoral, and sometimes illegal, only a handful of bankers were arrested. On top of that, banks received billions in tax revenues in order to keep their businesses afloat, even though THEY HELPED CAUSE THE RECESSION! So basically, the poor and middle class were forced to bail out rich bankers who deserved to be arrested. If it sounds like it doesn't make sense, you would be right. On top of it all, now banks realize that they can get away with whatever they want, because if they fail, they will receive a bailout. So don't be surprised when the same exact thing happens twenty years from now.

6 He Supported the T.P.P.

The T.P.P. was basically NAFTA on steroids, and we all know how NAFTA turned out. Proponents correctly claim that NAFTA helped lower prices, which mainly help the poor and middle class. What these proponents leave out is that under NAFTA, The U.S. shipped millions of jobs overseas, and thousands of farmers in Mexico lost their jobs, and were forced to immigrate to the U.S., many illegally. The T.P.P. would have, most likely, been an even worse deal. Thankfully, the U.S. was pulled out of the deal by the Trump administration. This is probably the only time you'll ever hear me praise the current administration, so relish in it.

7 He Didn't Close Guantanamo Bay
8 The U.S. is Still a Major Polluter

The U.S. is still one of the largest polluters on the face of the Earth, and the Obama administration did little to fix this. While things are beginning to improve slightly, there is still much more that needs to be done.

9 The Justice System is Still Flawed

While the U.S. is the richest country in the world, it has more people in jail than any other country. On top of this, lots of these prisoners are jailed for non-violent crimes, and crimes that affect no one but themselves. Lots of these prisoners are arrested for drug possession, prostitution, etc. If the U.S. relaxed some of these unnecessary laws, and focused more on helping released convicts rehabilitate, then the crime rate would drop substantially. Did Obama accomplish this? No. No, he didn't.

10 He Ruined the American Economy

Ever since Obama became president, people have lost billions of dollars and as time went on, we couldn't afford healthcare and food prices and gas prices skyrocketed and our driving speed limits were reduced dramatically.
Millions of people lost their jobs and had their money taken, and wars increased and so did the risk of terrorist attacks.
Thank goodness Obama's no longer president, but our economy is still doing sluggish and we hope to have it restored with the help of Trump and his presidency.

Sorry but the economy was already ruined by the 4 presidents before Obama

The Contenders
11 Had a Supermajority, Did Nothing with It
12 The Welfare System is Still Flawed

The U.S. has a welfare system that discourages work and encourages families to break apart. Lots of proposals have come forth to fix this problem, such as issuing a guaranteed income, a universal basic income, a federal job guarantee, etc. Yet today, there are more people on welfare than any other time in our history. While it is not completely the president's fault, we were in a recession after all, he has not done much to remedy the situation. Instead of trying something new, the administration was focused on expanding programs that we know by experience are heavily flawed.

13 Violence is Still Rampant

The U.S. still has more shootings than most of our allies. Instead of focusing on efforts that are proven to prevent crime, such as expanding mental health services, improving the welfare system, growing the economy, focusing on rehabilitating criminals, etc., the administration focused on banning sales on firearms that were considered to be dangerous. Instead of stopping the problem at the root, the administration focused on trying to tame the effects of the problem.

14 Income inequality is still increasing
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