The Do-Lots 111th Congress An Amazing Record!

Klein: The Do-Lots 111th Congress - Newsweek

Here's a fun exercise. A list of the accomplishments listed in this article: it's a TOP TEN!

1. Health Care Reform

• 32 Million Americans covered
• Savings of billions and billions of dollars against the national debt
• Illegal to turn away pre-existing conditions
• Illegal to jack up premiums for pre-existing conditions
• An independent commission will cut Medicare's costs
• fixes the tax break for employer sponsored health care
• pays doctors for quality rather than quantity
• calorie and nutritional information posted at fast food and chain restaurants

2. Financial Regulation

• Consumer Protection Agency.
• made the dirivatives market more transparent
• a systemic-risk regulator
• the ability to take down banks with out resorting to bailouts

3. The Stimulus

• Economic relief in the form of "expansions of Medicaid, COBRA, food stamps, tax cuts, and unemployment benefits"
• millions of jobs created and/or saved
• more than 75,000 infrastructure projects
• digitization of medical records
• massive investments in renewable energy
• the Race to the Top in education
• funded research at the National Institutes of Health

4. National Service Legislation
5. Expanded SCHIP for another 4 million children.
6. New regulations on tobacco
7. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
8. Expanded veterans benefits, especially for female veterans
9. Expand the nations wilderness protection by 2 million acres.
10. Preserved our American system of capitalism by saving GM from bankruptcy


Wow.  Add it all up and be impressed.  It's what we voted for.  It's what we can support. It's what President Obama won in the face of the fiercest partisan opposition in history.  


There's more to come.