www.uaprogressiveaction.com

December 4, 2009

Obama's Brilliant First Year

By January, he will have accomplished more than any first-year president since Franklin Roosevelt.

Nov 28, 2009

"There's mounting evidence that the $787 billion economic stimulus he signed in February—combined with the bank bailout package—prevented an economic depression. Should the stimulus have been larger? Should it have been more weighted to short-term spending, as opposed to long-term tax cuts? Would a second round be a good idea? Pundits and policymakers will argue these questions for years to come. But few mainstream economists seriously dispute that Obama's decisive action prevented a much deeper downturn and restored economic growth in the third quarter. The New York Times recently quoted Mark Zandi, who was one of candidate John McCain's economic advisers, on this point: "The stimulus is doing what it was supposed to do—it is contributing to ending the recession," he said. "In my view, without the stimulus, G.D.P would still be negative and unemployment would be firmly over 11 percent.""

READ MORE

http://www.slate.com/id/2236708/

Obama Pushes Lobbyists Off Federal Advisory Boards

Hundreds, if not thousands, of lobbyists will be ejected from federal advisory panels as part of a little-noticed initiative by the Obama administration to curb K Street's influence in Washington.

November 29, 2009

The Washington Post reported that the move "may turn out to be the most far-reaching lobbying rule change so far from President Obama," resulting in "hundreds, if not thousands, of lobbyists" being ejected from federal advisory panels.

Not surprisingly, lobby groups, corporations, and other K Street influencers are up in arms.

"The reaction from the lobbying community has been swift and overwhelmingly negative."

But this week, congressional researchers concluded that the administration’s crackdown has “already changed the relationship between lobbyists and covered executive branch officials” and suggested that Congress might consider enacting similar restrictions on itself.

READ MORE

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/26/AR2009112602362.html

and

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/opinion/04fri4.html

MIT Analysis Backs Obama

Nov 28, 2009

"The report concludes that under the Senate's health-reform bill, Americans buying individual coverage will pay less than they do for today's typical individual market coverage, and would be protected from high out-of-pocket costs."

23 Ph.D. economists sent a letter to Obama on Nov. 17 endorsing his approach to health-care reform. Read the economists’ four-page letter here.

READ MORE

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29959.html

Download MIT Report:

CLICK HERE

Why Obama Supporters Ought to Count Their Blessings

Nov 24, 2009

"He has signed new laws on national service, equal pay, hate crimes, and many other overdue concerns; made real strides on energy; and launched a quiet revolution in education.

Not least, Obama's top legislative priority, health reform, is now almost close enough to smell the Rose Garden. After six presidents have tried, health reform may be just six weeks away from finally happening."

READ MORE

http://www.slate.com/id/2236558/

Stimulus Saved Or Created 600,000-1.6 Million Jobs

November 30, 2009

"[The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office] estimates that in the third quarter of calendar year 2009, an additional 600,000 to 1.6 million people were employed in the United States, and real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) was 1.2 percent to 3.2 percent higher, than would have been the case in the absence of ARRA [American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka "the stimulus")]."

READ MORE

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/12/01/cbo-jobs/

Progress over Perfection

Nov 23, 2009

"Repeat after me, boys and girls, this mantra: PROGRESS OVER PERFECTION.

I don't give a damn whether you're so liberal you wear leaves for shoes to keep from hurting cows or so conservative you recoil at the idea of a public ANYTHING...we are SOOOOOO close, guys, to literally changing history, that we cannot, we WILL NOT...blow it at this point by bickering amongst our little Democratic selves because we're not getting every single little itty bitty solitary thing we want in a health care bill or any other bill that is before congress these days..."

READ MORE

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/deanie_mills/2009/11/what-happens-in-the-cocoon-is.php

Obama's Afghanistan Speech

Dec 1, 2009

In his speech Obama reminds America why we’re fighting, how we almost won in Afghanistan, how we got off course because of Iraq (without laying blame), how we plan to fix it, that this isn’t an open ended commitment and when he’ll start bringing troops home: July 2011.

WATCH