Remember the day President Barack Obama accepted his nomination for presidency of the United States? That just so happens to be exactly six years ago today.
Obama stood before the world to deliver only one of the hundreds of speeches he would have to give over the next six years. He promised change to the nation, and to the eighty-four thousand attendees who listened excitedly, whilst waving “Yes We Can” campaign posters and roaring their approval.
The then-future president delivered a speech meant to inspire and unite listeners by explaining what he had in store for the nation. With unemployment at the time just topping six percent, Obama promised to create new industries which would supply five million new jobs by investing “$150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy.” He also promised to cut taxes by 95 percent of all working families, believing that “in an economy like this, the last thing [the government] should do is raise taxes on the middle class.”
He guaranteed changes in education from the recruitment of more teachers with higher salaries, to protect pensions by changing bankruptcy laws, and equal pay. He also guaranteed a new health care plan which would cover those without health care, and lower the premiums of those with health care.
Pledging to put the safety of the nation first, he assured an end to both the devastating war in Iraq, and the long fight against Al Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan. He also made a passionate promise to “take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants” and give justice to those families affected in the devastating attacks of 9/11.
A full six years have passed since President Obama vowed to keep “the American promise alive.” Regardless of which promises Obama has kept and which he has thrown out the White-House-window, a lot has changed.
In 2010, Obama signed the Affordable Health Care Act, providing coverage for 32 million uninsured Americans beginning in 2014. He also signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009 in order to spur economic growth. He addressed Wall Street by signing the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010) and providing greater regulation. He ended the war in Iraq by pulling the last American troops out in December of 2011, and in the same year he finally eliminated Osama Bin Laden.
These developments, although vital, are only some of the adjustments that the U.S. and the world have seen in the past six years. Obama-supporter or not, he has kept his word in that he would provide change. Although both good and bad, the world has seen quite a lot of “change” in the past six years.