Farewell, President Obama A look back on Barack Obama’s eight years in the Oval Office
By Jessica Fults and Elaine Mallon sStaff reporter and Discover Editor Eight years ago, a freshman senator from Illinois charmed the majority of American citizens with his vision of change. Now, with only 72 days until the Presidential inauguration, President Barack Obama’s time in the White House is quickly coming to an end. From instating theAffordable Care Act, to appointing two Supreme Court justices, love him or hate him, there’s no denying the fact that President Obama spent his time in office doing more than playing golf. For the students of Francis Howell Central, President Barack Obama’s exit from the oval offices marks an end of an era, an end of childhood. Other than being the first black president, how else will Barack Obama be remembered in history? What will his legacy be? While it is impossible to tell what exactly from his presidency will be engraved in the history textbooks, we, the Discover staff, have devised our own list of the top five definable moments of the Obama administration. 1. Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan were nominated and confirmed by President Obama. On June 26 2015, both justices voted in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states in the historic 5-4 Supreme Court decision of Obergefell v. Hodges. President Obama’s appointments of ideologically liberal leaning judges replaced two conservative judges. Due to President Obama’s nominations, the Supreme Court has shifted in a liberal direction, and since Supreme Court justices serve on the bench for life, their impact on the American legal system will last long after Obama’s end of term. 2. On May 1, 2011 the Navy Seals killed Bin Laden, President Obama called it in the next day and made sure to let people know that this was not an attack against Islam, but an attempt to fight back at Al Qaeda forces and liberate not only Americans, but everyone who was affected by this terrorist group. Many Americans were finally able to reach some closure after the attacks of 9/11.
3. On Dec. 18, 2011, Barack Obama declared the end of the United States involvement in the Iraq war, a nine year war that resulted in the deaths of over 4,500 U.S. troops. President Obama announced the Iraq war as a success, however, removing the US troops left the Middle East in shambles, allowing for terrorists organizations to consolidate power.
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4. President Obama passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009, or the stimulus bill, to bring America out of the biggest recession since the Great Depression. It was created to induce economic growth, and 23 months later, 3.7 million more jobs were created in the private sector. Simply put, more people would have been unemployed if it wasn’t for the passage of the stimulus bill. 5. The Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, denied insurance companies the ability to refuse coverage for a person based upon their pre-existing medical conditions, gender or race and ethnicity. The Affordable Care was signed into law on March 23 2010. According to a 2015 study conducted by the CDC, the implementation of Obama Care decreased the percentage of uninsured Americans from 15.7 percent to 9.2 percent.
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