Obama’s legacy is filled with failures and lies

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Armed Forces Inaugural Committee

With his family by his side, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States.

Will Dean

The day is Jan. 20, 2009. Barack Obama has just been sworn in as president, making history as the first African American to do so. Americans and people across the world are filled with hope and excitement for change.

This feeling was short-lived, as nearly every promise Obama made was broken soon after his inauguration.

Despite saying that “We will leave this administration without significant scandal” at a White House Press Conference, the Obama presidency was bereft with scandal after scandal. Here is a short list: IRS discriminates against conservative groups, NSA spies on Americans and finally,  “if you like the plan you have, you can keep it” as Barack Obama claimed in a Weekly Address.

Officially called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act but more commonly known as ObamaCare, the law allows the federal government to regulate the healthcare industry. It led to a nearly 25 percent increase in 2017 premium costs, according to the U.S Department of Health and Human services.

Overall, 20.3 million Americans chose to not have healthcare according to the Internal Revenue Service and risked being subject to a fine rather than buy the insurance. So much for keeping your plan.

As a testament to the “success” of Obama’s economic policy, the economy has grown at record low rates. In addition to being the first black president, Obama is also the first president to never reach 3 percent GDP growth, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Furthermore, fewer Americans are in the labor force today than the lowest point in the 2007-09 recession. In January 2009, 65.7 percent of Americans were in the workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As of December 2016, that percentage is 62.7 percent.

Now one might claim that because the recession was one of the deepest in American history, a slow recovery should be expected. This is not the case. According to a 2012 National Bureau of Economic Research study, nearly every single recession in our country’s 240 year history has led to a recovery faster than the current one.

Obama has also refused to pardon whistleblowers who brought government corruption and overreach to light. The Washington Post details how Edward Snowden is being charged for violating the 1917 Espionage Act after he exposed the NSA spying on American citizens, violating their right to privacy.  Similarly, The Telegraph reports that Julian Assange is currently holed up in the London Ecuadorian Embassy for leaking classified documents through his website WikiLeaks.

If you should take anything from the last eight years, it is that Barack Obama’s policies and lies are the reason Donald Trump is now our President.