Lately I have heard many people say they are tired of slandering within politics, and that they wish people would tell you why they are voting for their presidential candidate rather than why they are voting against the opposing candidate. I have even had some friends (some that I assumed were very conservative) ask me why I support President Obama. Although most of the time I tend to show people why I don’t support the other side, I would like to explain why I support President Obama. I have more reasons to vote for him than I do to vote against his opponent.
I support President Obama because he passed the PPACA. To me, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has always been a no-brainer. As someone who feels like it is important that everyone have that security blanket, but also that everyone have affordable access, I was delighted when the Supreme Court voted in favor of the act. It wasn’t until more recently that this hit closer to home for me, though. My mother is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, and she is definitely the most generous. She has spent her entire life taking care of others as a nurse, as a mother, as a friend, and as a fellow citizen. She spends all her free time knitting baby blankets, hats, and booties to donate to hospitals, and up until the day I moved out she would never let me sell my old clothes, but had me donate them instead. She is the woman who buys toilet paper or bread for the woman at the store who can’t afford it. She is the woman who once responded to a house fire as an EMT and gave her shoes to the victim that had only made it out of the fire in her nightgown. She is the woman that’ll give the coat off her back to someone who needs it.
When forced to take early retirement because of her health, my mother moved to Iowa. She has been taking care of my autistic and diabetic brother for his entire life, and that didn’t change when she moved. We were able to get him onto Disability after the move. But, it was different for my mother. She pretty much became uninsurable by traditional health insurance standards because of pre-existing conditions, and because she was/is not 65 (Medicare). With cardiomyopathy, stage 3 kidney disease, type II diabetes, a history of skin cancer, and cataracts, nobody would insure her. Enter in the affordable care act here. Because of the act, an option became available for health insurance. Note: We are still currently raising funds to pay for the entire year of insurance (since the entire act has not passed yet, the cost of the insurance is still quite high), so the situation isn’t perfect, but it can save her life. There is also part of the Act that allows for a bridge between early retirement and Medicare. For the sake of continuing on with my reasons for supporting President Obama, I won’t elaborate much more than that, but if you’re interested in more information you can go to http://www.gofundme.com/ChristineKing, where my sisters and I have spilled the entire story.
From my personal experience, and from receiving advice and hearing stories from others, I have come to realize how many lives have been saved because of the ACA. And those lives aren’t just numbers. My mother is not just a number. My family, my friends, their families, you, and your family and friends are not just numbers. I am not just a number. These next 12 months can be the difference between life and death for my mother, who has influenced and benefited so many lives, and the Affordable Care Act is helping give her a chance at life. There are also other fantastic qualities to the Act, including that when the entire bill goes into effect, it will, on average, save the average Medicare beneficiary $4,200 over the span of 10 years. That extra $400 (or so) a year can really make a huge difference. Also, another awesome benefit of the ACA is that children will remain on their parents health insurance until they turn 26 years old (which gives many students the opportunity to finish graduate school while remaining on their parents’ health insurance!) This means that 3.1 million young adults have gained health insurance since the bill has gone into effect.
I support President Obama because he believes in gender equality. Now, frankly, I am appalled that this is even an issue. I understand the debate between pro-life and pro-choice, but the rest of the issues that have surfaced? It astounds me. This is 2012! I support President Obama because he understands how important it is for women to have equal rights. He understands that women do matter.
The first bill that President Obama signed while in office was the Lily Ledbetter Act, ensuring that women will get paid the same amount as their counterparts. There is no reason why I, because I am a woman, should earn a lower income but pay the same for costs and fees as the man next to me. It still costs the same for us to eat, to buy a house or rent an apartment, pay car insurance, and to pay for basic necessities, amongst everything else. Before the Lilly Ledbetter Act, women on average were earning $0.23 less than their male counterparts. Although 23 cents does not sound like a lot, it really does add up.
When it comes to women’s health issues, it is important to note that this covers a lot more than simply contraceptives and abortion. If you were wondering, although it is not relevant to what I am saying, I am pro-choice. But, that is not why I support President Obama in regards to women’s health. With the PPACA, women will gain health insurance for not only birth control (saving women up to $18,000 over the span of their lifetime), but also for preventative care. Not to mention, for women that cannot afford to go to the doctor, planned parenthood provides affordable pricing for both birth control and services. These services cover mammograms, cancer screenings and PAP tests. In fact, a friend of mine recently found a lump in her breast, and although she cannot afford to go get it screened by the doctor, she can get screened at Planned Parenthood. Many locations also cover services such as anemia testing, flu vaccinations, diabetes screenings, thyroid screenings, and tetanus vaccinations. Only 3% of their services are abortions, contrary to popular belief. In regard to contraceptives, this is where things get touchy. But first, let me note that Planned Parenthood can save women up to $40 per month for birth control. Now, continuing on… although I understand that people are against birth control and abortion because of religious ideas, I think many times we forget that others do not necessarily believe the same things that we do. If I am a hard core Christian that believes you shouldn’t have pre-marital sex, that doesn’t mean that the woman who doesn’t believe in God believes the same, and I should respect her and her decisions. She is her own person, and I am my own person. Many people also complain about Planned Parenthood being federally funded, but Planned Parenthood does amazing things. It changes lives and helps women who are in trouble. It prevents unwanted pregnancies (not necessarily through abortion) and prevents more financial strain on the government from children being born to women who cannot afford it. That goes without saying what kind of difficult life an unplanned child could potentially endure. When people say things such as “I don’t want my taxes to go to that,” let me just clarify that we all pay taxes, and we all have some thing that we don’t want our taxes going to. If you don’t want your money paying for it, then go ahead and think about it being mine and other supporter’s portion of taxes paying for it. Would you rather an unplanned and possibly unwanted child put more strain on your taxes? I support President Obama, because he understands how vital Planned Parenthood is to women and their health. He understands how vital health care coverage is. I also believe he understands that taking care of women also benefits men. He understands that women should not have to pay higher insurance rates because of gender.
President Obama understands that being born a woman is not a negative thing, and that it should not be treated like a pre-existing condition (although under him, having a pre-existing condition isn’t looking so bad anymore). He believes that a woman’s choice is her own. He wants to ensure that women are treated equally, and he hopes that his daughters will not have to face the issues that us women, and the women who fought similar (if not the same) issues in the past, have faced and are facing. He wants his daughters, and all the daughters of America, let alone the world, to have the same rights as the sons of America. In his own words, “Lifting women up lifts up our economy and lifts up our country.” He believes that we are capable of so much more than being home in time to make dinner for our children and husbands, but still appreciates and respects us if that is our decision. I agree 100%.
I support President Obama because he believes in Marriage Equality. I am a firm believer that people should be allowed to make decisions for themselves, especially when it is regarding the ones they love and their families. Many people who oppose Marriage Equality do so because of religious beliefs, and because they believe homosexuality is a sin and a choice. People have tried to prove that homosexuality is a choice, and it has been to no avail. Also, this goes back to what I said before in regards to different beliefs. Just because you believe it is wrong does not mean that someone else does, too. In fact, many people feel just as strongly that it is right as others do that it is wrong. What it boils down to is that unless you have been in another person’s shoes, you cannot understand how they feel, and you cannot tell them that their feelings are not real. Try to imagine how you would feel if someone told you that something you believed was wrong, even though you believe to the depths of your soul that it is right? I have witnessed many of my friends before, during, and after relationships with someone of their same gender, and I firmly believe, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that those feelings are real. I have seen the pain that many people have gone through as they face the persecution they receive from family, friends, and religions because of being homosexual. I have had the privilege of knowing many people who have gone to therapy for years to “fix” themselves. But you cannot fix something that is not broken. They feel the same love that heterosexuals do, and they feel the same pain that we do when a relationship reaches its end, or when they lose their significant other. I support President Obama because he also understands that their feelings are real, and he believes they should be allowed to have the same benefits that committed heterosexual couples do. He believes that different beliefs should not mean that people should be denied equality. He believes that when someone loses the person they love, they should be able to make legal decisions regarding healthcare, death, and assets. He believes that when they share their income and live together, they should be able to receive the same tax benefits as a heterosexual couple. And frankly, he believes everyone should be able to marry the person they love. When people are willing to spend years, or even decades together, whether they are straight or homosexual, they should be allowed to make their bond official. Once upon a time it was illegal to marry interracially, too. Now we all know that was ridiculous, and I believe that someday in the future, people will feel the same way about “gay marriage.”
I support President Obama because supports the DREAM Act. The bill was written by Richard Durbin, along with Richard Lugar and others. The DREAM stands for “Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors.” The basic premise behind the DREAM Act is that children who were brought into the United States illegally by their “Alien” parents will not be deported back to their home country. Although Congress has stalled the bill, President Obama has halted deportation of young immigrants that are eligible under the Act. When someone grows up in the United States, although it may not be official, they are American. When the United States has been the only home you have ever really known, how could anyone, in good conscience, send them by force to a country they’ve hardly lived in and force them to try and live there? I support President Obama because he understands that being an American does not necessarily mean having 100% citizenship. He understands that America was founded by immigrants, and that we should not punish people for being brought to the country at a young age by their parents illegally. We shouldn’t send them away from their home. My wonderful brother-in-law, who went through the grueling (and expensive) citizenship process, stated “I support President Obama because he understands that being and American does not necessarily mean being born on American soil; being an American is something that you know in your mind and heart.”
I support President Obama because he cares for all social classes. He is a firm believer that the economy should have a strong middle class to function properly. He also believes that the higher class should pay their fair share of taxes, which should be based off of percentage of income and not by lump sum. He believes the “trickle down effect” doesn’t work, and I agree. He believes that small businesses should not be forced into bankruptcy because of high taxes or inability to financially support a business because of medical costs due to lack of health insurance from pre-existing conditions. I recently heard a girl tell a story: before the President Obama took office, her father’s small business was failing due to high taxes, and because they couldn’t get health insurance for her mother because of cancer that had been in remission for quite a few years. Now, her mother is able to have health insurance and her father’s business is still going. President Obama has provided middle class tax cuts because he believes that it will help the middle class to flourish, succeed, and grow, and will help prevent people from being overcome by debt. He has provided tax cuts to small businesses so that they can function with less financial strain, and have a greater chance at success. President Obama was born to a family that struggled to make ends meet, and he worked very, very hard to get to where he is. He knows what it is like to struggle, and he spent a good portion of his career working with lower income communities because he felt that that was where he could make a difference.
I support President Obama, because on top of caring for all social classes, he is an advocate for affordable education. He believes that students should be able to gain a secondary education without bankrupting themselves, their parents, or bringing upon them years upon years of debt (in my case, student loan debt is looking to take me 12 years to pay off, and I only took out loans for two semesters of school in 2005 and 2006). Starting in 2014, new student loan borrowers will be required to pay no more than 10% of their disposable income toward the loan. And, after 20 years the remaining debt they have will be forgiven. He has also doubled the size of pell grants and raised the amount of recipients by 50%. President Obama is a firm believer that educating young adults will benefit our economy, and I could not agree more.
I support President Obama because he ended the war in Iraq, is in the process of ended the war in Afghanistan, and had Osama Bin Ladin killed. Although I don’t necessarily support murder, I do understand why he, and many other Americans, feel it was necessary. I support him because he appreciates our troops, and he cares for their safety. He is also gifted with foreign affairs, and he is able to look past political parties to see good people within both the Republican party and the Democratic party. He has appointed Republicans to important government positions because he sees beyond their party status.
One of the most admirable things I find in President Obama is his general view on equality, which I have already touched on... a lot. I am a firm believer that we cannot build up our country if the foundation of people it is built upon are discriminated against and treated poorly because of gender, sexual orientation, race, or religious beliefs. I believe he feels the same way. One of his goals is to build up the people of our nation. He builds up women, he builds up students, he builds up minorities, he builds up the LGBT, and he builds up the middle class. And through all of this, he never stops building up the majority. He finds hope and pride when he sees people succeeding when the odds were against them, and he has already created, and will continue to create, pathways that will help others succeed. This is through the things I mentioned before, such as affordable health care, so that people will be okay if they have an accident or have a pre-existing conditions that could bankrupt them, through gender equality and equal pay, through tax breaks for small businesses and struggling families, through reducing student loan debt, and through equality for everyone.
Aside from the reasons that I support President Obama, there are many misconceptions that people have about him. I’d like to address a couple of those.
First, and most easily explained, is the misconception that President Obama wants to change gun laws. Let me be blunt. He does not. He believes that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms, he has passed no new restrictions on guns, and not one law-abiding citizen has had their gun taken away by the federal government.
Now, there is also a misconception about the economy. Right now the economy has hit the $16 Trillion mark for debt. So, since President Obama is POTUS, and we have this much debt, so it must be his fault, right? Well, actually, the answer is no. As President, Obama has only added 1.44 Trillion dollars to the debt. Although that is still a large number, it isn’t even comparable to the $5 trillion that people are attributing to him. The $1.44 Trillion the he has added to the deficit is actually money that was spent on policies that are being put into place to reduce the debt throughout the next few years. Although it didn’t propel us into recovery, it did prevent the recession from getting worse. It takes time to recover, and we are definitely headed in that direction. The rest of this astounding dollar amount actually comes from the recession, which started long before he became President. Mark Thoma wrote “How could it be that Obama's policies only contributed $1.44 trillion to the debt when it has risen around $5 trillion since he took office? The answer is the recession. During a recession tax revenue falls as income falls, and spending on existing social services such as unemployment compensation and food stamps increases. The result is a larger deficit. However, Obama didn't cause the recession -- it was already well underway when he took office -- and he cannot be blamed for the debt we've accumulated as a result of the downturn.” [http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-57506201/national-debt-passes-$16-trillion-should-you-worry/] Although we should be concerned about the rising debt, it cannot be blamed solely on the President. Mark Thoma also said “…in the more immediate future, when we return to full employment, it will be important to at least stabilize if not reduce our debt load. But in the shorter run, when the economy is still below full employment as it is now, [Boehner’s] worries about the debt are misplaced. Deficit spending does not hurt the economy so long as debt loads remain below the critical threshold where investors worry about default, and there's no sign we are near that point. In fact, the evidence says that in the presence of high unemployment an increase in the deficit helps the economy so long as we make the necessary adjustments to taxes and spending….”
Another hot topic is unemployment. Yes, the unemployment rate is at a very high percentage. But, there is still a misconception that jobs are not being created. When President Obama took office, the United States was losing hundreds of thousands of jobs per month. Although jobs continued to be lost for a few months after President Obama took office (you can’t magically snap your fingers and stop job loss), the number of jobs lost decreased significantly in his first year, and we have now had 31 straight months of job creation. [http://www.barackobama.com/economy?source=primary-nav] President Obama also believes that small businesses are key to helping create job growth, and he believes that we need to keep jobs within the United States rather than outsourcing to other countries. We are at our lowest unemployment rate since the recession started. And, although the opposition insists that under him he will create 12 million new jobs, the 5 sources opposition has used as support suggest that no matter who is president, 12 million jobs will be created anyway. But, President Obama has a plan to keep building more jobs.
I do understand that this is a long post, but I tried to cover as many topics as I could, and this could have been a lot longer than it ended up being. If you have any questions for me, I am open to answering them. This post is strictly about why I support President Obama, and not about why I am against his opponent. If you want more information on why I am against the opposing Presidential Candidate, feel free to ask me.
I speak for President Obama because he speaks for me. Because of, and with him, we are changing the world.
