但愿再受奥巴马”八年之苦”

[丹奇]

作者：特里·卡特，《列克星敦先驱领袖报》
编译：丹奇

特朗普的支持者说：“我们在巴拉克·奥巴马的领导下受苦了8年。”
公平地说，我们来看看事实。

奥巴马上任那天，道琼斯指数收于7949点。八年后，道琼斯指数几乎翻了三倍。

通用汽车和克莱斯勒濒临破产，福特也好不到哪里去，它们的倒闭连同供应链的崩溃将导致数百万个工作岗位的流失。

奥巴马推动了一项具有争议性的800亿美元救助计划来拯救汽车工业。美国汽车工业存活了下来，重新开始盈利，而这800亿美元全部连本带利地偿还了。

虽然我们仍然容易受到独狼式袭击的威胁，但自9/11以来，没有任何一个外国恐怖组织成功在美国实施大规模袭击。

奥巴马下令执行了击毙奥萨马·本·拉登的突袭行动。

他将驻伊拉克和阿富汗的部队人数从18万减少到1.5万，并增加了退伍军人事务部的拨款。

他启动了一个名为“开门”的计划，自2010年以来，无家可归的退伍军人数量下降了47%。

他创造了连续73个月的私营部门就业增长纪录。
由于奥巴马的监管政策，温室气体排放量减少了12%，可再生能源产量翻倍以上，我们对外国石油的依赖减少了一半。

他签署了《莉莉·莱德贝特法案》，使女性更容易因薪酬不平等起诉雇主。

他的《公共土地管理综合法案》将超过200万英亩土地指定为荒野，创建了数千英里的步道，并保护了超过1000英里的河流。

他将联邦赤字从2009年占GDP的9.8%减少到2016年的3.2%。

尽管《平价医疗法案》存在诸多不足，我们似乎忘记了在该法案之前，你可能因为已有疾病而被拒绝保险，孩子们也不能在父母的保险下覆盖到26岁。

奥巴马批准了145亿美元的系统来重建新奥尔良的防洪堤。

所有这些成就，都是在我们自己的米奇·麦康奈尔公开宣称他的唯一使命就是阻挠奥巴马总统所做的一切时实现的。

虽然奥巴马未能兑现竞选承诺关闭关塔那摩湾监狱，但该监狱的囚犯人数从242人减少到大约50人。

他扩大了对胚胎干细胞研究的资助，支持了脊髓损伤治疗和癌症等领域具有突破性的进展。

信用卡公司不再能收取隐藏费用或在没有提前通知的情况下提高利率。

大多数年份，奥巴马都会为军人家庭举办7月4日的派对。他抱过婴儿，和孩子们玩游戏，端上烧烤，带领大家为7月4日出生的女儿玛利亚唱“生日快乐”。

福利支出减少了：每100个贫困家庭中，只有24个领取现金援助，而1996年这一数字是64个。

奥巴马在十多起大规模枪击事件后安慰了受害家庭和社区。在桑迪胡克事件后，他说：“今天死去的大多数人是孩子，5到10岁之间美丽的小孩。”
然而，
他从未拿走
任何人的枪……
他在教堂的祭坛前自发地唱起了《奇异恩典》。

他是自艾森豪威尔以来首位在两个任期内没有个人或政治丑闻的总统。
他被授予了诺贝尔和平奖。

奥巴马总统并不完美，没有哪个人或哪个总统是完美的，你当然可以不同意他的政治意识形态。

但要说我们受苦了？
如果这就是论点，如果这就是我们在巴拉克·奥巴马领导下8年所受的“苦”，我只有一个愿望：

愿我们如此幸运，能再“受苦”8年。

英文原稿：

Trump supporters say, 'We suffered 8 years under Barack Obama.
Fair enough. Let’s take a look.
The day Obama took office, the Dow closed at 7,949 points. Eight years later, the Dow had almost tripled.
General Motors and Chrysler were on the brink of bankruptcy, with Ford not far behind, and their failure, along with their supply chains, would have meant the loss of millions of jobs. Obama pushed through a controversial, $80 billion bailout to save the car industry. The U.S. car industry survived, started making money again, and the entire $80 billion was paid back, with interest.
While we remain vulnerable to lone-wolf attacks, no foreign terrorist organization has successfully executed a mass attack here since 9/11.
Obama ordered the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.
He drew down the number of troops from 180,000 in Iraq and Afghanistan to just 15,000, and increased funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
He launched a program called Opening Doors which, since 2010, has led to a 47 percent decline in the number of homeless veterans. He set a record 73 straight months of private-sector job growth.
Due to Obama’s regulatory policies, greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 12%, production of renewable energy more than doubled, and our dependence on foreign oil was cut in half.
He signed The Lilly Ledbetter Act, making it easier for women to sue employers for unequal pay.
His Omnibus Public Lands Management Act designated more than 2 million acres as wilderness, creating thousands of miles of trails and protecting over 1,000 miles of rivers.
He reduced the federal deficit from 9.8 percent of GDP in 2009 to 3.2 percent in 2016.
For all the inadequacies of the Affordable Care Act, we seem to have forgotten that, before the ACA, you could be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition and kids could not stay on their parents’ policies up to age 26.
Obama approved a $14.5 billion system to rebuild the levees in New Orleans.
All this, even as our own Mitch McConnell famously asserted that his singular mission would be to block anything President Obama tried to do.
While Obama failed on his campaign pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, that prison’s population decreased from 242 to around 50.
He expanded funding for embryonic stem cell research, supporting ground breaking advancement in areas like spinal injury treatment and cancer.
Credit card companies can no longer charge hidden fees or raise interest rates without advance notice.
Most years, Obama threw a 4th of July party for military families. He held babies, played games with children, served barbecue, and led the singing of “Happy Birthday” to his daughter Malia, who was born on July 4.
Welfare spending is down: for every 100 poor families, just 24 receive cash assistance, compared with 64 in 1996.
Obama comforted families and communities following more than a dozen mass shootings. After Sandy Hook, he said, “The majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old.”
Yet,
he never took away
anyone’s guns........
He sang Amazing Grace, spontaneously, at the altar.
He was the first president since Eisenhower to serve two terms without personal or political scandal.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
President Obama was not perfect, as no man and no president is, and you can certainly disagree with his political ideologies. But to say we suffered?
If that’s the argument, if this is how we suffered for 8 years under Barack Obama, I have one wish:
may we be so fortunate as to suffer 8 more."

by Teri Carter, Lexington Herald-Leader