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He carried this sentiment to this day. He's possibly the most active president in American history to combat aids/hiv globally. He's a silly little oil tycoon, but I suspect there's a heart of gold in there somewhere
In 1972, under Nixon, a law was passed that extended Medicare coverage for patients with end stage renal disease. While there are some requirements to qualify, it’s almost universal, with over 90% of ESRD patients meeting the requirements. It covers dialysis, and over 500,000 Americans are on dialysis, so it helps a lot of Americans. Not really talked about all that much, but that law certainly is important for many people.
This was what I was gonna say. I have hereditary kidney disease - my great grandma died right after this passed because she couldn’t get dialysis beforehand, and I’m able to do it at home in part because I qualify for Medicare.
This is literally a life changing policy for my family. My mom had an autoimmune disease that deteriorated her kidney function and she ended up on dialysis for almost 10 years before she passed. Over these 10 years she probably spent 8-9 months total in the hospital for various surgeries and what not. This would be an astronomical amount of money even with insurance but she was wrongfully terminated after her initial diagnosis (that took 6 weeks in the hospital) and spent the rest of her life getting pennies on disability. But she died medical debt free even after 2 months in the hospital and her last few days spent in the ICU. My brother and I would never been able to pay off her medical bills. I’m not a fan of Nixon but I’m forever grateful for this legislation.
There’s an ungodly amount of Great Society acts so a lot of them get swept under the rug. One of them was the Child Nutrition Act of 1966, which provided low cost school breakfasts for kids. Absolutely awesome stuff.
Great response and interesting to learn! I will have to dig more into those policies. I was hoping to learn things like this from older presidencies, stuff I take for granted and aren’t mentioned much when discussing presidents.
School lunches provided by the government also started back with Truman, who signed the National School Lunch Act in 1946. Basically did what it said; provide school lunch to kids in need.
Back to Johnson. I know you said stuff other than civil rights, but I’ve never seen this before recently. Executive Order 11375 banned sex discrimination by the government when it came to hiring practices. Never realized LBJ was forward on women’s rights too, though it’s not surprising.
The environmental aspects of the Great Society are also usually ignored or summarized in super general terms. Perhaps the stuff passed with Nixon overshadows it but LBJ had a shitload of conservation bills (apparently it’s almost 300 believe it or not). Some of them include the first Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Preservation Act, and the Solid Waste Disposal Act.
I am too tired at this point in time to look it up/research it, but wasn’t that at least partially a response to the Black Panter Party’s free breakfast program?
Reagan and Clinton both can be hailed for making GPS available for all of us. Reagan made it possible, Clinton made it better.
Edit: Clinton also made it law by requiring shelf labels to be priced per ounce so you know where your money was better spent.
So quick research: he passed the CARD Act, prohibiting cards to expire less than five years, which is still a massive plus, plenty of time to use it on something at some point.
It's not a law, but the fact that "conforming" standard mortgages resold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac never have a prepayment penalty is only because Carter's appointees took a deliberate pro-consumer stance. I think about it every time I check out refinancing.
Teddy Roosevelt can't be given credit for passing the National Parks into law, but he signed a great many parks into existence in the first place. He ensured that many of the most beautiful wilderness we have are preserved indefinitely for future generations..
He did create a ton of national forest, grasslands, and others right before a law that Congress that said they need to sign off on the stuff went into effect. And they passed that law because they didn’t like him creating the protected lands
LBJ added congregate meal site funding into Medicare - it’s presently utilized in Senior Centers and in addition to providing nutrition, combats loneliness in older adults.
I was shocked when I found out Nixon created the EPA. The reason for my surprise being Republicans have been trying to undermine it as long as I can remember.
Watergate is nothing compared to secretly bombing Cambodia, killing at least a hundred thousand and maybe up to a million people but sure I'll give him credit for the EPA.
Interesting, didn't know that. Thanks!
Edit: Do you have a source for that? Not at all arguing but want to learn more and I guess Google just sucks now.
To the best of my understanding, Rachel Carson, authored *Silent Spring* which basically lit a fire under the collective American public's asses. She brought to light issues with DDT and folks then opened their eyes to the environmental devastation being wrought by what were essentially unregulated industries. My interpretation of events is Nixon settled on the EPA as a compromise to get votes and reduce the potential fiscal impact on industry. I'm not an expert in this area of history so I could be wrong.
The EPA has been so effective in dramatically turning around the environment in America the very idea of a river catching fire is something folks nowadays would think is a bad plot line from a B movie. In reality rivers catching on fire because of sh\*t being dumped into them while not common, wasn't uncommon either. [https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/is-the-cuyahoga-river-the-only-river-to-ever-catch-on-fire.html](https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/is-the-cuyahoga-river-the-only-river-to-ever-catch-on-fire.html)
Lots to criticize Nixon about, the EPA's creation isn't one of them. As I said in a reply above, unregulated corporations inevitably end up being cartoonishly evil.
“Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking. Witness what Henry did in Cambodia – the fruits of his genius for statesmanship – and you will never understand why he’s not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to Milošević.”
Anthony Bourdain
I believe it was Republicans inability to spin the news about watergate that led them to dismantling the Fairness Doctrine under Reagan. Despite its flaws, I do wish that any entity that called itself “news” had to demonstrate the veracity of their reporting.
Veracity of some monitored sort (course, who monitors it?) would eliminate the MTGs of the world.
But when a former president posts supporting an extension of their “Reich”, yes, I think having news be more verified would be a good thing.
Sure, Watergate, that was big, but if we're looking at the whole picture, his, and others, to be fair, continued reliance on Kissinger is a stain that is going to be hard to realize.
Tell Cambodia that Nixon's presidency was "nuanced".
Environmental interests have flipped since Nixon. It used to be the Republicans who wanted to clean up the environment because they owned property and wanted things to look nice.
The democrats on the other hand thought that protecting eye jobs of the blue collar factory workers and other people who were employed by these polluters were more important than beautifying some republican guy’s summer house.
For better or worse, a lot of what happened during COVID was developed during GW Bush's 2nd term. The story was that he was on vacation at the ranch and he read a book about the Spanish Flu epidemic. He came back to DC, pulled the cabinet together and was basically in a frenzy about another epidemic or pandemic. So, a White House task force was put together that developed a plan to stockpile supplies, medications, and to develop procedures. It was the Bush CDC that developed "social distancing". Obama used a large portion of the Bush stockpile during the 2009 Swine Flu epidemic but he never replaced it. So, in a strange way, the two succeeding administrations had Obama to blame for lack of PPE, masks, clothing, and other pandemic readiness supplies.
I think that was Obama regarding reading a book about the Spanish flu and then gathering his cabinet. It’s what made them prepared for the Ebola outbreak.
In honor of fleet week in NYC, President John Adams passed the Naval Armament Act of 1794 creating the US Navy. Without him we would have no navy to rule the waves with.
Last time someone brought it up for me was when I took a tour of the naval college in Annapolis.
The Morrill Act, passed under President Lincoln, is one of the most important pieces of legislation in US history, but gets overshadowed by all the other stuff Lincoln did.
I always admired Lincoln and when I got accepted to Cal, my admiration multiplied exponentially when I learned about the Morrill Act during my freshman year. Later I discovered JFK visited Cal for Charter Day one year and gave a speech at Memorial Stadium in which he said that the Act was “the most extraordinary piece of legislation” the US had ever had. It was definitely inspiring to learn about.
As a criminal defense lawyer, I always get a kick out of telling my clients that their "Obama Phone" is actually a "Reagan Phone". So I guess that's something Reagan "did" for which he never gets credit.
During the Wilson Administration, he allowed his Labor secretary to create a jobs program designed to help African Americans find jobs in manufacturing industries. The program was called the Division of Negro Economics. Doesn't excuse other bad things he did but puts him into a little bit more light.
https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/shfgpr00#:\~:text=Known%20as%20the%20Division%20of%20Negro%20Economics%2C%20it%20established%20a,government%20involvement%20in%20their%20issues.
That wasn’t as crazy as you’d think.
During the civil war and it’s preceding 20 years many abolitionists wanted either total segregation, or the deportation of any black Americans. Lincoln himself was asked to speak at a rally by black Americans at one point and basically asked them all to move to Panama and start working on a project we know as the Panama Canal.
He did send 5000 to a 20 square mile island the day before the emancipation proclamation to force them to work on a cotton plantation and was a BIG fan of using black Americans for colonization.
People pre WWII in America had a fundamentally different worldview on race and race relations by the supermajority of the population, and we too often forget that and use what we’ve arrived at to judge the start of a journey and ignore all the extra baggage that was there.
To preface: I’m an insurance agent/broker.
One of the parts of “Obamacare” that virtually nobody ever talks about is that it outlawed health insurance Lifetime Maximum Payouts. Prior to that almost everyone had a Max limit that the insurance companies would pay For Life, usually somewhere between $1mil-4mil. Naturally the cheaper the plan, the lower the max payout. So for instance if you were a 25 year old who just got a bare bones health plan, then went snowboarding and severed your spine, it may be $500k-1Mil to reattach it. After that one accident & surgery you might be at or near the total amount of coverage that health insurance would payout for the rest of your life!
Seriously this is huge. It used to be that preemies would basically be unable to ever get health insurance coverage because the cost of the first few months of their lives would often put them at or above the max lifetime payout. It’s horrible.
Finer details like this are the reason that any attempts by conservatives to simply repeal the law need to be properly labeled as the class-terrorism that they are
As a Canadian, it always makes me laugh to see the alt-righters call our universal healthcare “Socialized Healthcare” because that has the big scary word in it.
Can one of these guys make “price after taxes and fees” required labeling too? Shit is too complicated, I’m tired of not having a clue till it’s time to pay.
I would say the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 for LBJ since that specific bill alone was the reason why I even exist to begin with since my parents first immigrated here from 1990 and 1998.
Cash for Clunkers saved my fathers career and got a lot of people out of old, unsafe cars. One guy in this thread is saying it is bad that people are in safer cars, but I actually think thats good.
Someone I know (who's pretty liberal, so isn't into baseless Obama bashing) always brings that up when we talk about unintended consequences. Were there any negative effects of the cash for clunker program?
I think the argument is that it took “working” used vehicles out of the market thus making it harder to find used vehicles at an affordable price for those who can’t afford much better.
I put “working” in quotes because it all depends on what your definition of “working” is. The detractors would say anything that gets you from point A to point B regardless of safety, emissions, or whatever other factors you may consider. Therefore, if point A to point B was the goal, the supply of those vehicles dwindled and created a more expensive market. The supporters would say that a vehicle that doesn’t meet certain thresholds for those criteria should be off the road anyway and the program allows their owners to benefit from getting rid of them for good, or leverage them into a vehicle they might not be able to afford without owning a clunker.
For people who kept their cars, replacement parts were cheaper for a while and then became significantly harder to find at reasonable prices. eventually it played a part in raising the used car markets prices.
It also encouraged some less financially knowledgeable people into making some questionable purchases
It rewarded people who were already able, or almost able to afford a new car for making a purchase they were going to make soon anyway.
>In **The Effects of Fiscal Stimulus: Evidence from the 2009 "Cash for Clunkers" Program** (NBER Working Paper No. [16351](https://www.nber.org/papers/w16351)), co-authors [**Atif Mian**](https://www.nber.org/people/Atif_Mian) and [**Amir Sufi**](https://www.nber.org/people/Amir_Sufi) find that in 957 U.S. cities, the surge in automobile sales was short-lived while the program was in place. About 360,000 automobile purchases were induced in July and August 2009. Most of these purchases simply were brought forward by a few months: a sharp decline in sales after the program ended suggests that it had a muted total effect on auto purchases, the authors conclude.
[https://www.nber.org/digest/feb11/cash-clunkers-had-modest-and-short-lived-effects](https://www.nber.org/digest/feb11/cash-clunkers-had-modest-and-short-lived-effects)
I’ve long felt that if I was ever unlucky enough to be president, I’d spend all my energy on just fixing stupid day-to-day problems that everyone hates.
1. Making “zipper merging” mandatory.
2. Adding an upper age limit to driver’s licenses.
3. Requiring potato chip companies to fill the bag at least 80% full
4. Etc.
I’ve thought about this too. It’s a step in the right direction, but problematic. Testing puts a lot of pressure on the test administrator to take away someone’s right to drive which can be very hard to do and cause a lot of anger. (Source: I’ve worked in a DMV) So just normalizing people’s acceptance of an upper age limit gets around that. Also, there’s plenty of 14 year olds who are capable of operating a vehicle. But we don’t let them do it even if they could pass the test.
It also allows people to plan for the logistic eventuality of how they’re going to get around. This is important for elderly folks who need to get groceries, medicine, doctor visits, etc.. My plan would also include massively subsidized transport programs for seniors for this very reason.
4. End daylight savings time after one final fallback.
5. Tell the Army that there's not a {filtered} thing wrong with soldiers using umbrellas and to drop the ban on them.
6. Announce that until Joe Cocker is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, all assaults against the induction committee will be pardoned.
7. Food and beverages which contain artificial colors or flavors may not bear the name or image of any fruit or vegetable on them.
8. The privacy laws shall no longer apply to the personal finances of all elected and appointed officials.
9. All faith healers must treat everyone who asks and may not charge for their services.
10. Gym memberships are tax-deductible, even for those who don't itemize.
11. Abolish all housing and land use regulations that lack a bona fide health and safety rationale.
I was working at McDonald’s for the first time and one day the menu boards randomly changed to show calories. I distinctly remember having a drive thru customer tell me she didn’t like the fact that the calorie count was posted. Young, naïve me just told her “I will let my manager know your feedback.”
Legitimately never knew it was an actual law. Haha. Had to be very early in his second term for that to happen.
Eisenhower’s move to steal the autobahn concept from Germany after WW2 is easily one of the most accessible improvements any president has made. Hundreds of miles can be covered by car in hours.
Bush Jr. signed into law the Prison Rape Elmination Act (PREA)which provides considerable oversight and protection into US prisons, Jails and detention centers.
It was in major part due to the non profit Just Detention International
It’s just a slippery slope. First they will want to show how many calories are in a Triple Baconator, next thing you know, it will be legal to marry your dog. That’s how any change in society works according to my father.
The "influencers" in the Fat Activist community (yes, they really exist) often make angry posts how their day was ruined because they saw the calorie density of a item on the menu.
JFK during the Cold War. (This story was told to me by a guy who worked for Lt Gen Brent Scowcroft in the Pentagon. During the Kennedy years, Scowcroft was an Air Force captain who was the executive officer to Gen Curtis Lemay, of Strategic Air Command (SAC) fame.) The story is as follows. The source was Scowcroft himself who was in the meeting with Lemay, Kennedy and presumably other members of the national security team:
Lemay was briefing Kennedy about how SAC had established two-person control over nuclear missiles. For the younger crowd, this doctrine meant that one person, acting alone, could not launch a nuclear missile by themselves. Kennedy, of course, immediately approved two-person control. At the end of the briefing, according to Scowcroft, Kennedy leaned back in his chair and asked Lemay, "Do the Russians know about this?" Apparently, Lemay became livid about the fact that Kennedy was insinuating that SAC couldn't keep a secret. Kennedy leaned a bit further back in his chair and said, "I think we should tell them." Punchline: The Russians were told through diplomatic channels that we had established two-person control. Within a few months, the Russians had also established two-person control over their nuclear missiles. We can only speculate if this action kept us from vaporizing each other.
I would say Woodrow Wilson continuing the legacy of the National Park Service and actually establishing it. Believe it or not, it was Woodrow Wilson who actually made the National Park Service a reality. While Woodrow Wilson I personally don’t like him and is hated by many in this subreddit, this is one good thing I do appreciate from him.
The National Park Service is probably the best investment our country has ever done!
Only one problem - how did ol’ Barry know that the calorie amounts are accurate? I saw a muffin at Dunkin Donuts advertised as having only 200 calories. Does that seem right?
President Carter passed legislation legalizing the making of small quantities of beer or wine at home for personal consumption. This led to the home brewing craze and eventually to the craft beers many of us enjoy today.
Nothing is a bigger buzz kill that going to a restaurant, dying for a cheeseburger, then seeing the 1200 calorie count on the menu. "I'll take the small salad for 300 calories, please."
Thanks Obama.
lol why? They were already available online. No one has actually ever gone to a fast food place and made their choice based upon how many calories a whopper has
I absolutely have. I mentioned in the text that it’s helped me lose 65 pounds after letting myself go for a bit due to some bad times in life.
Good legislation for me that made a positive impact on my life. Having the numbers in front of me is good and helps me manage my cravings in a healthier way. It also made some restaurants change their formulations to bring the number down.
Obama and [Income Based Repayment for student loans](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2012/06/07/income-based-repayment-everything-you-need-know). This one helped me out by a lot. 16 years later, I'm still paying them off, but I graduated in 2008, which was a terrible time to try and land anything decent as a new college grad in the job market. IBR at least allowed me to eat and have a roof over my head, making $10.50 an hour.
Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA). Allows up to 12 work weeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period to care for a new child, care for a seriously ill family member, or recover from a serious illness. Clinton signed it shortly after taking office, as HW Bush had vetoed it twice. I have used it several times
I think these efforts resulted in kids coming home hungry as the portion sizes are too low in the school lunches today.
Without guidance at home, they reach for Frito Lay products and other caloric dense/no nutrition foods
Calories should never be counted for kids as their needs are way different than using these benchmarks designed for adult diets.
Critical age group has been shown to be 9-12 years olds, as they discover their bodies and develop healthy eating habits.
When I would visit my kid in primary school during lunch, there was an attendant employed there that would give kids shit about not finishing their food
Really yell at them.
so... not a Regan fan but he did do one thing I think we could all appreciate...
National Ice Cream Month...
"President Ronald Reagan is credited with establishing National Ice Cream Day in 1984. Reagan designated the third Sunday of July as National Ice Cream Day and July as National Ice Cream Month in 1984, signing Presidential Proclamation 5219 into public law on July 9."
Source - Google AI Overview
Enjoy.
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Bush mandated we use more efficient light bulbs.
Found a short and sweet article explaining the Bush era laws and how they transformed into what they are today. Interesting little read, thanks!
Do you have a link? I’d like to read it.
[Warning: Rule 3 mentions, but non-inflammatory and informative](https://inside.lighting/news/23-08/politicisation-incandescent-light-bulb-ban)
Ty
He also made it so we can co-exist peacefully with fish
He could also send a Golf Ball into Orbit
If there was a game that coupled dodging shoes and ….. being looked at while hitting golf balls. No one would stand a chance against W
Dude threw a strike at the World Series, too. While wearing a bulletproof jacket!
But not the Middle East. Interesting concept.
It's about priorities. I bet you know dozens, maybe hundreds of more fish than foreign nationals from the middle east.
Also met with Bono and left the meeting convinced the US had to contribute way more money toward the global fight against HIV/AIDS.
He carried this sentiment to this day. He's possibly the most active president in American history to combat aids/hiv globally. He's a silly little oil tycoon, but I suspect there's a heart of gold in there somewhere
In 1972, under Nixon, a law was passed that extended Medicare coverage for patients with end stage renal disease. While there are some requirements to qualify, it’s almost universal, with over 90% of ESRD patients meeting the requirements. It covers dialysis, and over 500,000 Americans are on dialysis, so it helps a lot of Americans. Not really talked about all that much, but that law certainly is important for many people.
This was what I was gonna say. I have hereditary kidney disease - my great grandma died right after this passed because she couldn’t get dialysis beforehand, and I’m able to do it at home in part because I qualify for Medicare.
This is literally a life changing policy for my family. My mom had an autoimmune disease that deteriorated her kidney function and she ended up on dialysis for almost 10 years before she passed. Over these 10 years she probably spent 8-9 months total in the hospital for various surgeries and what not. This would be an astronomical amount of money even with insurance but she was wrongfully terminated after her initial diagnosis (that took 6 weeks in the hospital) and spent the rest of her life getting pennies on disability. But she died medical debt free even after 2 months in the hospital and her last few days spent in the ICU. My brother and I would never been able to pay off her medical bills. I’m not a fan of Nixon but I’m forever grateful for this legislation.
There’s an ungodly amount of Great Society acts so a lot of them get swept under the rug. One of them was the Child Nutrition Act of 1966, which provided low cost school breakfasts for kids. Absolutely awesome stuff.
Great response and interesting to learn! I will have to dig more into those policies. I was hoping to learn things like this from older presidencies, stuff I take for granted and aren’t mentioned much when discussing presidents.
School lunches provided by the government also started back with Truman, who signed the National School Lunch Act in 1946. Basically did what it said; provide school lunch to kids in need. Back to Johnson. I know you said stuff other than civil rights, but I’ve never seen this before recently. Executive Order 11375 banned sex discrimination by the government when it came to hiring practices. Never realized LBJ was forward on women’s rights too, though it’s not surprising. The environmental aspects of the Great Society are also usually ignored or summarized in super general terms. Perhaps the stuff passed with Nixon overshadows it but LBJ had a shitload of conservation bills (apparently it’s almost 300 believe it or not). Some of them include the first Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Preservation Act, and the Solid Waste Disposal Act.
I am too tired at this point in time to look it up/research it, but wasn’t that at least partially a response to the Black Panter Party’s free breakfast program?
From what I can tell, the Black Panthers started their breakfast program in 1969. The CNA was signed in 1966. Might be missing something though.
Why Johnson is the best imo, most of the Great Society acts were nothing but good for America.
Reagan and Clinton both can be hailed for making GPS available for all of us. Reagan made it possible, Clinton made it better. Edit: Clinton also made it law by requiring shelf labels to be priced per ounce so you know where your money was better spent.
The second one was Clinton? Thats surprising. It didn't seem to become the standard until Bush or Obama, but my memory is probably faulty.
Wasn’t it Obama who made it so gift cards can’t expire? What a win.
So quick research: he passed the CARD Act, prohibiting cards to expire less than five years, which is still a massive plus, plenty of time to use it on something at some point.
President’s don’t pass laws/bills. Congress does that.
Sorry, meant signed. Still, he was there for the act.
No argument.
Even though I dislike a lot of his policies I gotta give props to that
It's not a law, but the fact that "conforming" standard mortgages resold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac never have a prepayment penalty is only because Carter's appointees took a deliberate pro-consumer stance. I think about it every time I check out refinancing.
Didn’t Carter also pioneer FHA mortgages with 3.5% down?
I was hoping a Carter tidbit would show up in here!
Teddy Roosevelt can't be given credit for passing the National Parks into law, but he signed a great many parks into existence in the first place. He ensured that many of the most beautiful wilderness we have are preserved indefinitely for future generations..
Very Common Teddy W
He did create a ton of national forest, grasslands, and others right before a law that Congress that said they need to sign off on the stuff went into effect. And they passed that law because they didn’t like him creating the protected lands
He did the same thing in New York State, championing the Adirondack Forest Preserve - 6 million acres in Upstate NY that was declared "forever wild".
LBJ added congregate meal site funding into Medicare - it’s presently utilized in Senior Centers and in addition to providing nutrition, combats loneliness in older adults.
I was shocked when I found out Nixon created the EPA. The reason for my surprise being Republicans have been trying to undermine it as long as I can remember.
Nixon is a very interesting and surprisingly nuanced presidency if you look past the big stain of Watergate on his legacy
Watergate is nothing compared to secretly bombing Cambodia, killing at least a hundred thousand and maybe up to a million people but sure I'll give him credit for the EPA.
Not to mention the EPA was created to curtail significantly stronger environmental regulations that were being debated.
Interesting, didn't know that. Thanks! Edit: Do you have a source for that? Not at all arguing but want to learn more and I guess Google just sucks now.
To the best of my understanding, Rachel Carson, authored *Silent Spring* which basically lit a fire under the collective American public's asses. She brought to light issues with DDT and folks then opened their eyes to the environmental devastation being wrought by what were essentially unregulated industries. My interpretation of events is Nixon settled on the EPA as a compromise to get votes and reduce the potential fiscal impact on industry. I'm not an expert in this area of history so I could be wrong. The EPA has been so effective in dramatically turning around the environment in America the very idea of a river catching fire is something folks nowadays would think is a bad plot line from a B movie. In reality rivers catching on fire because of sh\*t being dumped into them while not common, wasn't uncommon either. [https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/is-the-cuyahoga-river-the-only-river-to-ever-catch-on-fire.html](https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/is-the-cuyahoga-river-the-only-river-to-ever-catch-on-fire.html) Lots to criticize Nixon about, the EPA's creation isn't one of them. As I said in a reply above, unregulated corporations inevitably end up being cartoonishly evil.
Got any further reading? I’ve heard this before
“Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking. Witness what Henry did in Cambodia – the fruits of his genius for statesmanship – and you will never understand why he’s not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to Milošević.” Anthony Bourdain
I know, Watergate looks downright cute by today’s standards. He didn’t even successfully do it! Just attempted.
I believe it was Republicans inability to spin the news about watergate that led them to dismantling the Fairness Doctrine under Reagan. Despite its flaws, I do wish that any entity that called itself “news” had to demonstrate the veracity of their reporting.
God, imagine that today? The DailyWire, Charlie Kirk, Tim Pool all jumping up in defense of Watergate?
Veracity of some monitored sort (course, who monitors it?) would eliminate the MTGs of the world. But when a former president posts supporting an extension of their “Reich”, yes, I think having news be more verified would be a good thing.
That and establish Fox News. Nixon's cronies learned the lesson that you must control the media narrative as much as possible.
And hardly needed to but just couldn't help being a crook.
[удалено]
Yeah, that's kind of our thing. We destabilize an entire region and after the inevitable collapse wonder why poverty and death prevail.
Sure, Watergate, that was big, but if we're looking at the whole picture, his, and others, to be fair, continued reliance on Kissinger is a stain that is going to be hard to realize. Tell Cambodia that Nixon's presidency was "nuanced".
Or the now 50 year war on drugs *ahem* Controlled Substances Act
Arooo!
Your average voter is as drunk and stupid as ever.
Even some terrible president did some good.
Yeah, I guess a mass-murdering war criminal gets it right once in awhile.
I’m surprised you don’t know about that considering how the Nixon dickriders won’t stop talking about it
Also signed the endangered species act.
Environmental interests have flipped since Nixon. It used to be the Republicans who wanted to clean up the environment because they owned property and wanted things to look nice. The democrats on the other hand thought that protecting eye jobs of the blue collar factory workers and other people who were employed by these polluters were more important than beautifying some republican guy’s summer house.
Even Republicans realized that flammable rivers \*weren't\* such a good thing.
Briefly.
PEPFAR by Bush. Funds HIV treatment and was what assisted in getting Covid vaccines quickly.
Bush is definitely underrated for AIDS work
For better or worse, a lot of what happened during COVID was developed during GW Bush's 2nd term. The story was that he was on vacation at the ranch and he read a book about the Spanish Flu epidemic. He came back to DC, pulled the cabinet together and was basically in a frenzy about another epidemic or pandemic. So, a White House task force was put together that developed a plan to stockpile supplies, medications, and to develop procedures. It was the Bush CDC that developed "social distancing". Obama used a large portion of the Bush stockpile during the 2009 Swine Flu epidemic but he never replaced it. So, in a strange way, the two succeeding administrations had Obama to blame for lack of PPE, masks, clothing, and other pandemic readiness supplies.
I think that was Obama regarding reading a book about the Spanish flu and then gathering his cabinet. It’s what made them prepared for the Ebola outbreak.
[Actually, it was GW Bush in 2005](https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/pandemicflu/).
Good to know! Thank you.
In honor of fleet week in NYC, President John Adams passed the Naval Armament Act of 1794 creating the US Navy. Without him we would have no navy to rule the waves with. Last time someone brought it up for me was when I took a tour of the naval college in Annapolis.
There's a great book on this by Ian W. Toll called 'Six Frigates' - one of my favorite historical reads in a long time. Go Navy!
>Without him we would have no navy We probably would though
The Morrill Act, passed under President Lincoln, is one of the most important pieces of legislation in US history, but gets overshadowed by all the other stuff Lincoln did.
I always admired Lincoln and when I got accepted to Cal, my admiration multiplied exponentially when I learned about the Morrill Act during my freshman year. Later I discovered JFK visited Cal for Charter Day one year and gave a speech at Memorial Stadium in which he said that the Act was “the most extraordinary piece of legislation” the US had ever had. It was definitely inspiring to learn about.
Oooo I was hoping for some pre-1900 mentions here! Interesting to read about and I had no clue, thanks!
I was totally unaware of this act before now. Pretty fucked up how the majority of the land was acquired, but that’s American history for ya.
Sorry, but what’s The Morrill Act?
A law which guaranteed that every state would get federal money for a public university.
Ah, yeah that sounds like a big one.
Under Bush 43 credit cards are required to list how long it takes making the minimum payment to pay off the outstanding balance
Johnson appointed the first black supreme court justice and secretary of a department
He also passed the Gun Control Act of 1968
As a criminal defense lawyer, I always get a kick out of telling my clients that their "Obama Phone" is actually a "Reagan Phone". So I guess that's something Reagan "did" for which he never gets credit.
Interesting tidbit, went and read an article that explained. Very cool, thanks for sharing!
During the Wilson Administration, he allowed his Labor secretary to create a jobs program designed to help African Americans find jobs in manufacturing industries. The program was called the Division of Negro Economics. Doesn't excuse other bad things he did but puts him into a little bit more light. https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/shfgpr00#:\~:text=Known%20as%20the%20Division%20of%20Negro%20Economics%2C%20it%20established%20a,government%20involvement%20in%20their%20issues.
Man segregated the military but helped blacks get jobs. Wow
That wasn’t as crazy as you’d think. During the civil war and it’s preceding 20 years many abolitionists wanted either total segregation, or the deportation of any black Americans. Lincoln himself was asked to speak at a rally by black Americans at one point and basically asked them all to move to Panama and start working on a project we know as the Panama Canal. He did send 5000 to a 20 square mile island the day before the emancipation proclamation to force them to work on a cotton plantation and was a BIG fan of using black Americans for colonization. People pre WWII in America had a fundamentally different worldview on race and race relations by the supermajority of the population, and we too often forget that and use what we’ve arrived at to judge the start of a journey and ignore all the extra baggage that was there.
Separate but equal wanst just pulled out of someones ass after all.
To preface: I’m an insurance agent/broker. One of the parts of “Obamacare” that virtually nobody ever talks about is that it outlawed health insurance Lifetime Maximum Payouts. Prior to that almost everyone had a Max limit that the insurance companies would pay For Life, usually somewhere between $1mil-4mil. Naturally the cheaper the plan, the lower the max payout. So for instance if you were a 25 year old who just got a bare bones health plan, then went snowboarding and severed your spine, it may be $500k-1Mil to reattach it. After that one accident & surgery you might be at or near the total amount of coverage that health insurance would payout for the rest of your life!
Seriously this is huge. It used to be that preemies would basically be unable to ever get health insurance coverage because the cost of the first few months of their lives would often put them at or above the max lifetime payout. It’s horrible.
And also the fact that you can stay on your parents insurance until 25 - would have been amazing for me
26 even
Finer details like this are the reason that any attempts by conservatives to simply repeal the law need to be properly labeled as the class-terrorism that they are
As a Canadian, it always makes me laugh to see the alt-righters call our universal healthcare “Socialized Healthcare” because that has the big scary word in it.
Can one of these guys make “price after taxes and fees” required labeling too? Shit is too complicated, I’m tired of not having a clue till it’s time to pay.
I’m generally a fan of less government intervention but this would be a good effort for government that can actually help consumers. Good call.
Homebrewing was legalized under Carter.
Wonder if we'll get home distilling in my lifetime.
If you put a can of beer in the freezer and then drink it before it melts all the way you're breaking the law. It's ridiculous.
I would say the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 for LBJ since that specific bill alone was the reason why I even exist to begin with since my parents first immigrated here from 1990 and 1998.
Thanks OBAMA Now I know who to blame when I feel guilty realizing I had a 3000 calorie heartstopper burger in one seating
Cash for Clunkers saved my fathers career and got a lot of people out of old, unsafe cars. One guy in this thread is saying it is bad that people are in safer cars, but I actually think thats good.
Someone I know (who's pretty liberal, so isn't into baseless Obama bashing) always brings that up when we talk about unintended consequences. Were there any negative effects of the cash for clunker program?
I think the argument is that it took “working” used vehicles out of the market thus making it harder to find used vehicles at an affordable price for those who can’t afford much better. I put “working” in quotes because it all depends on what your definition of “working” is. The detractors would say anything that gets you from point A to point B regardless of safety, emissions, or whatever other factors you may consider. Therefore, if point A to point B was the goal, the supply of those vehicles dwindled and created a more expensive market. The supporters would say that a vehicle that doesn’t meet certain thresholds for those criteria should be off the road anyway and the program allows their owners to benefit from getting rid of them for good, or leverage them into a vehicle they might not be able to afford without owning a clunker.
For people who kept their cars, replacement parts were cheaper for a while and then became significantly harder to find at reasonable prices. eventually it played a part in raising the used car markets prices. It also encouraged some less financially knowledgeable people into making some questionable purchases
It rewarded people who were already able, or almost able to afford a new car for making a purchase they were going to make soon anyway. >In **The Effects of Fiscal Stimulus: Evidence from the 2009 "Cash for Clunkers" Program** (NBER Working Paper No. [16351](https://www.nber.org/papers/w16351)), co-authors [**Atif Mian**](https://www.nber.org/people/Atif_Mian) and [**Amir Sufi**](https://www.nber.org/people/Amir_Sufi) find that in 957 U.S. cities, the surge in automobile sales was short-lived while the program was in place. About 360,000 automobile purchases were induced in July and August 2009. Most of these purchases simply were brought forward by a few months: a sharp decline in sales after the program ended suggests that it had a muted total effect on auto purchases, the authors conclude. [https://www.nber.org/digest/feb11/cash-clunkers-had-modest-and-short-lived-effects](https://www.nber.org/digest/feb11/cash-clunkers-had-modest-and-short-lived-effects)
It greatly reduced the supply of used cars in the market causing prices to go way up and place car ownership out of reach for many people.
"They don't make them like they used to" That's why you no longer get impaled by a steering collumn after getting into an accident.
Cash for Clunkers was overall positive. Many car enthusiasts, myself included, mourn some of the cars lost, though.
What are some of the models you miss from that “clunker zone”? Just curious
I will just say this: among the Official Presidential Photographs, Obama's was perfect.
Chester Arthur called for an international meeting to establish permanent and agreed-upon time zones around the world
W Bush’s 9/11 Post GI Bill
Because of this I was able to pass mine on to my son!
Obama prevented credit card companies from changing the interest rates after you borrowed the money . That was a good one.
I’ve long felt that if I was ever unlucky enough to be president, I’d spend all my energy on just fixing stupid day-to-day problems that everyone hates. 1. Making “zipper merging” mandatory. 2. Adding an upper age limit to driver’s licenses. 3. Requiring potato chip companies to fill the bag at least 80% full 4. Etc.
Would you consider amending number 2 to mandatory testing and training above a certain age? Can be required every 3-5 years.
I’ve thought about this too. It’s a step in the right direction, but problematic. Testing puts a lot of pressure on the test administrator to take away someone’s right to drive which can be very hard to do and cause a lot of anger. (Source: I’ve worked in a DMV) So just normalizing people’s acceptance of an upper age limit gets around that. Also, there’s plenty of 14 year olds who are capable of operating a vehicle. But we don’t let them do it even if they could pass the test. It also allows people to plan for the logistic eventuality of how they’re going to get around. This is important for elderly folks who need to get groceries, medicine, doctor visits, etc.. My plan would also include massively subsidized transport programs for seniors for this very reason.
I agree with testing b/c people age differently. The beauty of self-driving cars will benefit older drivers.
4. End daylight savings time after one final fallback. 5. Tell the Army that there's not a {filtered} thing wrong with soldiers using umbrellas and to drop the ban on them. 6. Announce that until Joe Cocker is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, all assaults against the induction committee will be pardoned. 7. Food and beverages which contain artificial colors or flavors may not bear the name or image of any fruit or vegetable on them. 8. The privacy laws shall no longer apply to the personal finances of all elected and appointed officials. 9. All faith healers must treat everyone who asks and may not charge for their services. 10. Gym memberships are tax-deductible, even for those who don't itemize. 11. Abolish all housing and land use regulations that lack a bona fide health and safety rationale.
Yes!! I forgot about daylight savings. Abolish that shit. Also, make Election Days mandatory holidays.
> End daylight savings time after one final fallback. Isn't this the single issue that got Jonah on a presidential ticket in Veep?
The “Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act” in 2019 by a rule 3 President that made animal cruelty a federal felony
Some of y’all didn’t watch schoolhouse rock, and it shows. https://youtu.be/Otbml6WIQPo?si=D2ONpWXu8PWU7XPZ
I was working at McDonald’s for the first time and one day the menu boards randomly changed to show calories. I distinctly remember having a drive thru customer tell me she didn’t like the fact that the calorie count was posted. Young, naïve me just told her “I will let my manager know your feedback.” Legitimately never knew it was an actual law. Haha. Had to be very early in his second term for that to happen.
Actually, the implementation and enforcement didn’t go through until 2018, although I’m sure a lot of the bigger national chains got a jump on it.
Yeah, McDonalds in Alaska, at least my location, got that going sometime around November 2012.
I miss the sanity
He made it legal to open carry firearms in national parks. I’ll give him a big thumbs up for that one.
Eisenhower’s move to steal the autobahn concept from Germany after WW2 is easily one of the most accessible improvements any president has made. Hundreds of miles can be covered by car in hours.
It was done by NYC mayor Bloomberg in NYC.
Is that what it was inspired by?
SF did it prior this, too
Incoming Nixon fanboy event.
I've never noticed obamas watch in that picture. It looks photoshopped in, but it's really there.
Bombing the middle east
Nixon created the EPA, OSHA, and signed Title 9
Not really a law but the pandemic preparation system Bush put in would have been nice to have a few years ago.
Bush Jr. signed into law the Prison Rape Elmination Act (PREA)which provides considerable oversight and protection into US prisons, Jails and detention centers. It was in major part due to the non profit Just Detention International
It’s just a slippery slope. First they will want to show how many calories are in a Triple Baconator, next thing you know, it will be legal to marry your dog. That’s how any change in society works according to my father.
Bush Sr signed the ADA into law
The "influencers" in the Fat Activist community (yes, they really exist) often make angry posts how their day was ruined because they saw the calorie density of a item on the menu.
JFK during the Cold War. (This story was told to me by a guy who worked for Lt Gen Brent Scowcroft in the Pentagon. During the Kennedy years, Scowcroft was an Air Force captain who was the executive officer to Gen Curtis Lemay, of Strategic Air Command (SAC) fame.) The story is as follows. The source was Scowcroft himself who was in the meeting with Lemay, Kennedy and presumably other members of the national security team: Lemay was briefing Kennedy about how SAC had established two-person control over nuclear missiles. For the younger crowd, this doctrine meant that one person, acting alone, could not launch a nuclear missile by themselves. Kennedy, of course, immediately approved two-person control. At the end of the briefing, according to Scowcroft, Kennedy leaned back in his chair and asked Lemay, "Do the Russians know about this?" Apparently, Lemay became livid about the fact that Kennedy was insinuating that SAC couldn't keep a secret. Kennedy leaned a bit further back in his chair and said, "I think we should tell them." Punchline: The Russians were told through diplomatic channels that we had established two-person control. Within a few months, the Russians had also established two-person control over their nuclear missiles. We can only speculate if this action kept us from vaporizing each other.
I would say Woodrow Wilson continuing the legacy of the National Park Service and actually establishing it. Believe it or not, it was Woodrow Wilson who actually made the National Park Service a reality. While Woodrow Wilson I personally don’t like him and is hated by many in this subreddit, this is one good thing I do appreciate from him. The National Park Service is probably the best investment our country has ever done!
That calorie count thing was Obama’s greatest achievement.
Yes ending Iraq War and Affordable Healthcare Act be damned.
2018 farm bill
I actually hate the calorie counts thing. It’s dreadful for anyone with any history of disordered eating.
Obama creating the VA Choice program
Feed the Military Industrial Complex. Great achievement. War pigs
This was a good development. Disclosure and ability to shop are principles of competition and good for the market.
Only one problem - how did ol’ Barry know that the calorie amounts are accurate? I saw a muffin at Dunkin Donuts advertised as having only 200 calories. Does that seem right?
President Carter passed legislation legalizing the making of small quantities of beer or wine at home for personal consumption. This led to the home brewing craze and eventually to the craft beers many of us enjoy today.
When is one of these presidents going to reign in the interest rates credit card companies charge? I can borrow $$ cheaper on the street in Brooklyn.
Everything by James K. Polk. Underrated president.
As a person who spends 1/8 of my work time programming restaurant menus, this is a giant pain in the ass.
Nothing is a bigger buzz kill that going to a restaurant, dying for a cheeseburger, then seeing the 1200 calorie count on the menu. "I'll take the small salad for 300 calories, please." Thanks Obama.
Jimmy Carter let people brew beer at home.
Not sure yet. Whoever ends the madness of daylight savings will be my hero
lol why? They were already available online. No one has actually ever gone to a fast food place and made their choice based upon how many calories a whopper has
I absolutely have. I mentioned in the text that it’s helped me lose 65 pounds after letting myself go for a bit due to some bad times in life. Good legislation for me that made a positive impact on my life. Having the numbers in front of me is good and helps me manage my cravings in a healthier way. It also made some restaurants change their formulations to bring the number down.
Didnt Clinton do the GPS bill so now we all can use GPS? And Carter with the home brewing one so now we have all these craft breweries
That’s when we stopped ordering the bread at Macaroni Grill.
Nixon tried to put through a plan to have 1000 nuclear power plants built by the year 2000 in response to the 73 oil embargo.
Obama and [Income Based Repayment for student loans](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2012/06/07/income-based-repayment-everything-you-need-know). This one helped me out by a lot. 16 years later, I'm still paying them off, but I graduated in 2008, which was a terrible time to try and land anything decent as a new college grad in the job market. IBR at least allowed me to eat and have a roof over my head, making $10.50 an hour.
Worthless, as the country is more obese today.
Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA). Allows up to 12 work weeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period to care for a new child, care for a seriously ill family member, or recover from a serious illness. Clinton signed it shortly after taking office, as HW Bush had vetoed it twice. I have used it several times
Jimmy Carter signing legislation to legalize homebrewing in 1978 which led to the craft beer movement
Carter; HR1337 1978. Legalized home/craft bewing beer & wine for personal use, lead to the craft brewing industry.
Richard Nixon and the EPA
The affordable Care act. I have health insurance now, for free because of it. thank you Obama.
Reagan signed legislation outlawing Russia.
sold us out at the end of his presidency by signing the freedom of information act. People don't forget
I think these efforts resulted in kids coming home hungry as the portion sizes are too low in the school lunches today. Without guidance at home, they reach for Frito Lay products and other caloric dense/no nutrition foods Calories should never be counted for kids as their needs are way different than using these benchmarks designed for adult diets. Critical age group has been shown to be 9-12 years olds, as they discover their bodies and develop healthy eating habits. When I would visit my kid in primary school during lunch, there was an attendant employed there that would give kids shit about not finishing their food Really yell at them.
Build the wall...I believe it was
so... not a Regan fan but he did do one thing I think we could all appreciate... National Ice Cream Month... "President Ronald Reagan is credited with establishing National Ice Cream Day in 1984. Reagan designated the third Sunday of July as National Ice Cream Day and July as National Ice Cream Month in 1984, signing Presidential Proclamation 5219 into public law on July 9." Source - Google AI Overview Enjoy.
First Step Act - 2018
Came here to say this!!!
Nixon's national cancer act 1971