If you repeat a lie often enough, some people will begin to believe the lie is true.
Republican and Conservative propaganda in the media want you to believe that the Obama Administration and the Democratic majority has done nothing to help working families in the last two years.
The truth is President Obama and the Democrats were successful in passing many new programs and laws which helped the economy recover sooner, prevented the loss of even more jobs, and laid the groundwork for a much better future. Republicans tried to block and kill most of these bills, but Democrats and President Obama still managed to pass a large number of programs that benefit you.
Here are just 10 of the major improvements made by President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress that benefit you, your families, and our communities.
your families, and our communities.
1. Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act - gives federal agencies the power to investigate and prosecute fraud and deception in the lending industry which led to the housing and financial crisis.
2. Helping Families Save Their Homes - provides help to families in danger of losing their homes through foreclosures by the banks.
3. Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act - puts a stop to unreasonable fees, late charges, and other unfair practices of banks and credit card companies which hurt consumers.
4. Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act - puts new regulations on the financial sector to protect consumers and prevent another financial and credit crisis.
5. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - provides funds to make government buildings more energy efficient and save millions on energy costs, funds for mass transit, money to repair aging highways and bridges, incentives to encourage development of alternate energy, extends unemployment insurance to workers, provides tax breaks to working families by reducing payroll tax taken out of your paycheck.
6. Veterans Health Care Budget President Obama made many changes that benefit you Reform - provides more funds to fix and improve Veteran Hospitals which the Republicans and Bush Administration allowed to deteriorate.
7. Health care for children - continues funding for SCHIP which provides medical care to children of low income families.
8. Workers Homeownership and Business Assistance Act - gave tax breaks for first time homeowners which increased housing sales and helped the economy recover sooner.
9. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Health Care Reform) - makes health care a right for all Americans (the U.S. finally joins the rest of the advanced counties in the world by recognizing health care as a basic right), expands consumer protection and rights under medical plans, removes lifetime and annual limits, prohibits exclusion of preexisting conditions, and lowers the long term cost of health care by expanding coverage to more people (as Hawaii has done under our Pre-Paid Health Act.)
10. Weapons System Acquisition Reform Act - stops fraudulent overcharges by military contractors such as Blackwater and wasteful practices by the Pentagon and government agencies. Hires enough auditors to review subcontractors performance, overcharges, and outright fraud.
Hawaii gets unfair reputation for lowest voter turnout
What’s the matter with Hawaii’s people? Government statistics say Hawaii has the lowest percentage of registered voters and the worst voter turnout of any state. According to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Hawaii State Office of Elections, voter registration is only about 69 percent and voter turnout was 45 percent in 2008 and voter turnout was only 38 percent in 2010.
Political reporters call it shameful, an “embarrassment,” a sign that Hawaii’s people don’t care about their right to vote, politics, or government. Political analysts also note that voter participation appears to be declining across the United States.
There’s nothing wrong with Hawaii’s people. We participate in civic affairs and vote at about the same rate as citizens in any other state. The problem lies in the fact that our government uses the wrong numbers to measure voter registration and participation, and Hawaii, as an island state, has some unusual population movements that occurs only in Hawaii.
Persons of voting age
The U.S. Census Bureau uses a number based on “persons of voting age.” This is everyone over age 18, including military personnel and their dependents, non-citizens, nonresidents, and people in prison and mental hospitals. This comes out to about 1,005,000 people in Hawaii, but included in this number are a lot of people who are not eligible to vote.
You are eligible to vote if you are a U.S. citizen, age 18 by the date of the elections, a legal resident of Hawaii, not a convicted felon, and not declared mentally incompetent. To be a legal resident of Hawaii, you must declare your intent to be a legal resident and accept the obligations as a resident. Some of the requirements of residency is filing a Hawaii State income tax return, living in Hawaii for the previous 12 months, having a Hawaii’s driver license, owning property in Hawaii, not voting in another state, or some similar evidence of residency.
Residency required
In Hawaii, military personnel are not automatically considered residents but have the right to become residents. Unless they intend to stay in Hawaii, military personnel probably remain registered to vote in their home states. Hawaii has more military bases and the highest percentage of military personnel compared to our population then any other state—there are 37,000 active duty military and 61,000 military dependents.
Eligible to vote
Hawaii has about 100,000 noncitizens. There are also about 20,000 foreign and out-of-state students attending the UH, HPU, or other school who are not eligible to vote. We have 40,000 or more citizens from other states who live and work in Hawaii but who have no intention of making Hawaii their legal residence. There are also about 70,000 Hawaii residents attending school, working, or living out of state. This comes out to about 120,000 people who are not eligible to vote and another 80,000 or more who could be eligible (such as military personnel) but do not register to vote because of our strict residency requirements.
If you take out the ineligible and unlikely-to-be-eligible to vote people, there are only about 800,000 likely eligible voters in Hawaii. This gives Hawaii a voter registration rate of 74 percent and a voter turnout rate of 48 percent for 2010. This would move Hawaii from one of the lowest in the nation to 7th place for voter turnout in 2010.
Set the record straight
It would be far more accurate for the government to estimate voter turnout by using a population figure based on people eligible to vote. Professor Michael McDonald of George Mason University in Virginia calls this the “Voting-Eligible Population” or VEP. McDonald’s United States Elections Project gives estimates of voter turnout for all 50 states based on the VEP on his website at http:// elections.gmu.edu/index.html.
McDonald’s research shows no decline in U.S. voter participation since 1972 when only the “voting eligible population is counted. What appears to be a decline is caused by an increase in ineligible non-citizens, who are counted as part of the “voting age population.”
Based on our Voting-Eligible Population, Hawaii’s voter registration and voter turnout rates are higher than the U.S. average.