Unit 5: Lesson 3; The Obama Administration (HIS SB)

Shelby County v. Holder

June 2013; challenged sections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965; sections in question were meant to protect against voting discrimination on the basis of race; Districts that had voting tests and lower than 50 percent voter turnout in 1964 were required to get federal government approval to make changes to election policies; Officials in Shelby County, Alabama, argued that two sections of the act violated the right of local officials to regulate elections; said the law gave Congress more power than had been granted by the 14th Amendment; The Supreme Court voted 5-4 in favor of Shelby County, deciding that these sections of the Voting Rights Act were no longer needed and placed an unfair burden on these districts; The dissenting opinion, written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, said that evidence gathered by Congress showed that discrimination was still present and that the rules were still necessary

Keystone XL debate

Keystone XL pipeline was first proposed in 2008; would extend the existing Keystone pipeline to transport fossil fuels from Canada to the United States; Obama vetoed the pipeline in 2015, due to the environmental concerns; Trump overturned that veto in 2018; plan was officially canceled in June 2021

common health insurance (US)

Most Americans purchase health insurance through their employers as a job benefit; Spouses and children can also access health insurance through a family member who is insured through work; Benefits: designed to attract the best employees to jobs with the best benefits ---- Disadvantages: many holes in the system that left millions of people without access to healthcare; Unemployed or underemployed people who worked at jobs that did not offer this benefit were often uninsured; People in same-sex unions did not have equal access to health care, and people with pre-existing conditions could be denied coverage based on their health histories

Obama: Goals

Much of president Obama's social policy focused on bringing equal opportunity and equal access to housing, employment, and health care to people of color, women, and members of the LGBTQ community; called on Americans to "stir their consciences" and to embrace a "moral imagination" to extend fairness and equality to all members of society; described how racism experiences fueled a desire to bring fairness and equality to all members of American society, including and especially marginalized groups

Paris Climate Agreement

Nearly 200 countries signed the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016; Members support each other by sharing funds and technology to try to slow the rate of climate change in the world; majority of Americans supported the agreement; a political issue, though, and many Republicans worried about the impact on the US economy; United States left the accord in 2019 but returned in 2021

2012 Pres Campaign

Obama faced Republican challenger Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts who had led a campaign against John McCain in the primary race in 2008; Romney: won the Republican presidential nomination in August 2012; named Paul Ryan, a representative from Wisconsin, as his vice presidential running mate

Bush vs Obama

Obama foreign policy was often similar to that of Bush; Bush: foreign policy while in office was dominated by the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath; response to the attacks was to strike back at the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Operation Enduring Freedom began; promised to fight and defeat every terrorist group; wanted to respond with might, and some of his rhetoric was criticized as too aggressive; chose to become involved in military action in Iraq; ---- Obama: continued the fight in Afghanistan, and he sent forces after Osama bin Laden in order to kill him; some of his actions were more moderate, although this approach was not always successful; reduced troops in Iraq and did not engage in land warfare in Syria; due to the public dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq; may have allowed the Syrian government to inflict more human rights abuses on Syrian citizens

US ISIS response

Obama had been trying to move the United States away from the ongoing wars in the Middle East; rise of ISIS changed the course of his foreign policy; 2014, he vowed to destroy ISIS through counterterrorism strategies; Additional troops and air strikes were part of this strategy

Obama and Climate Change

Obama made addressing the effects climate change a priority of his administration; 2009, he strengthened auto emissions rules and made carmakers improve their fuel efficiency; directed investment in renewable resources like solar and wind power; protected 260 million acres of federal land, more than any other president; supported the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, but the Senate blocked ratification; Critics felt Obama was overreaching his authority as president through many of these actions

2008 election results

Obama prevailed with 365 electoral votes to McCain's 173

Obama (Afghanistan)

Obama sent additional troops to Afghanistan and committed to the war; 2010, NATO countries signed a declaration stating that a transition to hand Afghanistan back over to the Afghans would begin in 2011 and end in 2014; May 1, 2011, US forces killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan; United States had achieved a ten-year search for the leader of the 9/11 attacks; Later in 2011, President Obama announced a plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by 2014; Troops were still present when Obama left office in 2017

2010 midterm election

Obama supported legislation that would safeguard gay and lesbian rights, including a 2009 bill that made it a hate crime to victimize a person based on their sexual identity; In December 2010, Obama signed a law that repealed the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Act; Democrats risked losing their advantage in the midterm elections; Obama maintained that the unemployment rate would have been worse without ARRA, the fact that it hovered around 10 percent two years into the recession made voters wonder if he had done enough to address joblessness; many who were happy with their health insurance were concerned that the ACA would bring unwanted changes to their coverage; On Election Day in 2010, the Democrats lost 6 seats in the Senate and 63 seats in the House of Representatives; Republicans gained control of the House; Meeting the Obama administration's objectives would become difficult to accomplish with Republican legislators blocking them

Dodd-Frank Act

Often, banks will sell loans to other financial firms in a what is called an investment swap, a process designed to make the most money for each investor; Before 2010, there was little regulation over swap agreements; Risky trading contributed to bank failures after the housing market collapse; The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act made banking safer by imposing stricter rules about these transactions

Droughts and Wildfires

Record heat waves plagued various parts of the world in the 2010s; severe drought that killed hundreds of thousands hit Africa in 2011-2012; Wildfires have long been a problem in the western United States, especially in California; 2010s, several deadly fires destroyed millions of acres and cost billions of dollars in damaged property and recovery expenses; California has experienced many droughts that have destroyed crops and damaged some land to the point that it can no longer be farmed;

Affordable Care Act opponents

Republicans who objected charged that the individual mandate denied citizens of freedom of choice; criticized the law in general as a government takeover of the American health system; citizens objected to the Affordable Care Act's policies on religious grounds; Members of Congress regularly introduced bills to overturn, or repeal, the law; On three separate occasions, a majority of the Justices upheld the law's constitutionality

2012 reelection

Romney was accused of not being conservative enough with social policies; Some questioned Romney's financial ethics, saying he had not come by his millionaire status honestly; Obama won election to a second term by carrying 51 percent of the popular vote to Romney's 47 percent, and he beat Romney in Electoral College votes 332 to 206

US Coalition

September 10, 2014, the United States formed a coalition of international nations to defeat ISIS; Counter-ISIL Coalition included 59 countries and the European Union in 2014; coalition supported military operations, cutting off ISIS funding, engaging in humanitarian aid, and ending any foreign terrorists joining ISIS

Benghazi

September 11, 2012, Islamic militants attacked two US facilities in Benghazi, Libya; 4 individuals were killed in the attack, including the US ambassador to Libya; evidence would show that the attack had been a premeditated terrorist attack; 2014, the US State Department admitted that it had denied requests for extra security for the Benghazi facilities in the days before the attack; Republicans and Democrats in Congress blamed each other for the denied requests; The Senate, the House, and the FBI launched separate investigations into the events of the Benghazi attack and the administration's actions surrounding it; the investigations showed that the State Department could have done more to prevent the attack (such as approving extra security), no wrongdoing was discovered among higher-level administration officials; Republican representatives implied that the purpose of the House investigation was to discredit Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Flooding

The East Coast has increased flooding; Since 2011, Boston, Massachusetts, has experienced as many as thirteen flood days per year; Florida's high rainfall totals and flat terrain make it more likely to flood than any other state; More active storm seasons, as a result of climate change, contribute to these flood risks

Keystone XL reactions

The Sac and Fox nation, in Oklahoma, among other tribes, argued that the pipeline could potentially disrupt American Indian burial sites; TransCanada promised to monitor construction in order to look out for burial sites or artifacts; tribal leaders said that they were moving too fast and not focusing on the needs of each tribe; The US government forced many American Indian tribes to Oklahoma after taking their lands during the 19th century; The pipeline plan raised many troubling memories of this history; tribal leaders feared the consequences of having crude oil pass through their lands; plan for building the pipeline was finally terminated by the Biden Administration in 2021

Dakota Access Pipeline

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe of American Indians protested the Dakota Access Pipeline from the start; would run under sacred sites and the Missouri River, their main source of drinking water; company said it would be safe, but opponents felt it was too big a risk; 2016, the Obama administration blocked construction, but an appeals court allowed it to resume; became operational in 2017

Tech and Social Norms

Viral images can spark movements for change; in 2015, a photo of the body of a young Syrian refugee moved people to recognize the seriousness of the refugee crisis; Dependence on devices and overuse of social media often give people unrealistic images of other people's lives; also have led to behaviors such as online bullying and hate

Dealing with Recession

When Obama took office, he had to quickly address the recession; His solution was a combination of TARP, ARRA, and the Dodd-Frank Act; TARP bailed out the banks and ARRA helped families and small businesses, but neither program was perfect; Some TARP funds were mismanaged, and critics charged ARRA was expensive and complicated; Dodd-Frank had strict restrictions, but the safety measures it offered consumers reduced spending

Obama (foreign policy)

When Obama took office, the United States was involved in two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; He faced ISIS and the Syrian Civil War; campaigned on promises to remove troops from Iraq; promised to stand by the military strategy in Afghanistan; goal of this commitment was to help stabilize the Afghanistan government so that they could fight and defeat al Qaeda and the Taliban; promised a new direction in his campaign, his foreign policy strategies were often more similar to President Bush's

2013 gov shutdown causes

While the Affordable Care Act battled in the courts, it also came under political scrutiny; Although the ACA was passed and signed into law in 2008, its full effect wouldn't occur until October 2013; causes: 1. the House of Representatives refused to pass a national budget in September 2013; 2. Republicans in the House attempted to weaken the program by attaching conditions to the nation's budget that would stop the ACA from going into full effect; 3. When the budget reached the Senate, Democratic legislators removed the conditions added by House Republicans that affected the ACA; It was approved without the additions; 4. When the bill returned to the House, Republican representatives refused to approve it after their additions had been removed; 5. The Democratic Senate and the Republican House of Representatives entered a standoff that threatened to shut down the federal government

Internet

Wide public use of the internet began in the 1990s; 2010, there were nearly 2 billion users worldwide; grew to 3.4 billion by 2016; United States trailed only India and China for most internet users, with 243 million; become essential for work, school, and access to information

2013 gov shutdown

a compromise was not reached by the September 30 deadline; the federal government shut down on October 1, 2013; During the sixteen-day shutdown, 850,000 federal employees were furloughed; Some employees were required to come to work, but they were not paid; spread to the private sector, as hospitals and other industries with close ties to the federal government were unable to process Medicare, Social Security, and other federally-funded payments; ended October 16; Affordable Care Act legislation suffered no permanent damages, and the law went into full effect on October 1, 2013

Obama (2008 election)

a more progressive candidate, wanted the federal government to play a strong role in regulating fairness and equity in commerce, education, health care, and social policies

Paris Climate Agreement

agreement was the first of its kind aimed at reducing carbon emissions, the leading cause of climate change;

Hillary Clinton

as the Democratic candidate 2016 election; led in most pre-election polls, and she won the popular vote on election day; former first lady and secretary of state, Clinton had more government experience than Trump and was therefore labeled an "insider."; ran on several issues during her campaign, including middle-class incomes, finance reform, and women's rights; promised to make companies pay their fair share of taxes and wanted to improve the Affordable Care Act

Affirmative Action

became official federal policy under an executive order signed by President Kennedy in 1961; set of policies designed to eliminate discrimination against women and minorities in education, employment, and culture

Obama (reelection campaign)

campaign for a second term was favorably affected by the improvement in the unemployment rate; Obama could claim that TARP and ARRA had worked, as the joblessness rate dipped below 8 percent for the first time since he took office; Obama had depended on technology to reach younger voters, like social media; gave him support from the groups in the electorate that were growing, including Asian and Hispanic people and younger voters; slogan for the 2012 campaign was "Forward," and that's where he turned his attention after his final race for the presidency was won

the Great Recession

2008; caused by the collapse of the housing market; prices of homes increased dramatically over a short period of time, creating a housing bubble; owners borrowed the equity, or worth, of their homes from mortgage lenders and spent the money on consumer goods; In 2007, before Obama took office, the housing bubble burst; Home values dropped, and people who had borrowed money based on their home's value found that they were underwater, meaning that they owed banks more than their homes were worth; They had less disposable, or extra, income to spend; With less money circulating, the economy started to falter

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

2009; first official legislation during Obama's administration and an example of how he would make equality, fairness, and equity a priority; extended the 18-month time limit to make it easier for pay discrimination victims to file suit; made it illegal for employers to retaliate against employees who sue for fair pay

Computers

2010s, many users moved away from large desktop computers to notebooks and tablets; Users could travel with access to their files (greater mobility); Computer functions also became features of new smartphones; cloud computing technology became more widespread; allowed storage of and access to data and applications online instead of locally via a computer's hard drive, allowing users to retrieve and store files from any device

Obergefell v. Hodges

2015; required all US states and territories to recognize same-sex marriage and to protect the rights of same-sex couples; Supreme Court agreed to hear the case after several cases in four states caused a split in the circuit courts of appeals; landmark 5-4 decision determined that marriage equality was protected under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment; Those For It: praised the upholding of marriage equality as a landmark moment for equal rights; As of 2020, approximately 300,000 same-sex couples have married since the ruling; Those Against it: states, including Alabama, Texas, and Kentucky, counties have refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples; Some religious organizations believe the ruling violated religious freedom

ARRA

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) into law in February 2009, in an effort to bring financial relief to small businesses, individuals, and families not helped by TARP measures; government invested $787 billion in programs that created new jobs, improved access to health care and education, and funded energy and scientific research; helped create 500,000 jobs and brought an end to the recession four months after the law was passed

Boston Marathon Bombing

April 15, 2013, multiple bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon; 3 people were killed, and more than 260 were injured; Investigators identified brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as the bombers and began a manhunt; the brothers killed a police officer while attempting to steal his car and then carjacked another motorist; Tamerlan died in a shootout with police, and Dzhokhar was arrested a few days later; wanted revenge for what they saw as US attacks against Muslims; not directly linked to any major terror organizations; considered an isolated incident; Obama offered condolences and promised to investigate the incident and to bring about justice

BP Oil Spill

April 20, 2010, the oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico; 11 workers were killed, and oil flowed into the water for nearly three months; biggest oil spill in US history; December, the United States filed a complaint against the owner of the rig, BP Exploration and Production; 2012, BP pled guilty to manslaughter in the deaths of the workers; environmental impact is ongoing

Recession

At the height of the Great Recession, unemployment had hit a high of ten percent; Mass layoffs in February 2009 put more than 325,000 people out of work; When the stock market plummeted 6,547 points to half its value in 2008, Americans suffered catastrophic losses in savings; From 2007 and 2009, American households and nonprofit organizations—people and groups most vulnerable to experiencing poverty—lost $14 trillion

Bank Bailouts

Banks that had made secondary investments when the economy was doing well were among those in need of assistance during the Great Recession; their failed investments threatened to bankrupt them; After financial firm Lehman Brothers collapsed, companies that took out short-term loans to pay their business expenses would no longer be able to borrow money; healthy companies would be unable to pay their suppliers or meet their payroll; critics feared that if government bailed out the banks and financial firms, they would only continue to make future risky loans because they did not have the responsibility for repayment; critics argued that it would be unfair for taxpayers to pay the significant costs of the bailouts because they did not cause the financial crisis

Citizens United

Citizens United decision in 2010 opened the door for campaign contributions by corporations and other entities; super PACs do not need to identify donors, which brought more dark money into the election campaigns; Reports from the 2016 election showed that PAC funding almost doubled from 2012 to 2016

Technology Impact

From an information perspective, these advances have opened up the world for many users; even as people gained access to useful new information, they also fell victim to misinformation; used to influence people's views on social issues, as well as crucial elections; Critics warned that over-reliance on information technology could make the United States vulnerable to foreign interference in the electoral process

Universal Health Care US History

In 1945, President Truman proposed a national health care plan. Truman's plan was never passed; In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law, as an amendment to the Social Security Act; provided hospital and medical insurance for Americans aged 65 and older; Johnson arranged for Truman to become the first recipient of a Medicare card; Clinton proposed American Health Security Act of 1993 to extend coverage beyond Medicare, but his plan was rejected by Congress; Obama managed to pass legislation designed to provide universal health coverage in the United States

Guantanamo Bay

In 2002, President George W. Bush's Administration established Guantanamo Bay detention camp, or Gitmo, to house enemy combatants from the War on Terror; Obama promised to close the base; A plan to move the detainees into two prisons in the United States was met with resistance by some congressional leaders; Guantanamo Review Task Force recommended that some detainees be released, some tried, and some held indefinitely; In 2011, President Obama signed the Defense Authorization Bill; When Obama left office, Guantanamo Bay had not been closed; held 41 individuals

Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action

In 2006, Michigan voters determined that affirmative action policies violated the state's constitution; The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action said that the ban violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution; Supreme Court decided 6-2 in favor of the state of Michigan, saying that the decisions over such policies should be left to the voters and that using race as a basis for admissions and hiring could actually reinforce racial stereotypes; Justices Sotomayor and Ginsburg dissented, saying the Michigan amendment did in fact violate the protections in the Equal Protection Clause

Obama and the Supreme Court

In 2009, he appointed Sonia Sotomayor, who became the first Latina and the third woman to serve on the Supreme Court; followed in 2010 by Elena Kagan; Obama nominated Merrick Garland to fill the open seat of the dead Justice Antonin Scalia; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, backed by the eleven Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, refused to allow Garland to be considered; McConnell said that the seat should wait to be filled until a new president was elected later that year; Over the next several terms, the Court would hear cases involving fundamental issues such as voting rights, collective bargaining, climate change policy, immigration, presidential power, religious freedom, and abortion rights

ISIS/ISIL

Islamic State also goes by the names ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh; came out of al Qaeda; founded by Abu Musab al Zarqawi; 2013, changed its name to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria; ISIS have not agreed on all interpretations of Islam; also do not agree on when to create an Islamic state; has been more concerned with gaining and controlling territory than al Qaeda; follows a distinctive variety or hybrid of Islam; One of its goals is to establish an Islamic state under a caliph, or religious leader; ultimate goal is to stretch this state across the globe; adheres to a prophecy attributed to Mohammad that says that a Day of Judgment will come when Muslims defeat infidels at two sites in what is now Syria

Obamacare Increasing Coverage

core purpose of the Affordable Care Act was to increase health insurance coverage across the population; did so by enacting new policies and providing Americans with alternatives to employer-based health insurance; required health insurance companies to allow young adults to remain on their parents' health insurance plans until age 26; resulted in 2.3 million 18- to 24-year-olds accessing coverage, and the number of uninsured in this age group dropped by half by 2017; extended coverage to all people regardless of their health status; meant that people with chronic illnesses or health issues called pre-existing conditions could no longer be denied insurance; guaranteed equal access to health care for women and same-sex unions; helped states set up online health insurance marketplaces, called exchanges; provided states with funding to expand Medicaid coverage; 2010, 16 percent of Americans were not insured. By 2016, that number dropped to 9 percent

smartphones

during the early 2000s innovations made the technology more user-friendly and accessible; give users instant access to information and enhanced features like high-resolution cameras and video calling; In 2011, 27 percent of cell phone owners in the United States had a smartphone; By the end of Obama's second term in 2016, that number had grown to 77 percent

2016 election influences

election of 2016 departed from previous elections in a number of ways; election overwhelmingly negative and abrasive in tone, but public opinion was also influenced more by social media and cable news than any election before it

climate change

extremes of drought and flooding have a major effect on agriculture; Crops and livestock can be wiped out in a single storm, or they can lose needed food and water during long dry periods; Drought can also drive up the cost of water, even in areas not directly affected by the drought

Mitt Romney

governor of Massachusetts from 2002 to 2007; enacted a statewide bill similar to the Affordable Care Act, called Romneycare; mandated that all residents of Massachusetts acquire health care; Romney insisted that he would not have implemented such a plan on a national scale; felt that if Obama had focused on job growth, the economic downturn would have been less painful and would not have lasted as long; promised to work toward creating more jobs in order to keep the economy healthy going forward

Iran Nuclear Deal

late 1980s, Iran was researching nuclear technology; next decade, the United States suspected that the supposed civilian research was a front for developing nuclear weapons; In 2012, undisclosed nuclear sites were discovered; Iran promised to cooperate and suspend any activities leading to nuclear weapons, intelligence suggested that Iran was not complying; Iran eventually declared that they were pursuing nuclear development; In July 2015, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was signed by Iran and several other countries, including the United States

Obama (criminal justice

led the fight to extend fairness and equality to all members of society, regardless of race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation; Clemency Initiative (2014): offered certain nonviolent offenders the chance to have their sentences reduced; goal was to help inmates whose sentences were considered too harsh; Task Force on 21st Century Policing (2014): created to establish best practices and build trust between the police and the community; Only a few police forces adopted the recommendations following their reports; Federal Interagency Law Enforcement Equipment Working Group (2015): created this group to study the impact of military weaponry and to reduce the amount of bayonets, armored vehicles, and rocket launchers used in domestic policing

Jet Streams

long bands of wind that flow west along the Earth's surface; shifts in the path of the jet streams due to climate change, lead to the warm or cold air can be pushed out of place; Heat waves and cold spells can occur in places not used to those weather extremes; Sea animals depend on certain water temperatures to live and sometimes cannot survive the changing temperatures caused by shifting jet streams

Subprime Loan Disaster

many banks lent money to risky borrowers, often at higher interest rates; called subprime loans; After the housing market collapse, subprime borrowers could not pay back what they owed; banks and investment firms went bankrupt; Without home loans, consumer spending stalled, and other industries started to fail; September 29, 2008, the stock market crashed

Social Media Influence

months before the 2016 election, false news and misinformation were shared frequently on social media platforms; some studies have suggested that social media didn't really change people's votes, it did contribute to how people interacted with each other and reinforce already held beliefs; misinformation didn't change votes as much since people consumed misinformation that aligned with their beliefs they already held

individual mandate

most controversial policies in the Affordable Care Act; policy required Americans to enroll in health insurance plans or pay a small; intended to expand the pool of healthy Americans who had health insurance coverage

The Outcome

number of factors influenced the outcome of the 2016 election; Analysis after the election found many of the influences on the election stemmed from the views of voters on issues like race, immigration, and equality

2008 election (Basic Deets)

Democrats: Obama won the democratic race against Hillary Clinton; Obama chose Delaware Senator Joseph Biden as his vice presidential running mate Rupublicans: Nominated Arizona Senator John McCain; McCain selected Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his vice pres running mate; Palin was the second woman on a major political party ticket and the first for the Republican party; ---- this election had record numbers (31 million votes); Hispanic, Asian, and Black voters, particularly women and younger voters, made up a larger percentage of the electorate than ever before

Donald Trump

Donald Trump as the Republican candidate 2016 election; won the electoral vote and became the 45th president of the United States; argued that Washington was broken and that the "swamp" of government had to be "drained." positioned himself as uniquely qualified to address the country's problems; slogan was "Make America Great Again."; positions were a mixture of conservatism, populism, and nationalism; One of his signature issues was immigration; promised to build a wall between the United States and Mexico to prevent undocumented immigrants from crossing the southern border

TARP

Troubled Asset Relief Program; created in 2008 to help banks and corporations that were deemed "too big to fail."; From 2008 to 2010, the US Treasury invested $426.4 billion in companies that were hardest hit by the economic crisis; Taxpayer money was used to bolster financial firms such as Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, J. P. Morgan, Wells Fargo, and others; brought a return of $441.7 billion and stopped the recession from spiraling out of control

Anti-Immigration Rhetoric

Trump used anti-immigration rhetoric and proposed anti-immigration policies during the campaign; One of his most memorable phrases from the election was "Build the Wall," a promise he made to construct a wall along the US-Mexico border to prevent undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers from entering the United States; Trump's anti-immigration stance brought supporters; Trump voters supported limiting all immigration

Syrian Civil War

Unrest in Syria began in 2011 as part of the Arab Spring protests; involved government forces and anti-government rebels United States supported the rebel forces; Obama requested that the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad step down and imposed sanctions; Assad's regime began using chemical weapons; On August 23, 2013, the regime killed about 1,500 people in Damascus; Obama proposed taking limited military action, with Congressional approval; Congress refused, the United States and Russia agreed on a deadline to remove the chemical weapons; 2014, a watchdog group reported the weapons had been removed, although it was later found that Assad continued using them; Obama later armed the rebels to fight the Islamic State; carried out airstrikes against the Islamic State; the US military did not engage in ground combat; critics argued that lack of action allowed human rights abuses to continue and the growth of terrorist groups such as the Islamic State

exchanges

provided a way for people who lacked employer-based coverage to purchase their own insurance plans

Superstorm Sandy

recovery from Superstorm Sandy in 2012 cost more than $70 billion; a tropical cyclone that hit the shores of New York and New Jersey in 2012. The resulting damage has made Sandy the second-most expensive storm in US history

"too big to fail"

refers to financial firms that are critical to the health and stability of multiple economies around the world;

Tropical Storms

rising of the Earth's temperature also contributes to a rise in tropical storms and hurricanes; intensity of storms has increased; Climate change is also leading to rising sea levels; contributes to the increase in flooding due to storm surge

Obama is no longer Pres

several of Obama's key legislative victories, including the Affordable Care Act and the Paris Climate Agreement, were under attack as he left office; Obama had also faced challenges in areas such as Afghanistan and the Syrian Civil War; Key issues that emerged during the 2016 election were over the economy, immigration, national defense, foreign policy, and issues related to

Obamacare (Affordable Care Act)

signed in 2010 Obama's Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare; strengthened Medicare, offered eligible seniors a range of preventive services with no cost-sharing, and provided discounts on drugs when in the coverage gap; designed to extend coverage to uninsured groups; Immediately, the measure faced legal challenges by opponents who thought the law was unconstitutional because it required people to engage in commerce in a free market—in this case, to purchase health insurance coverage; went all the way to the Supreme Court

ISIS after Obama left office

situation with ISIS remained unfinished by the end of the Obama administration; instability in Syria pushed many people to flee the country for Europe; Russian involvement in Syria, as well as partisan issues in Congress, hindered ISIS strategy

Social Media

started back in 1997 with the website Six Degrees; not until the late 2000s, with the massive spread of networking and communication sites, that social media became a prominent part of daily life; Beginning in 2008, social media played a large role in people's views on politics and likely influenced voting in the presidential elections

Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

stated that Iran was to submit to more inspections and dismantle much of its nuclear program; In return, Iran would receive sanctions relief; overall goal of the program was to give other countries about a year's notice if Iran decided to begin its nuclear weapon development again; 2016, all parties appeared to have followed through on the actions discussed in the agreement

Defense Authorization Bill

stated that detainees at Gitmo could not be transferred to any country; Obama objected but wanted to work with Congress; In 2012, the Obama administration tried to release 86 detainees that the task force had recommended; blocked by Congress

McCain

thought the government should take a hands-off approach to these issues, believing that free enterprise would fix the economy without government interference; conservative

Technology and Obama

use of technology changed dramatically during the Obama administration; One of the most influential changes was the introduction of social media, which allowed people to connect in ways they never had before

Lilly Ledbetter

worked at a Goodyear Tire factory in Gadsden, Alabama, for nearly twenty years; When she retired in 1998, she discovered that her male coworkers had been earning substantially more for doing the same work; filed a sex discrimination suit against the company; won her case, but when the judgment was overturned on appeal, she took her case to the Supreme Court; In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled against her, saying the 18-month time limit to file a complaint had run out; A new Congress and president nullified the Supreme Court's decision with the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act