Obama's good deeds | The Salt Lake Tribune

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Consider the accomplishments of President Barack Obama in his first two years:

Financial regulation; Wall Street reform; credit card bill of rights; mortgage and foreclosure modification; student loan reforms; health care reforms; auto industry rescued; economic stimulus; huge tax cuts; unemployment extended; two women Supreme Court appointments; hate crimes legislation; ending the Iraq war; surge in Afghanistan; improved U.S. reputation abroad; Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act; new G.I. Bill; Food Safety Modernization Act; Bush tax cuts extended; 9/11 First Responders Health Care Bill; "don't ask, don't tell" repealed; New START Treaty with Russia.

Still left on our plates: immigration reform and jobs. And we must reinvest in America; the rest of the world is racing ahead! (We invented solar panels; China now produces 60 percent of them.)

In 2011, we should act to win in innovation and competition by investing in infrastructure, research and development and education. We should decide how to cut the national debt, asking what is a fair and efficient tax code, what creates opportunity and what grows the economy.

Instead, I fear our next two years will be spent defending ground that the Republicans are going to try to take away.

Sherrie Goff

Pocatello, Idaho