510 Promises

A political watchdog website of the St. Petersburg Times, has documented 510 campaign promises made by Barack Obama. They will track the progress of how these promises are being kept or broken over course of his term in office. If you want to check in now and then on how well or poorly he is doing on their “Obameter”, add the following link to your favorites on:

http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/browse/

After reading the first half of the list, I can safely say I wish that he would break 84% these promises, and most of the 16% that I wish he would keep will probably be among the ones that he doesn’t.

Here are about 40 of the promises that I wish he would keep:

Eliminate all oil and gas tax loopholes

Close loopholes in the corporate tax deductibility of CEO pay

End no-bid contracts above $25,000

Enforce pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) budget rules (This doesn’t nearly go far enough, of course.)

Forbid companies in bankruptcy from giving executives bonuses

Eliminate the higher subsidies to Medicare Advantage plans

Allow imported prescription drugs

Increase the Veterans Administration budget to recruit and retain more mental health professionals

Expand Veterans Centers in rural areas

Fully fund the Veterans Administration

Assure that the Veterans Administration budget is prepared as 'must-pass' legislation

Allow all veterans back into the Veterans Administration

Reduce the Veterans Benefits Administration claims backlog

Direct military leaders to end war in Iraq (This promise is listed as “kept”, but what really matters is the actual ending of the war, and not the talk.)

Begin removing combat brigades from Iraq

Present Iraq status-of-forces agreement to Congress for approval

No permanent bases in Iraq

Bring military pay more in line with the private sector, as measured by the employment cost index

Allow reserve families to take leave under the Family Medical Leave Act

Fully and properly equip troops

Review weapons programs

Establish transparency standards for military contractors

Set standards for when the government should hire defense contractors

Clarify legal status for defense contractor personnel

End the abuse of supplemental budgets for war

End the use of extreme rendition

Close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center

Develop an alternative to President Bush's Military Commissions Act on handling detainees

Revise the Patriot Act to increase oversight on government surveillance (This doesn’t go far enough. We should completely get rid of the Patriot Act.)

End warrantless wiretaps

Restore habeus corpus rights for "enemy combatants"

Mandate standards for securing personal data

Work to persuade the European Union to end credit guarantees to Iran

Grant Americans unrestricted rights to visit family and send money to Cuba

Urge China to stop manipulation of its currency value

Press China to end its support for regimes in Sudan, Burma, Iran and Zimbabwe

Centralize ethics and lobbying information for voters

Allow five days of public comment before signing bills

Require more disclosure and a waiting period for earmarks

Release presidential records (Promise kept according to politifact.com, but will he continue to keep it?)

Tougher rules against revolving door for lobbyists and former officials (He has already compromised on this promise according to politifact.com.)

Click here for part 2.