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Friday, January 22, 2010
10:59 AM EST
Brett Gall

Quiz Yourself on Obama's First Year

Back in December, Oprah Winfrey asked President Obama to grade his first year as president and he gave himself a ‘B’. Keeping with the theme of grading, ATR has a short quiz to see if you know what Obama has(n't) done in his first year.
 
 Grade yourself (answers provided at the bottom) to see how you rank!
 
1. After blaming eight years of President Bush’s economic policies for all of the woes of the
world, President Obama did the following:*
 
A. He rescinded the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003.
B. He replaced Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
C. He refused to do another stimulus and bailout like Bush had tried in 2008.
D. None of the above.
 
2. President Obama has broken which of the following promises:
 
A. To end income tax for seniors making less than $50,000.
B. To allow penalty-free hardship withdrawals from retirement accounts in 2008 and 2009.
C. To create a $3,000 tax credit for companies that add jobs.
D. All of the above.
 
 
A. The final Senate bill was written in secret.
B. To secure passage, the 58 Democratic senators and two independents hashed everything out
behind closed doors - without staff at one time.
C. The administration committed to more than a billion dollars in earmarks in hopes of securing
the 60 votes needed to pass.
D.  All of the above.
 
4. According to the Obama administration, selling nine pairs of boots to the government
under the $787 billion stimulus creates:*
 
A. Nine jobs.
B. Two jobs.
C. One job.
D. No jobs.
 
5. Obama’s Cap-and-Trade proposal at his December 3, 2009 Job Summit features:
 
A. A projected 1.145 million net loss of jobs.
B. A projected $14 billion redistribution of resources from the poor to the rich.
C. A minimum of a 15% cut in emissions that would cost the average household in the bottom-
income quintile about 3.3% of its after-tax income every year.
D. All of the above.
 
6. The Obama administration has taken which of the following actions to recover TARP
funds?
 
A. Accepted payment when firms have offered to pay back.
B. Extracted payments from General Motors and AIG to offset cost of loans and investment to
these companies.
C. Taxed banks which never received TARP funds through a “financial crisis responsibility fee.”
D. All of the above.
 
7. Which of the following statements did the President NOT make concerning his fiscal
policy?
 
A. “We need earmark reform, and when I’m President, I will go line by line to make sure that we
are not spending money unwisely.”
B. “Our nation’s public schools are the key to America’s future. I will mandate minimum
education spending to promote the education of our children.”
C. “I will cut taxes - cut taxes - for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy
like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class.”
D. “If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single
dime.  I repeat: not one single dime.”
 
8. Which of the following did President Obama NOT do when gave his December 2009 economics speech?
 
A. He gave a low count of the average number of jobs lost from December through March. This
led to “less spending” for the creation of jobs.
B. He said 10,000 infrastructure projects have been "funded.” While this is true, relatively little
has actually been spent for projects deemed "shovel ready" eight months prior.
C. He said stimulus spending was "only a very small part" of the deficit despite CBO putting it at
$190 billion of last year’s $1.4 trillion shortfall.
D. He highlighted a Congressional Budget Office estimate that "up to" 1.6 million jobs resulted
from stimulus spending, but was silent about CBO’s estimate that the total could be as small as 600,000.
 
9. What “firm pledge” on taxes did President Obama make to the American people?
 
A. No family making less than $1,000,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.  Not your
income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.
B. No family making less than $200,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.  Not your
income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.
C. No family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.  Not your
income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.
D. No family making less than $100,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.  Not your
income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.
 
10. After promising in his campaign to end “bitter, partisan fights,” President Obama did
the following:*
 
A. He worked with Republican leaders to help write the $787 billion economic stimulus.
B. He worked with Republican leaders to help write the cap-and-trade legislation.
C. He worked with Republican leaders to help write the health reform legislation.
D. He told Republican leaders in January of 2009: “I won, so I think on that one, I trump you.”
 
 
 
ANSWERS: (1) D (2) D (3) A (4) A (5) D (6) C (7) B (8) A (9) C (10) D
 
GRADING SCALE (answers correct):
0:    Hopeless Bolshevik
1-4: Clinton Supporter
5-7: Tea Party-Animal
8-10: Is your last name Reagan?
 
*Indicates a question from Don Surber’s article “A Pop Quiz on Barack Obama's First Year”.
 
Posted by Brett Gall on Friday, January 22, 2010 10:59 AM EST
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