Think Progress

July 2009 Progress Reports

• National Security -- A Faster Iraq Withdrawal, July 31, 2009
  

  Defense Secretary Robert Gates said conditions in Iraq have improved to the point that the U.S. "may accelerate" the withdrawal of American forces.

• Health Care -- 44 Years Of Medicare Success, July 30, 2009
  

  Forty-four years later, Medicare has become one of the country's most popular government programs.

• Health Care -- Sorting Myth From Reality, July 29, 2009
  

  Congress may be moving one step closer to reforming health care, as the Senate Finance Committee nears agreement on a bipartisan compromise.

• National Security -- Building Confidence For Arab-Israeli Peace, July 28, 2009
  

  President Obama's national security team is in the Middle East this week to build regional support for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.

• Radical Right -- 'The Wacko Wing', July 27, 2009
  

  GOP 'birthers' continue to insist -- without evidence -- that President Obama is hiding something.

• Health Care -- Hoping Obama Fails, July 24, 2009
  

  Republicans are banking on a political strategy of opposing health care in the hopes that it will help resurrect the struggling party.

• Health Care -- Obama's Health Care Presser, July 23, 2009
  
• Military - A Victory For Sensible Defense, July 22, 2009
  

  President Obama won a crucial victory when the Senate voted to strip out $1.75 billion in financing for seven more F-22 jet fighters.

• Health Care -- The Right's Delay And Kill Strategy, July 21, 2009
  Republicans and conservatives, in and out of power, are doing everything they can to stand in the way of major reform.
• Economy -- The Case For A Surtax, July 20, 2009
  

  The House Ways and Means Committee has proposed implementing a tax surcharge on the richest one percent of Americans.

• National Security -- Reestablishing American Power, July 17, 2009
  

  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton describes her vision of American diplomacy and how it fits into the Obama administration's approach.

• Immigration -- The Right's Internal Battle, July 16, 2009
  

  Republican leaders and strategists have indicated that the party must clean up its views and rhetoric if it hopes to endure.

• Supreme Court -- The Stench Of Conservative Desperation, July 15, 2009
  

  As Sotomayor's elevation to the Court grows increasingly inevitable, conservatives are the ones melting down.

• The Progress Report, July 14, 2009
  
• National Security -- Bush's Secret Spy Programs, July 13, 2009
  

  Inspectors General new report confirms Bush administration carried out "unprecedented," massive surveillance activities.

• Economy -- Right-Wing Recovery Myths, July 10, 2009
  

  The Obama administration has been making an aggressive push to explain the realities of the $787 billion stimulus package, in the face of aggressive Republican misinformation.

• Climate -- The Future For Farmers, July 9, 2009
  

  Farmers and those in the agriculture economy have a lot to lose as greenhouse gases increasingly trap more heat at the planet's surface.

• Supreme Court -- A Conservative Court in a Progressive Era, July 8, 2009
  

  As bad as the current Supreme Court term's decisions were, the worst may be waiting on the horizon.

• National Security -- Resetting The U.S.-Russia Relationship, July 7, 2009
  

  Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev reached a preliminary agreement to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires on Dec. 5.

• The Progress Report, July 6, 2009
  
• Radical Right -- Smearing The Census , July 2, 2009
  

  Despite the importance of the 2010 Census, a number of right-wing figures have begun spinning conspiracy theories about the it and what the government will do with the data it collects.

• National Security -- Iraq's 'National Sovereignty Day', July 1, 2009
  

  Iraqis took to the streets yesterday to celebrate the pullback of U.S. forces from the country's cities and towns, festooning cars with flowers and playing music and dancing in Baghdad parks.