Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Americans and nearly 70% of Latinos voted for him. In the eastern region, the Midwest,
Northeast and Florida supported him (though the South did not).
The failure of Republicans to attract voters from different ethnic backgrounds has
caused some soul-searching in the party. The party, perhaps in answer to this search for a
new identity, has seen the rise of new faces from vastly different backgrounds. The
young Florida senator and Cuban-American Marco Rubio is seen as one of the Republic-
ans' rising stars - he'll be one to watch in the 2016 presidential elections.
Economy & Health Care
Although Democrats cheered his victory, Obama returned to the White House without
quite the same hope and optimism that surrounded him the first time. When he took the
Oath of Office in 2013, the unemployment rate - hovering around 8% - was about what
it had been during his first inauguration back in 2009. While economic growth seems, at
last, to be on a solid foundation in much of the country, it still lags in eastern pockets
such as the manufacturing-heavy Midwest region around the Great Lakes (especially
Illinois and Michigan).
Obama's ambitious plan to bring healthcare reform passed through Congress, becom-
ing the most significant new healthcare expansion since the passage of Medicare and
Medicaid in 1965. Despite challenges by Republicans who threatened to defund the
Af-
fordable Care Act
(a major factor in the 16-day government shutdown in October 2013),
and a close call by the Supreme Court (which narrowly ruled the act constitutional by a
vote of five to four), the law is slated to go into effect in 2014. Whether it will be a suc-
cess or failure continues to be hotly debated. It has become an issue of partisan politics
and will play out in stark relief in states such as Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Missis-
sippi and Louisiana - which have some of the nation's highest uninsured rates (between
15% and 20%) as well as Republican-controlled state governments that actively oppose
the law.
Gay Marriage & Marijuana
While Obama declared his support for same-sex marriage in 2012, Congress has re-
mained opposed to it. Several states went ahead and set their own rules on the matter. By
2013, some 16 states (12 of them in the eastern US), as well as Washington, DC, had leg-
alized same-sex marriage. A major breakthrough occurred in June 2013, when the Su-
preme Court ruled that the discriminatory
Defense of Marriage Act
- the law barring the
federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages legalized by the states - was
unconstitutional.
