Interpret improvements as you like. For me it’s any large scale reforms or legislative packages designed to improve the country for all or see to the material interests of the majority without overly benefiting the elite.
Any big consumer protection, environmental, infrastructure, or other legislation from Clinton onwards that materially improved the lives of all?
Obamacare and the medicaid expansion comes to my mind. It has obviously improved people’s lives but considering how broken the healthcare system remains, and that it was written by the insurance industry to undermine single-payer, it seems to me a mitigated win at best.
Gay marriage and marijuana legalisation but that was the courts and the states although i’m sure the federal government could’ve stood in the way had they chosen to.
I’ve only live here since the 2010s so that’s all I can think of.
When minimum wage was increased to $7.25/hour (although it should be increased again).
Affordable Care Act
Funding for covid tests and vaccines
Don’t know if these count, since they only come from SCOTUS decisions however Congress has not written a law stripping these rights. Right to have a same-sex relationship (2003) Right to marry a same-sex partner (2015) Right to employment while LGBT (2020)
Affordable Care Act is a mixed bag. It brings insurance to the masses, but insurance is a rip off for the most part. ACA is very half baked without providing a Medicare plan buy in (public option) or forcing everyone to purchase their insurance from the exchange to increase benefits and drive prices down.
Personally I wish we just had universal healthcare/Medicare for all in the US. Hopefully I live long enough to see it.
The ACA isn’t the end goal for sure, but it’s better than where we were before. Hopefully as people get used to it, we will be more likely to pass a universal healthcare system.
The problem with the ACA was that it had to make a lot of compromises to get it through with support by Republicans. While the ACA was initially very unpopular, it’s become more popular in time (if you discount rebranding efforts like Kentucky Connect being the name of the ACA marketplace there… Then Kentucky politicians calling ACA broken but Connect good causing Connect to be popular but ACA not in that state).
It was a good effort at getting the foot in the door for universal Healthcare one day, imo.
There were also Cash for Clubker programs (although that could’ve just been state level) that gave people money to buy a newer car with better gas milage to help the environment and keep people from using as much gas.
Stimulus checks at the end of Bush presidency and during covid. As far as I know, those were the first, creating a precedent that the government could sometimes provide financial relief directly to citizens.
Cash for clunkers harmed buyers in the used car market, especially the poor.
Most of the Cash allocated for Cash for Clunkers went to people that were going to buy a new car anyway.
RCR Stories did an interesting story on this topic:
https://youtu.be/HZAhq375Wmw
Multiple academic researchers studying the results of the regulation found the stimulus to be extremely minimal at best, at a high cost.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Allowance_Rebate_System
In the end, it’s yet another example of taxes used to enrich those at the top.
We had something similar to get people to by electric cars where I live. It was removed some years ago, and what I remember most from that is a woman on the news talking about how she just spontaneously bought a new car before the benefit went away, just because why not the benefit is going away soon might as well just buy a new car.