Nine Times President Obama's Policies Helped Millennials

President Obama just wrapped up a town hall with freelancers, creative professionals, and entrepreneurs this afternoon at Cross Campus in Los Angeles, CA, where he provided an economic update for Millennials. The President’s remarks reminded us of the key policies he has implemented since taking office and in particular nine times those policies helped our generation’s economic well-being.

1. Cutting student loan debt.

Obama created a new repayment plan that allows students to cap their student loan payments at 10 percent of their discretionary income. This summer, Obama directed the Department of Education to make this plan available to every direct student loan borrower, benefiting almost 5 million Americans.

2. Expanding tax relief to young workers.

The President expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and has also proposed expanding the EITC for workers without dependent children, including the 3.3 million young workers ages 21 to 24, whom currently do not qualify for the credit.

3. Expanding access to apprenticeships while better training students through community colleges and connecting job-seekers to work.

To support the 7.7 million community college students in America, the White House has awarded almost $2 billion of competitive grants since 2011 to foster community colleges partnerships with employers to expand and improve their ability to help job seekers hone a skill set  needed for in-demand jobs.

4. Empowering innovation.

Obama has been actively working to ensure that patent trolls (those who use vague and misleading threats of lawsuits to extort money from young companies) do not hinder American technological innovation.

5. Protecting the financial well-being of consumers through Wall Street reform.

Through Wall Street Reform, Obama took charge to lead the creation of the strongest consumer protections in U.S. history. Enter the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which has come to the rescue of Millennials with student loans by exposing the predatory practices of the for-profit college industry.

6. Supporting immigrants and creating an immigration system that works.

Millennials are more likely to be foreign-born than the previous two generations, so Obama has implemented the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) to benefit almost 600,000 young people who were brought to this country as children by their parents, and for whom the United States has become home.

7. Increasing the minimum wage.

Obama has urged Congress to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour, which would give 28 million workers a raise. Furthermore, Obama signed an executive order earlier this year that raised the minimum wage to $10.10 for workers on federal contracts.

8. Expanding health care coverage to age 26.

Before Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law, a lot of health insurance plans kicked younger Americans off their parents' plans when they turned 19 or graduated from college. But now, a majority of health plans must make coverage available up to age 26.

9. Supporting equal pay.

President Obama’s first bill signed into law was in 2009 via the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and he has continued to support equal pay throughout his presidency.