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Forty-fourth president of the United States (2009–17). The first African American elected president of the United States, Obama also worked as a US Senator from Illinois, a lawyer, a community organizer, an author, and a law school professor. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is a large network of healthcare institutions throughout the United States that was created to ensure that American military veterans had access to medical care following their service. The VHA has more than 1,400 medical facilities, including both hospitals and outpatient care facilities. It also works closely with medical schools to train new doctors and medical staff. In addition to its role as a primary healthcare provider for veterans, the VHA serves additional the Department of Defense medical facilities during national emergencies such as natural disasters or wars. The VHA must remain prepared to take on those responsibilities on short notice. The VHA also conducts important medical research for veterans and the US government.

The Economic Opportunity Act (EOA) of 1964 was the result of various proposals and ideas that dated back to the social welfare initiatives of the New Deal in the 1930’s. The EOA established the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) in the executive office of the president, which launched several programs in the War on Poverty, a domestic “war” that was necessary, according to President Lyndon B. Johnson, “so as to eliminate the paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty.” The various programs had, as their feature value, a focus on opportunity. The EOA’s declaration of purpose, in part, is to provide “the opportunity for education and training, the opportunity to work, and the opportunity to live in decency and dignity.” The EOA provided the funds for vocational training, created a Job Corps to train youths in conservation camps and urban centers and the Head Start program to help preschoolers from low-income families, encouraged Community Action Programs, extended loans to small-business owners willing to hire the unemployed, gave grants to farmers, set up a work-study program for college students, and established Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), the domestic counterpart of the popular Peace Corps created by President John F. Kennedy.

On July 13, 2011, the Canadian anticonsumerism organization Adbusters called for a rally to oppose the increasingly prominent role of money in politics. The first Occupy Wall Street rally took place on September 17. Although it drew fewer participants than activists had hoped, the rally resulted in the establishment of an encampment at Zuccotti Park in Manhattan, New York City, near Wall Street, which soon became a base for several protest actions throughout New York City.