Washington ( CNN ) -- President Obama said he would n't pat himself on the back for his first year in office , but said Wednesday he showed he can make tough decisions that were unpopular . In a year-end interview with PBS , Obama said he was `` entirely dissatisfied '' with the high unemployment rate still facing Americans as the economic recession ends . `` I do n't pat myself on the back , '' Obama said . But his administration deserved credit for making good decisions on major problems it inherited , including the recession , wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other issues , he said . Without specifying any issue , Obama said he demonstrated that his administration was willing to face tough decisions . `` I think I 've shown this year that I can make hard decisions , even when they 're not popular , '' the president said . Last month , Obama decided to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan to bolster the counterinsurgency strategy favored by military commanders on the ground . The move was criticized by some fellow Democrats and favored by most Republicans . Obama also moved forward on plans to shut the Guantanamo Bay , Cuba , detention facility and bring some suspected terrorists held there to a U.S. prison in Illinois . The plan has been heavily criticized by Republicans . In addition , the president made health care reform his domestic priority for 2009 and endorsed sweeping provisions contained in a bill passed by the House and on the verge of final passage by the Senate . Republican opposition to the health care legislation has been almost unanimous , and concessions made during the Senate debate have caused some Democrats to question the value of the measure scheduled for a final vote on Thursday . Obama rejected criticism from some liberals that a final bill would be too watered down , saying in the PBS interview that the bill delivered most of the benefits he listed when the debate began back in January . `` This notion that somehow this health care bill that 's emerging should be grudgingly accepted by Democrats as half a loaf '' is wrong , Obama said . `` This is 95 percent of the loaf . ''
President Obama looks back on first year in office . He says he 's not satisfied with high unemployment . `` I do n't pat myself on the back , '' Obama says . But , he says , `` I can make hard decisions , even when they 're not popular ''