Remarks of Senator Barack Obama—as prepared for delivery Confronting an Economic Crisis Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 Golden, Colorado Over the last few days, we have seen clearly what’s at stake in this election. The news from Wall Street has shaken the American people’s faith in our economy. The situation with Lehman Brothers and other financial institutions is the latest in a wave of crises that have generated tremendous uncertainty about the future of our financial markets. This is a major threat to our economy and its ability to create good-paying jobs and help working Americans pay their bills, save for their future, and make their mortgage payments. Since this turmoil began over a year ago, the housing market has collapsed. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had to be effectively taken over by the government. Three of America’s five largest investment banks failed or have been sold off in distress. Yesterday, Wall Street suffered its worst losses since just after 9/11. We are in the most serious financial crisis in generations. Yet Senator McCain stood up yesterday and said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong A few hours later, his campaign sent him back out to clean up his remarks, and he tried to explain himself again this morning by saying that what he meant was that American workers are strong. But we know that Senator McCain meant what he said the first time, because he has said it over and over again throughout this campaign – no fewer than 16 times, according to one independent count. Now I certainly don’t fault Senator McCain for all of the problems we’re facing, but I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to. Because the truth is, what Senator McCain said yesterday fits with the same economic philosophy that he’s had for 26 years. It’s the philosophy that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down. It’s the philosophy that says even common-sense regulations are unnecessary and unwise. It’s a philosophy that lets Washington lobbyists shred consumer protections and distort our economy so it works for the special interests instead of working people. We’ve had this philosophy for eight years. We know the results. You feel it in your own lives. Jobs have disappeared, and peoples’ life savings have been put at risk. Millions of families face foreclosure, and millions more have seen their home values plummet. The cost of everything from gas to groceries to health care has gone up, while the dream of a college education for our kids and a secure and dignified retirement for our seniors is slipping away. These are the struggles that Americans are facing. This is the pain that has now trickled up. So let’s be clear: what we’ve seen the last few days is nothing less than the final verdict on an economic philosophy that has completely failed. And I am running for President of the United States because the dreams of the American people must not be endangered any more. It’s time to put an end to a broken system in Washington that is breaking the American economy. It’s time for change that makes a real difference in your lives. If you want to understand the difference between how Senator McCain and I would govern as President, you can start by taking a look at how we’ve responded to this crisis. Because Senator McCain’s approach was the same as the Bush Administration’s: support ideological policies that made the crisis more likely; do nothing as the crisis hits; and then scramble as the whole thing collapses. My approach has been to try to prevent this turmoil. In February of 2006, I introduced legislation to stop mortgage transactions that promoted fraud, risk or abuse. A year later, before the crisis hit, I warned Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke about the risks of mounting foreclosures and urged them to bring together all the stakeholders to find solutions to the subprime mortgage meltdown. Senator McCain did nothing. Last September, I stood up at NASDAQ and said it’s time to realize that we are in this together – that there is no dividing line between Wall Street and Main Street – and warned of a growing loss of trust in our capital markets. Months later, Senator McCain told a newspaper that he’d love to give them a solution to the mortgage crisis, "but" – he said – "I don’t know one." In January, I outlined a plan to help revive our faltering economy, which formed the basis for a bipartisan stimulus package that passed the Congress. Senator McCain used the crisis as an excuse to push a so-called stimulus plan that offered another huge and permanent corporate tax cut, including $4 billion for the big oil companies, but no immediate help for workers. This March, in the wake of the Bear Stearns bailout, I called for a new, 21st century regulatory framework to restore accountability, transparency, and trust in our financial markets. Just a few weeks earlier, Senator McCain made it clear where he stands: "I’m always for less regulation," he said, and referred to himself as "fundamentally a deregulator." This is what happens when you confuse the free market with a free license to let special interests take whatever they can get, however they can get it. This is what happens when you see seven years of incomes falling for the average worker while Wall Street is booming, and declare – as Senator McCain did earlier this year – that we’ve made great progress economically under George Bush. That is how you can reach the conclusion – as late as yesterday – that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. Well, we have a different way of measuring the fundamentals of our economy. We know that the fundamentals that we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great –that America is a place where you can make it if you try. Americans have always pursued our dreams within a free market that has been the engine of our progress. It’s a market that has created a prosperity that is the envy of the world, and rewarded the innovators and risk-takers who have made America a beacon of science, and technology, and discovery. But the American economy has worked in large part because we have guided the market’s invisible hand with a higher principle – that America prospers when all Americans can prosper. That is why we have put in place rules of the road to make competition fair, and open, and honest. Too often, over the last quarter century, we have lost this sense of shared prosperity. And this has not happened by accident. It’s because of decisions made in boardrooms, on trading floors and in Washington. We failed to guard against practices that all too often rewarded financial manipulation instead of productivity and sound business practices. We let the special interests put their thumbs on the economic scales. The result has been a distorted market that creates bubbles instead of steady, sustainable growth; a market that favors Wall Street over Main Street, but ends up hurting both. Let me be clear: the American economy does not stand still, and neither should the rules that govern it. The evolution of industries often warrants regulatory reform - to foster competition, lower prices, or replace outdated oversight structures. Old institutions cannot adequately oversee new practices. Old rules may not fit the roads where our economy is leading. But instead of sensible reform that rewarded success and freed the creative forces of the market, too often we’ve excused an ethic of greed, corner-cutting and inside dealing that threatens the long-term stability of our economic system. It happened in the 1980s, when we loosened restrictions on Savings and Loans and appointed regulators who ignored even these weaker rules. Too many S&Ls took advantage of the lax rules set by Washington to gamble that they could make big money in speculative real estate. Confident of their clout in Washington, they made hundreds of billions in bad loans, knowing that if they lost money, the government would bail them out. And they were right. The gambles did not pay off, our economy went into recession, and the taxpayers ended up footing the bill. Sound familiar? And it has happened again during this decade, in part because of how we deregulated the financial services sector. After we repealed outmoded rules instead of updating them, we were left overseeing 21st century innovation with 20th century regulations. When subprime mortgage lending took a reckless and unsustainable turn, a patchwork of regulators systematically and deliberately eliminated the regulations protecting the American people and failed to raise warning flags that could have protected investors and the pensions American workers count on. This was not the invisible hand of the market at work. These cycles of bubble and bust were symptoms of the ideology that my opponent is running to continue. John McCain has spent decades in Washington supporting financial institutions instead of their customers. In fact, one of the biggest proponents of deregulation in the financial sector is Phil Gramm – the same man who helped write John McCain’s economic plan; the same man who said that we’re going through a ‘mental recession’; and the same man who called the United States of America a "nation of whiners." So it’s hard to understand how Senator McCain is going to get us out of this crisis by doing the same things with the same old players. Make no mistake: my opponent is running for four more years of policies that will throw the economy further out of balance. His outrage at Wall Street would be more convincing if he wasn’t offering them more tax cuts. His call for fiscal responsibility would be believable if he wasn’t for more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and more of a trillion dollar war in Iraq paid for with deficit spending and borrowing from foreign creditors like China. His newfound support for regulation bears no resemblance to his scornful attitude towards oversight and enforcement. John McCain cannot be trusted to reestablish proper oversight of our financial markets for one simple reason: he has shown time and again that he does not believe in it. What has happened these last eight years is not some historical anomaly, so we know what to expect if we try these policies for another four. When lobbyists run your campaign, the special interests end up gaming the system. When the White House is hostile to any kind of oversight, corporations cut corners and consumers pay the price. When regulators are chosen for their disdain for regulation and we gut their ability to enforce the law, then the interests of the American people are not protected. It’s an ideology that intentionally breeds incompetence in Washington and irresponsibility on Wall Street, and it’s time to turn the page. Just today, Senator McCain offered up the oldest Washington stunt in the book – you pass the buck to a commission to study the problem. But here’s the thing – this isn’t 9/11. We know how we got into this mess. What we need now is leadership that gets us out. I’ll provide it, John McCain won’t, and that’s the choice for the American people in this election. History shows us that there is no substitute for presidential leadership in a time of economic crisis. FDR and Harry Truman didn’t put their heads in the sand, or hand accountability over to a Commission. Bill Clinton didn’t put off hard choices. They led, and that’s what I will do. My priority as President will be the stability of the American economy and the prosperity of the American people. And I will make sure that our response focuses on middle class Americans – not the companies that created the problem. To get out of this crisis – and to ensure that we are not doomed to repeat a cycle of bubble and bust again and again – we must take immediate measures to create jobs and continue to address the housing crisis; we must build a 21st century regulatory framework, and we must pursue a bold opportunity agenda that creates new jobs and grows the American economy. To jumpstart job creation, I have proposed a $50 billion Emergency Economic Plan that would save 1 million jobs by rebuilding our infrastructure, repairing our schools, and helping our states and localities avoid damaging budget cuts. I worked with leaders in Congress to create a new FHA Housing Security Program, which will help stabilize the housing market and allow Americans facing foreclosure to keep their homes at rates they can afford. Going forward, we need to replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as we know them with a structure that is focused on helping people buy homes – not engaging in market speculation. We can’t have a situation like the old S&L scandal where its "heads" investors win, and "tails" taxpayers lose. That’s going to take ending the lobbyist-driven dominance of these institutions that we’ve seen for far too long in Washington. To prevent fraud in the mortgage market, I’ve proposed tough penalties on fraudulent lenders, and a Home Score system that will ensure consumers fully understand mortgage offers and whether they’ll be able to make payments. To help low- and middle-income families, I will ease the burden on struggling homeowners through a universal homeowner’s tax credit. This will add up to a 10 percent break off the mortgage interest rate for 10 million households. That’s another $500 each year for many middle class families. Unlike Senator McCain, I will change our bankruptcy laws to make it easier for families to stay in their homes. Right now, if you’re a family that owns one house, bankruptcy judges are actually barred from helping you keep a roof over your head by writing down the value of your mortgage. If you own seven homes, the judge is free to write down any or all of the debt on your second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh homes. Now that may be of comfort to Senator McCain, but that’s the kind of out-of-touch Washington loophole that makes no sense. When I’m President, we’ll make our laws work for working people. But as we’ve seen the last few days, the crisis in our financial markets now reaches well beyond the housing market. That’s why it’s time to do what I called for last September and again this past March – and it is only more overdue today. Our capital markets cannot succeed without the public’s trust. It’s time to get serious about regulatory oversight, and that’s what I will do as President. That starts with the core principles for reform that I discussed at Cooper Union. First, if you’re a financial institution that can borrow from the government, you should be subject to government oversight and supervision. When the Federal Reserve steps in as a lender of last resort, it is providing an insurance policy underwritten by the American taxpayer. In return, taxpayers have every right to expect that financial institutions with access to that credit are not taking excessive risks. Second, we must reform requirements on all regulated financial institutions. We must strengthen capital requirements, particularly for complex financial instruments like some of the mortgage securities and other derivatives at the center of our current crisis. We must develop and rigorously manage liquidity risk. We must investigate rating agencies and potential conflicts of interest with the people they are rating. And we must establish transparency requirements that demand full disclosure by financial institutions to shareholders and counterparties. As we reform our regulatory system at home, we must address the same problems abroad so that financial institutions around the world are subject to similar rules of the road. Third, we need to streamline our regulatory agencies. Our overlapping and competing regulatory agencies cannot oversee the large and complex institutions that dominate the financial landscape. Different institutions compete in multiple markets - Washington should not pretend otherwise. A streamlined system will provide better oversight and reduce costs. Fourth, we need to regulate institutions for what they do, not what they are. Over the last few years, commercial banks and thrift institutions were subject to guidelines on subprime mortgages that did not apply to mortgage brokers and companies. This regulatory framework failed to protect homeowners, and made no sense for our financial system. When it comes to protecting the American people, it should make no difference what kind of institution they are dealing with. Fifth, we must crack down on trading activity that crosses the line to market manipulation. The last six months have shown that this remains a serious problem in many markets and becomes especially problematic during moments of great financial turmoil. We cannot embrace the administration’s vision of turning over the protection of investors to the industries themselves. We need regulators that actually enforce the rules instead of overlooking them. The SEC should investigate and punish market manipulation, and report its conclusions to Congress. Sixth, we must establish a process that identifies systemic risks to the financial system like the crisis that has overtaken our economy. Too often, we end up where we are today: dealing with threats to the financial system that weren’t anticipated by regulators. We need a standing financial market advisory group to meet regularly and provide advice to the President, Congress, and regulators on the state of our financial markets and the risks they face. It’s time to anticipate risks before they erupt into a full-blown crisis. These six principles should guide the legal reforms needed to establish a 21st century regulatory system. But the change we need goes beyond laws and regulation. Financial institutions must do a better job at managing risks. There is something wrong when boards of directors or senior managers don’t understand the implications of the risks assumed by their own institutions. It’s time to realign incentives and CEO compensation packages, so that both high level executives and employees better serve the interests of shareholders. Finally, the American people must be able to trust that their government is looking out for all of us - not the special interests that have set the agenda in Washington for eight years, and the lobbyists who run John McCain’s campaign. I’ve spent my career taking on lobbyists and their money, and I’ve won. If you wanted a special favor in Illinois, there was actually a law that let you give campaign cash to politicians for their own personal use. In the State House, they called it business-as-usual. I called it legalized bribery, and while it didn’t make me the most popular guy in Springfield, I put an end to it. When I got to Washington, we saw some of the worst corruption since Watergate. I led the fight for reform in my party, and let me tell you – not everyone in my party was too happy about it. When I proposed forcing lobbyists to disclose who they’re raising money from and who in Congress they’re funneling it to, I had a few choice words directed my way on the floor of the Senate. But we got it done, and we banned gifts from lobbyists, and free rides on their fancy jets. And I am the only candidate who can say that Washington lobbyists do not fund my campaign, they will not run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am President of the United States. That’s how we’re going to end the outrage of special interests tipping the scales. The most important thing we must do is restore opportunity for all Americans. To get our economy growing, we need to recapture that fundamental American promise. That if you work hard, you can pay the bills. That if you get sick, you won’t go bankrupt. That your kids can get a good education, and that we can leave a legacy of greater opportunity to future generations. That’s the change the American people need. While Senator McCain likes to talk about change these days, his economic program offers nothing but more of the same. The American people need more than change as a slogan– we need change that makes a real difference in your life. Change means a tax code that doesn’t reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it. I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America. I will eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses and start-ups – that’s how we’ll grow our economy and create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow. I will cut taxes – cut taxes – for 95% of all working families. My opponent doesn’t want you to know this, but under my plan, tax rates will actually be less than they were under Ronald Reagan. If you make less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increase one single dime. In fact, I offer three times the tax relief for middle-class families as Senator McCain does – because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class. I will finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don’t, you’ll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves. And I will stop insurance companies from discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most I will create the jobs of the future by transforming our energy economy. We’ll tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I’ll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I’ll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I’ll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy – wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can’t ever be outsourced. And now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy. I’ll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support. But in exchange, I will ask for higher standards and more accountability. And we will keep our promise to every young American – if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education. This is the change we need – the kind of bottom up growth and innovation that will advance the American economy by advancing the dreams of all Americans. Times are hard. I will not pretend that the changes we need will come without cost – though I have presented ways we can achieve these changes in a fiscally responsible way. I know that we’ll have to overcome our doubts and divisions and the determined opposition of powerful special interests before we can truly reform a broken economy and advance opportunity. But I am running for President because we simply cannot afford four more years of an economic philosophy that works for Wall Street instead of Main Street, and ends up devastating both. I don’t want to wake up in four years to find that more Americans fell out of the middle-class, and more families lost their savings. I don’t want to see that our country failed to invest in our ability to compete, our children’s future was mortgaged on another mountain of debt, and our financial markets failed to find a firmer footing. This time – this election – is our chance to stand up and say: enough is enough! We can do this because Americans have done this before. Time and again, we’ve battled back from adversity by recognizing that common stake that we have in each other’s success. That’s why our economy hasn’t just been the world’s greatest wealth generator – it’s bound America together, it’s created jobs, and it’s made the dream of opportunity a reality for generation after generation of Americans. Now it falls to us. And I need you to make it happen. If you want the next four years looking just like the last eight, then I am not your candidate. But if you want real change – if you want an economy that rewards work, and that works for Main Street and Wall Street; if you want tax relief for the middle class and millions of new jobs; if you want health care you can afford and education so that our kids can compete; then I ask you to knock on some doors, and make some calls, and talk to your neighbors, and give me your vote on November 4th. And if you do, I promise you – we will win Colorado, we will win this election, and we will change America together.
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama—as prepared for delivery
Confronting an Economic Crisis
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
Golden, Colorado
Over the last few days, we have seen clearly what’s at stake in this election. The news from Wall Street has shaken the American people’s faith in our economy. The situation with Lehman Brothers and other financial institutions is the latest in a wave of crises that have generated tremendous uncertainty about the future of our financial markets. This is a major threat to our economy and its ability to create good-paying jobs and help working Americans pay their bills, save for their future, and make their mortgage payments.
Since this turmoil began over a year ago, the housing market has collapsed. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had to be effectively taken over by the government. Three of America’s five largest investment banks failed or have been sold off in distress. Yesterday, Wall Street suffered its worst losses since just after 9/11. We are in the most serious financial crisis in generations. Yet Senator McCain stood up yesterday and said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong
A few hours later, his campaign sent him back out to clean up his remarks, and he tried to explain himself again this morning by saying that what he meant was that American workers are strong. But we know that Senator McCain meant what he said the first time, because he has said it over and over again throughout this campaign – no fewer than 16 times, according to one independent count.
Now I certainly don’t fault Senator McCain for all of the problems we’re facing, but I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to. Because the truth is, what Senator McCain said yesterday fits with the same economic philosophy that he’s had for 26 years. It’s the philosophy that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down. It’s the philosophy that says even common-sense regulations are unnecessary and unwise. It’s a philosophy that lets Washington lobbyists shred consumer protections and distort our economy so it works for the special interests instead of working people.
We’ve had this philosophy for eight years. We know the results. You feel it in your own lives. Jobs have disappeared, and peoples’ life savings have been put at risk. Millions of families face foreclosure, and millions more have seen their home values plummet. The cost of everything from gas to groceries to health care has gone up, while the dream of a college education for our kids and a secure and dignified retirement for our seniors is slipping away. These are the struggles that Americans are facing. This is the pain that has now trickled up.
So let’s be clear: what we’ve seen the last few days is nothing less than the final verdict on an economic philosophy that has completely failed. And I am running for President of the United States because the dreams of the American people must not be endangered any more. It’s time to put an end to a broken system in Washington that is breaking the American economy. It’s time for change that makes a real difference in your lives.
If you want to understand the difference between how Senator McCain and I would govern as President, you can start by taking a look at how we’ve responded to this crisis. Because Senator McCain’s approach was the same as the Bush Administration’s: support ideological policies that made the crisis more likely; do nothing as the crisis hits; and then scramble as the whole thing collapses. My approach has been to try to prevent this turmoil.
In February of 2006, I introduced legislation to stop mortgage transactions that promoted fraud, risk or abuse. A year later, before the crisis hit, I warned Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke about the risks of mounting foreclosures and urged them to bring together all the stakeholders to find solutions to the subprime mortgage meltdown. Senator McCain did nothing.
Last September, I stood up at NASDAQ and said it’s time to realize that we are in this together – that there is no dividing line between Wall Street and Main Street – and warned of a growing loss of trust in our capital markets. Months later, Senator McCain told a newspaper that he’d love to give them a solution to the mortgage crisis, "but" – he said – "I don’t know one."
In January, I outlined a plan to help revive our faltering economy, which formed the basis for a bipartisan stimulus package that passed the Congress. Senator McCain used the crisis as an excuse to push a so-called stimulus plan that offered another huge and permanent corporate tax cut, including $4 billion for the big oil companies, but no immediate help for workers. This March, in the wake of the Bear Stearns bailout, I called for a new, 21st century regulatory framework to restore accountability, transparency, and trust in our financial markets. Just a few weeks earlier, Senator McCain made it clear where he stands: "I’m always for less regulation," he said, and referred to himself as "fundamentally a deregulator."
This is what happens when you confuse the free market with a free license to let special interests take whatever they can get, however they can get it. This is what happens when you see seven years of incomes falling for the average worker while Wall Street is booming, and declare – as Senator McCain did earlier this year – that we’ve made great progress economically under George Bush. That is how you can reach the conclusion – as late as yesterday – that the fundamentals of the economy are strong.
Well, we have a different way of measuring the fundamentals of our economy. We know that the fundamentals that we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great –that America is a place where you can make it if you try.
Americans have always pursued our dreams within a free market that has been the engine of our progress. It’s a market that has created a prosperity that is the envy of the world, and rewarded the innovators and risk-takers who have made America a beacon of science, and technology, and discovery. But the American economy has worked in large part because we have guided the market’s invisible hand with a higher principle – that America prospers when all Americans can prosper. That is why we have put in place rules of the road to make competition fair, and open, and honest.
Too often, over the last quarter century, we have lost this sense of shared prosperity. And this has not happened by accident. It’s because of decisions made in boardrooms, on trading floors and in Washington. We failed to guard against practices that all too often rewarded financial manipulation instead of productivity and sound business practices. We let the special interests put their thumbs on the economic scales. The result has been a distorted market that creates bubbles instead of steady, sustainable growth; a market that favors Wall Street over Main Street, but ends up hurting both.
Let me be clear: the American economy does not stand still, and neither should the rules that govern it. The evolution of industries often warrants regulatory reform - to foster competition, lower prices, or replace outdated oversight structures. Old institutions cannot adequately oversee new practices. Old rules may not fit the roads where our economy is leading. But instead of sensible reform that rewarded success and freed the creative forces of the market, too often we’ve excused an ethic of greed, corner-cutting and inside dealing that threatens the long-term stability of our economic system.
It happened in the 1980s, when we loosened restrictions on Savings and Loans and appointed regulators who ignored even these weaker rules. Too many S&Ls took advantage of the lax rules set by Washington to gamble that they could make big money in speculative real estate. Confident of their clout in Washington, they made hundreds of billions in bad loans, knowing that if they lost money, the government would bail them out. And they were right. The gambles did not pay off, our economy went into recession, and the taxpayers ended up footing the bill. Sound familiar?
And it has happened again during this decade, in part because of how we deregulated the financial services sector. After we repealed outmoded rules instead of updating them, we were left overseeing 21st century innovation with 20th century regulations. When subprime mortgage lending took a reckless and unsustainable turn, a patchwork of regulators systematically and deliberately eliminated the regulations protecting the American people and failed to raise warning flags that could have protected investors and the pensions American workers count on.
This was not the invisible hand of the market at work. These cycles of bubble and bust were symptoms of the ideology that my opponent is running to continue. John McCain has spent decades in Washington supporting financial institutions instead of their customers. In fact, one of the biggest proponents of deregulation in the financial sector is Phil Gramm – the same man who helped write John McCain’s economic plan; the same man who said that we’re going through a ‘mental recession’; and the same man who called the United States of America a "nation of whiners." So it’s hard to understand how Senator McCain is going to get us out of this crisis by doing the same things with the same old players.
Make no mistake: my opponent is running for four more years of policies that will throw the economy further out of balance. His outrage at Wall Street would be more convincing if he wasn’t offering them more tax cuts. His call for fiscal responsibility would be believable if he wasn’t for more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and more of a trillion dollar war in Iraq paid for with deficit spending and borrowing from foreign creditors like China. His newfound support for regulation bears no resemblance to his scornful attitude towards oversight and enforcement. John McCain cannot be trusted to reestablish proper oversight of our financial markets for one simple reason: he has shown time and again that he does not believe in it.
What has happened these last eight years is not some historical anomaly, so we know what to expect if we try these policies for another four. When lobbyists run your campaign, the special interests end up gaming the system. When the White House is hostile to any kind of oversight, corporations cut corners and consumers pay the price. When regulators are chosen for their disdain for regulation and we gut their ability to enforce the law, then the interests of the American people are not protected. It’s an ideology that intentionally breeds incompetence in Washington and irresponsibility on Wall Street, and it’s time to turn the page.
Just today, Senator McCain offered up the oldest Washington stunt in the book – you pass the buck to a commission to study the problem. But here’s the thing – this isn’t 9/11. We know how we got into this mess. What we need now is leadership that gets us out. I’ll provide it, John McCain won’t, and that’s the choice for the American people in this election.
History shows us that there is no substitute for presidential leadership in a time of economic crisis. FDR and Harry Truman didn’t put their heads in the sand, or hand accountability over to a Commission. Bill Clinton didn’t put off hard choices. They led, and that’s what I will do. My priority as President will be the stability of the American economy and the prosperity of the American people. And I will make sure that our response focuses on middle class Americans – not the companies that created the problem.
To get out of this crisis – and to ensure that we are not doomed to repeat a cycle of bubble and bust again and again – we must take immediate measures to create jobs and continue to address the housing crisis; we must build a 21st century regulatory framework, and we must pursue a bold opportunity agenda that creates new jobs and grows the American economy.
To jumpstart job creation, I have proposed a $50 billion Emergency Economic Plan that would save 1 million jobs by rebuilding our infrastructure, repairing our schools, and helping our states and localities avoid damaging budget cuts.
I worked with leaders in Congress to create a new FHA Housing Security Program, which will help stabilize the housing market and allow Americans facing foreclosure to keep their homes at rates they can afford. Going forward, we need to replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as we know them with a structure that is focused on helping people buy homes – not engaging in market speculation. We can’t have a situation like the old S&L scandal where its "heads" investors win, and "tails" taxpayers lose. That’s going to take ending the lobbyist-driven dominance of these institutions that we’ve seen for far too long in Washington.
To prevent fraud in the mortgage market, I’ve proposed tough penalties on fraudulent lenders, and a Home Score system that will ensure consumers fully understand mortgage offers and whether they’ll be able to make payments. To help low- and middle-income families, I will ease the burden on struggling homeowners through a universal homeowner’s tax credit. This will add up to a 10 percent break off the mortgage interest rate for 10 million households. That’s another $500 each year for many middle class families.
Unlike Senator McCain, I will change our bankruptcy laws to make it easier for families to stay in their homes. Right now, if you’re a family that owns one house, bankruptcy judges are actually barred from helping you keep a roof over your head by writing down the value of your mortgage. If you own seven homes, the judge is free to write down any or all of the debt on your second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh homes. Now that may be of comfort to Senator McCain, but that’s the kind of out-of-touch Washington loophole that makes no sense. When I’m President, we’ll make our laws work for working people.
But as we’ve seen the last few days, the crisis in our financial markets now reaches well beyond the housing market. That’s why it’s time to do what I called for last September and again this past March – and it is only more overdue today.
Our capital markets cannot succeed without the public’s trust. It’s time to get serious about regulatory oversight, and that’s what I will do as President. That starts with the core principles for reform that I discussed at Cooper Union.
First, if you’re a financial institution that can borrow from the government, you should be subject to government oversight and supervision. When the Federal Reserve steps in as a lender of last resort, it is providing an insurance policy underwritten by the American taxpayer. In return, taxpayers have every right to expect that financial institutions with access to that credit are not taking excessive risks.
Second, we must reform requirements on all regulated financial institutions. We must strengthen capital requirements, particularly for complex financial instruments like some of the mortgage securities and other derivatives at the center of our current crisis. We must develop and rigorously manage liquidity risk. We must investigate rating agencies and potential conflicts of interest with the people they are rating. And we must establish transparency requirements that demand full disclosure by financial institutions to shareholders and counterparties. As we reform our regulatory system at home, we must address the same problems abroad so that financial institutions around the world are subject to similar rules of the road. Third, we need to streamline our regulatory agencies. Our overlapping and competing regulatory agencies cannot oversee the large and complex institutions that dominate the financial landscape. Different institutions compete in multiple markets - Washington should not pretend otherwise. A streamlined system will provide better oversight and reduce costs.
Fourth, we need to regulate institutions for what they do, not what they are. Over the last few years, commercial banks and thrift institutions were subject to guidelines on subprime mortgages that did not apply to mortgage brokers and companies. This regulatory framework failed to protect homeowners, and made no sense for our financial system. When it comes to protecting the American people, it should make no difference what kind of institution they are dealing with.
Fifth, we must crack down on trading activity that crosses the line to market manipulation. The last six months have shown that this remains a serious problem in many markets and becomes especially problematic during moments of great financial turmoil. We cannot embrace the administration’s vision of turning over the protection of investors to the industries themselves. We need regulators that actually enforce the rules instead of overlooking them. The SEC should investigate and punish market manipulation, and report its conclusions to Congress.
Sixth, we must establish a process that identifies systemic risks to the financial system like the crisis that has overtaken our economy. Too often, we end up where we are today: dealing with threats to the financial system that weren’t anticipated by regulators. We need a standing financial market advisory group to meet regularly and provide advice to the President, Congress, and regulators on the state of our financial markets and the risks they face. It’s time to anticipate risks before they erupt into a full-blown crisis.
These six principles should guide the legal reforms needed to establish a 21st century regulatory system. But the change we need goes beyond laws and regulation. Financial institutions must do a better job at managing risks. There is something wrong when boards of directors or senior managers don’t understand the implications of the risks assumed by their own institutions. It’s time to realign incentives and CEO compensation packages, so that both high level executives and employees better serve the interests of shareholders.
Finally, the American people must be able to trust that their government is looking out for all of us - not the special interests that have set the agenda in Washington for eight years, and the lobbyists who run John McCain’s campaign.
I’ve spent my career taking on lobbyists and their money, and I’ve won. If you wanted a special favor in Illinois, there was actually a law that let you give campaign cash to politicians for their own personal use. In the State House, they called it business-as-usual. I called it legalized bribery, and while it didn’t make me the most popular guy in Springfield, I put an end to it.
When I got to Washington, we saw some of the worst corruption since Watergate. I led the fight for reform in my party, and let me tell you – not everyone in my party was too happy about it. When I proposed forcing lobbyists to disclose who they’re raising money from and who in Congress they’re funneling it to, I had a few choice words directed my way on the floor of the Senate. But we got it done, and we banned gifts from lobbyists, and free rides on their fancy jets. And I am the only candidate who can say that Washington lobbyists do not fund my campaign, they will not run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am President of the United States. That’s how we’re going to end the outrage of special interests tipping the scales.
The most important thing we must do is restore opportunity for all Americans. To get our economy growing, we need to recapture that fundamental American promise. That if you work hard, you can pay the bills. That if you get sick, you won’t go bankrupt. That your kids can get a good education, and that we can leave a legacy of greater opportunity to future generations.
That’s the change the American people need. While Senator McCain likes to talk about change these days, his economic program offers nothing but more of the same. The American people need more than change as a slogan– we need change that makes a real difference in your life.
Change means a tax code that doesn’t reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it. I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America. I will eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses and start-ups – that’s how we’ll grow our economy and create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.
I will cut taxes – cut taxes – for 95% of all working families. My opponent doesn’t want you to know this, but under my plan, tax rates will actually be less than they were under Ronald Reagan. If you make less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increase one single dime. In fact, I offer three times the tax relief for middle-class families as Senator McCain does – because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.
I will finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don’t, you’ll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves. And I will stop insurance companies from discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most
I will create the jobs of the future by transforming our energy economy. We’ll tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I’ll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I’ll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I’ll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy – wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can’t ever be outsourced.
And now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy. I’ll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support. But in exchange, I will ask for higher standards and more accountability. And we will keep our promise to every young American – if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.
This is the change we need – the kind of bottom up growth and innovation that will advance the American economy by advancing the dreams of all Americans.
Times are hard. I will not pretend that the changes we need will come without cost – though I have presented ways we can achieve these changes in a fiscally responsible way. I know that we’ll have to overcome our doubts and divisions and the determined opposition of powerful special interests before we can truly reform a broken economy and advance opportunity.
But I am running for President because we simply cannot afford four more years of an economic philosophy that works for Wall Street instead of Main Street, and ends up devastating both.
I don’t want to wake up in four years to find that more Americans fell out of the middle-class, and more families lost their savings. I don’t want to see that our country failed to invest in our ability to compete, our children’s future was mortgaged on another mountain of debt, and our financial markets failed to find a firmer footing.
This time – this election – is our chance to stand up and say: enough is enough!
We can do this because Americans have done this before. Time and again, we’ve battled back from adversity by recognizing that common stake that we have in each other’s success. That’s why our economy hasn’t just been the world’s greatest wealth generator – it’s bound America together, it’s created jobs, and it’s made the dream of opportunity a reality for generation after generation of Americans.
Now it falls to us. And I need you to make it happen. If you want the next four years looking just like the last eight, then I am not your candidate. But if you want real change – if you want an economy that rewards work, and that works for Main Street and Wall Street; if you want tax relief for the middle class and millions of new jobs; if you want health care you can afford and education so that our kids can compete; then I ask you to knock on some doors, and make some calls, and talk to your neighbors, and give me your vote on November 4th. And if you do, I promise you – we will win Colorado, we will win this election, and we will change America together.
Sen. Obama I was gonna write this sunday but my internet was down and thanks that I waited to help the democrats fight the so called offshore dfrilling flip flop which is not. This is the issue I was holding and I know this for many years but thought it was best to bring it in the final strecht of the campaign. I just saw the Mr. Independent Lou Dobbs lambasting the democrats for now agreeing to offshore drilling. and it looks like there are no experts in the oil industry, even Mr. Pickesn doesn't sounds like one and now I think he is a geologist as he mentioned something about giving credit to engineers, well, Mr. Pickens I am a petroelum enginneer with a Texas Professional License (very few with this) and I graduated in the top 10 of the best petroleum engineering school in the world, the University of Texas at Austin you can call then and they will see who I am. I know I know more than you and all experts about this energy crisis and no expert has come forward, not even a CEO who get a 15$ million bonus from exxon-mobil, ladies and gentleman the real solution is a diversified energy policy, someone who tells you offshore drilling is the solution is ignorant and it aint nothing but a hoax. As an expert from the bottom up, as i was in the oil fields day and nite while you were in the corporate offices I am knowledegable of the oil industry and all american I have seen LOVE drilling which I call RUKU RUKU for the boring sounding noise when drilling was less than 5 feet per hour, I used to go to the nearest town in western venezuela for a beer and come back and RUKU RUKU was still there. I liked the action, the casing runs, the cementing, the perforation and completion of wells, yes, US driling engineers never complete wells, the leats test it with a drilling rigs something never done by an american company, but venezuela did it cause of lack of deep workover/completion rigs so that is why my ample knowledge. Mr. Pickens knows and a production engineering authority from the UT-Texas that out of 100 engineers they hire ony 1 or 2 productions engineers, also and I was in charge of 7000 beam pumped wells when Venezuela had 300000+ wells and saudi arabia had only 2000 and you know they dont use production string and they produce from the casing and most wells are shallows. my wells were from 9000-15000 feet., so YES it's not just DRILL DRILL BABY DRILL OR RUKU RUKU productions is not assigned the same resources as drilling and Dr. Augusto Podio can tell you, so the solution is not just drilling, but production and reservoir engineering. There are secondary recovery, tertiary recovery and my own invented QUATERNARY RECOVERY, where you can get 15-20% of what is left, and many other things like coal bed methane exploitation, so Sen Obama and Sen Biden my recommendation is recommend that an American Oil Company be formed, never in history has this been applied because Mr. Pickens knows they never let washington do it, Big Oil never will like this by you can form a American or washington energy company to tackle of phases of oil industry not just drilling and you will see the results sooner that later, why cant a domestic oil company can be formed when the US used to be a major producer of oil and this can be done with the windfall profits tax and the oil will be sold of put on strategic reserve and this company will compete with big oil with no problem and they will hire the best people not the friends of oil men and bypass people with great minds and ideas.
Hello Friends,
This is actually a blog I was lucky enogh to pick up from a myspace friend-Deepak Chopra. I think it is incredibly insightful and I hope you also enjoy it.
Take Care and Take hope Friends~Change is coming to this world!!!!
Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.
She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses . In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other." For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin's message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision. Look at what she stands for: --Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism. --Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair America's image abroad. --Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded. --Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree. --Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war. --"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology. Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all right, Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is." The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness. Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.
First, let me say thank you John McCain. This was the absolute best pick you could have made for the Hillary supporters, the Democrats and America.
With this pick, McCain just took away his two best and most effective arguments against an Obama presidency. McCain will no longer be able to effectively argue that (1) Obama does not have enough experience and he will no longer be able to effectively argue that (2) Obama is the riskier choice. The Obama/Biden ticket now has more experience than the McCain/Palin ticket. And for those trying to argue that Palin has more "executive" experience than Obama and is somehow more, or at least equally, qualified, I have to ask: really? REALLY? If you really push that line, you lose all credibility. There are lots of wonderful qualities about Palin but experience and qualifications to be President/VP are not two of those. Whether you like Obama's policies or not, there is no doubt his resume qualifies him to be President. McCain does not really want to compare the two. Obama has been in the US Senate twice as long than Palin has been Governor of Alaska. For 8 years, Obama was one of the most accomplished senators in the fourth largest state and his district included the third largest metropolitan area in the United States. Obama was a constitutional law professor at one of the most prestigious law schools in the nation. He was the law review editor of the most prestigious law school in the world. He is one of the most inspiring speakers of our generation and there is no doubt he is one of America's great minds. But by all means, Palin was a jounalism major at the University of Idaho, has been mayor of a city of 5,000 people, and governor for 18 months of the 47th least populous state. Obama wins that comparison all day long.
I have heard the charge that Obama supporters are now somehow being hypocritical by criticizing Palin's experience. It is not the Obama supporters who are being hypocritical about the experience argument. Obama supporters are merely pointing out the hypocrisy of the McCain campaign by the selection. McCain can not expect to criticize Obama for his alleged lack of experience on one hand while on the other, pick a person with far less experience to be "one heartbeat away" from the Presidency. The experience argument can no longer be effectively and honestly employed by the McCain campaign.
The Obama/Biden ticket is now the safer pick. Obama is now a known commodity. He has been a respected US senator for almost 4 years and Biden has been one for two decades. Obama has been vetted extremely well for the past two years while campaigning for President. And while McCain was making real in roads with his "Obama poses more risk" line, he can no longer effectively use it. Palin is a complete unknown. And it isnt just her being the Alaskan governor that makes her unknown or risky, it is her lack of experience, her lack of a governing record and just the overall concern about who she is and why should we trust she is ready to be one heartbeat away from the presidency. Education? Voting history? Any kind of qualification that even hints at being ready for the Presidency/VP? After a quick search, here are a few of her "risky" positions that threaten our Constitution and our Environment: She is a "creationist" who supports teaching the "creation" theory in public schools and she is pro-drilling in our precious and pristine Alaskan wilderness. If she is willing to disregard the Constitution's separation of Church and State and she is willing to irrevocably destroy pristine Alaskan wilderness, what else is she capable and willing to destroy? A women's right to choose? McCain will now have to focus on proving Palin's qualifications to quiet any concerns over perceived risk rather than attacking Obama's. What was once a ticket of experience and safety, now McCain's ticket looks like a mish mash of strange qualifications and a risky addition that on first glance is not qualified to be President or VP. The McCain/Palin ticket is now the riskiest selection in a Presidential election in my lifetime.
It was a desperate attempt to try to bring in the Hillary voters. It is laughable he thought Palin would do that. Palin is the kind of woman Hillary supporters HATE. PALIN CALLED HILLARY A WHINER in a recent interview with Newsweek! She is the anti-Hillary. Hillary supporters did not vote for Hillary just because she was a woman. They voted for her because she is a brilliant woman who is strong and fierce. She is pro-choice, an environmentalist, believes in providing universal health care, and would bring back the wonderful economic policies of the Clinton years. I am on several Hillary listserves and I can not begin to tell you how outraged the Hillary supporters are. They are insulted by Palin's selection and Palin's attempt to reach out to them on nothing more than their gender. Thank you again Mr. McCain you just found the only way to get the rest of the Hillary supporters to turn out for Obama. With this selection, McCain/Palin is now the least experienced and the riskiest choice. It is often said that the selection of a Vice President can not win an election but it can lose one. I disagree. While McCain's selection will not help him win the election, it most certainly will help the Democrats win the election.
Jason
This website is a time line of pictures of our favorite President to be.
www.kronomy.com/user/barack_obama
Its way cool!
HI, MY NAME IS MINDY CAMPBELL, AND I'M ADDICTED TO NEGATIVITY...
AND I FELT THE NEED TO REVISIT THIS BLOG.SO HERE GOES...
The first step in quitting something is admitting you have a problem, right? So, here I am! Negativity has affected my life for way too many years, and I'm ready to QUIT! Quit negativity, that is! The campaign that Senator Obama has run thus far has been an eye-opening, life changing experience for me. I have begun to see, even barely, the awesome country we have before us. I see so many inspiring people involved in this campaign for CHANGE, and it has really begun to change my life. And I am so glad for that. Lately, however, I have begun to see the seeds of negativity being sown even amongst us, Obama's supporters. This is frightening, I have to say. We are supposed to be fighting the status quo, not accepting it with open arms! We all know that the media will stop at nothing to bring us down. We KNOW this! We have been told this by Senator Obama, in not so many words. He has told us that as we get closer to victory the voices of dissent will only grow louder and stronger. He has told us that we can no longer afford to traffic in lies, fear and hate-that the time has come to turn our backs on that kind of politics-before the hour grows to late! And yet, it is not uncommon to see people out there literally SWIMMING in fear and hate! Good people who have once again let fear and hate take over their lives.
Well, I say no more! No more fear, lies and HATE! I've lived enough of my life drowning in that, and I'm so tired of it! That's why this campaign speaks to me, to my HEART! Senator Obama has opened a door for us. A door has been opened to live a life full of HOPE, we can close the door on fear. It's had its fun with us. He has shown us the pathway, now we just need to have the strength to take the first step. We are all here because we believe. But do we believe in OURSELVES? Do we believe that WE have the power to shake off the HATE, FEAR and NEGATIVITY that the media is throwing our way? I fear that if we cannot shake off the media lies, we will certainly never turn this country around. We now have the power in our MINDS to show the media it has no consequence in our lives. In school we learned how to get a bully to leave us alone. BY IGNORING IT! I call out to you all, IGNORE THE MEDIA! As I've become involved in this campaign, I have turned OFF my TV, and it has had enormous influence in my life already!
Why do I need FOX lies, and ABC moronic debates to tell me who to support? Do I care if Obama wears a freaking lapel flag pin? Bush wears a flag pin, how has that helped us in any way???? It's all a bunch of fluff, designed to take us away from our real cause, GETTING SENATOR OBAMA ELECTED AND MAKING REAL CHANGE IN THIS NATION AND IN THIS WORLD, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. I know we have the power to do this! I believe it in my heart! But, we will not do this if we are stuck in front of the TV, or computer spilling hatred.
This is the reason I have cancelled all my listservs on this network. Over the past month, I have seen the emails go from terrible to absolutely embarrassing. I used to find uplifting, encouraging ideas from supporters there, now not so much. Well, sorry folks, but if I wanted a life filled with hate, I'd be supporting McSame. That statement might not make me too popular, but I don't have time to worry about that.
Instead of getting involved in hate, fear and the like, I've chosen to fill my time with stuff that actually can make a difference. Writing postcards, making phonecalls, making posters, reading up on Obama's policies, books, etc... There are so many jobs to be done!
So, here it is, my admittance to an addiction of negativity. My rant on why I can't and WON'T stand for it any longer. I hope that some of you understand and see my point of view. I hope that some of you will see the power this is holding on ALL of our lives. As soon as we can see it, we can stop it.
I truly believe that we all have the power within us to become everything that we desire, and I know you all out there are wonderful people. I wirite this as a challenge to us all, that we may overcome the fear, hate, lies and negativity in our own walks of life, and rise up to the challenge of electing a President that will make this Nation the nation is should be, the nation it DESERVES to be. WE will make this nation all that it deserves to be. HAND IN HAND!
TAKE CARE AND TAKE HOPE!
To Barack Obama for making me realize this country is worth fighting for when I'd all but given up. For awakening in me a love for community when I felt like we are all alone. For teaching me what it means to stand up for something when for so long we've been trained to stay seated. For giving me the tools I need to feel empowered in this life. And mostly, for opening up this Nation and showing me just how many awesome, beautiful people live here!
To all you beautiful people out there, Thank You for being! Thank You for believing! Thank You for being an inspiration! We will build this Nation, we will REbuild this Nation, and when we're all old and gray, we can look back on this time as the time when WE repaired our world, hand in hand, and heart to heart.
Bless.
Take care and take hope!
Change is on its way, can you feel it?
By the Austin Business Journal
Texas has lost more than 200,000 jobs to China since 2001, including 34,100 jobs in 2007 alone, according to a new study released by the Economic Policy Institute.
The massive U.S. trade deficit with China is largely responsible for the growing problem, the study says.
Although the job losses hit a variety of industries, the computer and electronic products manufacturing industry was particularly hard hit. More than 90,400 employees in that sector were displaced.
On a national level, 2.3 million U.S. jobs went to China since Beijing's 2001 entry into the World Trade Organization, including 366,000 in 2007 alone nationwide.
Not only is the U.S. losing jobs to China, workers' wages are also being affected. U.S. workers displaced by China trade lost an average of $8,146 in wages last year -- a total of $19.4 billion overall -- as they took lower-paying jobs.
"Our flawed trade relationship with China is destroying good jobs in Texas," says Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. "All manufacturing is facing a critical challenge, as we know, but what may surprise people is how hard workers in advanced technology are being affected. As China diversifies its export base -- and it's already expanding its electronic products, aircraft, auto parts and machinery -- more American products will be unfairly disadvantaged."
www.americanmanufacturing.org
Well, I have been postponing this prediction, but now is more than ever, due to this test Oil Prices will reach and surpass $150 per barrel before the end of summer..
I need to add something as Sen Obama seems to have new wrong advicers of nasty republicans spies are close to him to succumb to the pressure to give the telecoms, the rich few with no voting power, inmunitty, now the other half truth of the McClelland book will never be known as if the telecoms feared something it means there is dirtiness in there. I hope you reverse this when you get to be President..
Also, about the Iran test, something is wrong on the world, everybody provokes iranians and nobody says anything, now they test and they get threatened. Israel the most war loving country does whatever they do and nobody says NADA, something is wrong in this world , definitely the wrong leaders and McCain represents a high risk of WWIII with short-temperness bigger than Bush.....
Yesterday's event went really well.
Check out the blog at: www.myspace.com/bowlingforobama b/c I can't figure out how to make the HTML Editor on this site accept pictures. I've tried, but it's not working.
Bottom line, we had between 100 - 130 people come out to the event. We raised nearly 800 in contributions, silent auction, merchandise and bowling fees!
I couldn't have done it w/out the support of my husband and friends/neighbors.
Barack Obama and I are committed to changing the political process by building a campaign built on a broad base of support from ordinary Americans.
I've set my own personal fundraising goal for the campaign, which you can see in the thermometer to the right.
Will you make a donation to help me reach my goal?
Remember the future of your family and America are at stake, Sen McCain is a war-loving military hawk which none of the US enemies will ever talk to him. This is poised to present a very inflexible and dangerous foreign policy which has a high probability of starting a war with Iran which will be the beginning of War World III as Iran will respond by attacking Israel and the rest you already know what will be. WWIII will be the ruin for America and we and you do not want that and They are already starting with an obsession with Iran and even Bush administration figures like Condoleza Rice mentioned recently the word of WMD (imagine that) and just read the book of McClelland where he says half the truth of the selling of the Iraq War, 1000 lies were spewed to fool the US people to Invade Iraq and now you know the disastrous result...would you like another one like this?, well it's your time to bring a change and you can help and be part of this grassroot peaceful movement by donating whatever you can and be part of history and help me reach my goal to help Sen Barack Obama reach the white house. God Bless you.,<br>
Click Here To Donate, Thanks
I hope if you read this, you please use your intelligence and analyze deeply before placing your vote. DONT BE FOOLED. Sen McCain has NO inmigration policy or ideas or anything related to it. I am telling you Raza this as the inmigration bill was the idea and came from the brain (praying to God that it heals) of my admired Sen Kennedy. Sen McCain was brought in to make it bi-partisan with him but he provided no leadership and help with his own party and it failed, and he has said that he looks for border security first(a broad bogus term) over any reform. Well, by the time elections come the big fence would be built so what is the real inmigration policy??, NADA, NONE, ZILCH, NYET....this is blah blah blah to get your vote and fool us, and we better be prepared. Look now at Sen Obama, the son of inmigrants who would understand better this reality than any other man..this enough said of Sen Obama. Lambasting millions of working people that the US will need in the future, then why do they have a annual visa lottery or the 1000s of skilled worked they ask from other countries, why don't somebody get these people, who are here because of sometimes US bad policies overseas that produces corrupt leaders who mismanage and steal countries resources, and educate and train them so they will replace those asked from other sources?..pretty simple, ehh..
=================================
Oigan raza, si leen esto sean inteligentes, no se dejen tontear el voto. miren quien tiene la poliza de inmigracion quien la tiene o no, el senador Mccain muchas veces cuando lo han entrevistado salta a hablar de seguridad de las fronteras y nada ademas, esto refleja q no tiene la iniciativa de este tema. Nunca la ha tenido y no se dejen echar mentiras que ellos son unos expertos en esto. La iniciativa de inmigracion la tuvo el senador Kennedy y el senador MCCain se llamo para hacerla bi-partidista y fallo con su partido asi q el no tiene ni tendra iniciativa de acuerdo a lo que ha hablado hasta el momento y si votan por el va a ser un desastre. De quien confiar mas de un hijo de inmigrantes como el senador Obama, creo que esto lo dice todo..
