Attendees included students and seasoned professionals with their own businesses; immigrants and native-born Americans; single people and married couples with children; independents, lifelong progressives and disaffected Republicans. They were men and women of all races and ages. It was a microcosm of Atlanta, and of America, and was yet another indication of the way that the Obama campaign is bringing people together. As each guest arrived, they filled out a post-it note, completing the phrase: “I came today because…” Some of the responses included:
Jennifer brought her parents and her husband. Her husband Christian is a lifelong Republican (from a staunchly Republican family) who, as he explained, “married a beautiful Democrat” in Jennifer and came to the Platform Meeting to learn. He is impressed with Barack’s leadership, vision and intelligence.
Viviane and her sister are immigrants from Brazil, who are not yet eligible to vote. However, they have been very involved in getting Barack’s message out to new citizens with their blogs and YouTube posts. They are most enthusiastic about the potential of an Obama administration to rebuild America’s standing in the world.
Juanita was most passionate about job retraining programs and business development incentives, having suffered periods of unemployment and knowing first-hand the difficulties of surviving on unemployment insurance while not being able to find work in one’s chosen field. We had several small business owners in the group who wanted to address a wide range of issues related to small businesses. Peggy wanted to ensure that employees would continue to have the rights to a secret ballot when voting whether to unionize. Lisa was especially concerned about the high cost of health care and the impact it has on employees and small business employers. Her husband’s company can only afford to cover healthcare for individuals, not families, and even then it can only partially pay for the benefit. With so many pressing issues and so many points of view in the room, it was hard to find only one issue on which to focus. However, we realized that many of the issues we wanted to discuss were tied to the economy so we used that as our starting plank.
Dorothy, an Obama policy advisor, provided some valuable input as our group wrapped its head around tax policy and everyone shared their experiences and ideas to shape our position. We struck a good balance between politics, policy and the personal as we touched on the multiple elements needed to create and sustain a strong economy. We had so much to discuss that we even ran over our allocated time by half hour, but at the end everyone felt that their voice had been heard and was pleased to have had an input into the DNC’s platform on issues that matter to them. WE felt rellay energized attaking a tsep to be more active participants in our democracy.
Stephanie, one of the Obama organizing fellows, also attended, and took advantage of the gathering to recruit additional eager volunteers. Since volunteer outreach and voter registration are the priorities for Georgia before the convention, Stephanie was able to put some folks to work straight away by signing them up to help with phone banking.
Our Platform when completed read:
Background
We believe that job creation is the key to strong economic growth at home and should be an integral part of the next administration’s priorities. Fostering job creation and reducing unemployment: § Expands the tax base by increasing the pool of employed income taxpayers§ Reduces the burden on social services such as unemployment insurance§ Increases national productivity and GDP§ Promotes personal dignity .
Investment in American Small Business
Small business is a critical engine of economic growth. According to the Small Business Administration:The estimated 25.8 million small businesses in the United States:
An Obama administration should provide incentives for small business creation and expansion, and remove impediments to small business development. Government should reward entrepreneurial behavior by simplifying the tax structure and providing tax benefits for small business development. Rather than focus on incremental small scale modifications, a strategic approach to taxation reform and fiscal policy will be key to supporting the growth of small business.
As increasing globalization leads to the loss of US manufacturing jobs, government should be at the forefront of rebuilding the base of American business. Globalization is an inescapable trend. Rather than combat it, the administration should:
Health Care
Many American businesses, especially small businesses, are adversely impacted by the burden of high health insurance costs. Therefore, the provision of universal health care should be treated as a strategic imperative for American businesses and not just as another entitlement program. Providing a federal universal healthcare program will take advantage of economies of scale to reduce the burden of high insurance costs on small businesses and allow them to be more competitive.
Energy
High energy prices have had as adverse an impact on America’s business as it has on America’s families. Current challenges have highlighted the need for alternative sources of energy. Proposals such as off-shore drilling offer only short-term solutions for long term problems. The American people need to understand that this is a problem that has been a long time in the making, and is not a problem that we can drill our way out of. Therefore, our nation must make use of a full range of energy alternatives to ensure a stable energy future, and to promote responsible energy use.
The federal government should invest in development of renewable, alternative energy sources and build-out of the necessary infrastructure. The full weight of American ingenuity should be brought to bear on finding solutions for America’s energy challenges. We propose the development of a dedicated agency for research and development of renewable energy resources, modeled after the design of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the 1960’s. By providing investment dollars and incentives for public and private sector partnership in the development of sustainable clean energy, the government will be taking steps towards a more secure energy future for our nation.
Tax Policy
We propose a broad and strategic overhaul of US tax policies, similar to the 1986-style bi-partisan supported tax reform led by Sen. Bill Bradley. As part of this overhaul an Obama administration should address the major un-funded liabilities from Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid.
Fiscal Discipline
The recent policy of deficit spending threatens the economic security of future generations. We propose a return to fiscal disciple with reduced wasteful spending and a “pay as you go” model of federal spending. Knowing that government spending is a matter of setting priorities and making hard choices, America’s spending priorities should be infrastructure development, education/ worker training and health care. These will form the foundation for a more prosperous and stable future for all Americans.
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