Obama Shares Vision to Strengthen Economy

2/28/08 Speaking to voters at a town hall meeting in Austin, TX today, U.S. Senator Barack Obama reiterated his commitment to take on the special interests and discussed his specific plans to help working families burdened by rising costs, disappearing jobs, and stagnating wages. Obama’s plan – titled “Keeping America’s Promise” – includes cutting taxes for workers, eliminating taxes for seniors making less than $50,000 annually, and ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.

“It was a failure of leadership in Washington,” Obama said. “It’s a Washington that has thrown open its doors to lobbyists and special interests who’ve riddled our tax code with loopholes that let corporations avoid paying their taxes while you’re paying more. They’ve used money and influence to kill health care reform at a time when half of all bankruptcies are caused by medical bills, and then they’ve rigged our bankruptcy laws to make it harder to climb out of debt. They don’t represent ordinary Americans, they don’t fund my campaign, and they won’t drown out the voices of working families when I am President.”

Obama has spent more than twenty years standing up to special interests and fighting for working Americans – since his days as a community organizer on Chicago’s South Side. He has expanded access to health care, cut taxes for low-income workers, and passed historic ethics reform legislation in both Illinois and Washington. As President, Obama will keep America’s promise and bring change that working families can believe in to Washington.

“At a time like this, the American people need real change – the kind of change that’s about more than switching the party in the White House,” Obama said. “They need a change in our politics – a leader who can end the division in Washington so we can stop talking about our challenges and start solving them; who doesn’t defend lobbyists as part of the system, but sees them as part of the problem; who will carry your voices and your hopes into the White House every single day for the next four years. And that is the kind of President I want to be.”

Obama also outlined his plan to reclaim the American Dream by easing the financial burden on working families and creating millions of good, new jobs. The Obama plan will:

Close corporate loopholes and shut down tax havens
Cut taxes for middle-class Americans by up to $1,000 per working family
Eliminate income taxes for any senior making less than $50,000 per year
Implement a universal health care system to cover every American and cut costs for the typical family by $2,500
Create a college tuition tax credit worth $4,000 each year in exchange for community or national service
Establish a Credit Card Bill of Rights to protect consumers from spiraling into debt
Reform bankruptcy laws to give Americans who fall into debt a chance to get back on their feet
End tax breaks for companies who ship our jobs overseas, and give them to companies who create good jobs with decent wages in America.
Generate millions of new jobs through investments in infrastructure and renewable energy

Each town hall attendee received a “Keeping America’s Promise” booklet which outlines Senator Obama’s economic proposals in detail. To view the booklet in its entirety, click HERE.