Obama Addresses the Building Trades National Legislative Conference

Remarks for Senator Barack Obama
Building Trades National Legislative Conference
Washington, DC
Tuesday, April 15, 2008

We meet here at a challenging time for our families and a challenging time for America. All across the country, Americans are anxious about their future. In a global economy with new rules and new risks, they’ve watched their government do its best to try and shift those risks onto the backs of the American worker. And they wonder how they will ever keep up.

In coffee shops and town meetings, in VFW halls and right here in this room, the questions are all the same: Will I be able to leave my children a better world than I was given? Will I be able to save enough to send them to college or plan for a secure retirement? Will my job even be there tomorrow? Who will stand up for me in this new world?

In this time of change and uncertainty, these questions are expected, but this isn’t the first time we’ve heard them. These are the same kinds of questions I heard over two decades ago after I turned down a job on Wall Street and went to work as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago. The job was to help lift up neighborhoods that had been devastated by the closing of local steel plants. So I worked with unions and the city government to organize job-training for the jobless and hope for the hopeless, and block by block, we turned those neighborhoods around.

It showed me the fundamental truth that’s been at the heart of America’s success – and at the heart of the labor movement in this country – the idea that we all have mutual obligations to one another, that I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper, and that in this country, we rise and fall together.

But we know that for the past seven and a half years, we’ve had a whole different philosophy in the White House. They call it the ownership society – but what it means is you’re on your own. You’re a worker who’s been laid off from a job? Tough luck, you’re on your own. You’re a single mom trying to find health care for your kids? Tough luck, you’re on your own. You’re a senior whose pension got dumped after a lifetime of hard work? Tough luck, you’re on your own.

It’s not just that this administration hasn’t been fighting for you; they’ve actually tried to stop you from fighting for yourselves. This is the most anti-labor administration in our memory. They don’t believe in unions. They don’t believe in organizing. They’ve packed the labor relations board with their corporate buddies. Well, we’ve got news for them – it’s not the Department of Management, it’s the Department of Labor, and we’re here to take it back. That’s why I’m running for President of the United States of America.

Now, John McCain seems to think the Bush years have been pretty good because he’s offering more of the same. And today’s a good reminder of that because it’s Tax Day. This is supposed to be a day when we pay what we owe to the government. But it’s become a day when George Bush’s Washington rewards its friends on Wall Street.

John McCain used to oppose the Bush tax cuts. He used to say that he couldn’t support a tax cut where “so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate.” He used to say that tax cuts in a time of war were a bad idea, and that they violated his “conscience.” But somewhere along the way to the Republican nomination, I guess he figured that he had to stop speaking his mind and start towing the line – because now he wants to make those tax cuts permanent.

So I respect Senator McCain. And I honor his service to this nation. But I don’t think America can afford four more years of the failed Bush policies, and that’s what he’s offering. We need to roll back the Bush-McCain tax cuts and invest in things like health care that are really important. Instead of giving tax breaks to the wealthy who don’t need them and weren’t even asking for them, we should be putting a middle class tax cut into the pockets of working families. That’s why I’m the only candidate in this race who’s proposed a tax cut that would save our families $1,000 a year, and eliminate income taxes entirely for seniors making less than $50,000.

But let me be clear – this isn’t just about ending the failed policies of the Bush years; it’s about ending the failed system in Washington that produces those policies. For far too long, through both Democratic and Republican administrations, Washington has allowed Wall Street to use lobbyists and campaign contributions to rig the system and get its way, no matter what it costs ordinary Americans.

Think about it. The top mortgage lenders spend $185 million lobbying Congress, and we wonder why Washington looked the other way when they were tricking families into buying homes they couldn’t afford. Drug and insurance companies spend $1 billion on lobbying, and we wonder why the cost of health care continues to shoot up. When George Bush put Dick Cheney in charge of energy policy, Cheney met with the environmentalist groups once, he met with the renewable energy groups once, and he met with the oil and gas companies forty times. So it’s no wonder Exxon Mobile is making $11 billion a quarter when you’re paying close to $4 a gallon for gas.

We need a President who’s thinking about not just Wall Street, but Main Street; who’s not just looking to bump up a corporate bottom line, but to do what’s right for the American people. Because that’s the only way we’re going to bring about real change – change that will make a lasting difference in the lives of ordinary Americans.

I believe I can bring about that change – because I’m the only candidate in this race who’s actually worked to rein in the power of lobbyists by passing historic ethics reforms in Illinois and in the U.S. Senate. And I’m the only candidate who isn’t taking a dime from Washington lobbyists and PACs. They have not funded my campaign, they will not run my administration, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people, of working people, of unions when I’m President of the United States.

Your voices will be heard. If you have any doubts, you can ask the union leaders in Illinois. When I was home talking to some of the local leaders there a couple of years ago, they told me they were being underbid on projects because unscrupulous builders were gaming the system. And I listened. They said that on some construction jobs, those builders were calling their employees “independent contractors” to get out of having to pay employment taxes and workers comp or overtime.

That didn’t sound right to me. So I set about leading an effort with Senator Durbin, Senator Kennedy and others in the Senate to end this practice. Because if you’re doing the same work as other employees, you should have worker protections, the same ability to organize, and the same wages and benefits. And I’ll fight to make that the law of the land when I’m President of the United States.

We’ll make sure Washington serves nobody’s interests but the people’s. Because I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of playing defense. I’m ready to play some offense. I know the Building and Construction Trades are ready to play offense. We’re ready to play offense for the minimum wage. We’re ready to play offense for retirement security.

We’re ready to play offense for universal health care. It’s time we stood up to the drug and insurance companies who’ve been blocking reform for too long and tell them enough is enough. I refuse to accept that in the richest nation on Earth, we have to stand by while 47 million Americans go without health insurance, and millions more are being driven to financial ruin trying to pay their medical bills. I’m tired of seeing union members having to spend all their time negotiating about the health care they already have when they should be negotiating for better wages that can support their families.

We’re going to change that. We’re going to work with employers who are providing health care for their employees and lower premiums by up to $2,500 per family per year. And for those who don’t have health care, we’re going to set up a plan that’s as good as the one I have as a Member of Congress. And we’re not going to do it twenty years from now, or ten years from now. We’re going to do it by the end of my first term as President of the United States of America.

We’re ready to play offense for working Americans. We need to make sure workers building America’s infrastructure are making the prevailing wage and getting the benefits they deserve. After Katrina, George Bush suspended Davis-Bacon. Families had nothing left. Whole communities had been destroyed. But George Bush thought people didn’t deserve to make 9 or 10 bucks an hour to rebuild that city. And John McCain isn’t much different. He seems to think Davis-Bacon is something that comes from a pig farm. He’s opposed it time and time again. That’s wrong. We need to strengthen Davis-Bacon, and make sure any new infrastructure projects we’re proposing adhere to Davis-Bacon standards. And that’s what I’ll do when I’m President of the United States of America.

But it’s not enough to make sure we’re paying workers fair wages and benefits. We need to make sure the government uses project labor agreements to encourage completion of projects on time and on budget. One of the first things George Bush did when he got into office was to ban PLAs. That’s bad for workers and bad for America, and that’s why one of the first things I’ll do as President will be to repeal that ban and put PLAs back into place.

It’s time we had a President who didn’t choke saying the word “union.” It’s time we had a Democratic nominee who didn’t choke saying the word “union.” We need to strengthen our unions by letting them do what they do best – organize our workers. If a majority of workers want a union, they should get a union. And that is why I’ll fight for and why I intend to sign the Employee Free Choice Act when it lands on my desk in the White House.

Here’s what else we’ll do – we’ll put Americans back to work. I applaud your partnership with Helmets-to-Hardhats. I believe we have a responsibility to serve our soldiers as well as they’re serving us, and by helping make sure they have the skills to work in the trades when they come home, you’re living up to that responsibility. As President, I’ll support funding for this critical program.

And we won’t just promote job-training, we’ll promote job-creation. That’s why we’ll pass what I’m calling the Patriot Employer Act that I’ve been working on since I got to the Senate – because in my administration, we’re not going to give tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas; we’ll give them to companies that create good jobs with decent wages here in America.

We’re going to invest in this country. Back in the 1950’s, Americans were put to work building the Interstate Highway system and that helped expand our middle class. We need to show the same kind of leadership today. That’s why I’ve called for a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank that will invest $60 billion over ten years and generate millions of new jobs. We can’t keep standing by while our roads and bridges and airports crumble and decay. For our economy, our safety, and our workers, we have to rebuild America.

Investing in America means investing in the jobs of the future. We shouldn’t be sending billions of dollars to foreign nations because of our addiction to oil. We should be investing in American-made solar panels, windmills, and clean coal technology. That’s why I’ve proposed investing $150 billion over the next ten years in the green energy sector. This will create up to five million new American jobs – and those are jobs that pay well, and can’t be outsourced. That’s why this will be a priority in my administration.

Now, I know some will say we can’t afford all this. But it seems to me – if we can spend $10 billion a month rebuilding Iraq, we can spend $15 billion a year in our own country to create jobs and strengthen the long-term competitiveness of our economy.

But if we’re serious about fighting for our workers here at home, we’ve got to fight for them around the world. Now, the truth is trade is here to stay, and that if we have strong labor and environmental protections in our agreements, and if our trading partners are playing by the rules, trade can be a good thing for our workers and our economy. But what we can’t do is ignore violence against union organizers in Colombia. What we can’t do is sign trade deals that put the interests of multinational corporations ahead of the interests of our workers or our environment. That’s why I opposed NAFTA, and CAFTA, and that’s why I’ll make sure our trade agreements work for all Americans when I’m President of the United States.

So make no mistake - the American people have a choice in this election. We can talk about our economic problems all we want, but unless we change the broken system in Washington, nothing else is going to change. We can talk all we want about standing up for our workers, but unless we have a President you can trust to listen and put working Americans first, nothing is really going to change.

And you can trust me. Because politics didn’t lead me to working folks; working folks led me to politics. I was standing with American workers on the streets of Chicago twenty years ago, and the reason I’m here today is because I don’t want to wake up one day many years from now and see that our workers are still being denied the wages and benefits and rights that they deserve, or that we still haven't made the investments in infrastructure and in training our workers that we desperately need.

The reason I’m here today is because I know what it’s like to go to college on student loans, and see a mother get sick and worry that maybe she can’t pay the bills. I know what it’s like to have to scratch and work and claw to build a better life for your family. And I don’t want to wake up many years from now and find that the American dream is still out of reach for too many Americans.

The reason I’m here today is because I believe that if we can just put an end to the politics of division and distraction, and reclaim that sense that we all have a stake in each other, that we rise and fall as one nation; if we can just unite this country around a common purpose – black, white, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American; labor and management; Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – there’s no obstacle we cannot overcome, no destiny we cannot fulfill.

That’s the fundamental truth I learned on the streets of Chicago. That’s the idea at the heart of the Building and Construction Trades. And that’s the opportunity we have in this election. There is a moment in the life of every generation where that spirit of unity and hopefulness has to come through if we’re going to make our mark on history. This is our moment. This is our time. I’m proud and honored that the first union endorsement I received in this campaign was from a Building and Construction Trades union – the Plumbers and Pipefitters. And I’d be proud and honored to have all of your support. And if you will march with me, and organize with me, and if you vote for me, then I promise you this: We will not just win this Democratic Nomination, we will win the general election and then together – you and I – we’re going to change this country, and we’re going to change this world. Thank you.

Obama Addresses the AP Annual Luncheon

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
AP Annual Luncheon
Monday, April 14th, 2008
Washington, DC

Good afternoon. I know I kept a lot of you guys busy this weekend with the comments I made last week. Some of you might even be a little bitter about that.

As I said yesterday, I regret some of the words I chose, partly because the way that these remarks have been interpreted have offended some people and partly because they have served as one more distraction from the critical debate that we must have in this election season.

I’m a person of deep faith, and my religion has sustained me through a lot in my life. I even gave a speech on faith before I ever started running for President where I said that Democrats, “make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in people’s lives.” I also represent a state with a large number of hunters and sportsmen, and I understand how important these traditions are to families in Illinois and all across America. And, contrary to what my poor word choices may have implied or my opponents have suggested, I’ve never believed that these traditions or people’s faith has anything to do with how much money they have.

But I will never walk away from the larger point that I was trying to make. For the last several decades, people in small towns and cities and rural areas all across this country have seen globalization change the rules of the game on them. When I began my career as an organizer on the South Side of Chicago, I saw what happens when the local steel mill shuts its doors and moves overseas. You don’t just lose the jobs in the mill, you start losing jobs and businesses throughout the community. The streets are emptier. The schools suffer.

I saw it during my campaign for the Senate in Illinois when I’d talk to union guys who had worked at the local Maytag plant for twenty, thirty years before being laid off at fifty-five years old when it picked up and moved to Mexico; and they had no idea what they’re going to do without the paycheck or the pension that they counted on. One man didn’t even know if he’d be able to afford the liver transplant his son needed now that his health care was gone.

I’ve heard these stories almost every day during this campaign, whether it was in Iowa or Ohio or Pennsylvania. And the people I’ve met have also told me that every year, in every election, politicians come to their towns, and they tell them what they want to hear, and they make big promises, and then they go back to Washington when the campaign’s over, and nothing changes. There’s no plan to address the downside of globalization. We don’t do anything about the skyrocketing cost of health care or college or those disappearing pensions. Instead of fighting to replace jobs that aren’t coming back, Washington ends up fighting over the latest distraction of the week.

And after years and years and years of this, a lot of people in this country have become cynical about what government can do to improve their lives. They are angry and frustrated with their leaders for not listening to them; for not fighting for them; for not always telling them the truth. And yes, they are bitter about that.

Now, Senator McCain and the Republicans in Washington are already looking ahead to the fall and have decided that they plan on using these comments to argue that I’m out of touch with what’s going on in the lives of working Americans. I don’t blame them for this -- that’s the nature of our political culture, and if I had to carry the banner for eight years of George Bush’s failures, I’d be looking for something else to talk about too.

But I will say this. If John McCain wants to turn this election into a contest about which party is out of touch with the struggles and the hopes of working America, that’s a debate I’m happy to have. In fact, I think that’s a debate we need to have. Because I believe that the real insult to the millions of hard-working Americans out there would be a continuation of the economic agenda that has dominated Washington for far too long.

I may have made a mistake last week in the words that I chose, but the other party has made a much more damaging mistake in the failed policies they’ve chosen and the bankrupt philosophy they’ve embraced for the last three decades.

It’s a philosophy that says there’s no role for government in making the global economy work for working Americas; that we have to just sit back watch those factories close and those jobs disappear; that there’s nothing we can do or should do about workers without health care, or children in crumbling schools, or families who are losing their homes, and so we should just hand out a few tax breaks and wish everyone the best of luck.

Ronald Reagan called this trickle-down economics. George Bush called it the Ownership Society. But what it really means is that you’re on your own. If your premiums or your tuition is rising faster than you can afford, you’re on your own. If you’re that Maytag worker who just lost his pension, tough luck. If you’re a child born into poverty, you’ll just have to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.

This philosophy isn’t just out-of-touch – it’s put our economy out-of-whack. Years of pain on Main Street have finally trickled up to Wall Street and sent us hurtling toward recession, reminding us that we’re all connected – that we can’t prosper as a nation where a few people are doing well and everyone else is struggling.

John McCain is an American hero and a worthy opponent, but he’s proven time and time again that he just doesn’t understand this. It took him three tries in seven days just to figure out that the home foreclosure crisis was an actual problem. He’s had a front row seat to the last eight years of disastrous policies that have widened the income gap and saddled our children with debt, and now he’s promising four more years of the very same thing.

He’s promising to make permanent the Bush tax breaks for the wealthiest few who didn’t need them and didn’t ask for them – tax breaks that are so irresponsible that John McCain himself once said they offended his conscience.

He’s promising four more years of trade deals that don’t have a single safeguard for American workers – that don’t help American workers compete and win in a global economy.

He’s promising four more years of an Administration that will push for the privatization of Social Security – a plan that would gamble away people’s retirement on the stock market; a plan that was already rejected by Democrats and Republicans under George Bush.

He’s promising four more years of policies that won’t guarantee health insurance for working Americans; that won’t bring down the rising cost of college tuition; that won’t do a thing for the Americans who are living in those communities where the jobs have left and the factories have shut their doors.

And yet, despite all this, the other side is still betting that the American people won’t notice that John McCain is running for George Bush’s third term. They think that they’ll forget about all that’s happened in the last eight years; that they’ll be tricked into believing that it’s either me or our party is the one that’s out of touch with what’s going on in their lives.

Well I’m making a different bet. I’m betting on the American people.

The men and women I’ve met in small towns and big cities across this country see this election as a defining moment in our history. They understand what’s at stake here because they’re living it every day. And they are tired of being distracted by fake controversies. They are fed up with politicians trying to divide us for their own political gain. And I believe they’ll see through the tactics that are used every year, in every election, to appeal to our fears, or our biases, or our differences – because they’ve never wanted or needed change as badly as they do now.

The people I’ve met during this campaign know that government cannot solve all of our problems, and they don’t expect it to. They don’t want our tax dollars wasted on programs that don’t work or perks for special interests who don’t work for us. They understand that we cannot stop every job from going overseas or build a wall around our economy, and they know that we shouldn’t.

But they believe it’s finally time that we make health care affordable and available for every single American; that we bring down costs for workers and for businesses; that we cut premiums, and stop insurance companies from denying people care or coverage who need it most.

They believe it’s time we provided real relief to the victims of this housing crisis; that we help families refinance their mortgage so they can stay in their homes; that we start giving tax relief to the people who actually need it – middle-class families, and seniors, and struggling homeowners.


They believe that we can and should make the global economy work for working Americans; that we might not be able to stop every job from going overseas, but we certainly can stop giving tax breaks to companies who send them their and start giving tax breaks to companies who create good jobs right here in America. We can invest in the types of renewable energy that won’t just reduce our dependence on oil and save our planet, but create up to five million new jobs that can’t be outsourced.

They believe we can train our workers for those new jobs, and keep the most productive workforce the most competitive workforce in the world if we fix our public education system by investing in what works and finding out what doesn’t; if we invest in early childhood education and finally make college affordable for everyone who wants to go; if we stop talking about how great our teachers are and start rewarding them for their greatness.

They believe that if you work your entire life, you deserve to retire with dignity and respect, which means a pension you can count on, and Social Security that’s always there.

This is what the people I’ve met believe about the country they love. It doesn’t matter if they’re Democrats or Republicans; whether they’re from the smallest towns or the biggest cities; whether they hunt or they don’t; whether they go to church, or temple, or mosque, or not. We may come from different places and have different stories, but we share common hopes, and one very American dream.

That is the dream I am running to help restore in this election. If I get the chance, that is what I’ll be talking about from now until November. That is the choice that I’ll offer the American people – four more years of what we had for the last eight, or fundamental change in Washington.

People may be bitter about their leaders and the state of our politics, but beneath that, they are hopeful about what’s possible in America. That’s why they leave their homes on their day off, or their jobs after a long day of work, and travel – sometimes for miles, sometimes in the bitter cold – to attend a rally or a town hall meeting held by Senator Clinton, or Senator McCain, or myself. Because they believe that we can change things. Because they believe in that dream.

I know something about that dream. I wasn’t born into a lot of money. I was raised by a single mother with the help my grandparents, who grew up in small-town Kansas, went to school on the GI Bill, and bought their home through an FHA loan. My mother had to use food stamps at one point, but she still made sure that through scholarships, I got a chance to go to some of the best schools around, which helped me get into some of the best colleges around, which gave me loans that Michelle and I just finished paying not all that many years ago.

In other words, my story is a quintessentially American story. It’s the same story that has made this country a beacon for the world—a story of struggle and sacrifice on the part of my forebearers and a story overcoming great odds. I carry that story with me each and every day, It’s why I wake up every day and do this, and it’s why I continue to hold such hope for the future of a country where the dreams of its people have always been possible. Thank you.

Obama Addresses the Alliance for American Manufacturing

Remarks for Senator Barack Obama
Alliance for American Manufacturing
Monday, April 14, 2008
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Being here in Pennsylvania with the primary coming up, I know that politics is what’s on a lot of people’s minds. But as I look out at this crowd, I also know that being here isn’t just about politics for me. It’s personal. Because it reminds me why I entered public service in the first place.

As some of you might know, after college, I went to work as a community organizer for a group of churches on the South Side of Chicago. The job was to help lift communities that had been devastated when the local steel plants fell on hard times. Thousands of folks had been laid off and some plants were closing down. And I can still remember the first time I saw a shuttered steel mill.

It was late in the afternoon and I took a drive with another organizer over to the old Wisconsin Steel plant on the southeast side of Chicago. Some of you may know it. And as we drove up, I saw a sight that’s probably familiar to some of you. I saw a plant that was empty and rusty. And behind a chain-link fence, I saw weeds sprouting up through the concrete, and an old mangy cat running around. And I thought about all the good jobs it used to provide, and all the kids who used to work there in the summer to make some extra money for college.

What I came to understand was that when a plant shuts down, it’s not just the workers who pay a price, it’s the whole community. I saw folks who felt like their government wasn’t looking out for them and who had given up hope. So I worked with unions and the city government, and we brought the community together to fight for its common future. We gave job-training to the jobless and hope to the hopeless, and block by block, we helped turn those neighborhoods around.

More than twenty years later, as I’ve traveled across Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, and Ohio, and all across this country, I’m still seeing too many places where plants have closed down and where folks are feeling like they’re not getting a fair shot at life, like their dreams are slipping further out of reach. And that’s partly because of the same kinds of global economic pressures that led steel plants in Chicago to close down in the 1980s.

But it’s also because George Bush has pursued policies that don’t work for working Americans. In recent years, we’ve seen more than 3 million high-quality manufacturing jobs disappear, and more than 40,000 factories close down. And more often than not, the few jobs that are being created pay less than the ones we’re losing and come without health insurance or a pension, which makes it even harder for families to feel secure about their future.

But we also know this is a problem that goes beyond the failures of George Bush – because for decades, through both Democratic and Republican administrations, we’ve seen the number of American-owned steel companies dwindle down. For decades, our economic policies have been written to pump up a corporate bottom line, rather than promote what’s right, without any consideration for the burden we all bear when workers are abused or the environment is destroyed.

It’s an outrage, but it’s not an accident – because corporate lobbyists in Washington are writing our laws and putting their clients’ interests ahead of what’s fair for the American people. The men and women you represent haven’t been getting a seat at the table when trade agreements are being negotiated, or tax policies are being written, or health care and pension laws are being designed because the special interests have bought every chair.

That’s not the America I believe in. That’s not the America you believe in. And that’s why when I’m President, we’ll make sure Washington serves nobody’s interests but the people’s.

You know, there’s been a lot of talk in this campaign lately about who’s “in touch” with the workers of Pennsylvania. Senator Clinton and Senator McCain are singing from the same hymn book, saying that I'm “out of touch” – an “elitist” – because I said a lot of folks are bitter about their economic circumstances.

Now it may be that I chose my words badly. It wasn't the first time and it won't be the last. But when I hear my opponents, both of whom have spent decades in Washington, saying I'm out of touch, it's time to cut through their rhetoric and look at the reality.

After all, you've heard this kind of rhetoric before. Around election time, the candidates can’t do enough for you. They'll “promise you anything, give you a long list of proposals and even come around, with TV crews in tow, to throw back a shot and a beer.

But if those same candidates are taking millions of dollars in contributions from the PACs and lobbyists, ask yourself, who are they going to be toasting once the election is over?

I’m the only candidate who doesn’t take money from corporate PACs and lobbyists, and I’m here to tell you that you can count on me to stand up for you after this election, just as I’ve been standing up for workers all my life. That’s why I’m running for President of the United States.

Senator Clinton and Senator McCain question my respect for the workers of Pennsylvania. Well, let me tell you how I believe you demonstrate your respect. You do it by telling the truth and keeping your word, so folks can know that where you stand today is where you'll stand tomorrow.

The truth is, trade is here to stay. We live in a global economy. For America’s future to be as bright as our past, we have to compete. We have to win.

Not every job that has left is coming back. And not every job lost is due to trade –automation has made plants more efficient so they can make the same amount of steel with few workers. These are the realities.

I also don't oppose all trade deals. I voted for two of them because they have the worker and environmental agreements I believe in. Some of you disagreed with me on this but I did what I thought was right.

That's the truth. But let me tell you what else I believe in:

For America to win, American workers have to win, too. If CEO pay keeps rising, while the standard of living for their workers continues to decline, that’s not a win for America.

That’s why I opposed NAFTA, it’s why I opposed CAFTA, and it’s why I said any trade agreement I would support had to contain real, enforceable standards for workers.

That’s why I believe the Permanent Normalized Trade agreement with China didn’t do enough to ensure fairness and compliance.

Now, you can have a debate about whether my position is right or wrong. But here’s what you can’t do. You can’t spend the better part of two decades campaigning for NAFTA and PNTR for China, and then come here to Pennsylvania, and tell the steelworkers you’ve been with them all along. You can't say you are opposed to the Columbia Trade deal, while your key strategist is working for the Columbian government to get the deal passed.

That’s not respect. That’s just more of the same old Washington politics. And we can’t afford more of the same.

We need real change, and that’s what I’m offering. I’m offering a new, more transparent and more inclusive path on trade so we can help promote an integrated global economy where the costs and benefits are distributed more equitably. And it starts with a principle I’ve always believed in – that trade should work for all Americans.

That’s why we need to finally confront the issue of trade with China. As I’ve said before, America and the world can benefit from trade with China. But trade with China will only be good for you if China itself plays by the rules and acts as a positive force for balanced world growth.

Seeing the living standards of the Chinese people improve is a good thing – good because we want a stable China, and good because China can be a powerful market for American exports. But too often, China has been competing in ways that are tilting the playing field.

It’s not just that China is following the path taken by so many other countries before it, and dumping goods into our market while not opening their own markets, something I’ve spoken out against. It’s not just that they’re violating intellectual property rights. They’re also grossly undervaluing their currency, and giving their goods yet another unfair advantage. Each year they’ve had the chance, the Bush administration has failed to do anything about this. That’s unacceptable. That’s why I co-sponsored the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act. And that’s why as President, I’ll use all the diplomatic avenues open to me to insist that China stop manipulating its currency.

We also have to make sure that whatever goods we’re importing are safe for our families. We all saw the harm that was caused by lead toys from China that were reaching our store shelves. A few months ago, when I called for a ban on any toys that have more than a trace amount of lead, an official at China’s foreign ministry said I was being “unobjective, unreasonable, and unfair.” But I don’t think protecting our children is “unreasonable” – I think it’s our obligation as parents and as Americans.

When it comes to trade, there's no one-size-fits-all approach. If countries are committed to reciprocity, if they are abiding by basic rules of the road, then we should welcome trade. Many poor countries need access to our markets and pose no threat to our workers.

But what all trade agreements I negotiate as President will have in common is that they'll all put American workers first. We won't ignore violence against union organizers in Columbia, or the non-tariff barriers that keep U.S. cars out of South Korea.

And we won’t just negotiate fair trade agreements, we’ll make sure they’re being fully enforced. George Bush has been far too slow to press American rights. That’s an outrage. When our trading partners sign an agreement with the Obama administration, you can trust that we’ll hold them to it.

Now, if we’re serious about standing up for American workers around the world, we also have to fight for you here at home. That means passing universal health care and making sure every American has insurance you can take with you even if you lose your job, and that a college degree is within reach, even if you’re not rich – because all our children should have the skills to compete in the global economy.

And it also means protecting the rights of our workers. It’s time we had a President who didn’t choke saying the word “union.” We need to strengthen our unions by letting them do what they do best – organize our workers. If a majority of workers want a union, they should get a union, no matter whether they’re full-time, or part-time, or contract workers. And that is why I will fight for and why I intend to sign the Employee Free Choice Act when it lands on my desk in the White House.

Here’s what else I’ll do: we’ll pass the Patriot Employer Act that I’ve been working on since I got to the Senate – so we can stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, and start giving them to companies that create good jobs with decent wages here in America.

And to those who think that the decline in American manufacturing is inevitable; or that manufacturing has no place in a 21st century economy; we say right here and right now that the fight for manufacturing’s future is the fight for America’s future. And that’s why we’ll modernize our steel industry, strengthen our entire domestic manufacturing base, and open as many markets as we can to American manufactured goods when I’m President.

We’ll also make necessary long-term investments in job-growth. Back in the 1950’s, Americans were put to work building the Interstate Highway system and that helped expand the middle class in this country. We need to show the same kind of leadership today. That’s why I’ve called for a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank that will invest $60 billion over ten years and generate millions of new jobs. We can’t keep standing by while our roads and bridges and airports crumble and decay. We can’t keep running our economy on debt. For our economy, our safety, and our workers, we have to rebuild America.

And we need to invest in green technology. We can’t keep sending billions of dollars to foreign nations because of our addiction to oil. We should be investing in American companies that invest in American-manufactured solar panels and windmills, and in clean coal technology. That’s why I’ve proposed investing $150 billion over the next ten years in the green energy sector. This will create up to five million new American jobs – and those are jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced. That’s a promise that we are making not just to this generation of Americans, but to the next generation of Americans. And that’s why this will be a priority in my administration.

Now, I know some will say we can’t afford all this. But let me just say this – if we can spend $10 billion a month rebuilding Iraq, we can spend $15 billion a year in our own country to put Americans back to work and strengthen the long-term competitiveness of our economy.

So make no mistake - the American people have a choice in this election. We can talk about our economic problems with trade all we want, but unless we change the broken system in Washington, nothing else is going to change. We can talk all we want about respecting workers and their way of life, but unless we have a President you can trust to listen and put working Americans first, nothing is really going to change.

And you can trust me. Because politics didn’t lead me to working folks; working folks led me to politics. I was standing with American workers on the streets of Chicago twenty years ago, and the reason I’m here today is because I don’t want to wake up one day many years from now and see that our companies are still getting hurt because foreign governments are still bending or breaking the rules, or that we’re still standing idly by while American jobs get shipped overseas, or that we still haven't made the investments in infrastructure and in training our workers that we desperately need.

The reason I’m here today is because I know what it’s like to go to college on student loans, and see a mother get sick and worry that maybe she can’t pay the bills. I know what it’s like to have to scratch and work and claw to build a better life for your family. And I don’t want to wake up many years from now and find that the American dream is still out of reach for too many Americans.

The reason I’m here today is because I believe that if we can just put an end to the politics of division and distraction, and reclaim that sense that we all have a stake in each other, that we rise and fall as one nation; if we can just unite this country around a common purpose – black, white, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American; labor and management; Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – there’s no obstacle we cannot overcome, no destiny we cannot fulfill.

That’s the fundamental truth I learned on the streets of Chicago. That’s the idea at the heart of your Alliance for Manufacturing. And that’s the opportunity we have in this election. There is a moment in the life of every generation where that spirit of unity and hopefulness has to come through if we’re going to make our mark on history. This is our moment. This is our time. And if you will march with me, and organize with me, if you vote for me, then I promise you this: We will not just win this Democratic Nomination, we will win the general election and then together – you and I – we’re going to change this country, and we’re going to change this world. Thank you.

Statement of Barack Obama on President Bush's Stay the Course Iraq Strategy

4/10/08 Senator Obama released the following statement on President Bush' strategy of staying the course in Iraq.

“President Bush gave no answer to the most important question about the way forward in Iraq: how will we end this war that is not making us safer? After five years, over four thousand lives, and over half a trillion dollars, we have a blank check strategy in Iraq that is overstretching our military, distracting us from the other challenges we face, burdening our economy, and failing to pressure the Iraqi government to take responsibility for their future. We cannot press Iraq’s leaders to resolve their differences and spend their money if our plan is to stay in Iraq indefinitely. We cannot relieve the enormous strain on our military and our military families unless we restore adequate time at home for our troops – 12 month deployments represent a step forward, but we need to give our troops adequate dwell time at home. We cannot finish the fight in Afghanistan and focus on Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda’s core leadership unless we end this war that should’ve never been authorized. The decision to go to war in Iraq was an enormous strategic blunder, and President Bush is only adding to his disastrous legacy by refusing to show the American people any clear goal or any clear plan to end the war. When I am President, I will bring our combat brigades home in 16 months, engage in the direct diplomacy in the region that is necessary to stabilize Iraq, restore our military strength, and renew our security and standing in the world. Our heroic troops have accomplished every mission that we have given them in Iraq and they have done so brilliantly; it is time to bring them home, and to ask the Iraqis to take responsibility for their country.”

BARR TO ATTEND ALABAMA LIBERTARIAN CONVENTION

Bob Barr will join Alabama Rep. Cam Ward, Alabama Libertarian Party Chairman Steve Gordon, Chair Emeritus Mark Bodenhausen and former Ron Paul Field Director Shana Kluck at the 2008 Libertarian Party of Alabama Convention, which will take place this weekend at the Birmingham BJCC across from the downtown Sheraton.

“I am delighted to participate in the convention of one of the most active and vibrant state Libertarian parties. Things like the panel discussion on the threats posed by ‘Real ID’ at the state level show how engaged Alabama Libertarians are. I congratulate Steve Gordon for putting together such a forward looking agenda,” said Barr.

The Libertarian Party, America’s oldest and largest third party, formed in 1971, is on track to achieve ballot access in at least 48 states. Its nominee will be chosen at the Libertarian National Convention which will be held in Denver, CO May 22 through 26.

Statement from Bob Barr Statement on Taxes

As Americans rush to complete their tax returns on time, Rep. Bob Barr commented on the expansive, intrusive and burdensome nature of the tax code:

Another April 15th means another year of the American people being over-taxed. Federal revenues already account for nearly 19 percent of GDP, high by historical standards. If the Bush tax cuts expire, the personal income tax burden will jump by a quarter.

Even without such a massive tax hike, the total tax burden is expected to rise. Tax Freedom Day, when Americans finally start working for themselves rather than government, hit April 30th last year, up nearly two weeks over 2003.

The income tax does more than take too much of our money. It violates too much of our privacy and sacrifices too much of our freedom.

The tax code is incomprehensibly complex—constituting nearly six million words, requiring almost ten million pages of forms, and including some 62 million lines of code. Tens of thousands of IRS employees labor to squeeze money out of taxpayers, rooting through financial records, sending out dunning notices, assessing civil penalties, initiating audits, and prosecuting resisters. For most people there is no more feared return address on an envelope than “Internal Revenue Service.”

We must reform the tax system. We need to do more than make marginal adjustments and engage in minor tinkering. We need fundamental change that will both dramatically reduce the burden on American families and ease the process of payment.

The first requires that we cut unnecessary federal spending, eliminating the deficit and enabling Congress to provide significant tax relief to all taxpayers. To do this we must cut spending across-the-board. As president I would target corporate welfare, middle class subsidies, industry bail-outs, foreign aid, defense subsidies for wealthy allies, and the many other nonessential programs and bureaucracies that fill Washington.

Simplification requires scrapping the income tax, allowing Congress to eliminate the IRS and all of its intrusive enforcement practices. One vehicle for doing so would be a plan similar to the so-called “Fair Tax,” which would replace the income tax with a sales tax. But the exact details are less important than the principle: we must replace the personal income tax, which opens every Americans’ life to government scrutiny, with a consumption tax, which is much simpler to administer. At the same time we must repeal the 16th Amendment to ensure that no future Congress re-imposes a levy on Americans’ personal incomes while taxing their purchases.

Americans spend four months of every year working for government before they start working for themselves. That’s a far higher burden than that which caused the colonists to rebel. At same time, today’s Americans live in fear of government agents ransacking their personal and business lives. In comparison, the British Stamp Act was a minor imposition.

The United States once was known as the land of the free. It is time Americans reclaimed their precious heritage of liberty.

Obama Statement Pending the Arrival of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

Today Senator Obama issued the following statement to mark the arrival of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for his apostolic journey to the United States. "On behalf of our family, Michelle and I want to extend our warmest welcome to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI as he arrives for his historic apostolic journey to the United States. As committed Christians, we join millions of Americans – Catholics and members of all faith communities – in offering our prayers for the success of the Holy Father’s visit. "At a time when American families face rising costs at home and a range of worries abroad, the theme of Pope Benedict’s journey, "“Christ Our Hope," offers comfort and grace as well as a challenge to all faith communities to put our faith into action for the common good. It will not only be Catholics who are listening to the Holy Father’s message of hope and peace; all Americans will be listening with open hearts and minds."

Statement from Russ Verney (Bob Barr Campaign)

In a speech at Mercer University yesterday, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was dismissive of Rep. Bob Barr’s efforts to seek the Libertarian nomination. He also mischaracterized the nature of Ross Perot’s 1992 campaign. In response, Russ Verney, the former campaign manager for Ross Perot who is advising the Bob Barr 2008 campaign, issued the following statement:

The attraction of Ross Perot's candidacy in 1992 was that he was not a part of the Washington establishment. Public sentiment was strong for a 'change from politics as usual'. In the 2008 presidential campaign the buzz word from each candidate is 'change'. But, the eventual Republican and Democratic nominees are not credible agents to change the Washington establishment each candidate has benefited from.

The public clearly wants 'change'. According to recent poll data, Congress' approval rating hovers around the miserably low 20 percentile; the President isn't faring much better with the public, his approval rating is around 30%. In the April 3, 2008 CBS/New York Times poll 81% of the public thinks our country is headed in the wrong direction.

Change, meaningful change, from politics as usual can only come from outside the two political party system. Otherwise, a Republican President has to be stymied by the Democrats in Congress and a Democratic President has to be stymied by the Republicans in Congress. A third party President is free to build different coalitions to support each policy proposal from both the Republican and Democratic members of Congress.

In 1992 Ross Perot received almost 20% of the vote when just 34% could have won the election. Additionally, exit polling conducted by the news media asked voters leaving the polls who they voted for. Voters who responded Perot were then asked, "If Perot wasn't in the race who would you have voted for?" The result of that question is that Bill Clinton would have won if Ross Perot was not in the race on election day. Ross Perot was not a spoiler, he was a contestant.

However, the voters who responded to the exit pollster that they voted for Bush (41) and Clinton were asked a follow-up question, "If you thought Perot could win, would you have voted for him?" The analysis of the responses to that question is that Perot would have won the 1992 election if the voters thought he could win: To the voters Perot was the preferred candidate not the spoiler.

In the 2008 election which will focus on the economy, the war in Iraq and runaway government spending, there is presently just a choice of which Washington insider moves to a different chair.

I urge Bob Barr to run for President and give the voters a real choice between 'politics as usual' and real 'change'.

Obama attacked as elitist after fundraiser remarks

TERRE HAUTE, Indiana (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama came under fire on Friday for saying small-town Pennsylvania residents were "bitter" and "cling to guns or religion," in comments his rivals said showed an elitist view of the middle class.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080412/pl_nm/usa_politics_dc

Obama Remarks on 40th Anniversary of the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Prepared remarks provided below

Speaking in Fort Wayne this morning, Senator Barack Obama commemorated the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination, calling on Americans to continue King's lifelong pursuit of social and economic justice. Obama was introduced at the event by Mike Riley, Indiana Campaign Chairman for Senator Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 presidential run. Riley was with Kennedy in Indianapolis when word hit that that Dr. King had been killed.

In his remarks this morning, Obama emphasized that there is still much work to do to achieve Dr. King's dream for America:

"That is why the great need of this hour is much the same as it was when Dr. King delivered his sermon in Memphis," Senator Obama said. "We have to recognize that while we each have a different past, we all share the same hopes for the future - that we'll be able to find a job that pays a decent wage, that there will be affordable health care when we get sick, that we'll be able to send our kids to college, and that after a lifetime of hard work, we'll be able to retire with security. They're common hopes, modest dreams. And they're at the heart of the struggle for freedom, dignity, and humanity that Dr. King began, and that it is our task to complete."
Senator Obama's full remarks follow as prepared for delivery.

Remarks for Senator Barack Obama Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Fort Wayne, Indiana April 4, 2008

As Mike said, today represents a tragic anniversary for our country. Through his faith, courage, and wisdom, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. moved an entire nation. He preached the gospel of brotherhood; of equality and justice. That's the cause for which he lived - and for which he died forty years ago today. And so before we begin, I ask you to join me in a moment of silence in memory of this extraordinary American.

There's been a lot of discussion this week about how Dr. King's life and legacy speak to us today. It's taking place in our schools and churches, on television and around the dinner table. And I suspect that much of what folks are talking about centers on issues of racial justice - on the Montgomery bus boycott and the March on Washington, on the freedom rides and the stand at Selma.

And that's as it should be - because those were times when ordinary men and women, straight-backed and clear-eyed, challenged what they knew was wrong and helped perfect our union. And they did so in large part because Dr. King pointed the way.

But I also think it's worth reflecting on what Dr. King was doing in Memphis, when he stepped onto that motel balcony on his way out for dinner.

And what he was doing was standing up for struggling sanitation workers. For years, these workers had served their city without complaint, picking up other people's trash for little pay and even less respect. Passers-by would call them "walking buzzards," and in the segregated South, most were forced to use separate drinking fountains and bathrooms.

But in 1968, these workers decided they'd had enough, and over 1,000 went on strike. Their demands were modest - better wages, better benefits, and recognition of their union. But the opposition was fierce. Their vigils were met with handcuffs. Their protests turned back with mace. And at the end of one march, a 16-year old boy lay dead.

This is the struggle that brought Dr. King to Memphis. It was a struggle for economic justice, for the opportunity that should be available to people of all races and all walks of life. Because Dr. King understood that the struggle for economic justice and the struggle for racial justice were really one - that each was part of a larger struggle "for freedom, for dignity, and for humanity." So long as Americans were trapped in poverty, so long as they were being denied the wages, benefits, and fair treatment they deserved - so long as opportunity was being opened to some but not all - the dream that he spoke of would remain out of reach.

And on the eve of his death, Dr. King gave a sermon in Memphis about what the movement there meant to him and to America. And in tones that would prove eerily prophetic, Dr. King said that despite the threats he'd received, he didn't fear any man, because he had been there when Birmingham aroused the conscience of this nation. And he'd been there to see the students stand up for freedom by sitting in at lunch counters. And he'd been there in Memphis when it was dark enough to see the stars, to see the community coming together around a common purpose. So Dr. King had been to the mountaintop. He had seen the Promised Land. And while he knew somewhere deep in his bones that he would not get there with us, he knew that we would get there.

He knew it because he had seen that Americans have "the capacity," as he said that night, "to project the 'I' into the 'thou.'" To recognize that no matter what the color of our skin, no matter what faith we practice, no matter how much money we have - no matter whether we are sanitation workers or United States Senators - we all have a stake in one another, we are our brother's keeper, we are our sister's keeper, and "either we go up together, or we go down together."

And when he was killed the following day, it left a wound on the soul of our nation that has yet to fully heal. And in few places was the pain more pronounced than in Indianapolis, where Robert Kennedy happened to be campaigning. And it fell to him to inform a crowded park that Dr. King had been killed. And as the shock turned toward anger, Kennedy reminded them of Dr. King's compassion, and his love. And on a night when cities across the nation were alight with violence, all was quiet in Indianapolis.

In the dark days after Dr. King's death, Coretta Scott King pointed out the stars. She took up her husband's cause and led a march in Memphis. But while those sanitation workers eventually got their union contract, the struggle for economic justice remains an unfinished part of the King legacy. Because the dream is still out of reach for too many Americans. Just this morning, it was announced that more Americans are unemployed now than at any time in years. And all across this country, families are facing rising costs, stagnant wages, and the terrible burden of losing a home.

Part of the problem is that for a long time, we've had a politics that's been too small for the scale of the challenges we face. This is something I spoke about a few weeks ago in a speech I gave in Philadelphia. And what I said was that instead of having a politics that lives up to Dr. King's call for unity, we've had a politics that's used race to drive us apart, when all this does is feed the forces of division and distraction, and stop us from solving our problems.

That is why the great need of this hour is much the same as it was when Dr. King delivered his sermon in Memphis. We have to recognize that while we each have a different past, we all share the same hopes for the future - that we'll be able to find a job that pays a decent wage, that there will be affordable health care when we get sick, that we'll be able to send our kids to college, and that after a lifetime of hard work, we'll be able to retire with security. They're common hopes, modest dreams. And they're at the heart of the struggle for freedom, dignity, and humanity that Dr. King began, and that it is our task to complete.

You know, Dr. King once said that the arc of the moral universe is long, but that it bends toward justice. But what he also knew was that it doesn't bend on its own. It bends because each of us puts our hands on that arc and bends it in the direction of justice.

So on this day - of all days - let's each do our part to bend that arc.

Let's bend that arc toward justice.
Let's bend that arc toward opportunity.
Let's bend that arc toward prosperity for all.

And if we can do that and march together - as one nation, and one people - then we won't just be keeping faith with what Dr. King lived and died for, we'll be making real the words of Amos that he invoked so often, and "let justice roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream."

Clinton Campaign Reaction to Michigan Democrats’ Statement

Deputy Communications Director Phil Singer issued the following comment in response to a statement by the Michigan Democrats’ Executive Committee:

"The issues and voters of Michigan are too important to be dismissed. Close to 600,000 Michiganians cast ballots in January and these votes cannot be ignored. We urge the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee to take all necessary steps to ensure the voices of the people of Michigan are heard and its delegates are seated at the Democratic convention this summer. Already, over 100,000 people have signed our petition calling on the DNC to seat the delegates from Michigan and Florida. We urge Senator Obama to join our efforts to ensure that the votes of the people of Michigan and Florida are counted."

Statement of Jay Carson, Clinton Campaign Spokesman

Today Senator Hillary Clinton and President Bill Clinton are releasing their tax returns for the years 2000 through 2006, and are providing information regarding their 2007 taxes as well.
The Clintons have now made public thirty years of tax returns, a record matched by few people in public service. None of Hillary Clinton's presidential opponents have revealed anything close to this amount of personal financial information.

What the Clintons' tax returns show is that they paid more than $33,000,000 in federal taxes and donated more than $10,000,000 to charities over the past eight years. They paid taxes and made charitable contributions at a higher rate than taxpayers at their income level.

2000 - 2007 TAX RETURN SUMMARY HILLARY & BILL CLINTON

TAXES PAID: $33,783,507
The Clintons paid $33,783,507 in federal taxes - 31% of their adjusted gross income. According to the most recent data available from the IRS, in 2005 taxpayers earning $10,000,000 or more paid on average 20.8% of their adjusted gross income in taxes.

CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS: $10,256,741
The Clintons donated $10,256,741 to charity - 9.5% of their adjusted gross income. According to the most recent data available from the IRS, in 2005 taxpayers earning $10,000,000 or more contributed 3.1% of their adjusted gross income in cash contributions to charity. Information about the Clinton Family Foundation, including a list of charities to which the Clintons contributed through the Foundation, is available online in the Foundation's publicly available tax returns (www.foundationcenter.org).

AFTER TAX EARNINGS: $57,157,297

CUMULATIVE TOTAL(GROSS) INCOME: $109,175,175
Including, among other items: Senator Clinton’s Senate Salary: $1,051,606President Clinton’s Presidential Pension: $1,217,250Senator Clinton’s Book Income: $10,457,083 President Clinton’s Book Income: $29,580,525 President Clinton’s Speech Income: $51,855,599

SENATOR CLINTON’S BOOK INCOME: $10,457,083
Senator Clinton’s book income is comprised of earnings for Living History ($10,267,895), including an $8,000,000 advance, and It Takes a Village ($189,188). The earnings for It Takes a Village were donated to charity. Since the release of It Takes a Village in 1996, Senator Clinton has donated over $1,100,000 to charity.

PRESIDENT CLINTON’S BOOK INCOME: $29,580,525
President Clinton’s book income is comprised of earnings for My Life ($23,280,525), including a $15,000,000 advance, and Giving ($6,300,000). The President donated $1,000,000 of his income from Giving in 2007 to charity.

PRESIDENT CLINTON’S SPEECH INCOME: $51,855,599
NOTE: The figures in this summary include 2007 estimates.
Annual tax information is available for download here: www.hillaryclinton.com/feature/returns

Senator Hillary Clinton Remarks on the 40th Anniversary of Martin Luther King's Death

Thank you all. I am deeply honored to be here today on this very important commemoration and for this significant gathering. I want to thank Bishop Blake for his leadership here at home and around the world, particularly in Africa. His personal commitment to the people and children of Africa has resounded so profoundly beyond his church and beyond our shores. It sets a good example and it issues a challenge for so many others. I thank you Bishop.

This is a very distinguished gathering here. I want to recognize my long time friend Ambassador Charles Stith who did superb work in Tanzania and has continued with his innovative and unique commitment at Boston University to creating an archive for the papers and memory of African leaders. That will be part of our history. It will not be lost. It will be there for generations to come. One thinks about Dr. King studying at that great university and those who would follow in his footsteps or in any other's will now have a much broader and richer historical scholarship record to learn from.

I want to thank my friends and another great leader, Reverend Eugene Rivers, for his commitment over many, many years to helping young people and providing alternatives in a way that keeps faith with our faith. But which puts aside the trappings of church and religion and goes into the streets. That has made such a difference to so many over such a long time.

We are also honored to be with the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives, Congressman John Conyers, who has led with such prophetic commitment as well to what is right. And now is in a position to influence the future of our country. It will be a good day, Mr. Chairman, when you don't have to be investigating all of the abuses of power of a president any longer. And we'll be able to come together around a positive agenda.

Congressman Steve Cohen, I’m grateful for his leadership. My dear friend, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, who just came in, who is, I would say peripatetic, in that she has more miles logged than anyone I know. I talked to Sheila from Iraq, from Africa, from Texas, New York, Washington, D.C., because she is a woman on the move. I'm so pleased that she is here as well.
Mayor Willie Herenton, one of the great long-time committed mayors of this city, and is helping to oversee its renaissance. Memphis is on the way back, mayor and that has a lot to do with your spirit and your love of this city. Mayor Wharton of Shelby County, your partner in such activities. One of the reasons I wanted to be here today was not only to honor the memory, the legacy and the challenges left to us by Dr. King, but also to support Memphis and to support what you are trying to do to really seize the future with confidence and optimism.

Bishop Brooks, Bishop Macking, other distinguished clergy who are here. I am not sure if all of us are aware of the coming together in Memphis today of so many from so many different groups to find common cause. Now we must leave Memphis united and committed to the changes that await our actions.

Ruth Davis, the head of Memphis Sanitation Workers, that is such an important person to recognize because in a very real way we would not be here if it were not for that strike and that demand in for human rights and justice that happened 40 years ago. Secretary Rodney Slater, it is always an honor to be anywhere with my long-time friend from Arkansas.

Some weeks ago I was with Reverend Billy Kyles at his church. As anyone who knows Reverend Kyles can attest, he has spent the last 40 years witnessing - witnessing to Dr. King’s life and death, because he was a witness. A witness who has taken the horror and tragedy of that day and channeled it into a mission to reach out wherever anyone who would listen to what was at stake, and still is, in our country and around the world.

It is hard to believe that it has been 40 years. And it is also heart-breaking to know that Dr. King has been gone from this earth longer than he was here. When one thinks of his life – such a short life – going by in just a moment of time, but having such a profound and lasting impact on all of us. As a young woman, I was privileged to be taken to hear Dr. King speak by a youth minister who opened my eyes and ears and my horizons. Dr. King’s call to action that evening in Chicago led me to confront a world bigger and broader than the one I inhabited. He had a way of doing that, of pushing us outside our own comfort zone, of making it clear that we had to be part of the revolution that was going on. It wasn't a revolution of guns. It was a revolution of hearts and minds, of attitudes and actions.

When one heard Dr. King speak, and I stood in line for a very long time that night to shake his hand. And he was gracious, and he was kind to lean over to shake the hand of a 14-year-old girl from the from the suburbs of Chicago, who went to an all-white church and an all-white school, and lived in an all-white suburb. But he didn't ask me, as I reached out my hand, where do you live, what is your experience? He just took it and looked in my face and thanked me for coming.
That Dr. King had such a profound and lasting impact on a young white girl, that he had that kind of impact on millions of people of all colors, faiths, ages and walks of life, tells us something about the reach and power of his vision. It was a vision big enough and bold enough and grace-filled enough to embrace every last one of us. And when he came here to Memphis to speak out on behalf of workers, he wasn't only speaking for those sanitation workers who were denied their rights, who had seen two of their fellow workers die in a cascade of garbage a few weeks before. He was speaking out for all workers everywhere who are exploited and abused and denied their basic rights.

When Dr. King protested the Vietnam War, he wasn't just speaking on behalf of black soldiers, but all soldiers and civilians – Vietnamese and Americans alike. When he worked on behalf of the poor here in America and around the world, he wasn't just speaking for the poor he knew, that he could see with his own eyes, but the poor who knew no boundaries of geography or color. And when he stood against discrimination, he wasn't just seeking to free African Americans from the shackles of slavery and the past that had been shaped by that abomination; he was seeking to break the shackles of hatred on the hearts of us all. He yearned for our country to fulfill the ideals that it had given lip service to, that were embodied in our founding documents. In his last speech here, he took us on a tour of history, but showed us the unfinished business and unrealized promises of America.

Dr. King understood our constitution better than most of us. He knew it was crafted to expand as our hearts expanded. It was not a constricted document from one place in time, but an expansive proclamation of what America could become if we had the courage to do so. Slavery was written onto that document, but so was the potential for equality. He waged that revolution, but not just to change our laws, as I heard Bishop Blake talking about, but to change our hearts and behaviors. He reminded us that those who signed our founding documents were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir; the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In the end he asked nothing more than that we redeem that promise, each in our own way through faith-based institutions, through our businesses, our labor unions, through our political and public service. And even though as originally drafted we did not include Dr. King or me either, women and African Americans were left out of America’s founding promises, but he never gave up and neither should we.

His faith in America animated and sustained his journey. Like with any faith, there were dark moments when one doubts, when one is on the brink of giving up and throwing in the towel. But he would always come back from those dark places and so must we. The tenacity of Dr. King's faith is all the more extraordinary when we think of the ways it was tested. By all the critics and the media attacking his work, by the death threats, the bombings, the beatings, the stabbings, the murder, the grinding hard work day after day of just getting up and moving on, even the speech he gave here at this great complex wasn't supposed to be delivered. The crowd demanded it. And he came. He always answered the call. For those who are clergy, you know that it sometimes tests one's constitution and one's faith to constantly be asked to do more to reach out to keep going.

Someone of lesser heart and lesser faith might have grown weary doing good, might have given up, but he persisted in the struggle. And we know the results. So much has changed. I look at the young people standing in the back of this room. And it may be hard for you to imagine what you read in the history books, what your parents and your grandparents tell you. Jim Crowe is now something you read about. The people in this room lived under it. Because of Dr. King, these young people, my daughter's generation, grew up taking for granted that children of all colors could attend school together. Because of him, after 219 years and 43 presidents who have been white men, this next generation will grow up taking for granted that a woman or an African American can be President of the United States of America.

But as far as we've come, we know the journey is far from over. Some days when you open up the newspaper and you read the headlines, it feels like we tumbled right back down that mountain top, doesn't it? Some days it's amazing how deep the valley can be. At times like those I think of what Dr. King said in his last speech, how he acknowledged we are living in a time of turmoil and upheaval, but then admonished us to remember only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. Dr. King saw the darkness of a nation torn apart by petty human differences, but he imagined one knit back together by our shared humanity. He saw so many going hungry in a land of plenty, but he envisioned an America where our prosperity was shared. He saw America embroiled in an endless war, but imagined a principled peace. While our problems were grave, he never stopped believing that our promise was greater. He saw us not as we were, but as we could and should be. Isn’t it about time we started seeing ourselves as Dr. King saw us?

Isn’t it about time we came together as we have in Memphis to find the solutions to make America what it can and should be? When I say solutions, I mean good jobs. Jobs you can raise a family on. Jobs that give people a shot at the middle class, to be able to stay there and live with dignity and respect. When I say solutions, I mean respecting the role of the American labor movement that has given that dignity and respect to so many. This time, once again, to give back the support we need to those who help workers organize and demand their rights.

When I say solutions, I mean finally addressing the scourge of poverty that stalks so many. I believe, mayor, Memphis has about a 25% poverty rate, down over the last years, but still far too high. I believe we should appoint a cabinet level position that will be solely and fully devoted to ending poverty as we know it in America. A position that will focus the attention of our nation on the issue and never let it go. A person who I could see being asked by the president every single day what have you done to end poverty in America? No more excuses. No more whining, but instead, a concerted effort.

It’s the kind of solution that Dr. King's son Martin has been passionately advocating for. When I say solutions, I mean schools worthy of our children that give each child a chance to live up to his or her God-given potential. How about appointing Supreme Court justices who will actually uphold Brown versus Board of Education and not reverse the progress that has been made? When I say solutions, I mean quality, affordable health care for every American. No exceptions. Everyone entitled to health insurance. No more going into the emergency room. Instead, going in the front door to the doctor's office to be taken care of, to get that preventive health care that will keep you healthy.

I mean restoring America’s moral leadership in the world, leading the fight against AIDS, Malaria and TB, against poverty and genocide. We cannot let our brothers and sisters in Africa and around the world continue to suffer needlessly. And I mean ending the war that has claimed too many of our precious sons and daughters; ending it as quickly and responsibly as humanly possible. And yet we must demand that our government pass laws that reflect our values. Hate crimes laws, anti-discrimination laws, equal pay laws and so much more. But that is not enough. The solutions we seek are not just about what government does or business does or labor unions or even faith-based institutions do. It is what each and every one of us is called to do.

There is still too much hatred dividing too many human hearts. Every one of us has a chance, practically every day, to stand up to intolerance and injustice. Like many of you here who are of a certain age, I will never forget where I was when I heard Dr. King had been killed. I was a junior in college. And I remember hearing about it and just feeling such despair. I walked onto my dorm room, took my book bag and hurled it across the room. It felt like everything had been shattered, like we would never be able to put the pieces together again.

I joined a protest march in Boston. I wore a black armband. I worked to convince my college to recruit more students and faculty of color, but it felt like it wasn't enough. And then a few months later we heard of the assassination of Robert Kennedy, whose eloquence and courage had helped to persuade the people of Indianapolis to follow Dr. King's example of non-violence. I remember wandering through the encampments of the Poor People's March on Washington talking with those who had come from literally around the world to witness against poverty and injustice. It felt like the doors had closed on the hope that so many had felt. But that would have been such a disservice to Dr. King. To have taken the despair, the outrage and just ended with that.

Dr. King taught us everything we needed to know about his legacy and how to carry it forward, but in the end it is up to each of us to walk that path. It is not an easy path. It was hard for him. It is hard for us. Sometimes we take steps backwards so maybe then we can figure out a new way forward. But I have abiding confidence, and yes, faith that we can make our way to higher ground. Whether or not we make it to the mountain top, whether we make it to the Promised Land is not for us to know, but I believe with all my heart it is for us to try. And when we get tired and when our faith starts to waiver, we can of course remember Dr. King's faith in us.
How being dog-tired that night, he left the Lorraine Motel and came here. I’m sure he would have liked a good night's sleep. I’m sure he thought Reverend Abernathy had done a fine job and there were so many good preachers there. But he felt called and he answered the call. As the Scripture tells us, when we are called, we must answer. Who will you send? Send me.

So here we are. Let us remember and return to the Well Springs of faith from which he drew. One should re-read Dr. King’s last speech, just as we ask children to memorize the ""I have a dream"" speech. One should re-read that last speech. Be reminded of the prophet Amos who did shout and commend us to let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. One can remember the sacrifice and suffering of Jesus Christ, who taught us to love our enemies. What an absurd teaching. At the time it was given, it was not even in the consciousness of humanity. Love our enemies? Turn the other cheek? What was he talking about? And yet, that has been a prophetic call that has echoed throughout the generations. One that Dr. King took to heart.

And let us remember the faith and courage of Dr. King’s brave widow. She returned to this city less than a week after his death to lead the march – the march for justice. She had not yet buried her husband and she was determined to carry on his work. With three of her children at her side, she did so with tens of thousands of people in solidarity with those striking workers.
Let us remember how Dr. King’s faith connects us through time and place and history. The notes of "We shall overcome"" were sung in Berlin as the wall came down, by Chinese students marching in Tiananmen Square, in South Africa at President Mandela’s inauguration. I even had that song sung to me by a group of women, poor, desperately poor women in India, who sang it in Gujarati, their native tongue. From the prisoner of conscience in a Birmingham jail, to a prisoner of conscience on Robin Island, from the students sitting at a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, to the students blocking the path of a tank in Beijing.

Whether we are oppressed by tyranny, poverty, war or discrimination, that faith, that determination to keep fighting, working, building and believing has and always will carry us forward as long as we remember and as long as we remain committed to fulfilling Dr. King’s legacy and dream.

Thank you and God bless you.

HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCES PENNSYLVANIA VETERANS FOR HILLARY LEADERSHIP COMMITTEE

The Clinton campaign in Pennsylvania today announced the creation of the Veterans for Hillary Leadership Committee. The committee, made up of 21 distinguished veterans from the Keystone State, will spearhead the campaign's efforts to reach out to Pennsylvania’s veterans and inform them about Hillary's record of fighting for the men and women who have worn our nation's uniform. Congressmen John Murtha and Joe Sestak, will co-chair the committee.
The committee was unveiled at a Veterans for Hillary event in Clifton Heights today where Congressman Sestak, the highest ranking member of the military currently serving in the U.S. Congress, discussed Hillary Clinton’s readiness to be Commander in Chief on day one in the White House.

"Whether it is the national disgrace at Walter Reed or the failure to deal with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, the Bush Administration has consistently failed to take care of our veterans," said Congressman John Murtha, who served in the Marine Corps for 37 years on active duty and in the reserves. "Hillary Clinton has not merely voiced support for our troops – she has fought to ensure troops returning from Iraq are screened for Traumatic Brain Injury and get the care they need. She has been a tremendous advocate for veterans in the Senate and will put their concerns front and center as President."

In addition to the 19,000 men and women in the Pennsylvania National Guard, 5,400 Pennsylvanians join the Armed Forces every year. Senator Clinton led a bipartisan effort to ensure that Guard members and men and women in the reserves, who are shouldering much of the burden in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, now have access to the same health care as active duty service-members.

"Hillary Clinton has demonstrated her commitment to our nation's veterans time and again," said Congressman Joe Sestak, who served in the Navy for over 30 years, retiring as a Rear Admiral. "She has worked tirelessly with Democrats and Republicans alike to ensure that we are taking care of those who have served our country, and hundreds of thousands of citizen soldiers in the National Guard and reserves now have health care because of her efforts."

The Veterans for Hillary Leadership Committee includes:
Larry Babitts, Boiling Springs, US Army
on Byrd, Tobyhanna, US Army
Russell Canevari, Jessup, US Army
Ed Cemic, Sr., Johnstown, US Army
Kathy Cullinane, Scranton, USAF
Hal Donahue, Scranton, USAF
Thomas Dougherty, Dunmore, US Army
General Mike Dunn, Davidsville, US Army
Glen Embree, Mt. Pleasant Township, Navy
Greg Erosenko, Monroeville, US Army
Wy Gowell, Clark Summit, USAF
John Hugya, Hollsopple, USMC
Christin Joltes, Johnstown, USAF
Jim Kull, Uniondale, US Army
Joe Long, Bethlehem, USAF
William McCool, Levittown, Navy
Mike Miskell, Scranton, Navy
Phyllis Reinhardt, Scranton, US Army
General Gerald Sajer, East Berlin, US Army
Joseph Tully, Scranton, Navy
Jeffrey Voice, Philadelphia, US Army

New Clinton Online Drive Allows Supporters to Direct How Their Money is Spent in PA

New program – unveiled at www.hillaryclinton.com – comes as campaign drew $15 million online in March

The Clinton campaign today announced the launch of MyPA, a new online fundraising drive that enables donors to tell the campaign where they’d like to spend their money in Pennsylvania. MyPA is a unique program that will further empower the campaign’s grassroots supporters while continuing to raise the resources needed to compete and win in Pennsylvania.

Supporters will be notified about MyPA today through an email from Hillary announcing the program. By visiting www.hillaryclinton.com, supporters can choose from six different areas to support the campaign: TV airtime; online ads; radio spots; signs; vans; and door hangers. Supporters can mix and match how much they want to put towards each item and then "check out" like an online wedding registry.

The launch comes as the campaign had its second most successful online fundraising month, netting $15 million in March, more than double the amount raised online in January.

"Our grassroots supporters have come through once again, with over $15 million in contributions in the month of March," Internet Director Peter Daou said. "We are gratified to see such a continued show of strength."

Hillary Clinton on Compensation for Guamanians for World War II Suffering

As a senator, I have supported the Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act (H.R 1595), a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation would implement the recommendations of the Guam War Claims Review Commission regarding claims of residents of Guam injured when the territory was under the military control of Imperial Japan during World War II.

I will continue to advocate for Senate passage of the bill this year, and its enactment into law. But, if those efforts are not successful, as President of the United States, I will get it passed next year so that we may provide these survivors and their families with the compensation they deserve for their courageous devotion to the United States during Japanese occupation.

By the time that the United States liberated Guam in July 1944, almost all of the island’s inhabitants had been interned, and many had been subjected to forced labor, forced marches, personal injuries, rape, or public execution. Although Guamanians received limited compensation immediately after the war, the restrictive procedures, narrow window for recovery, and incomplete range of compensable injuries left too many under-compensated. As the Commission concluded, their claims were not treated comparably to U.S. citizens or nationals of other territories who suffered disproportionate hardships during World War II. The bill would remedy that decades-old injustice.

The bill I support has four components.

1. It would recognize the injuries endured by the people of Guam during the occupation and their steadfast loyalty to the United States.
2. It would compensate Guam's residents for specific harms.
3. It would authorize a grant program for research, educational, and media activities to memorialize the occupation of Guam.
4. It would authorize $130 million for the grant program and compensation.

The legislation is particularly timely in light of the agreement between the United States and Japan to relocate the headquarters of the III Marine Expeditionary Force and 8,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam by 2014. As a result of the move, Guam will play an even more vital role as a U.S. military staging area to the Asian theater than it has in the past. The U.S. citizens of Guam deserve to know that their assistance in the nation's defense will be accompanied by a robust commitment to protect the island and compensate its residents fairly for any harm they may suffer.

Hillary Clinton Statement On March Jobs Report

Today’s news that unemployment jumped to 5.1% in March and that our economy lost jobs for the third straight month adds to the mounting evidence that our economy is spiraling downward, and that hardworking families are paying the price.

It’s time the President and John McCain recognize the r-word: reality. Our economy is in serious trouble and unless we act swiftly we could be sliding into a deep and painful recession.
When Wall Street faced crisis, we saw swiftly and creative action and a $30 billion lifeline for Bear Stearns. Today’s jobs report confirms that it’s time to take equally aggressive action to help American families struggling in our bearish economy.

For more than a year I have been like Paulette Revere, calling for action to keep the problems from our housing market from spilling over into our economy. After a year of denial and half-measures it is time for this Administration to put ideology aside and get serious about stemming this crisis. Perhaps this jobs report will also help John McCain recognize that doing nothing is not an economic strategy in times of urgent need.

While I support the legislative approach that Senator Dodd and Congressman Frank are taking to help restructure mortgages and keep millions of families in their homes, today’s news of serious continued weakness in our labor markets reinforces that we need to be ready to go further. I believe we must stand ready for the government to purchase at risk mortgages. We also need a second stimulus of at least $30 billion to help states and localities fight the foreclosure crisis in their communities.

Obama Statement on Unemployment Figures

Senator Barack Obama released the following statement in response to today’s unemployment figures.

“Today's job news is the latest indicator of how badly America needs fundamental change from Bush-McCain policies that have been devastating for working families and catastrophic for our economy. While George Bush and John McCain's answer to this recession has been to watch it happen while pushing for more tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, more families are facing foreclosure, rising costs, and disappearing jobs. It's time for a new direction, with immediate relief for homeowners, a second stimulus package that expands unemployment insurance and helps state and local governments, and investments in millions of new jobs to strengthen our economy. Our economy is struggling because the American people are struggling, and simply bailing out investment banks on Wall Street will not help Main Street.”

Addressing PA AFL-CIO, Obama Vows to Stand up to the Special Interests and Deliver for American Workers

Senator Barack Obama addressed the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO this morning in Philadelphia, emphasizing his commitment to fighting the corporate special interests and delivering an agenda that makes sense for working Americans. As President, Obama will renegotiate NAFTA—which Senator Clinton supported as First Lady—invest in a green economy to help keep good jobs here in America, and make sure that every American has quality health care.
“Over the last seven years, we’ve had an administration that serves the interests of the wealthy and the well-connected, no matter what the cost to working families, and to our economy,” Senator Obama said. “It’s an administration that didn’t lift a finger while our economy rolled toward recession until the pain folks were feeling on Main Street trickled up to their friends on Wall Street.
“It’s an administration that’s been handing out tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans who don’t need them and aren’t even asking for them. And it’s an administration that denies labor a seat at the table when trade deals are being negotiated, that doesn’t believe in unions, that doesn’t believe in organizing, and that’s packed the labor relations board with their corporate buddies.”
Senator Obama’s full remarks follow as prepared for delivery.
Remarks for Senator Barack Obama AFL-CIO Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, April 2, 2008
We meet here at a time of challenge and uncertainty for America’s workers. We all know the stories of shuttered plants and rusting factories, of industrial centers that have become near-ghost towns across this state, and across this country.
But today’s gathering isn’t the first time workers have met in Philadelphia at a pivotal moment. One hundred and eighty-one years ago, in the fall of 1827, a group of mechanics met in the shadow of Independence Hall to form what they called the Mechanics Union of Trade Associations – a moment that marked the birth of the trade union movement in America.
They met all kinds of resistance from employers and wealthy merchants who said what they were trying to do would hurt workers and business, and was just plain un-American. But these mechanics – these founding fathers of organized labor – disagreed. And in the preamble to their constitution, they proposed what many believed was a radical idea – that it was in their employers’ interests to pay them higher wages because higher wages for workers would help bring general prosperity for all.
It was the 19th century equivalent of the idea that what’s good for Main Street is good for Wall Street. And that’s an idea we need to remember today. Because what we’re seeing is that another, very different view has taken hold in Washington and on Wall Street – the view that we can somehow thrive as a nation when those at the very top are doing better than ever, while ordinary Americans are struggling to get by.
Over the last seven years, we’ve had an administration that serves the interests of the wealthy and the well-connected, no matter what the cost to working families, and to our economy. It’s an administration that didn’t lift a finger while our economy rolled toward recession until the pain folks were feeling on Main Street trickled up to their friends on Wall Street.
It’s an administration that’s been handing out tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans who don’t need them and aren’t even asking for them.
And it’s an administration that denies labor a seat at the table when trade deals are being negotiated, that doesn’t believe in unions, that doesn’t believe in organizing, and that’s packed the labor relations board with their corporate buddies.
Now, John McCain said a few weeks ago that “the issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should” – and that’s clear since all he’s offering is more of the same Bush policies that have put the American Dream out of reach for so many Americans.
Like George Bush, Senator McCain is committed to more tax cuts for the rich, and more trade agreements that fail to protect American workers. His response to the housing crisis amounts to little more than watching millions of Americans face foreclosure. And some of his top advisors were lobbyists for the special interest when they went to work for his campaign, so it’s not hard to guess who they’ll be working for if they get into the White House.
So while I know there’s been some talk about whether the Democrats will be unified in November, America can’t afford another four years of the Bush policies, and that’s what John McCain’s offering. And that’s why I know we’ll come together this fall to bring this country the change we so desperately need.
But the truth is, the problems we face go beyond any single administration. For far too long, through both Democratic and Republican administrations, the system has been rigged against everyday Americans by the lobbyists that Wall Street uses to get its way.
Think about it. The top mortgage lenders spend $185 million lobbying Congress, and we wonder why Washington looked the other way when they were tricking families into buying homes they couldn’t afford. Drug and insurance companies spend $1 billion on lobbying, and we’re surprised that our health care premiums, and co-pays, and the cost of prescription drugs goes up year after year after year. The big oil companies play the same game, and we wonder how they’re making record profits at a time when you’re paying close to $4 a gallon for gas.
The system is broken – and over the weekend, we got a reminder of just how badly it’s broken. You might have seen it. There was this news story about the top two executives at Countrywide Financial, a company that’s as responsible as any firm for the housing crisis we’re facing today. And what we learned is that when Countrywide was sold a few months ago, these two executives got a combined 19 million dollars. So millions of Americans are facing foreclosure. Our economy is in turmoil. And the guys behind it all are getting bonuses for their bad behavior.
That’s an outrage. That’s not the America we believe in. It’s time to take on the special interests and level the playing field so that our economy works for working Americans.
Now, I know there’s been some talk about Rocky Balboa over the last couple days. And we all love Rocky. But Rocky was fiction. And so is the idea that someone can fight for working people and at the same time, embrace the broken system Washington, where corporate lobbyists use their clout to shape laws to their liking.
We need to challenge the system on behalf of America’s workers. And if we’re not willing to take up that fight, then real change – change that will make a lasting difference in the lives of ordinary Americans – will keep getting blocked by the defenders of the status quo.
I believe I can bring about that kind of change – because I’m the only candidate in this race who’s actually worked to take power away from lobbyists by passing historic ethics reforms in Illinois and in the U.S. Senate. And I’m the only candidate who isn’t taking a dime from Washington lobbyists. They have not funded my campaign, they will not run my administration, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I’m President of the United States.
Your voices will be heard.
This isn’t just campaign talk. I’ve been fighting for working families ever since I moved to Chicago more than two decades ago to work as a community organizer, giving job training to the jobless and hope to the hopeless when the local steel plants closed. And the reason I’m standing here today is because I don’t want to wake up one morning many years from now and see that nothing has changed because the system is still being rigged against America’s families.
And I know you don’t either. Because despite seven years of the most anti-labor administration in generations – as I look out on this crowd and as I travel across this country, the one thing I know for certain is that labor unions are still mobilizing. Labor unions are still organizing. And you’re still fighting to give America’s working people a voice in Washington.
I’m tired of playing defense. I know the AFL-CIO is tired of playing defense. We’re ready to play some offense. We’re ready to play offense for a decent wage. We’re ready to play offense for retirement security.
We’re ready to play offense for universal health care. It’s time to stand up to the big drug and insurance companies that have been blocking reform and say enough is enough – we’re going to finally make health care affordable and available for every American. We’re going to finally help folks like the young woman I met who works the night shift after a full day of college and still can’t afford medicine for a sister who’s ill.
No American should be driven into bankruptcy trying to pay their medical bills. No worker should have to go without a pay raise because their employer has to use the money to cover the rising cost of health care. That’s why we’ll pass universal health care by the end of my first term as President and save the typical family up to $2,500 a year on their premiums. In this country of all countries, health care shouldn’t be a privilege for the few; it should be a fundamental right for every American.
We’re ready to play offense for organized labor. It’s time we had a President who didn’t choke saying the word “union.” A President who knows it’s the Department of Labor and not the Department of Management. And a President who strengthens our unions by letting them do what they do best – organize our workers. If a majority of workers want a union, they should get a union. It’s that simple. Let’s stand up to the business lobby that’s been getting their friends in Washington to block card check. I’ve fought to pass the Employee Free Choice Act in the Senate. And I will make it the law of the land when I’m President of the United States of America.
We’re ready to play offense for working families. I’m the only candidate in this race who’s called for a middle class tax cut that will save families up to $1,000 a year, including over 6 million people in this state. And I’ve also called for eliminating income taxes entirely for seniors making under $50,000 a year. And we also have to do more to make sure folks who are getting laid off in these hard times still have enough money to make ends meet, which is why I’m working with my friend Senator Bob Casey to extend unemployment insurance, and make it available for working folks who aren’t in a union and don’t work a regular 9-to-5 job.
But we also have to do more over the long-term to invest in our middle class. And that’s what we’ll do as President. To ensure that our children have the skills to compete in our global economy, we’ll make college affordable with a $4,000 tax credit for anyone who’s willing to do some community service. And we’ll pass the Patriot Employer Act that I’ve been fighting for ever since I ran for the Senate – so we can end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, and give them to companies that create good jobs with decent wages right here in America.
I’ve also proposed creating millions of new jobs and doing it in a way that’s fiscally responsible. I’ve called for investing $60 billion over the next ten years to rebuild our crumbling roads and bridges, and this will generate millions of new jobs, many of them in the construction industry that’s been hard hit by our housing crisis.
I also believe it’s time Washington started showing the same kind of leadership that Pennsylvania’s labor movement has shown by fighting to create the green jobs that are the jobs of the future. That’s why I’ll invest $150 billion over the next decade to establish a green energy sector that will create up to 5 million new jobs – and those are jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced. And thanks to leaders like my friend Congressman Patrick Murphy, these kinds of jobs are bringing new life back to places that have been hard hit in recent decades – places like Fairless Hills in Bucks County, where the old U.S. Steel plant is now being used to help produce wind power.
Now, if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll acknowledge that we can’t stop globalization in its tracks and that opening new markets to our goods can help strengthen our economy. But what I refuse to accept is that we have to sign trade deals like the South Korea Agreement that are bad for American workers. What I oppose – and what I have always opposed – are trade deals that put the interests of multinational corporations ahead of the interests of Americans workers – like NAFTA, and CAFTA, and permanent normal trade relations with China.
And I’ll also oppose the Colombia Free Trade Agreement if President Bush insists on sending it to Congress because the violence against unions in Colombia would make a mockery of the very labor protections that we have insisted be included in these kinds of agreements. So you can trust me when I say that whatever trade deals we negotiate when I’m President will be good for American workers, and that they’ll have strong labor and environmental protections that we’ll enforce.
These are the battles we should be fighting. This is the future we should be building. But it’s going to be hard to do all this so long as we’re spending $10 billion a month fighting a war in Iraq that should have never been authorized and never been waged. I opposed this war from the start. I’ve opposed it each year it’s been going on. And that’s why I’m the one candidate who will offer a real choice in November because I can stand up to John McCain with credibility and say no to a 100-year occupation of Iraq, and no to a third Bush term. It’s time to bring out troops home.
It’s time to end the fight in Iraq and take up the fight for good jobs and universal health care. It’s time to end the fight in Iraq and take up the fight for a world-class education and Social Security. It’s time to end the fight in Iraq and take up the fight for opportunity and prosperity here at home.
So make no mistake – the American people have a choice in this election. We can keep playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players, and somehow expect a different result. Or we can choose a different future. Just imagine it.
Imagine a President whose life’s story is like so many of your own, who knows what it’s like to go to college on student loans, and see his mother get sick and worry that maybe she can’t pay the medical bills.
Imagine a Washington where the only lobby that has real influence is the people’s lobby. A Washington where you can trust that your voice will be heard before any major piece of labor legislation is signed into law.
Imagine an America that lives up to the idea that those mechanics proposed nearly two hundred years ago, where we finally have a system that works for Main Street and not just Wall Street.
That’s the change we seek. That’s the vision the AFL-CIO has always fought for. And that’s the future that’s within our grasp. So I’m asking you to march with me, and work with me, and fight with me. And if you do, then I truly believe we won’t just win this primary, and we won’t just defeat John McCain in November – we’ll build an America where labor is on the rise, where hope is on the rise, and where the American dream is within reach for every family in this country. Thank you.

Obama Statement in Support of World Autism Awareness Day and Awareness Month

Senator Obama today released the following statement in support of World Autism Awareness Day and Awareness Month.

“I am proud to add my voice in support of World Autism Awareness Day and Autism Awareness Month. Autism Spectrum Disorders have quietly become some of the most serious public health issues in the United States and the world today. Autism not only jeopardizes the future of our children, but also has a devastating impact on our families, communities, and on all levels of government here at home and around the world.

“Today’s celebration of World Autism Awareness Day is a call to action, and the United States must once and for all act quickly and effectively. As president, I will work closely with the families affected by ASD to ensure our government lives up to its responsibility to individuals with ASD. Together, we can ensure that everyone with ASD has a meaningful opportunity to get the education and resources they need to live independently as full citizens in their communities.”

Governor Perdue Sets Election Date for 93rd House District

Today Governor Sonny Perdue issued a writ of election for the state House 93rd District seat, which was vacated last week when state Representative Ron Sailor resigned.

Pursuant to state law, the special election for the House post will be held on May 13th. If there is a runoff following the May 13 election, it would occur four weeks later, on June 10th.

State law also requires the 93rd House District seat to be up for election as part of the regular 2008 election cycle. Anyone wanting to run in the regular election cycle must separately qualify for the General Primary, which will be held July 15th. The qualifying period to participate in the General Primary is set for April 28th through May 2nd. The General Election will be held on November 4th.

A copy of the writ follows:
Due to the resignation of the Representative from the 93rd, a vacancy now exists in the Georgia House of Representatives.

Therefore, pursuant to Article V, Section II, Paragraph V of the Constitution and Section 21-2-544 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, a writ of election is hereby issued to the Secretary of State for a special election to be held on Tuesday, May 13, 2008, to fill the vacancy in District 93 of the Georgia House of Representatives.

This 27th day of March, 2008.

Governor Sonny Perdue