I quote from Obama's website: "Senator Obama has been able to develop innovative approaches to challenge the status quo and get results. Americans are tired of divisive ideological politics, which is why Senator Obama has reached out to Republicans to find areas of common ground. He has tried to break partisan logjams and take on seemingly intractable problems. During his tenure in Washington and in the Illinois State Senate, Barack Obama has accumulated a record of bipartisan success."
On his website you may also download the complete "Blueprint for Change" which is Obama's plan for America if elected the next President. The following is a brief summary of that plan:
HEALTHY AMERICA: Obama will sign a universal health care plan into law by the end of his first term in office. His plan will provide for affordable, quality of health care coverage for every American. Obama's plan will bring down the cost of health care and reduce a typical family's premiums by as much as $2,500 per year.
STRENGTHEN THE ECONOMY: Obama will cut income taxes by $1,000 for working families to offset the payroll tax they pay. Obama believes that trade with foreign nations should strengthen the American economy and create more American jobs. He will stand firm against agreements that undermine our economic security. Obama will encourage the deployment of the most modern communications infrastructure to reduce the costs of health care, help solve our energy crisis, create new jobs, and fuel our economic growth. Obama will strengthen the ability of workers to organize unions. He will fight for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Obama will ensure that his labor appointees support workers’ rights and will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers. Obama will also increase the minimum wage and index it to inflation to ensure it rises every year. Obama will crack down on fraudulent brokers and lenders. He will also make sure homebuyers have honest and complete information about their mortgage options, and he will give a tax credit to all middle-class homeowners. Obama will reform our bankruptcy laws to protect working people, ban executive bonuses for bankrupt companies, and require disclosure of all pension investments. Obama will establish a five-star rating system so that every consumer knows the risk involved in every credit card. He also will establish a Credit Card Bill of Rights to stop credit card companies from exploiting consumers with unfair practices. Obama will double funding for after-school programs, expand the Family Medical Leave Act, provide lowincome families with a refundable tax credit to help with their child-care expenses, and encourage flexible work schedules.
STRENGTHEN RETIREMENT SECURITY: As someone who was largely raised by his grandparents, Obama has first-hand knowledge of how hard America’s seniors have worked to defend our country, teach our children and grow our economy. He will honor their lifetime of work. Obama will preserve Social Security by stopping any efforts to privatize it and working in a bipartisan way to preserve it for future generations. Obama will fight to ensure that companies don’t dump their pension obligations. Obama will make retirement savings automatic.
EDUCATION FOR EVERY CHILD: Obama will launch a Children’s First Agenda that provides care, learning and support to families with children from birth up to five years old. Obama believes that the goal of No Child Left Behind was the right one, but that it was written and implemented poorly and it has demoralized our educators and broken its promise to our children. Obama will fund No Child Left Behind and improve its assessments and accountability systems. Obama will improve our schools by recruiting well-qualified teachers to every classroom in America. Obama will improve teacher compensation by rewarding expert, accomplished teachers for taking on challenging assignments and helping teachers succeed. Obama also will reduce the high school dropout rate and close the achievement gap by investing in proven intervention strategies in the middle grades and in summer learning and afterschool opportunities. Obama will create a new American Opportunity Tax Credit that will make tuition at the nation’s community colleges completely free and will cover up to two-thirds the cost of tuition at the nation’s public colleges and universities. This $4,000 tax credit will be fully refundable and available at the time of enrollment in college – when families need the money.
CLEAN ENERGY FUTURE: Obama will implement a cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the level recommended by top scientists. Obama will invest $150 billion over ten years to deploy clean technologies, protect our existing manufacturing base and create millions of new jobs. Obama will reduce oil consumption overall by at least 35 percent, or 10 million barrels of oil, by 2030.
RESTORING FISCAL DISCIPLINE: Obama will reinstate pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) budget rules, so that new spending or tax cuts are paid for by spending cuts or new revenue elsewhere. Obama will cut skyrocketing pork barrel spending projects by forcing more transparency about who is requesting projects and what the projects would accomplish before Congress votes to approve them. Obama will build on his bipartisan work to penalize companies that abuse the tax code and stop the use of
tax havens. Obama is committed to repealing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
SUPPORT RURAL COMMUNITIES: Obama will ensure our farm programs help family farmers, not giant corporations. He will fight to enable family farmers to have fair access to markets, control over their production decisions, and fair prices for their goods. Obama will help farmers continue their leadership in the renewable fuel economy and harvest more of our energy from Americans farms. Obama will invest in rural small businesses and fight to expand high-speed internet access. He will improve rural schools and attract more doctors to rural areas. Barack Obama will work for tougher regulations on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) to prevent air and water pollution.
RECLAIM THE AMERICAN DREAM FOR WOMEN AND THEIR FAMILIES: Barack Obama will better enforce the Equal Pay Act, fight job discrimination, and improve child care options and family medical leave to give women equal footing in the workplace. Obama has been a consistent champion of reproductive choice and will make preserving a women’s right to choose under Roe v. Wade a priority as president. Obama also supports expanded access to contraception, health information and preventive services to reduce unintended pregnancies. Obama will tackle diseases and illnesses that disproportionately affect women. Obama introduced legislation to combat domestic violence and cosponsored and helped reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.
IMMIGRATION REFORM: Barack Obama has fought for comprehensive immigration reform that secures our border, fixes our broken immigration bureaucracy and puts the 12 million undocumented immigrants on a responsible path to citizenship. If Congress does not act in the interim, Obama will revive immigration reform in the first year of his presidency.
COMBATING POVERTY: Obama will help low-income Americans enter the workplace and move up the career ladder. Obama will increase benefits and expand the number of individuals eligible for EITC, one of the most successful antipoverty programs in history. Obama will create Promise Neighborhoods to provide comprehensive services in impoverished areas in 20 American cities. Obama will help local entrepreneurs revitalize inner cities. Obama will increase the supply of affordable housing across the U.S.
UNIVERSAL VOLUNTARY PUBLIC SERVICE: Obama will expand AmeriCorps to 250,000 slots and double the Peace Corps and dedicate these positions to addressing America’s common challenges. He also will provide new service opportunities for working Americans and retirees. Obama will integrate service-learning into our schools to enable students to graduate college with as many as 17 weeks of service experience. By leveraging federal dollars, Obama will foster the use of best practices of the private sector to nurture innovation in the nonprofit sector.
STRENGTHEN CIVIL RIGHTS: Obama will staff the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department with lawyers who prosecute civil rights violations, employment discrimination, and hate crimes instead of political cronies. Obama will remove discriminatory barriers to the right to vote. Obama will work to ban racial profiling and eliminate disparities in criminal sentencing.
SECURE AMERICA AND RESTORE OUR STANDINGl Obama is the only major candidate who had the judgment to oppose the Iraq War from the beginning. He will end the war responsibly by bringing our troops home within 16 months, pressing for a political solution to Iraq’s civil war, and launching the diplomatic and humanitarian initiatives that are needed to bring stability to Iraq. Obama will fight terrorism and protect America with a comprehensive strategy that finishes the fight in Afghanistan, cracks down on the al Qaeda safe-haven in Pakistan, develops new capabilities and international partnerships, engages the world to dry up support for extremism, and reaffirms American values. Obama has stood up against going to war with Iran, and called for a new approach. He will lead tough diplomacy with the Iranian regime, and offer Iran the choice of increased international pressure or incentives if it stops its disturbing behavior. Obama will turn the page on the Bush-Cheney diplomacy of not talking to countries that we don’t like. He will talk to our foes as well as our friends, and he will restore American leadership and alliances abroad. Obama has a bold agenda to reduce the threat of nuclear proliferation. He will secure loose nuclear materials from terrorists, and lead the world toward the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons. Obama will give the finest military in the world the support it needs to face the threats of the 21st century. He will expand our ground forces, develop new capabilities, and restore the trust between the commander in chief and those who serve.
KEEP OUR SACRED TRUST WITH VETERANS: Barack Obama believes America has a sacred trust with our veterans. He is committed to creating a 21st Century Department of Veterans’ Affairs that provides the care and benefits our nation’s veterans deserve. Obama will improve the quality of health care for veterans, rebuild the VA’s broken benefits system, and combat homelessness among veterans. Obama will improve mental health treatment for troops and veterans suffering from combat-related psychological injuries.
Source(s): http://www.barakobama.com/issues/, "The Blueprint for Change: Barak Obama's Plan for America"
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