Statement of Barack Obama on the passage of the Class Action Fairness Act

[flpoljunkie]

Speaker: Senator Barack H. Obama (IL)
Title: Passage of the Class Action Fairness Act
Location: Washington, DC
Date: 02/14/2005

PASSAGE OF THE CLASS ACTION FAIRNESS ACT -- (Senate - February 14, 2005)

Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005. As both a lawyer and a citizen, I am a strong believer in class actions as a way for ordinary people who have been wronged by a corporation to band together and seek justice. Some of our great advances in civil rights and consumer protections have come from these actions.

But there is overwhelming evidence that there are abuses in the class action system that should be addressed. When multimillion dollar settlements are handed down and all the victims get are coupons for a free product, justice is not being served. And when cases are tried in counties only because it's known that those judges will award big payoffs, you get quick settlements without ever finding out who's right and who's wrong.

Every American deserves their day in court. This bill, while not perfect, gives people that day while still providing the reasonable reforms necessary to safeguard against the most blatant abuses of the system. I also hope that the Federal judiciary takes seriously their expanded role in class action litigation, and upholds their responsibility to fairly certify class actions so that they may protect our civil and consumer rights. Senator SPECTER has pledged to work on these issues and address these serious concerns in the future, and I look forward to joining him so we can improve this law.

END

http://www.vote-smart.org/speech_detail.php?speech_id=79547&keyword=&phrase=&contain=

[Czolgosz]

1. This is part of what gives me pause about Obama. He talks a better game than he votes. This is part

of why the Drum Major Institute gave Obama just a "C" for his votes affecting the middle class:

http://www.drummajorinstitute.com/congress/outerenvelope_senate.htm.

In addition to Obama's unfortunate vote on the consumer rip off/corporations go free class action bill, the Drum Major Institute also criticizes Obama for his vote in favor of Bush's energy plan which weakened environmental protections like the Safe Drinking Water Act.

[ElizabethDC]

2. Interesting site, thanks for the link! n/t

[flpoljunkie]

3. Barack Obama Statement on the Energy Policy Act of 2005

Speaker: Senator Barack H. Obama (IL)
Title: Energy Policy Act of 2005 - Conference Report
Location: Washington, DC
Date: 07/29/2005

ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 2005--CONFERENCE REPORT -- (Senate - July 29, 2005)

Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, I rise to commend the chief sponsors of this bill in the Senate, Senators DOMENICI and BINGAMAN, who I think have displayed the sort of statesmanship and civility in working out this difficult legislation that I think all of us expect from this body. I also want to indicate the degree to which this bill takes significant steps in the right direction on energy policy. It helps us realize the promise of ethanol as a fuel alternative by requiring 7.5 billion gallons to be mixed with gasoline over the next few years. It provides a tax credit for the construction of E85 stations all over America--E85, a blend of ethanol and gasoline that can drastically increase fuel efficiency standards for our cars.

It will provide funding for the clean coal technologies that will move America to use its most abundant fossil fuel in a cleaner, healthier way, including more low emission transportation fuels, and it will support the development of what we hope ultimately will be a 500-mile-per-gallon automobile technology.

All of these things are wonderful and worthy of support. But I do have to say we have missed an opportunity and that is not the fault of the sponsors of this bill who have done yeoman's work. Rather, I think it is the timidity of all of us as a body in not addressing what has to be one of the most significant problems we face as a nation.

The Department of Energy predicts that American demand for fossil fuels will jump 50 percent over the next 15 years. The Heritage Foundation says this bill will do virtually nothing to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Even President Bush and supporters of the bill in Congress concede as much.

As we debate this bill today, the price of crude oil has surpassed a record high of $60 a barrel, and gas is now up to $2.28 per gallon. At this price, the United States is sending $650 million overseas every single day.

As demand continues to skyrocket around the world, other countries have started to realize that guzzling oil is not a sustainable future. What is more, these countries have realized that by investing early in the energy-efficient technology that exists today, they can create millions of tomorrow's jobs and build their economies to rival ours.

China now has a higher fuel economy standard than we do, and it has 200,000 hybrids on its roads. Japan's Toyota is doubling production of the popular Prius in order to sell 100,000 in the U.S. next year, and it is getting ready to open a brand new plant in China. At the same time, Ford is only making 20,000 Escape Hybrids this year, and GM's brand won't be on the market until 2007.

So here we are. People paying record prices at the pump and America sending billions overseas to the world's most volatile region. We have countries like China and India using energy technology to create jobs and wealth, while our own businesses and workers fall further and further behind. And we have the energy bill that is before us today.

So I ask, is this the best America can do? The country that went to the moon and conquered polio? The country that led the technological revolution of the 1990s?

It would be one thing if the solutions to our dependence on foreign oil were pie-in-the-sky ideas that are years away. But the technology is right at our fingertips. Today, we could have told American car companies, we will help you produce more hybrid cars. We could have made sure there were more flexible fuel tanks in our cars. And so America has a choice.

We can continue to hang on to oil as our solution. We can keep passing energy bills that nibble around the edges of the problem. We can hope that the Saudis will pump faster and that our drills will find more. And we can just sit on our hands and say that it is too hard to change the way things are and so we might as well not even try.

Or we could accept and embrace the challenge of finding a solution to one of the most pressing problems of our time, our dependence on foreign oil. It will not be easy and it will not be without sacrifice. Government cannot make it happen on its own, but it does have a role in supporting the initiative that is already out there.

I vote for this bill reluctantly today, disappointed that we have missed our opportunity to do something bolder that would have put us on the path to energy independence. This bill should be the first step, not the last, in our journey towards energy independence.

I close by saying I hope we do not wait another 5 years before we work on the important issue of energy independence. I plan to support this bill because of the fine work that was done by the sponsors, but I would insist that in the next year or two we immediately address the issue of how we can wean ourselves off of Middle Eastern oil.

http://www.vote-smart.org/speech_detail.php?speech_id=115985&keyword=&phrase=&contain=

[obamian]

4. Obama has the most liberal voting record of the Presidential canididates

According to the way they vote in Congress, Barack Obama is the most liberal of all the people running for president who are members of Congress. This is the setup for the way the presidential candidates vote for both parties.

Barack Obama; 84.5% liberal voting record
Dennis Kucinich; 79.4%
Chris Dodd; 79.2%
Hillary Clinton; 78.8%
Joe Biden; 76.8%

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/20/12151/5710

See this blog post for a good review of his voting record: http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2006/10/barack_obama.html

[skipos]

5. And that info will be used against him in the general election

One of the many reasons senators have had a harder time becoming president historically.

I like Obama too. Just sayin'.

[Czolgosz]

6. That comparison does not include Edwards. Plus it is really a "party loyalty" vote score rather

than a "liberal-conservative" vote score. Dennis Kucinich loses points because he voted against the party on more issues than Obama, but several of Dennis's votes against the party line were because Dennis's position was to the left of the party line.