Posted to my blog at
http://practical-vision.blogspot.com/2009/01/its-time-to-create-list.htmlIt’s Time to Create a List
Posted by Political Heretic at 4:25 PM
With Barack Obama set to become the 44th President of the United States a week from now, it’s important to document the reasons I voted for him. It wasn’t personality or charm. It was the concrete-specific promises that he detailed in his campaign platform. The specific things that Obama said a vote for him would do for America.
I expect him to work to keep these campaign promises. No one should fall into the trap of blindly supporting a leader just because he is likable or because we’re tired of being critical. Below are quotes taken directly from the “Blueprint for America” document. This was the platform document of the Obama campaign. I chose this instead of information from the new “Change.gov” website, because they are already rewording, revising, and altering their promises on that site. Here’s what I voted for:
* Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit: Obama and Biden will increase the number of working parents eligible for EITC benefits, increase the benefits available to parents who support their children through child support payments, increase benefits for families with three or more children, and reduce the EITC marriage penalty, which hurts low-income families.
* Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit: Obama and Biden will reform the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit by making it refundable and allowing low-income families to receive up to a 50 percent credit for their child care expenses.
* Increase the Minimum Wage to $9.50: Obama and Biden will raise the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2011 and index it to inflation.
* Provide Tax Relief: Obama and Biden will provide all low and middle-income workers a $500 Making Work Pay tax credit to offset the payroll tax those workers pay in every paycheck. They will also eliminate taxes for seniors making under $50,000 per year.
* Shine Light on Washington Lobbying Centralize Ethics and Lobbying Information for Voters: Obama and Biden will create a centralized Internet database of lobbying reports, ethics records, and campaign finance flings in a searchable, sortable and downloadable format. Require Independent Monitoring of Lobbying Laws and Ethics Rules: Obama will use the power of the presidency to fight for an independent watchdog agency to oversee the investigation of congressional ethics violations so that the public can be assured that ethics complaints will be investigated.
* End Tax Haven Abuse: Building on his bipartisan work in the Senate, Obama will give the Treasury Department the tools it needs to stop the abuse of tax shelters and offshore tax havens and help close the $350 billion tax gap between taxes owed and taxes paid.
* Affordable, Accessible Health Insurance Choices for All Obama will sign a health care reform plan into law by the end of his first term in office. His plan will provide affordable, accessible health care coverage options for every American.
* Protect Social Security: As part of a bipartisan plan that would be phased in over many years, Obama would ask those making over $250,000 to contribute a bit more to Social Security to keep it sound. Despite the many smears of his opponents, Obama does not support uncapping the full payroll tax of 12.4 percent rate. Instead, he is considering plans that would ask those making over $250,000 to pay in the range of 2 to 4 percent more in total (combined employer and employee).
* Early Childhood Education: Zero to Five Plan: Obama and Biden’s comprehensive “Zero to Five” plan will provide critical support to young children and their parents. Unlike other early childhood education plans, their plan places key emphasis at early care and education for infants, which is essential for children to be ready to enter kindergarten. They will create Early Learning Challenge Grants to promote state “zero to five” efforts and help states move toward voluntary, universal pre-school. Expand Early Head Start and Head Start: Obama and Biden will quadruple Early Head Start, increase Head Start funding and improve quality for both.
* Higher Education: Create the American Opportunity Tax Credit: Obama and Biden will make college affordable for all Americans by creating a new American Opportunity Tax Credit. This fully refundable credit will ensure that the frst $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans, and will cover two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university and make community college tuition completely free for most students. They will also ensure that the tax credit is available to families at the time of enrollment by using prior year’s tax data to deliver the credit when tuition is due.
* Create 5 Million of Green Jobs: Obama and Biden will invest $150 billion over ten years to deploy clean technologies, protect our existing manufacturing base and create millions of new jobs.
* Close Special Interest Corporate Loopholes: Obama will level the playing field for all businesses by eliminating special-interest loopholes and deductions, such as those for the oil and gas industry.
* Restore Fiscal Discipline in Congress: Obama and Biden 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.
* Paid Sick Days: Obama and Biden will require that employers provide seven paid sick days per year to their employees, which will benefit 22 million working women across America.
* Fully Fund the Community Development Block Grant: Obama and Biden will fully fund the Community Development Block Grant program and engage urban leaders across the country to increase resources to the highest-need Americans.
* Establish 20 Promise Neighborhoods: Obama and Biden will create 20 Promise Neighborhoods in cities across the nation that have high levels of poverty and crime and low levels of student academic achievement. The Promise Neighborhoods will be modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone, which provides a full network of services, including early childhood education, youth violence prevention efforts and after-school activities, to an entire neighborhood from birth to college.
* A Responsible, Phased Withdrawal (from Iraq): Barack Obama believes we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. Immediately upon taking office, Obama will give his Secretary of Defense and military commanders a new mission in Iraq: ending the war. The removal of our troops will be responsible and phased, directed by military commanders on the ground and done in consultation with the Iraqi government. Military experts believe we can safely redeploy combat brigades from Iraq at a pace of 1 to 2 brigades a month that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 – more than 7 years after the war began.
* Fight Global Poverty: Obama and Biden will embrace the Millennium Development Goal of cutting extreme poverty around the world in half by 2015, and he will double our foreign assistance to $50 billion to achieve that goal. They will help the world’s weakest states to build healthy and educated communities, reduce poverty, develop markets, and generate wealth.
* Provide a $1,000 Emergency Energy Rebate to American Families: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will enact a windfall profits tax on excessive oil company profits to give American families an immediate $1,000 emergency energy rebate to help families pay rising bills. (Note that Obama has already indicated that he is abandoning this promise)
* Fight for Fair Trade: Obama and Biden will fight for a trade policy that opens up foreign markets to support good American jobs. They will use trade agreements to spread good labor and environmental standards around the world and stand form against agreements like the Central American Free Trade Agreement that fail to live up to those important benchmarks. They will also pressure the World Trade Organization to enforce trade agreements and stop countries from continuing unfair government subsidies to foreign exporters and nontariff barriers on U.S. exports.
* Amend the North American Free Trade Agreement: Obama believes that NAFTA and its potential were oversold to the American people. He will work with the leaders of Canada and Mexico to fx NAFTA so that it works for American workers.
There are times when plans must be adjusted, timetables revisited or scopes reconsidered. I know this. However, I will be watching. If Barack Obama thought that accomplishing these things while in office was going to be easy, then he’s less the leader than I thought he was. It was never going to be easy. A President must do the right things especially when they are hard to do. It’s one thing to be fighting to achieve these promises and have some setbacks. It’s another thing to abandon them altogether. I expect these things to be the constant topics of the Obama administration agenda, and I expect him to push and push hard.
If he does not, then I won’t be voting for him again.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
