iNTELLiBOOK.net - Reclaiming the American Dream

Barack Obama

Reclaiming the American Dream - Unique document
[ABSTRACT by President]

It is a vision of America that's been exploited and encouraged by pundits and politicians who need this division to score points and win elections. But it is a vision of America that I am running for President to fundamentally reject - not because of a blind optimism I hold, but because of a story I've lived.

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But we need to do even more to restore fairness and balance to our economy. Last night, we heard the President say that he wanted to make his tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans permanent - again. Well we can't afford more George Bush tax cuts for those who don't need them and weren't even asking for them. It's time to give tax relief to the middle-class families who need it right now.

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When I am President, we'll stop giving tax breaks to companies who ship our jobs overseas, and I'll put a middle-class tax cut into the pockets of working families. This tax cut will be worth up to $1000 for a working family. We'll provide struggling homeowners some relief by giving them a tax credit that would cover ten percent of a family's mortgage interest payment every year. And we're also going to give seniors a break by eliminating income taxes for any retiree making less than $50,000 a year, because every single American should be able to retire with dignity and respect.

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That also means helping Americans save for retirement when they're still working. When I'm President, employers will be required to enroll every worker in a direct deposit retirement account that places a small percentage of each paycheck into savings. You can keep this account even if you change jobs, and the federal government will match the savings for lower-income, working families.

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It's also time we had a President who won't wait another ten years to raise the minimum wage. I will raise it to keep pace every year so that workers don't fall behind. I'll institute a Credit Card Bill of Rights that will ban credit card companies from changing the agreement you signed up for, changing the interest rate on debt you've already incurred, or charging interest on late fees. Americans should pay what they owe, but they should also pay what's fair, not just what's profitable for some credit card company.

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The same principle should apply to our bankruptcy laws. I opposed the credit card industry's bankruptcy bill that made it harder for working families to climb out of debt, and when I'm President, I'll make sure that CEOs can't dump your pension with one hand while they collect a bonus with the other. That's an outrage, and it's time we had a President who knows it's an outrage.

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It's also time we had a President who stopped talking about the outrage of 47 million uninsured Americans and started doing something about it. When I hear that we can't come together and expand health care to the uninsured, I think back to how I was able to bring Democrats and Republicans together in Illinois to provide health insurance to 150,000 children and parents. And when I'm President, we'll finally pass a universal health care plan that will make sure every single American can get the same kind of health care that members of Congress get for themselves. My plan does more to cut costs than any other plan in this race - up to $2500 for a typical family. And we won't pass it twenty years from now, not ten years from now - we'll pass health care by the end of my first term in office.

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When I hear that there's no way we can overcome the power of lobbyists and special interests, I think about how I was able to pass the first major ethics reform in Illinois twenty-five years. I think about how in Washington, I was able to bring Democrats and Republicans together to pass the strongest lobbying reform in a generation - we banned gifts from lobbyists, meals with lobbyists, subsidized travel on fancy jets, and for the first time in history, we forced lobbyists to tell the American public who they're raising money from and who in Congress they're funneling it to. Washington lobbyists haven't funded my campaign, they won't run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of working Americans when I am President.

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It is time to give every child in America that kind of chance - no matter what they look like or where they come from. When I am President, we will provide all our children with a world-class education, from the day they're born until the day they graduate college. That means early childhood education to give them the best possible start. That means not just talking about how great teachers are, but rewarding them for their greatness, with better pay, and more support. And it means providing every American with a $4,000 a year tax credit that will finally help make a college education affordable and available for all.

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