Thursday September 18, 2008
By: Matt Kanner
From: The Wire
Obama talks taxes in Dover
In his first visit to the Seacoast since securing the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama laid out a tax plan that he said will help ease the burden on middle class families.
Countering his opponent’s claims that Obama would raise taxes on the middle class, the Illinois senator said he would lower taxes for all but the wealthiest Americans.
“We will cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans,” Obama said during a town meeting at the McConnell Center in Dover on Sept. 12. “My plan, altogether, is a net cut in taxes.”
Obama said Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, on the other hand, would shower benefits on big corporations and special interests. Obama said McCain’s tax plan would offer $200 billion in breaks to the nation’s largest corporations, including $4 billion in breaks for the Exxon Mobile Corporation, which recently reported record profits.
“It’s pretty clear who’s fighting for the middle class in this country,” Obama said.
The 47-year-old senator campaigned in Concord later in the day, attempting to sway voters in this battleground state. McCain was also in the area, visiting the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon on Sept. 14.
Obama continued his tactic of portraying his opponent as a mirror image of President George Bush. He said McCain would uphold the president’s policies on the economy and taxes and accused him of being out of touch with Americans.
“The good news is that in 53 days, the name George W. Bush won’t be on the ballot. But make no mistake, George W. Bush’s policies will be on the ballot,” Obama said.
During the last eight years, average family income dropped by $2,000, Obama said, while during the eight years of Bill Clinton’s presidency, average family income went up by $7,500. The economy is also in rough shape, although McCain has said he thinks the economy is moving forward, Obama said.
“We can’t afford four more years of what George Bush and John McCain consider progress,” Obama said.
Preceding Obama’s speech, a family from Dover described their struggles getting by on less than $4,000 per month. Although her husband works as a registered nurse, Kirsten Meehan said her family has fallen behind on rent. She fears the situation will only get worse as winter approaches and the cost of home heating oil creates another financial burden.
Obama said McCain’s tax plan would not offer the Meehans any relief. He said his own tax code would reward working families, seniors and small businesses, while eliminating tax cuts for people who make $250,000 or more per year. Obama’s plan would offer an emergency rebate check of $500 to help pay for rising energy costs, as well as a permanent $500 tax credit for working families like the Meehans.
Obama said every American would pay lower taxes under his plan than they did under Bill Clinton. He said his plan offered the middle class three times as much tax relief as McCain’s plan.
A guest later asked Obama how he planned to decrease the nation’s deficit while lowering taxes. Obama said his first step would be to end the Iraq War, which costs about $10 billion per month. He also repeated that he would roll back tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. In addition, Obama said he would audit the federal budget and eliminate wasteful programs.
Obama also said he would work to improve the health care crisis and emphasize disease prevention. “We don’t have a health care system. We have a disease care system,” he said.
Obama said his health care plan would lower premiums and allow people who can’t afford to buy their own private insurance to buy into the same program that members of Congress use. He said McCain’s plan would tax employee health benefits, which would cause many small businesses to stop offering health insurance and would increase taxes on working families by $3.6 trillion over a decade.
Obama also said he would offer $4,000 of tuition credit to college students who agree to conduct 100 hours of community service in a year.
Obama’s appearance in Dover came as McCain faced increasing scrutiny for stretching the truth in his campaign’s attack ads. One guest asked Obama to start fighting McCain’s smear tactics.
Obama said his own attack ads are tough, but he added that his campaign would stick to issues that matter. “I just have a different philosophy, and that is that I’m going to respond with the truth,” Obama said.
He noted that there are three presidential debates scheduled before the election, along with one vice presidential debate between Democratic nominee Sen. Joe Biden and Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee. He said he will not be reduced to lying about McCain.
“If they lie about us, then we will correct the record,” Obama said. “But this election is too important, too serious, to be playing silly games.”
The event in Dover was billed as a town meeting aimed at undecided voters, but a large percentage of the crowd members already seemed to have their minds made up. Before Obama made his entrance, an entourage of prominent local Democrats filed in and took seats near the front, including state Sen. Martha Fuller Clark, of Portsmouth, Sen. Maggie Hassan, of Exeter, Sen. Jackie Cilley, of Barrington, and Speaker of the House Terie Norelli, or Portsmouth. As the audience waited, chants of “Obama” and “All fired up, ready to go,” reverberated through the auditorium.
Former governor and current U.S. Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen warmed up the crowd, repeatedly calling for change in Washington D.C. “We are going to move this country in a new direction,” Shaheen said. “If we’re going to be successful, what we have to do is change the leadership in Washington.”
Shaheen has taken a similar approach to Obama in closely linking her opponent, Sen. John Sununu, to President Bush. Both Democrats billed themselves as the agents of change Washington needs.
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