More Obama economics proposals
Posted: Thursday, September 18, 2008 6:36 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones
ESPANOLA, N.M. -- Despite the economic crisis facing the country and the turmoil in the markets, this is not a time for fear or panic but for leadership and resolve, Obama said Thursday, telling the audience at a rally he would announce new plans for dealing with the economy tomorrow.
Both campaigns have been scrambling to stay out in front on economic issues this week as news of bank failures and bailouts have roiled financial markets worldwide.
Obama has consistently argued that McCain’s response to the crisis on Wall Street has been inadequate and that he was now trying to reverse course on issues like market regulation, because it was politically expedient. It's all part of his campaign’s continued effort to convince worried voters the Illinois senator will be a better steward of the economy than his rival.
At the rally here in Northern New Mexico, a state he hopes to snatch away from the Republican column in 47 days, Obama announced plans to host a meeting tomorrow with his top economic advisors.
He said he would call for the passage of a Homeowner and Financial Support Act that “would establish a more stable and permanent solution than the daily improvisations that have characterized policy-making over the last year.”
The meeting tomorrow is to hammer out the details of the plan his campaign is calling "a major proposal," a collection of ideas he has been talking about or proposed over the last two years and others reached during conversations and conference calls with his advisers this week.
“The events of the past few days have made clear that we need to do more,” Obama told some 9,500 people gathered in a dusty plaza. “We can’t afford to lurch back and forth between positions depending on the latest news of the day when dealing with an economic crisis, the way John McCain has. We can’t be lurching around. We need some clear and steady leadership, and that’s why I was ahead of the curve in calling for regulation.”
The act Obama has proposed, he said, would provide capital to the financial system, provide liquidity to enable financial markets to function and help families to re-structure their mortgages on more affordable terms, so they can stay in their homes.
With unemployment rising, millions losing or having lost their homes and the added pressures of the problems on Wall Street, the economy is at the top of many voters’ list of concerns and a topic polls show favors Obama.
One of his campaign’s chief arguments is that McCain is out of touch with the concerns of average people and cares more about big corporations and the wealthy.
Today, the senator told the New Mexico crowd that even the White House had distanced itself from McCain’s comment that the fundamentals of the economy are strong, which the Arizona senator repeated earlier this week as the crisis on Wall Street unfurled.
Obama also accused McCain of being a flip-flopper who had long supported the kind of deregulation that had caused the troubles affecting major banks and financial institutions.
He also reminded the crowd that McCain economic adviser Phil Gramm had been a proponent of deregulation, adding that there had been talk that Gramm would head the Treasury Department in a potential McCain administration.
"John McCain can’t decide whether he’s Barry Goldwater or Dennis Kucinich,” he said to laughter. “He’s not clear about what he thinks or what he believes. Well, I have a message for Sen. McCain: You cannot just run away from your long-held views or your life-long record. You can’t erase twenty-six years of support for the very policies and people who helped to bring in some of the problems that we’re seeing. You can’t just erase all that with one week worth of rants.”
The McCain campaign responded in an e-mail that suggested Obama had cozied up to special interests and was indecisive.
“When Barack Obama came to Washington, he chose to strengthen his ties to spiraling lenders like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and their jet-set CEOs, not make change," spokesman Tucker Bounds wrote. "The American people cannot afford leadership that puts a higher premium on campaign contributions than protecting hardworking Americans. The American people cannot afford leadership that votes present on the most important issue of the day -- the AIG bailout.”
Obama told the Espanola crowd McCain’s claim that he lacked a position on the AIG bailout was false -- though his statements about the bailout have not included an explicit message of support (or disapproval) for the government’s decision to rescue the firm. And he responded to McCain’s call for the firing of SEC Chairman Chris Cox by saying, don’t stop there.
“Today he said that he’s calling for the firing of the Security and Exchange Commissioner,” he said. “ Well, I think that’s all fine and good but here’s what I say: In the next 47 days, you can fire the whole Trickle-Down, On-Your-Own, Look-the-Other-Way crowd in Washington who has led us down this disastrous path. Don’t just get rid of one guy, get rid of this administration, get rid of this philosophy, get rid of the do-nothing approach to our economic problems and put somebody in there who’s gonna fight for you.”
RED-STATE SWING: Espanola was the latest stop on a tour of states Bush won in 2004 that the Obama campaign has made a priority in this year’s election.
Other than the fundraising trip to Los Angeles, Obama has spent the week in Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and he'll end the week in Florida.
Meanwhile, in an effort to flood the battleground states, his running mate Joe Biden has been spending a great deal of time in Ohio and Michelle Obama campaigned in Virginia yesterday and North Carolina today.
Obama was introduced by Gov. Bill Richardson, who stressed the importance of the Hispanic vote here and in states like Colorado.
The governor broke into Spanish at several points in his brief remarks, at one point telling crowd, many of whom were Hispanic, Obama has heart and values, that he believes in family and religion “but most importantly, Barack Obama is one of us.”
The senator spent the morning at a private meeting with tribal leaders in Albuquerque where he was accompanied by Richardson.
He later stopped by a café in Bernalillo to chat with voters and order enchiladas, a couple pies and a cookie to go.
This afternoon Richardson hosts two fundraisers for the campaign and the Democratic Party -- a host reception where the price of admission is $28,500 and attendees get a picture with the candidate and a reception that costs $2,500 -- at an Albuquerque home, before Obama heads to Florida, another red state, where polls show a close race.
