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Obama is best for our Valley’s economy
TweetIn the face of a stiff wind, the Mahoning Valley has begun inching forward. We’re battling years of bad trade deals like NAFTA that have decimated our manufacturers. Our families have been hit hard by the Bush economy, with rising costs, falling wages, and plummeting home prices.
In spite of the odds, the glimmers of progress are all around us. A new high tech industry is blooming downtown because of the Youngstown Business Incubator. New jobs and investment are coming because of the Chevrolet Cobalt and, soon, the Chevrolet Cruze. Our young people will soon have increased opportunities thanks to a new community college in the Mahoning Valley. The investments we’re making in the arts will enrich our quality of life and draw new families to our area. The choice we make in this presidential election will determine if this progress is the foundation of a new prosperity, or if it is just swept away by the current economic storm.
Both John McCain and Barack Obama have come to Youngstown to ask for our votes. But only one of them has earned those votes with an agenda to strengthen our manufacturers and the families and communities that rely on them. Barack Obama will help us seize this moment.
Auto industry
As bleak as recent years have been for our auto industry, Barack Obama knows we have an incredible opportunity to create the next generation of fuel efficient cars right here in America. He will invest $150 billion over 10 years to produce the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, invest in low emissions coal plants, and begin transition to a new digital electricity grid. He will work to ensure that technologies that are developed in the U.S. are rapidly commercialized in the U.S. and deployed around the globe.
He will work for comprehensive energy independence and a climate change plan that will invest in America’s highly-skilled manufacturing workforce and manufacturing centers, including right here in the Mahoning Valley, to ensure that American workers have the skills and tools they need to pioneer the first wave of green technologies that will be in high demand throughout the world. They will also provide assistance to the domestic auto industry to ensure that new fuel-efficient vehicles are built by American workers. These investments will create five million good new jobs — jobs that can’t be shipped overseas.
He has also been an early and strong supporter of guaranteed loans to the automakers to retool their plants to produce these new vehicles. But he knows even the best cars won’t be enough unless our automakers are competing on a level playing field. Barack Obama will fight for fair trade policies that open up foreign markets, while defending our market against unfair practices like steel dumping.
Barack Obama understands that NAFTA has been a disaster for the American people, a trade deal that was oversold and has under-delivered. Unlike his opponent, he will fix NAFTA so that it works for our workers.
Unfortunately, the bottom line is that John McCain’s economic policies will be the same as President Bush’s — and we should expect the same results. We need a candidate who will not only visit us but one who will stand with us.
Barack Obama will stand up for our families. His health care plan will make insurance affordable and available to everyone. That’s not only good news for your family, it is critical for the auto industry. By lifting some of the cost of health care from automakers, American vehicles will be more competitive in the international market.
Middle class
Barack Obama’s tax plan is a plan to strengthen the middle class. If you make less than $250,000 a year, your taxes won’t increase one single penny. Not your payroll taxes, not your income taxes, not your capital gains taxes — nothing. In fact, 95 percent of American families will get a tax cut. And he’ll end the outrageous tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas.
Barack Obama won’t be able to fix all of our problems overnight. We all know a true recovery will take years of hard work. But one thing I know about our workers is that we’re not afraid of hard work. All we’ve ever asked for is a level field and a fair shot, and that’s what we’ll have under President Obama.
X U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat, is represents Ohio’s 17th District.
Comments
"Barack Obama’s tax plan is a plan to strengthen the middle class. If you make less than $250,000 a year, your taxes won’t increase one single penny. Not your payroll taxes, not your income taxes, not your capital gains taxes — nothing. In fact, 95 percent of American families will get a tax cut. And he’ll end the outrageous tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas."
And he'll finance all of his pet social projects with what?
Obama knows he has a built in tax increase! He will not approve an extension of the Bush tax cuts, so in 2010 get ready to pay more taxes. I don't understand why everyone thinks there is a free lunch. This guy cannot give away billions without increasing taxes - no one is immune regardless of his class warfare tactics.
McCain said that the auto industry jobs that left us have "left forever." McCain is wrong about this, as he has been wrong about a lot of things.
The idea that it's okay for American jobs to go overseas is based on the idea that the jobs left for us should be "higher up" the production chain. Low skill jobs overseas, high skill jobs here.
China and India are already making computers, writing software, and doing other "high end" production. So what is left for us?
Everything is left for us. We should be making our own steel, instead of importing it from Brazil. We should be making our own ships, instead of buying them from South Korea. We should be making our own computers. And we should be making our own cars.
We have an opportunity now to lead the 21st Century. Electric cars, solar panels, whatever you think will be the technology of the future: We should build it, here, in Ohio.
THANK YOU VINDY FROM the BOTTOM OF MY HEART for your timely article. Sen. Obama will be the best thing that can happen to this country at this pivotal moment. Let's all pray for his election, his safety, and his success.
And to common_sense:
Who bailed out the fat cats on Wall Street? Who proposed and pushed through the $700 billion gift from the average US tax payer to the billionaires on Wall Street? Who gave $123 billion to AIG so that they could continue to enjoy their $600 lunches and $400,000 resort retreats? Who bailed out Bear, Stearns? Who bailed out Goldman, Sachs?
And why was not a single homeowner facing foreclosure bailed out?
Socialism for the billionaires, capitalism for the rest of us.
And why was all this necessary? Bank deregulation. McCain proudly trumpetted deregulation, and voted for it.
McCain is a cranky old man worth $100 million. He didn't make a dollar of that money. He married it. He is the same spoiled brat who got to the US Naval Academy, in spite of lousy grades, because his dad was an Admiral. McCain graduated 894th out of 899.
McCain voted for the Bush tax cuts that you like so much, giving himself two million dollars. While taxes were not being paid and two new wars were being fought, Bush submitted eight of the eight largest budgets, creating eight of the eight largest deficits, pushing our national debt to $10.3 trillion. Bush is the first President to cut taxes while fighting wars, and this stupidity has contributed to our current national financial crisis.
The idea that Republicans represent fiscal responsibility is a cruel joke.
Why do you think American jobs go overseas?! Has it ever occurred to you that a prohibitive tax structure, poor performing workforce, etc. could be blamed? For example when the decision makers for General Motors arrived in Cinti., to decide whether to close the plant, the absentee % was one of the highest % it had ever been. What incentives are there for a steel mill to spend millions of dollars to upgrade its equipment to compete on the world stage? Yes, for many years now we have been in a global economy, where competition is fierce. In many industries, the American worker has priced themselves out of the global market. Do our public schools push the gifted and make sure that the others are not just passed from grade to grade without learning the math, science and reading they so desperately need to compete in a global market? To build all the things you mention, we need all of the above. Obama is NOT the answer, unless you can be fooled into thinking that government can do it all, and the American TAXPAYER (remember I said "taxpayer.") can support all of his "programs."
How did we get in this financial mess? You deserve to know, especially if you are losing your home or your life savings has been wiped out by the recent stock market decline. For answers watch this You Tube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5z9lD...
Watch this You Tube video before you watch OBama's paid advertisement tonight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iivL4c...
The You Tube clip is a radio interview with OBama and proves that Obama wants to take money away from you and give it away. socialism didn't work in the Soviet Union or Cuba or in the Eastern Bloc of the USSR!
Don’t believe the liberal NY Times or Gallup polls. They were wrong in Florida and Ohio in 2000 and they are wrong again. IBD TIPP and Rasmussen polls 10/28/08 show Obama’s lead is vanishing and that undecided voters are voting for McCain/Palin. Say NO TO NoBama and SOCIALISM. say YES to AMERICA and FREEDOM. Vote McCain/Palin.