Barack Obama in The Blueprint for Change

On Government Reform: Shine light on federal contracts, earmarks, & proposed bills

• Secrecy Dominates Government Actions: The Bush administration has ignored public disclosure rules and has invoked a legal tool known as the ‘state secrets’ privilege more than any other previous administration.

• Shine Light on Washington Lobbying: Create a centralized Internet database of lobbying reports, ethics records, and campaign finance filings.
• Create a Public “Contracts and Influence” Database: Disclose how much federal contractors spend on lobbying, and what contracts they are getting.
• Sunlight Before Signing:As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to comment online for five days.
• Shine Light on Earmarks and Pork Barrel Spending: Obama’s Transparency and Integrity in Earmarks Act will shed light on all earmarks by disclosing the name of the legislator who asked for each earmark, along with a written justification.

On Government Reform: Ended corporate jet travel subsidized by lobbyists

• Lobbyists Write National Policies: For example, Vice President Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force of oil and gas lobbyists met secretly to develop national energy policy.

• Support Campaign Finance Reform: Obama supports public financing of campaigns combined with free television and radio time as a way to reduce the influence of moneyed special interests.

• Federal Ethics Reform: Obama and Senator Feingold (D-WI) took on both parties and proposed ethics legislation that was described as the “gold standard” for reform. It was because of their leadership that ending subsidized corporate jet travel, mandating disclosure of lobbyists’ bundling of contributions, and enacting strong new restrictions of lobbyist-sponsored trips became part of the final ethics bill that was signed into law.

On Health Care: No one turned away due to illness or pre-existing condition

The Obama Plan will have the following features:
• Guaranteed Eligibility: No American will be turned away FROM ANY INSURANCE PLAN because of illness or pre-existing conditions.
• Comprehensive Benefits: The benefit package will be similar to that offered through Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), the plan members of Congress have.
• Affordable Premiums, Co-Pays and Deductibles.
• Subsidies: Those in need who do not qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP will receive an income-related federal subsidy to buy into the new public plan or purchase a private health care plan.
• Simplified Paperwork and Reined in Health Costs.
• Easy Enrollment:
• Portability and Choice Participants will be able to move from job to job without jeopardizing their health care coverage.
• Quality and Efficiency: Insurance companies will be required to report data on quality.

On Health Care: Buy private insurance via National Health Insurance Exchange

On Budget & Economy: Protect consumers with Credit Card Bill of Rights

• Create a Credit Card Rating System to Improve Disclosure:Provide consumers an easily identifiable 1-star to 5-star ranking of credit cards, based on the card’s features. Credit card companies will be required to display the rating on all application and contract materials.
• Establish a Credit Card Bill of Rights to Protect Consumers:Obama will create a Credit Card Bill of Rights to protect consumers. The Obama plan will:
  • Ban Unilateral Changes
  • Apply Interest Rate Increases Only to Future Debt
  • Prohibit Interest on Fees
  • Prohibit “Universal Defaults”
  • Require Prompt and Fair Crediting of Cardholder Payments
• Cap Outlandish Interest Rates on Payday Loans and Improve Disclosure:Obama supports extending a 36% interest cap to all Americans. Obama will require lenders to provide clear and simplified information about loan fees, payments and penalties, and he’ll require them to provide this information during the application process.

On Budget & Economy: More accountability in subprime mortgages

• Ensure More Accountability in the Subprime Mortgage Industry:Obama introduced comprehensive legislation over a year ago to protect consumers against abusive lending practices. Obama’s STOP FRAUD Act provides the first federal definition of mortgage fraud, increases funding for law enforcement, and creates new criminal penalties for mortgage fraud.
• Create a Universal Mortgage Credit:Obama will create a 10% universal mortgage credit to provide tax relief to homeowners who do not itemize. This credit will provide an average of $500 to 10 million homeowners, the majority of whom earn less than $50,000 per year.
• Mandate Accurate Loan Disclosure: Obama will create a Homeowner Obligation Made Explicit (HOME) score, which will provide potential borrowers with a simplified, standardized borrower metric (similar to APR) for home mortgages. The HOME score will allow individuals to easily compare various mortgage products and understand the full cost of the loan.

On Families & Children: Expand flex-work & Family and Medical Leave Act

• Expand the Family and Medical Leave Act:The FMLA covers only certain workers in businesses with 50 or more employees. Obama will expand it to cover businesses with 25 or more employees. He will also include allowing workers to take leave for elder care needs; and to expand FMLA to cover leave for employees to address domestic violence.
• Encourage States to Adopt Paid Leave:As president, Obama will initiate a strategy to encourage all 50 states to adopt paid-leave systems. Obama will provide a $1.5 billion fund to assist states with start-up costs.
• Expand Flexible Work Arrangements: Obama will create a program to inform businesses about the benefits of flexible work schedules; help businesses create flexible work opportunities; and increase federal incentives for telecommuting. Obama will also make the federal government a model employer in terms of adopting flexible work schedules and permitting employees to request flexible arrangements.

On Free Trade: More Transition Assistance for displaced workers

• Improve Transition Assistance:To help all workers adapt to a rapidly changing economy, Obama would update the existing system of Trade Adjustment Assistance by extending it to service industries, creating flexible education accounts to help workers retrain, and providing retraining assistance for workers in sectors of the economy vulnerable to dislocation before they lose their jobs.
• Fight for Fair Trade: Obama will 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. Obama will work with the leaders of Canada and Mexico to fix NAFTA so that it works for American workers.

On Jobs: Fight attacks on workers’ right to organize & strike

• Ensure Freedom to Unionize:Obama believes that workers should have the freedom to choose whether to join a union without harassment or intimidation from their employers. Obama cosponsored and is strong advocate for the Employee Free Choice Act, a bipartisan effort to assure that workers can exercise their right to organize.
• Fight Attacks on Workers’ Right to Organize: Obama fought the Bush National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) efforts to strip workers of their right to organize. He is a cosponsor of legislation to overturn the NLRB’s “Kentucky River” decisions classifying hundreds of thousands of nurses & workers as “supervisors” who are not protected by federal labor laws.
• Protect Striking Workers: Obama supports the right of workers to bargain collectively and strike if necessary. He will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers, so workers can stand up for themselves without worrying about losing their livelihoods.

On Technology: Incentives for next-generation broadband in every community

• Deploy Next-Generation Broadband:Obama believes we can get broadband to every community in America through a combination of reform of the Universal Service Fund, better use of the nation’s wireless spectrum, promotion of next-generation facilities, technologies and applications, and new tax and loan incentives.
• Protect the Openness of the Internet:Obama supports the basic principle that network providers should not be allowed to charge fees to privilege the content or applications of some web sites and Internet applications over others. This principle will ensure that the new competitors, especially small or nonprofit speakers, have the same opportunity as big companies to innovate and reach large audiences.
• Invest in Rural Areas:Obama will invest in rural small businesses and fight to expand high-speed Internet access. He will improve rural schools and attract more doctors to rural areas.

On Social Security: Stop any efforts to privatize Social Security

• Insecure Retirement Savings: 75 million working Americans lack employer-based retirement plans. Too many companies have dumped their pension obligations, leaving workers in the cold.
• Income Security: With skyrocketing health care, energy and housing costs, too many seniors do not have the resources to live comfortably.

• Commitment:As someone who was largely raised by his grandparents, Obama has first-hand knowledge of how hard America’s seniors have worked. He will honor their lifetime of work.
• Protect Social Security: Obama will preserve Social Security by stopping any efforts to privatize it and working in a bipartisan way to preserve it for future generations.
• Secure Hard-Earned Pensions: Obama will fight to ensure that companies don’t dump their pension obligations.
• Help Americans Save More: Obama will make retirement savings automatic.

On Education: Children’s First Agenda: zero to five early education

• High-Quality Zero to Five Early Education: Obama will launch a Children’s First Agenda that provides care, learning and support to families with children from birth up to five years old.
• Reform No Child Left Behind: Obama believes that the goal of No Child Left Behind was the right one, but that it was written and implemented poorly and it has demoralized our educators and broken its promise to our children. Obama will fund No Child Left Behind and improve its assessments and accountability systems.
• Improve K-12: Obama will improve our schools by recruiting well-qualified teachers to every classroom in America. Obama will improve teacher compensation by rewarding expert, accomplished teachers for taking on challenging assignments & helping teachers succeed. Obama also will reduce the high school dropout rate and close the achievement gap by investing in proven intervention strategies in the middle grades & in summer learning & afterschool opportunities

On Education: $4,000 college tuition for 100 hours’ public service a year

• Create the American Opportunity Tax Credit: Obama will make college affordable for all Americans by creating a new American Opportunity Tax Credit. This universal and fully refundable credit will ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans. Obama 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.
• Simplify the Application Process for Financial Aid: Obama will streamline the financial aid process by eliminating the current federal financial aid application and enabling families to apply simply by checking a box on their tax form, authorizing their tax information to be used, and eliminating the need for a separate application.
• Require 100 Hours of Service in College: Obama will establish a new American Opportunity Tax Credit that worth $4,000 a year in exchange for 100 hours of public service a year.

On Energy & Oil: Reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050

• Cap and Trade: Obama supports implementation of a market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary: 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. Obama’s cap-and-trade system will require all pollution credits to be auctioned. A 100% auction ensures that all polluters pay for every ton of emissions they release, rather than giving these emission rights away to coal and oil companies. Some of the revenue generated by auctioning allowances will be used to support the development of clean energy, to invest in energy efficiency improvements, and to address transition costs, including helping American workers affected by this economic transition.
• Confront Deforestation and Promote Carbon Sequestration: Obama will develop domestic incentives that reward forest owners, farmers, and ranchers when they plant trees, restore grasslands, or undertake farming practices that capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

On Energy & Oil: Passed tax credit for installing E85 ethanol at gas stations

• Renewable Fuels: Obama has worked on numerous efforts in the Senate to increase access to and use of renewable fuels. Obama passed legislation with Senator Jim Talent (R-MO) to give gas stations a tax credit for installing E85 ethanol refueling pumps. The tax credit covers 30% of the costs of switching one or more traditional petroleum pumps to E85, which is an 85% ethanol/15% gasoline blend. Obama also sponsored an amendment that became law providing $40 million for commercialization of a combined flexible fuel vehicle/hybrid car within five years.
• CAFE: Obama introduced a bold new plan that brought Republicans and Democrats, CAFE supporters and long-time opponents together in support of legislation that will gradually increase fuel economy standards and offer what the New York Times editorial page called “real as opposed to hypothetical results.”

On Environment: Regulate animal feeding operations for pollution

• Protecting the Rural Environment: Obama will work for tougher regulations on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) to prevent air & water pollution.

• CAFOs Pollute the Environment: Manure spills kill millions of fish and jeopardize public health.

• Regulate CAFOs:Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency will strictly regulate pollution from large CAFOs, with fines for those that violate tough standards. Obama also supports meaningful local control.
• Partner with Landowners to Conserve Private Lands:Obama will increase incentives for farmers and private landowners to conduct sustainable agriculture and protect wetlands, grasslands, and forests.
• Encourage Organic and Local Agriculture:Obama will help organic farmers afford to certify their crops and reform crop insurance to not penalize organic farmers. He also will promote regional food systems.

On Jobs: Focus farm programs on family farms, not giant corporations

• Family Farms: Our farm programs should help family farmers, not giant corporations, with fair access to markets, control over their production decisions, and fair prices for their goods.

• Family Farmers are Being Squeezed: Farm consolidation has made it harder for mid-size family farmers to get fair prices.
• Rural Communities are Often Left Behind: Because of lack of infrastructure and remote distances, there is less access to quality doctors, and schools have trouble recruiting teachers.

• Strong Safety Net for Family Farmers: Obama will implement a $250,000 payment limitation so that we help family farmers--not large corporate agribusiness.
• Prevent Anticompetitive Behavior Against Family Farms:Obama is a strong supporter of a packer ban. When meatpackers own livestock they can manipulate prices and discriminate against independent farmers.

On Drugs: Fight to rid our communities of meth

• Combat Methamphetamine: Meth use has increased 156% nationwide since 1996. Obama has a long record of fighting the meth epidemic. As President, he will continue the fight to rid our communities of meth and offer support to help addicts heal.

• Obama cosponsored legislation that became law to combat the scourge of methamphetamines.

On Abortion: Expand access to contraception; reduce unintended pregnancy

• Reproductive Choice: Obama has been a consistent champion of reproductive choice and will make preserving a women’s right to choose under Roe v. Wade a priority as president. Obama also supports expanded access to contraception, health information and preventive services to reduce unintended pregnancies.

• Protecting a Women’s Right to Choose: Obama will make safeguarding women’s rights under Roe v. Wade a priority. He opposes any constitutional amendment to overturn that decision.
• Reducing Unintended Pregnancy: Obama will work to reduce unintended pregnancy by guaranteeing equity in contraceptive coverage, providing sex education, and offering rape victims accurate information about emergency contraception.

• Throughout his career, in both the Illinois Senate & the US Senate, Obama has stood up for a women’s right to choose, consistently earning 100% ratings from pro-choice groups.

On Civil Rights: Fight job discrimination to give women equal footing at jobs

• Pay Equity: Obama will better enforce the Equal Pay Act, fight job discrimination, and improve child care options and family medical leave to give women equal footing in the workplace.

• Discrimination on the Job: For every $1.00 earned by a man, the average woman receives only 77 cents. A recent study estimates it will take another 47 years for women to close the wage gap with men.

• Fight for Pay Equity: Obama believes the government needs to take steps to better enforce the Equal Pay Act, fight job discrimination, and improve child care options and family medical leave to give women equal footing in the workplace.
• Expand Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit: Obama will reform the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit by making it refundable and allowing low-income families to receive up to a 50% credit for their child care expenses.

On Immigration: Immigration raids are ineffective

• Immigration Bureaucracy is Broken:The immigration bureaucracy is broken and overwhelmed, forcing legal immigrants to wait years for applications.
• Immigration Raids are Ineffective: Despite a sevenfold increase in recent years, immigration raids only netted 3,600 arrests in 2006 and have placed all the burdens of a broken system onto immigrant families.

• Improve Our Immigration System: We must fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill.
• Bring People Out of the Shadows: Allow undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.
• Work with Mexico: We need to do more to promote economic development in Mexico to decrease illegal immigration.

On Crime: Reduce recidivism by providing ex-offender supports

• Reduce Crime Recidivism by Providing Ex-Offender Supports:
  Obama will work to ensure that ex-offenders have access to job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling, and employment op-portunities. Obama will also create a prison-to-work incentive program and reduce barriers to employment.

On Welfare & Poverty: Create 20 Promise Neighborhoods in high-poverty cities

• Establish 20 Promise Neighborhoods: Obama 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.
• Ensure Community-Based Investment Resources in Every Urban Community: Obama will work with community and business leaders to identify and address the unique economic development barriers of every major metropolitan area. Obama will provide additional resources to the federal Community Development Financial Institution Fund, the Small Business Administration and other federal agencies, especially to their local branch offices, to address community needs.

On Homeland Security: Expand Peace Corps and AmeriCorps to 266,000 slots

• Americans Not Asked to Serve After 9/11: President Bush squandered an opportunity to mobilize the American people following 9/11 when asked Americans only to go shopping.
• Insufficient Federal Support for Service : While more than 500,000 people have served in AmeriCorps, the program turns away applicants a year because of limited funding.

• Expand National Service: Obama will expand AmeriCorps from 75,000 slots today to 250,000 and he will focus this expansion on addressing the great challenges facing the nation. He will establish a Classroom Corps; a Health Corps; a Clean Energy Corps; a Veterans Corps; and a Homeland Security Corpss.
• Expand the Peace Corps: Obama will double the Peace Corps to 16,000 by 2011. He will work with the leaders of other countries to build an international network of overseas volunteers so that Americans work side-by-side with volunteers from other countries.

On Civil Rights: Remove discriminatory barriers to the right to vote

• Protect the Right to Vote: Obama will remove discriminatory barriers to the right to vote.

• Efforts Continue to Suppress the Vote: A recent study discovered numerous organized efforts t intimidate, mislead and suppress minority voters.

• End Deceptive Voting Practices: Obama will sign into law his legislation that establishes harsh penalties for those who have engaged in voter fraud and provides voter who have been misinformed with accurate and full information so they can vote.

• As a community organizer, Obama helped 150,000 African Americans register to vote.
• As a civil rights lawyer, Obama litigated voting rights cases.
• In the Senate, Obama has been a leading advocate for protecting the right to vote, helping to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act and leading the opposition against discriminatory barriers to voting.

On Crime: Ban racial profiling & eliminate disparities in sentencing

• Promote Fairness in the Criminal Justice System: Obama will work to ban racial profiling, eliminate disparities in criminal sentencing,

• Disparities Continue to Plague Criminal Justice System: African Americans and Hispanics are more than twice as likely as whites to be searched, arrested, or subdued with force when stopped by police.

• Reduce Crime Recidivism by Providing Ex-Offender Support: Obama will provide job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling to ex-offenders, so that they are successfully re-integrated into society. Obama will also create a prison-to-work incentive program to improve ex-offender employment and job retention rates.
• Eliminate Sentencing Disparities: Obama believes the disparity between sentencing crack and powder-based cocaine is wrong and should be completely eliminated.

On Drugs: Expand drug courts; help prisoners with substance abuse

• Disparities Continue to Plague Criminal Justice System: African Americans and Hispanics are more than twice as likely as whites to be searched & arrested when stopped by police. Disparities in drug sentencing laws, like the differential treatment of crack as opposed to powder cocaine, are unfair.

• Expand Use of Drug Courts: Obama will give first-time, non-violent offenders a chance to serve their sentence, where appropriate, in the type of drug rehabilitation programs that have proven to work better than a prison term in changing bad behavior.
• Reduce Crime Recidivism by Providing Ex-Offender Support: Obama will provide job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling to ex-offenders, so that they are successfully re-integrated into society.
• Eliminate Sentencing Disparities:The disparity between sentencing crack and powder-based cocaine is wrong and should be completely eliminated.

On Homeland Security: Pursue goal of a world without nuclear weapons

On War & Peace: Two-state solution: Israel & Palestine side-by-side in peace

• Renewing American Diplomacy: Obama will talk to our foes as well as our friends, and he will restore American leadership and alliances abroad.
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Obama will make progress on the Israeli- Palestinian conflict a key diplomatic priority. He will make a sustained push--working with Israelis and Palestinians--to achieve the goal of two states, a Jewish state in Israel and a Palestinian state, living side by side in peace and security.

On Homeland Security: Improve veterans’ mental health treatment & PTSD benefits

• Improved Mental Health Treatment: Obama will improve mental health treatment for troops and veterans suffering from combat-related psychological injuries.

• There is a Shortage of Care for PTSD: Veterans are coming home with record levels of combat stress, but we are not adequately providing for them.

• Improve Mental Health Treatment: Obama will improve mental health care at every stage of military service. He will recruit more health professionals, improve screening, offer more support to families and make PTSD benefits claims fairer.

• Obama led a bipartisan effort in the Senate to try to halt the military’s unfair practice of discharging service members for having a service-connected psychological injury.
• Obama passed legislation to stop a VA review of closed PTSD cases that could have led to a reduction in veterans’ benefits.