The Political Bear

Published by bear

This is an outline of the Senator Obama’s speech to the AFL-CIO April 2nd, 2008. Click here for a transcript.

Remarks for Senator Barack Obama: AFL-CIO

Philadelphia, PA | April 02, 2008

• Industry is having hard economic times
• Industry has hard times in the past
  • They met here 1827
  • Birth of the trade union movement
  • Employers resisted
  • Wealthy Merchants resisted
  • They claimed this would hurt workers and business
  • But this first group of mechanics disagreed
  • In the preamble to their constitution they proposed that it was in the employers interests to pay them higher wages because higher wages for workers would help bring general prosperity for all
  • 19^th century equivalent of whats good for Main street is good for Wall Street
• We need to remember that today
  • We are seeing a different view taken hold in Washington and Wall Street (of course look at Detroit)
  • The view that we can thrive as a nation when the top is prosperous and the ordinary is struggling
  • Bush has served the wealthy and connected
    • With no regard for working families or economy
    • He didn’t do anything to stop our drift towards recession
    • Until Wall Street started feeling it
    • Bush has given tax cuts to the wealthy
    • They don’t need tax cuts or ask for them
    • Bush won’t let labor help negotiate trade deals
    • It doesn’t believe in Unions
    • It doesn’t believe in Organizing
    • And packed the labor relation board with corporate buddies
  • John McCain recently said “the issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should”
    • The only thing he is offering the same Bush polices
    • Making American Dream unreachable for most Americans
    • John McCain is committed to more tax cuts for the rich
    • More trade agreements that fail to protect workers
    • He would watch millions of Americans face foreclosure
    • His top advisors for special interests
    • They will be working for him in the White House
• I know there is a question whether Democrats will be unified in November
  • We can’t afford another four years of Bush policies
    • That is what McCain is offering
  • I know we will come together this fall to bring the change we need
• We also face problems bigger than this administration
  • The system has been rigged against everyday Americans by lobbyists
    • The top mortgage lenders spend $185 million lobbying Congress
      • Now we wonder why Congress looked the other way when they tricking families into buying homes they couldn’t afford (he was there, and the dems are the ones that pushed the bottom line down)
    • Drug and insurance companies spend $1 billion
      • Now we are surprised the premiums, co-pays, and the cost of prescription drugs goes up year after year
    • Big Oil is the same
      • Now we are paying $4 a gallon for gas
    • Millions of Americans are facing foreclosure and Countrywide Financial’s top two executives got a combined 19 million
  • Our economy is in turmoil and the guys behind it are getting bonuses
    • That is an outrage
  • It is time to take on the special interests
• Our economy needs to work for working Americans
  • There has been talk about Rocky Balboa
    • Rocky was Fiction
    • So is the idea that someone can fight for working people and support the current system in Washington
  • We need to challenge the system for America’s workers
    • If we aren’t willing to fight this change won’t happen
    • I am the only candidate that has worked to take power away from lobbyists
      • Passing historic reform in Illinois and in the US Senate
      • I haven’t taken a dime from lobbyists
      • They will not run my administration
      • They will not drown the voices of the American people
      • Your voices will be heard
      • I have been fighting for working families for 20 years
      • I was a community organizer
      • I helped when local steel plants closed
      • I am here now because I want to see change
  • I don’t want to wake up years from now and see that nothing has changed
    • I know you don’t either
  • Labor is still strong
    • I’m tired of playing defense
    • I know the AFL-CIO is tired of playing defense
    • We want to fight for a decent wage, retirement security, and health care
  • No American should be driven into bankruptcy because of medical bills
    • I will pass Universal Health Care by the end of my first term (over my dead body)
    • Health Care should be a right
  • It is time we had a President that strengthens unions
    • Washington is blocking card check
  • I have called for a middle class tax cut
    • I have called for elimination incomes taxes for seniors making under$50,000
    • I will extend unemployment insurance
    • We have to invest in middle class
    • I will pass college tax credit
    • I will end tax breaks for employers that ship jobs overseas
  • I proposed creating millions of new jobs and
    • I will repair our transportation infrastructure
    • We need to create green jobs
    • I will invest in green energy
      • Spending $150 billion to create 5 million new jobs
      • Those jobs will pay and can’t be outsourced
      • This plan has already worked for some hard hit areas
  • If we are honest, we’ll acknowledge that we can’t stop globalization (don’t we like globalization)
    • Opening new markets to our goods can help strengthen our enconomy
    • We don’t have to sign bad trade deals
      • South Korea, NAFTA, CAFTA, China
    • I will only sign deals good for the American worker and the environment
• This will be hard
  • Especially while fighting a war in Iraq for $10 billion/month
    • I opposed this war from the beginning
    • I can stand up to John McCain in November
    • I will say to a 100 year occupation of Iraq
  • End the fight in Iraq and fight for universal health care, education, social security, and prosperity
• There is a clear choice this election
  • We can keep the same
  • Or we can choose a different future
    • A President with a life’s story like your own
    • Who had student loans
    • Worried about medical bills
  • People will have influence in my administration
  • We will have an America that lives up the idea of those mechanics two hundred years ago
  • We will have a system that works for Main Street and not Wall Street
  • AFL-CIO has always fought for it
  • It is within our grasp
• March with me, and I believe we will win
  • We will build an America where labor is on the rise
  • Hope is on the rise
  • The American Dream is within reach for everyone
• Thank you

Apr 06, 2008
Filed under: Speech Outline, AFL-CIO, Barack Obama, Speech Outline