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Election
2004
U.S.
SENATOR-ELECT
DEMOCRAT Barack Obama
http://www.obamaforillinois.com
MAJOR POSITION STATEMENTS —
edited excerpts
(Source: candidate's Web site)
Education
- Fully
funding the No Child Left Behind Act.
Obama would fight to fully fund the No Child Left Behind Act.
He argues this act imposes new requirements on our public schools
while failing to provide the resources so that schools can meet
the new requirements.
- Ensuring
early childhood education. Obama would work to fully
fund Head Start, the federal program for impoverished preschoolers,
and expand its scope. He says Head Start should cover 100 percent
of eligible children, and enrollment should not be limited to
a year or to education. It should be extended to health and nutritional
needs.
- Increasing
access to higher education.
Obama would protect and expand the Pell Grant program, which provides
grants to high school seniors and undergraduates. Obama also would
promote efforts to expand the availability of financial aid counseling
to make working families aware of their options in paying for
their children's higher education costs.
- Providing
adequate child care. Obama would protect and expand
government programs such as the Child Care and Development Block
Grant and Child Tax Credit that provide access to quality child
care.
- Recruiting
well-qualified teachers.
Obama would strive to fund successful programs, such as Teach
for America, that attract our nation's best and brightest to the
teaching profession.
- Fixing
school infrastructure.
Obama would work to secure adequate funds to support states in
their efforts to maintain and rebuild crumbling schools.
Health
care
- Protecting
health care funding. Obama will fight to reverse cuts
in federal matching funds for [children’s insurance program]
CHIP. Obama also wants to protect Medicare and Medicaid from similar
cuts in funding by repealing President George W. Bush's tax cuts
for the wealthiest Americans.
- Making
prescription drugs affordable. Obama wants to crack
down on prescription drug advertising that is designed to generate
consumer demand for expensive, name-brand drugs and loopholes
that allow the drug industry to keep less expensive generic drugs
off the market.
- Ensuring
affordable health care. Obama will work to crack down
on “medical fraud and abuse” and demand fairness and
responsibility from HMOs and insurance companies. He wants to
work with doctors, lawyers and the malpractice insurance industry
to stem ever-increasing insurance rates. Obama thinks working
families should be helped in meeting the cost of health care through
tax credits and other assistance.
- Leading
the fight for universal coverage. Obama says he will
be a strong and persistent voice in Washington, D.C. for the goal
of universal health care coverage for all Americans.
The
economy
- Repealing
the Bush tax cuts for the very rich.
Obama will work to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest
Americans. Money would be reappropriated to states that need additional
funding for education, health care and homeland security.
- Expanding
and extending unemployment benefits. Obama will fight
to extend and expand unemployment benefits.
- Providing
a one-time tax rebate for working families.
Obama will work to institute a one-time tax rebate to middle-
and low-income families, including those who do not enjoy any
benefits from current tax cuts.
- Eliminating
tax shelters. Currently, companies avoid taxation through
off-shore tax havens, costing the government large sums in lost
tax revenue and placing competing U.S. companies at a comparative
disadvantage. Obama will strive to end corporate abuse of our
tax system.
- Promoting
research and development clusters. Obama will work
to appropriate federal funds to help states develop research and
development clusters in coordination with public universities.
Our nation's previous dominance in research and development is
slipping as federal funding decreases.
- Ensuring
free and fair trade.
Obama will strive to negotiate trade agreements that recognize
that workers around the world are entitled to minimum rights that
cannot be undermined through short-sighted trade agreements.
Labor
- Protecting
overtime and the 40-hour work week. Working with Congressional
Democrats, Obama would ban any changes to the Fair Labor Standards
Act, which guarantees workers overtime pay if they work more than
a 40-hour week.
- Supporting
workers' rights to organize. Obama will make it a high
priority to reform the National Labor Relations Act. The NLRA
should be amended to declare that a union is established whenever
a majority of workers have signed cards stating that they wish
to unionize, thus avoiding long organizing campaigns. Also, mandatory
meetings or one-on-one sessions at which employers advocate against
formation of a union should be banned as an unfair labor practice.
- Streamlining
NLRB procedures. The process by which the National
Labor Relations Board certifies unions is subject to endless appeals
and delays. Employers should have only one opportunity to challenge
the validity of a new union.
- Civil
penalties for failure to negotiate in good faith. There
should be meaningful financial penalties available to federal
regulators when an employer fails to negotiate in good faith with
a union.
- Increasing
the minimum wage.
Obama wants to raise the federal minimum wage from its current
hourly rate of $5.15 to $6.50 per hour.
- Expanding
and extending unemployment benefits.
Obama will fight to extend unemployment benefits for the long-term
unemployed and expand eligibility for those who have worked only
part time in the months preceding their unemployment.
- Reinstating
OSHA ergonomics standard. Obama will advocate for improved
working conditions on behalf of workers by helping to reinstate
the ergonomics standard first required by President Bill Clinton
in 1999, then subsequently repealed by President Bush. Obama also
will work to require employers to keep records of repetitive stress
disorders, such as carpal tunnel syndrome.
TO
READ CANDIDATES' INFORMATION
IN FULL GO TO
http://www.obamaforillinois.com
Illinois
Issues, November 2004
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