child support payments, and the benefit for families with three or more children—while reducing the EITC marriage penalty, which hurts low-income families. In an Obama Administration, full-time workers earning the minimum wage could see their EITC benefit triple.
Raise the Minimum Wage.
Barack Obama believes that people who work full-time should not live in poverty. Before the Democrats took back Congress, the minimum wage had not changed in ten years. Even though the minimum wage will rise to $7.25 an hour by 2009, the minimum wage’s real purchasing power will still be below what it was in 1968. As President, Barack Obama will raise the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2011 and index it to inflation.
Protect Workers and Their Right to Organize.
Barack Obama has seen firsthand how important unions are to ensuring fairness and dignity for workers. As a community organizer in a South Chicago neighborhood devastated by steel mill closings, Barack Obama saw what an important force for progress unions are. That’s why he has championed organized labor for his entire career, and as President, Barack Obama will:
Support and sign into law the Employee Free Choice Act to ensure that workers can exercise their right to organize, and oppose “Right-to-Work” and “Paycheck Protection” efforts to limit union membership and labor’s voice.
Ensure that workers are paid the wages and benefits they have earned by upholding overtime pay protections and ensuring employers do not misclassify workers as “independent contractors” to avoid giving workers the benefits they deserve.
Protect the Davis-Bacon Act on prevailing wages. Ban the permanent replacement of striking workers, so workers can stand up for themselves without worrying about losing their livelihoods.
Make workplaces safer by increasing funding for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, hire more inspectors, and increase penalties for lawbreakers.
Establish a Credit Card Bill of Rights.
As strapped consumers face mounting bills and declining home values, credit cards could turn into the next subprime market crisis. Barack Obama believes that every American should have a uniform set of rights while dealing with credit card companies, no matter their financial status or credit history. An Obama Administration will create a Credit Card Bill of Rights to ban unilateral changes, apply interest rate increases only to future debt, prohibit interest on fees, prohibit universal defaults, and require prompt and fair crediting of cardholder payments. It also will establish a five-star rating system, enforced by the FTC, to let consumers know about the level of risk involved in every credit card. Finally, credit card companies will be required to disclose in simplified, clear language all of the major features of the card along with their FTC rating so that consumers will have the information they need to compare credit card products.
Cap Exorbitant Interest Rates and Improve Disclosure.
In the wake of reports that some members of the military were paying 800 percent interest on payday loans, Congress took bipartisan action to limit interest rates charged to service members to 36 percent. Barack Obama believes that we must extend this protection to all Americans, because predatory lending continues to be a major problem for low- and middle-income families alike. He also believes that we need to ensure that all Americans have access to clear and simplified information about loan fees, payments, and penalties, which is why he’ll require lenders to provide this information during the loan application process. An Obama Administration also will work to empower more Americans in the fight against predatory lending by supporting initiatives to improve financial literacy and financial planning and by encouraging banks and other financial institutions to provide short-term, small-dollar loans.
Restore Fairness to Bankruptcy Rules.
Barack Obama opposed the 2005 bankruptcy law, which favored banks over working families. As President, Barack Obama will restore fairness to our bankruptcy laws by providing an exemption for people who can prove they filed for bankruptcy because of medical expenses and expanding protections for military families and victims of natural disasters. He also will close the loophole in bankruptcy law that prevents families from renegotiating their mortgages so they can keep their homes.
Give Family Farmers the Stability They Need to Thrive.
Barack Obama believes that our farm programs and supports should go to help family farmers—not large agricultural companies—survive and thrive. As President, he will fight for farm programs that are targeted directly at family farmers, giving them the stability and predictability they need to succeed. An Obama Administration will support an effective payment limitation of $250,000 so taxpayers aren’t underwriting big agribusinesses. Most important, it will close the loopholes that allow mega-farms to get around the limits by subdividing their operations into multiple paper corporations. Finally, an Obama Administration will make agriculture disaster assistance permanent.
Affordable Health Care for All Americans
One of the biggest drains on Americans’ pocketbooks is the high cost of health care, and among the biggest insecurities that families face are the threat of losing their health care coverage or getting sick or injured and not being able to afford high-quality care. Health care premiums have nearly doubled in the past six years—while wages have stayed flat. In 2006, 11 million insured Americans spent more than a quarter of their salary on health care. The number of uninsured in America has jumped by 8.6 million under the current Administration, and now totals 47 million Americans. Many of those are people who insurers will not cover because they have existing medical problems. Millions more have insurance, but could be dropped as soon as they develop a serious medical problem. These Americans not only suffer, but they place a growing burden on the rest of us: every time an uninsured person walks into an emergency room because they have nowhere else to turn, there is a hidden tax on the rest of us as premiums go up—by an extra $922 per family in 2005 alone.
At the same time, businesses are finding it difficult to compete because of the high cost of premiums and the high cost of workers without access to high-quality care. Costs have gotten so high that more than half of all small companies can no longer afford to insure their workers, and some of the nation’s biggest employers are being severely disadvantaged in the global marketplace by the high cost of care.
To make matters worse, a large amount of the money we spend is lost to massive waste and inefficiency. One out of every four dollars is swallowed up by administrative costs. Each year, 100,000 Americans die due to medical errors, and we lose $100 billion because of prescription drug errors alone. Only four cents of every dollar spent on health care goes to preventive care. And while the United States leads the world in health care expenditures, twenty-nine other countries have a higher life expectancy, and thirty-eight other nations have lower infant mortality rates.
For years, candidates have made promises about fixing health care and cutting costs, but when they go to Washington nothing happens because big drug and insurance companies use their deep pockets and clout to block reform. In the last five years, the fastest growing part of health costs has been what the insurance companies have kept to cover their costs and fatten their profits; the second fastest has been what the big drug companies charge for their medicines. Barack Obama has taken on the special interests in the past and expanded health coverage and improved quality. As President, he will take them on again to pass a health care plan
