Speaking to a crowd of over 1,000 members of the Laborers' union (LIUNA) via satellite this week, Barack Obama declared that he would be the "build America President." Obama pledged an investment of $60 billion to create new jobs and fend off economic recession by repairing and rebuilding the country's infrastructure: from roads and bridges to waterways, schools, and energy systems.
“I will be the Build America President and put Americans back to work with a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank that will invest $60 billion over ten years and generate millions of new jobs that cannot be outsourced,” said Obama told the crowd gathered in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday.
In contrast to John McCain, whose economic plan favors new tax breaks for Big Oil and the very richest people, Obama further pledged that his economic stimulus plan for job creation also aims at affordable health care and retirement security for all working families, not just the wealthy.
Working families who struggled to make ends meet over the past eight years of the Bush administration will see more of the same under McCain, Obama pointed out.
Suggesting a failure to understand the economic hardships of most working families, Republican Senator John McCain, who has voted with President Bush more than 90 percent of the time, recently stated that America has made “great progress economically” over the past eight years.
In his speech to the workers, Obama countered, “I don’t think that the 463,000 Americans who have lost their jobs this year are seeing the great progress that John McCain has seen."
"I don’t think the millions of Americans losing their homes have seen that progress," he added. "I don’t think the workers without pensions have seen that progress. And if we continue down the same reckless path, I don’t think that future generations who will be saddled with debt will see these as years of progress.”
In a statement released to the press after the event, LIUNA General President Terence M. O’Sullivan remarked, “Senator McCain does not understand the economy, and he has admitted to that."
“Faced with the reality of an economy spiraling into recession and massive job loss across America, including nearly half a million since the start of 2007 in the construction industry alone," O'Sullivan continued, "it’s impossible for working families to take Senator McCain seriously when he talks about economic progress and promises to continue the same failed policies of George Bush.”
O'Sullivan also hinted that media claims that Obama has difficulty connecting with the working class are fabrication. “But by supporting laws that protect wages and make it easier for working people to have their voices heard and by fighting for fairness at the workplace his whole life, Senator Obama has proved himself to be a true champion of working Americans,” O'Sullivan pointed out.
Recent surveys of workers making less than $27,000 annually show that Obama has a two-to-one advantage over John McCain.
The Laborers' union is enthusiastically behind Obama's candidacy. LIUNA members, who have endorsed Obama for president, have so far contacted over 50,000 fellow members this summer in their Make a Call to Build America campaign. The campaign is a member-to-member voter registration and volunteer recruitment phonebank designed to help candidates, like Obama, who have pledged to invest in repairing US infrastructure, win election to federal office.
“Our members clearly want a President who understands the importance of building America,” said O’Sullivan.
