Description: Discussion #3 - Economy
Candidate: Sen. Obama
Question: Prioitize health policies, energy policies, and entitlement reform. ]
BROKAW: I'm trying to play by the rules that you all established. One minute for discussion.
Senator Obama, if you would give us your list of priorities, there are some real questions about whether everything can be done at once.
OBAMA: We're going to have to prioritize, just like a family has to prioritize. Now, I've listed the things that I think have to be at the top of the list.
Energy we have to deal with today, because you're paying $3.80 here in Nashville for gasoline, and it could go up. And it's a strain on your family budget, but it's also bad for our national security, because countries like Russia and Venezuela and, you know, in some cases, countries like Iran, are benefiting from higher oil prices.
So we've got to deal with that right away. That's why I've called for an investment of $15 billion a year over 10 years. Our goal should be, in 10 year's time, we are free of dependence on Middle Eastern oil.
And we can do it. Now, when JFK said we're going to the Moon in 10 years, nobody was sure how to do it, but we understood that, if the American people make a decision to do something, it gets done. So that would be priority number one.
Health care is priority number two, because that broken health care system is bad not only for families, but it's making our businesses less competitive.
And, number three, we've got to deal with education so that our young people are competitive in a global economy.
But just one point I want to make, Tom. Senator McCain mentioned looking at our records. We do need to look at our records.
Senator McCain likes to talk about earmarks a lot. And that's important. I want to go line by line through every item in the federal budget and eliminate programs that don't work and make sure that those that do work, work better and cheaper.
But understand this: We also have to look at where some of our tax revenues are going. So when Senator McCain proposes a $300 billion tax cut, a continuation not only of the Bush tax cuts, but an additional $200 billion that he's going to give to big corporations, including big oil companies, $4 billion worth, that's money out of the system.
And so we've got to prioritize both our spending side and our tax policies to make sure that they're working for you. That's what I'm going to do as president of the United States.
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