NEWS
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ENLIGHTENING THE COMMUNITY
OCTOBER 2008
Change: How much can the country's poor expect to see
under both presidential candidates' economic plan?
By Tenisha Renee Miller
SUN EDITOR
Hotdogs and two cans of pork-n-beans simmered on
the stove, as Shellie called her three children to
the the table for dinner.
While her children hurriedly said “Amen” after blessing
the food and began to devour it, Shellie continued to
pray silently.
“Some days, I’m faced with the choice of buying gas or a
little food to feed my family,” she said. “For $8, I can buy just enough gas to get me
to and from work for the day or stretch it to buy a couple of packs of hotdogs, beans
and bread for my children to eat. I’m caught up in a catch 22 situation. I’m one of the
working poor - not middle class and certainly not rich. Both presidential candidates
keep stressing how they’re for the middle class, but what about those, like me, who
are on the bottom looking up at the so-called middle class? Does their economic plans
include us?”
That question is a familiar one echoing throughout urban and poor communities.
The Detroit Native Sun took an impartial look at both plans to seek an answer. This
month, we will examine Senator Barack Obama’s Economic Plan.
Obama’s Economic Plan calls for:
• Protect homeownership and crack down on mortgage fraud. Ensure more account-
ability in the subprime mortgage industry through the Stop Fraud Act introduced by
Obama. The bill provides a federal definition of mortgage fraud, protects consumers
against abusive lending practices by punishing companies found guilty of fraud, and
provides counseling to tenants and homeowners to avoid foreclosure.
• Mandate accurate loan disclosure through a Homeowner Obligation Made Explicit
(HOME) score, which would allow borrowers to easily compare mortgage products and
understand the cost of the loan.
• Create a fund to help homeowners avoid foreclosure that will provide refinancing
assistance, offset costs of selling a home, give low-income borrowers more time and
support to pay back any losses from selling a home, and waive certain federal, state
and local taxes associated with selling a home to avoid foreclosure.
• Close bankruptcy loophole for mortgage companies by eliminating the federal bank-
ruptcy law’s Chapter 13 provision that prevents bankruptcy courts from modifying an
individual’s mortgage payments.
• Create a universal mortgage tax credit so that anyone with a mortgage can receive a
tax incentive for homeownership.
• Provide middle class Americans a tax relief by creating a “Making Work Pay” tax
credit of up to $500 per person or $1,000 per family.
• Simplify tax filing for middle class Americans so that millions of Americans can com-
plete their tax returns in less than five minutes.
• Create an American Opportunity Tax Credit to make college affordable for all
Americans. The first $4,000 of a college education will be free to most Americans,
covering two-thirds of education costs at the average public college or university.
• Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to make it refundable and allow low-
income families to receive up to a 50 percent credit on child care expenses.
• Strengthen retirement security by eliminating income taxes for seniors making less
than $50,000.
• Create automatic workplace pensions requiring employers to enroll their employees
in a direct deposit IRA account.
• Expand retirement savings incentives for working families by creating a generous
savings match for low and middle-income Americans.
• Address predatory credit card practices, creating a credit card rating system to
improve disclosure.
• Establish a Credit Card Bill of Rights to protect consumers that would 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 card-holder
payments.
• Fix the country’s health-care crisis, saving the typical American family $2,500 a year
by offering affordable, comprehensive and portable health insurance to all Americans.
• Invest in U.S. manufacturing to create new jobs and offer tax assistance and loan
guarantees to the domestic auto industry to build fuel efficient vehicles.
• Create new job training programs for clean technologies.
• Boost the renewable energy sector and create new jobs.
• Fight for fair trade that opens up foreign markets to support American jobs.
• Invest in the sciences to ensure the competitiveness of U.S. technology-based busi-
nesses.
• Make the research and development tax permanent.
• Deploy next-generation broadband penetration and Internet access.
• Improve transparency in the market by investigating potential conflict of interest
between credit rating agencies and financial institutions.
For additional information on Senator Barack Obama’s Economic Plan, visit www.
barackobama.com/issues/economy.
under both presidential candidates' economic plan?
By Tenisha Renee Miller
SUN EDITOR
Hotdogs and two cans of pork-n-beans simmered on
the stove, as Shellie called her three children to
the the table for dinner.
While her children hurriedly said “Amen” after blessing
the food and began to devour it, Shellie continued to
pray silently.
“Some days, I’m faced with the choice of buying gas or a
little food to feed my family,” she said. “For $8, I can buy just enough gas to get me
to and from work for the day or stretch it to buy a couple of packs of hotdogs, beans
and bread for my children to eat. I’m caught up in a catch 22 situation. I’m one of the
working poor - not middle class and certainly not rich. Both presidential candidates
keep stressing how they’re for the middle class, but what about those, like me, who
are on the bottom looking up at the so-called middle class? Does their economic plans
include us?”
That question is a familiar one echoing throughout urban and poor communities.
The Detroit Native Sun took an impartial look at both plans to seek an answer. This
month, we will examine Senator Barack Obama’s Economic Plan.
Obama’s Economic Plan calls for:
• Protect homeownership and crack down on mortgage fraud. Ensure more account-
ability in the subprime mortgage industry through the Stop Fraud Act introduced by
Obama. The bill provides a federal definition of mortgage fraud, protects consumers
against abusive lending practices by punishing companies found guilty of fraud, and
provides counseling to tenants and homeowners to avoid foreclosure.
• Mandate accurate loan disclosure through a Homeowner Obligation Made Explicit
(HOME) score, which would allow borrowers to easily compare mortgage products and
understand the cost of the loan.
• Create a fund to help homeowners avoid foreclosure that will provide refinancing
assistance, offset costs of selling a home, give low-income borrowers more time and
support to pay back any losses from selling a home, and waive certain federal, state
and local taxes associated with selling a home to avoid foreclosure.
• Close bankruptcy loophole for mortgage companies by eliminating the federal bank-
ruptcy law’s Chapter 13 provision that prevents bankruptcy courts from modifying an
individual’s mortgage payments.
• Create a universal mortgage tax credit so that anyone with a mortgage can receive a
tax incentive for homeownership.
• Provide middle class Americans a tax relief by creating a “Making Work Pay” tax
credit of up to $500 per person or $1,000 per family.
• Simplify tax filing for middle class Americans so that millions of Americans can com-
plete their tax returns in less than five minutes.
• Create an American Opportunity Tax Credit to make college affordable for all
Americans. The first $4,000 of a college education will be free to most Americans,
covering two-thirds of education costs at the average public college or university.
• Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to make it refundable and allow low-
income families to receive up to a 50 percent credit on child care expenses.
• Strengthen retirement security by eliminating income taxes for seniors making less
than $50,000.
• Create automatic workplace pensions requiring employers to enroll their employees
in a direct deposit IRA account.
• Expand retirement savings incentives for working families by creating a generous
savings match for low and middle-income Americans.
• Address predatory credit card practices, creating a credit card rating system to
improve disclosure.
• Establish a Credit Card Bill of Rights to protect consumers that would 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 card-holder
payments.
• Fix the country’s health-care crisis, saving the typical American family $2,500 a year
by offering affordable, comprehensive and portable health insurance to all Americans.
• Invest in U.S. manufacturing to create new jobs and offer tax assistance and loan
guarantees to the domestic auto industry to build fuel efficient vehicles.
• Create new job training programs for clean technologies.
• Boost the renewable energy sector and create new jobs.
• Fight for fair trade that opens up foreign markets to support American jobs.
• Invest in the sciences to ensure the competitiveness of U.S. technology-based busi-
nesses.
• Make the research and development tax permanent.
• Deploy next-generation broadband penetration and Internet access.
• Improve transparency in the market by investigating potential conflict of interest
between credit rating agencies and financial institutions.
For additional information on Senator Barack Obama’s Economic Plan, visit www.
barackobama.com/issues/economy.
