| |
|
Q4/2008 Online Edition
Special Report
Barack Obama's Plan -
Part 1 | Part 2
Support Small Business
-
Provide Tax Relief for Small Businesses and Start Up
Companies: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will eliminate
all capital gains taxes on start-up and small businesses to
encourage innovation and job creation. Obama and Biden will also
support small business owners by providing a $500 “Making Work
Pay” tax credit to almost every worker in America. Self-employed
small business owners pay both the employee and the employer
side of the payroll tax, and this measure will reduce the
burdens of this double taxation.
-
Create a National Network of Public-Private Business
Incubators: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will support
entrepreneurship and spur job growth by creating a national
network of public-private business incubators. Business
incubators facilitate the critical work of entrepreneurs in
creating start-up companies. Obama and Biden will invest $250
million per year to increase the number and size of incubators
in disadvantaged communities throughout the country.
Labor
Obama and Biden will strengthen the ability of
workers to organize unions. He will fight for passage of the
Employee Free Choice Act. Obama and Biden will ensure that his labor
appointees support workers' rights and will work to ban the
permanent replacement of striking workers. Obama and Biden will also
increase the minimum wage and index it to inflation to ensure it
rises every year.
-
Ensure Freedom to Unionize:
Obama and Biden believe that workers should have the freedom to
choose whether to join a union without harassment or
intimidation from their employers. Obama cosponsored and is
strong advocate for the Employee Free Choice Act, a bipartisan
effort to assure that workers can exercise their right to
organize. He will continue to fight for EFCA's passage and sign
it into law.
-
Fight Attacks on Workers' Right to
Organize:
Obama has fought the Bush National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
efforts to strip workers of their right to organize. He is a
cosponsor of legislation to overturn the NLRB's "Kentucky River"
decisions classifying hundreds of thousands of nurses,
construction, and professional workers as "supervisors" who are
not protected by federal labor laws.
-
Protect Striking Workers:
Obama and Biden support the right of workers to bargain
collectively and strike if necessary. They will work to ban the
permanent replacement of striking workers, so workers can stand
up for themselves without worrying about losing their
livelihoods.
-
Raise the Minimum Wage:
Barack Obama and Joe Biden will raise the minimum wage, index it
to inflation and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit to make
sure that full-time workers earn a living wage that allows them
to raise their families and pay for basic needs.
Protect Homeownership and Crack
Down on Mortgage Fraud
Obama and Biden will crack down on fraudulent
brokers and lenders. They will also make sure homebuyers have honest
and complete information about their mortgage options, and they will
give a tax credit to all middle-class homeowners.
-
Create a Universal Mortgage Credit:
Obama and Biden will create a 10 percent universal mortgage
credit to provide homeowners who do not itemize tax relief. This
credit will provide an average of $500 to 10 million homeowners,
the majority of whom earn less than $50,000 per year.
-
Ensure More Accountability in the
Subprime Mortgage Industry: Obama has been closely
monitoring the subprime mortgage situation for years, and
introduced comprehensive legislation over a year ago to fight
mortgage fraud and protect consumers against abusive lending
practices. Obama's STOP FRAUD Act provides the first federal
definition of mortgage fraud, increases funding for federal and
state law enforcement programs, creates new criminal penalties
for mortgage professionals found guilty of fraud, and requires
industry insiders to report suspicious activity.
-
Mandate Accurate Loan Disclosure:
Obama and Biden will create a Homeowner Obligation Made Explicit
(HOME) score, which will provide potential borrowers with a
simplified, standardized borrower metric (similar to APR) for
home mortgages. The HOME score will allow individuals to easily
compare various mortgage products and understand the full cost
of the loan.
-
Close Bankruptcy Loophole for
Mortgage Companies:
Obama and Biden will work to eliminate the provision that
prevents bankruptcy courts from modifying an individual's
mortgage payments. They believe that the subprime mortgage
industry, which has engaged in dangerous and sometimes
unscrupulous business practices, should not be shielded by
outdated federal law.
Address Predatory Credit Card
Practices
Obama and Biden will establish a five-star rating
system so that every consumer knows the risk involved in every
credit card. They also will establish a Credit Card Bill of Rights
to stop credit card companies from exploiting consumers with unfair
practices.
-
Create a Credit Card Rating System to
Improve Disclosure: Obama and Biden will create a
credit card rating system, modeled on five-star systems used for
other consumer products, to provide consumers an easily
identifiable ranking of credit cards, based on the card's
features. Credit card companies will be required to display the
rating on all application and contract materials, enabling
consumers to quickly understand all of the major provisions of a
credit card without having to rely exclusively on fine print in
lengthy documents.
-
Establish a Credit Card Bill of
Rights to Protect Consumers: Obama and Biden will
create a Credit Card Bill of Rights to protect consumers. The
Obama-Biden plan will:
-
Ban Unilateral Changes
-
Apply Interest Rate
Increases Only to Future Debt
-
Prohibit Interest on Fees
-
Prohibit "Universal
Defaults"
-
Require Prompt and Fair
Crediting of Cardholder Payments
Reform Bankruptcy Laws
Obama and Biden will reform our bankruptcy laws
to protect working people, ban executive bonuses for bankrupt
companies, and require disclosure of all pension investments.
-
Cap Outlandish Interest Rates on
Payday Loans and Improve Disclosure: Obama and Biden
will extend a 36 percent interest cap to all Americans. They
will require lenders to provide clear and simplified information
about loan fees, payments and penalties, which is why they'll
require lenders to provide this information during the
application process.
-
Encourage Responsible Lending
Institutions to Make Small Consumer Loans: Obama and
Biden will encourage banks, credit unions and Community
Development Financial Institutions to provide affordable
short-term and small-dollar loans and to drive unscrupulous
lenders out of business.
-
Reform Bankruptcy Laws to Protect
Families Facing a Medical Crisis: Obama and Biden will
create an exemption in bankruptcy law for individuals who can
prove they filed for bankruptcy because of medical expenses.
This exemption will create a process that forgives the debt and
lets the individuals get back on their feet.
Work/Family Balance
Obama and Biden will double funding for
after-school programs, expand the Family Medical Leave Act, provide
low-income families with a refundable tax credit to help with their
child-care expenses, and encourage flexible work schedules.
-
Expand the Family and Medical Leave
Act:
The FMLA covers only certain employees of employers with 50 or
more employees. Obama and Biden will expand it to cover
businesses with 25 or more employees. They will expand the FMLA
to cover more purposes as well, including allowing workers to
take leave for elder care needs; allowing parents up to 24 hours
of leave each year to participate in their children's academic
activities; and expanding FMLA to cover leave for employees to
address domestic violence.
-
Encourage States to Adopt Paid Leave:
As president, Obama will initiate a strategy to encourage all 50
states to adopt paid-leave systems. Obama and Biden will provide
a $1.5 billion fund to assist states with start-up costs and to
help states offset the costs for employees and employers.
-
Expand High-Quality Afterschool
Opportunities:
Obama and Biden will double funding for the main federal support
for afterschool programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers
program, to serve a million more children. Obama and Biden will
include measures to maximize performance and effectiveness
across grantees nationwide.
-
Expand the Child and Dependent Care
Tax Credit:
The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit provides too little
relief to families that struggle to afford child care expenses.
Obama and Biden will reform the Child and Dependent Care Tax
Credit by making it refundable and allowing low-income families
to receive up to a 50 percent credit for their child care
expenses.
-
Protect Against Caregiver
Discrimination:
Workers with family obligations often are discriminated against
in the workplace. Obama and Biden will enforce the
recently-enacted Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
guidelines on caregiver discrimination.
-
Expand Flexible Work Arrangements:
Obama and Biden will create a program to inform businesses about
the benefits of flexible work schedules; help businesses create
flexible work opportunities; and increase federal incentives for
telecommuting. Obama and Biden will also make the federal
government a model employer in terms of adopting flexible work
schedules and permitting employees to request flexible
arrangements.
About Barack Obama's Record
-
Housing: In the U.S. Senate,
Obama introduced the STOP FRAUD Act to increase penalties for
mortgage fraud and provide more protections for low-income
homebuyers, well before the current subprime crisis began.
-
Predatory Lending: In the
Illinois State Senate, Obama called attention to predatory
lending issues. Obama sponsored legislation to combat predatory
payday loans, and he also was credited with lobbying the state
to more closely regulate some of the most egregious predatory
lending practices.
-
American Jobs: Barack Obama
introduced the Patriot Employer Act of 2007 to provide a tax
credit to companies that maintain or increase the number of
full-time workers in America relative to those outside the US;
maintain their corporate headquarters in America; pay decent
wages; prepare workers for retirement; provide health insurance;
and support employees who serve in the military.
<Paid for by Obama for America >
Obama's
Plan for Small Business
|
|
CEO Q
Print Edition
Special Reports
Executive
Education Courses
Executive Search
Leif Klingborg
Author of K-concept
CEO Conference
Las Vegas, NV, USA
Free Trial Membership
CEO Awards
Authors/Consultants!
Annual
Paper Contest
Advertise in
Print & Online Editions
Subscribe
to CEO Q Magazine
|
