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Obama Campaign Press Release - Obama Vows to Change Washington, Strengthen Middle Class

March 11, 2008

In visit to Bucks County alternative energy manufacturer, Obama touts plan to create 5 million new green jobs

Fairless HIlls, PA - Senator Barack Obama today toured Gamesa Energy USA, a wind turbine manufacturer in Fairless Hills, and held a town hall meeting with workers where he pledged to end the special interest influence in Washington and strengthen the middle class.

"We need real change — the kind of change that's about more than switching the party in the White House," Obama said. "We need a change in our politics — a leader who can end the division in Washington so we can stop just talking about our challenges and start solving them; who doesn't defend lobbyists as part of the system, but sees them as part of the problem; who actually says what he means and means what he says; and who will be a voice for middle class Americans every day for the next four years. And that's the kind of President I intend to be."

At the meeting, Obama discussed his plans to invest $150 billion over 10 years to build a green energy sector that would create up to 5 million new jobs for workers in Pennsylvania and across the country. He also stressed his opposition to unfair trade deals like NAFTA and vowed to end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, while rewarding those that keep good jobs with decent wages here at home.

Obama has also announced plans to provide a $1,000 tax credit for working families, cut health care costs for the typical American family by up to $2,500 per year and eliminate income taxes altogether for seniors with an annual income of less than $50,000.

His commitment to make a real difference in the lives of working families like those in Bucks County began nearly 25 years ago when he worked as an organizer to provide job training and set up after-school programs in a Southside Chicago community devastated by steel plant closings.

Bucks County, once home to a US Steel plant that employed nearly 10,000 workers at its peak, faced similar challenges when the company closed the bulk of its operations in the area by the early 1990s. The Gamesa plant now sits at the site of that former US Steel facility and has already begun to employ hundreds of Pennsylvanians in secure, higher-paying jobs that are part of the emerging green economy in the area. Gamesa is the world's second-largest wind energy turbine manufacturer and the world's fourth-largest energy developer.

You can read more about Senator Obama's plan to strengthen the middle class by creating 5 million new green jobs HERE.

Barack Obama, Obama Campaign Press Release - Obama Vows to Change Washington, Strengthen Middle Class Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/292250

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