Background



Background on Obama and His Plan Barack Obama was inaurated as our 44th president on January 20th, 2009. He was born in Hawaii and the raised by his grandparents in Kentucky. He moved to Chicago at the beginning of his career to help with the church community and small organizations. He worked to put himself through Harvard Law School. After college, he turned down numerous prestigious positions, but instead decided to teach constitutional law at University of Chicago and then joined a small law firm. With his wife Michelle he has two daughters: Sasha, age 7, and Malia, age 10. As president he is going to play the role of the moderator and try to get both political parties to agree and work together.

Brief Overview of Domestic Policies while campaigning:

Economy: Obama wants to create new jobs and to help the middle class. He says he will provide tax cuts for 95% of working families. He wants to eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses in order to encourage innovation. He wants to start windfall profits tax on excessive oil company profits so there will extra money in the economy for families with high bills. He plans to eliminate income taxes for veterans making less than $50,000 a year. He wants to make the tax filing process simpler. What could be the most controversial plan he has is the $800 billion Stimulus Package. Education: He wants to reform the No Child Left Behind Act and eliminate teachers that aren't performing well. Wants to focus on early childhood education and expand the Head Start program. He wants to address the drop-out crisis in high schools by investing in new intervention strategies. He wants to increase teacher pay. He also said he would make college more affordable by a new American Opportunity Tax Credit that will cover 2/3 tuition at an average college. He plans to make community college free for most. Health Care: He is going to require insurance companies to cover all pre-existing conditions of patients and lower the costs for businesses so they can provide better health care for their employees. He wants to import safe medicines to lower drug costs. Ethics: He is going to change executive orders to make sure all white house communication is made available to public. He wants to create an internet website of lobbying reports, campaign financing and ethics records available to the public. He will not submit any bills, unless it is an emergency, without giving the American public the chance to views bills and comment on website for 5 days. He will require cabinet to hold town hall meetings to discuss issues periodically.