Obama Talks Economy With Women
SAN FRANCISCO -- Barack Obama targeted women voters today at a roundtable meeting which focused on women's economic hardships.
Obama spoke to four roundtable participants about his family's struggle to make ends meet when he was growing up. He said that he learned from his single mother that economic burdens can are tougher on women. He also said that he knows as a husband and father that his wife, Michelle, often bears the burden of family life.
"My wife Michelle had to bear the burden of for example the babysitter getting sick and suddenly she's having to scramble and juggle her schedule because I was down in the state legislature at the time."
Under Obama's economic plan, working families would receive a $1,000 tax credit. He also proposes reforming the Child and Dependent Care Tax credit by allowing low-income families to receive a 50 percent credit for child care expenses.
The roundtable participants told Obama that child care and health care were two issues on the minds of many women. Obama said that women's economic hardships should be alleviated by the government and by fathers. "This is the responsibility for all of us.'
At a press conference after the roundtable, Obama said his economic plan focuses on "jumpstarting" the economy and that the current tax code is not fair and must be restructured. Obama added that his economic policy "is utimately what is going to decide whether or not I win this election, if working familes feel as if I am going to fight for them and I am willing to push against the special interests to actually make this happen."
Obama was asked if Hillary Clinton has an advantage as far as economic policy is concerned because the economy was successful during the Clinton administration. "The contest between myself and Senator Clinton, I think, really does have to do with the past and the future and the American people are not looking specifically for a repitition of what happened in the '90s what they are looking for is who's going to lead us over the next 8 years into an era of greater prosperity and also to meet new challenges as they come up."