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Former Allstate Chief Picked by Government to Run AIG (Update3)
By David Mildenberg and Erik Holm
Enlarge Image/Details
Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Former Allstate Corp. Chief Executive Officer Edward Liddy was hired by the U.S. government to run American International Group Inc. as part of a plan to avert a collapse of the country's largest insurer.
Liddy, 62, helped oversee the spinoffs of Allstate, Discover Financial Services, real estate broker Coldwell Banker Corp. and securities brokerage Dean Witter when he was an executive at Sears Roebuck & Co. He replaces Robert Willumstad, who's leaving after the government took control of New York-based AIG.
NOTE: LIDDY IS A WELL RESPECTED PERSONALITY IN THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY.
At AIG, Liddy, who ran Allstate from 1999 until 2006, will need to stem record losses tied to mortgages and preside over the sale of units to raise cash to repay a federal loan of as much as $85 billion. AIG plummeted 97 percent this year in New York Stock Exchange trading, erasing more than $125 billion of market value.
Liddy, a partner at private-equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice Inc., is ``a platinum-level insurance executive and the ideal appointment for a company that needs to evaluate the value of its core insurance operations,'' said New York Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo in an interview. ``He has great financial services expertise.''
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson made the decision to oust Willumstad, 63, who became AIG's CEO in June, and informed him of the news yesterday. Liddy was elected as a director of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in 2003, when Paulson was CEO of the New York- based investment bank.
Hurricane Katrina
AIG spokesman Nicholas Ashooh declined to comment about the management change, and Liddy and Willumstad weren't available for comment. When Willumstad took control of AIG three months ago, he promised to complete a strategic review by Sept. 25. AIG unraveled before he was able to unveil his plan.
Liddy joined Allstate in 1994 from Sears to oversee the spinoff. He was named CEO five years later and led the insurer in 2005 when hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma cost Allstate more than $5 billion combined.
Liddy began an effort that continued under current Allstate CEO Tom Wilson to scale back the coverage of homes in catastrophe-prone regions. In Louisiana, the insurer stopped covering wind damage in some parishes, restricted the sale of new policies, and bought extra reinsurance to protect itself against losses exceeding $500 million in the state.
Liddy is ``a brilliant financial strategist,'' said Robert Pike, a retired chief administrative officer who reported to Liddy at Northbrook, Illinois-based Allstate, the largest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer. ``He's able to take an extraordinary amount of data and synthesize it, probably better than anybody I ever met.''
Planes to Factories
Allstate sells home, auto and life insurance, almost exclusively in the U.S., and mostly to individual customers. AIG, which operates in more than 100 countries, competes with Allstate and also covers planes, shipping and factories, and protects commercial property owners against terrorist attacks. AIG sold financial guaranties on fixed-income investments that led to $25 billion of writedowns over the past year.
``Liddy is a respected insurance executive, whose experience and expertise will be tested given the challenging situation he has been given,'' said Tom Kersting, an analyst at Edward Jones in St. Louis.
Liddy does have experience in mortgage insurance, a business that lost money for AIG for four straight quarters and is expected to be unprofitable this year. He served as chairman of PMI Group Inc., the No. 2 U.S. mortgage insurer, about 14 years ago. Mortgage insurers reimburse lenders when borrowers fail to pay their debts.
NOTE: AIG IS ONE OF THE TOP COMPANIES IN THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY.
Shaking Up Management
Shortly before Liddy took over as Allstate CEO, he told a meeting of 200 managers that a number of them wouldn't be around in a year, according to a May 2005 Crain's Chicago Business story that Pike confirmed. Liddy ended up ousting executives including the finance chief and investment officers.
``Ed looked around and picked those people he felt would add value and complement their culture, and I think he did pretty damn well,'' said Pike, who worked at Allstate for 35 years.
Allstate gained about 9.5 percent a year in New York trading under Liddy, beating the Standard & Poor's 500 Index during his tenure.
``Ed Liddy led Allstate from being a typical average performance subsidiary of Sears to becoming one of the best- capitalized and best-managed insurers in the U.S.,'' said Cliff Gallant, an analyst at KBW Inc. in New York. ``He is known for integrity and strong leadership.''
Allstate ranks second to policyholder-owned State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. of Bloomington, Illinois, in the U.S. home and auto insurance market.
New Jersey Roots
Liddy grew up in New Jersey and worked at Ford Motor Co. before moving to Chicago in 1981 to join G.D. Searle & Co., where Donald Rumsfeld, later the secretary of defense, was CEO. He moved to Sears in 1988 to work under CEO Edward Brennan.
Liddy has an undergraduate degree from Catholic University of America and an M.B.A. from George Washington University, both in Washington, D.C. He was previously chairman of Northwestern Memorial Healthcare, which operates one of Chicago's largest hospital systems.
``Unlike a lot of CEOs, Ed doesn't take on a regal air and he's not pompous in any way,'' Pike said.
To contact the reporters on this story: David Mildenberg in Charlotte, North Carolina at dmildenberg@bloomberg.net; Erik Holm in New York at eholm2@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: September 17, 2008 12:32 EDT
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Friday, September 19, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
INSURANCE CUSTOMERS OF AIG SHOULDN'T WORRY YET
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Insurance customers of AIG shouldn't worry yet
Insurance industry; AIG insurance policy, annuity holders shouldn't worry
September 17, 2008: 05:27 PM EST
NEW YORK (Associated Press) - The financial problems at American International Group Inc. may be causing you great concern today if you hold an AIG life, health, home or auto insurance policy, or have an annuity with the company.
Insurance industry officials and analysts say there's little for policyholders to worry about today, but they say they're watching the situation carefully.
NOTE: AIG IS ONE OF THE TOP COMPANIES IN THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY.
They're keeping a close eye, because the potential impact in the United States for insurance policy holders is significant. The Insurance Information Institute says AIG ranks in the top 10 of insurance companies in fixed annuities sold through banks. Fixed annuities guarantee the principal and fixed payments to the buyer for a specified period of time, usually until death. AIG also ranks among the top writers of auto insurance, commercial insurance and life insurance. It led the nation in fixed annuities sold through banks, writing more than $5 billion in 2007. AIG also led in commercial insurance writing $24 billion in policies in 2007.
Here are the answers to some key questions about where AIG's insurance businesses stand and how it may effect you.
Q: What is going to happen to the insurance businesses owned by AIG?
A: The infusion of $85 billion into AIG offers financial stability so the company will have time to decide which assets or business segments it should sell and to whom. It hasn't been disclosed whether the insurance segment, or portions of it, would be sold.
"We believe the insurance subsidiary to be financially sound and continues to be sound today," said analyst Joyce Sharaf of A.M. Best Co., one of the nation's main insurance ratings companies. She said Wednesday that AIG holds major insurance businesses that "are enviable franchises that could be sold in whole or in part."
A.M. Best analyst Marc Steinberg said he's continuing to review AIG's ratings and analysts are closely monitoring the situation as it unfolds. Analysts believe, however, that insurance policyholders are safe for now, he said.
Insurance regulators in New York, which have regulatory oversight over New York-based AIG, and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners said the company's insurance operations remain solvent and can pay claims.
Insurance companies in the United States are closely regulated by government agencies established by the states in which they are based.
The company released a statement Tuesday evening which said: "Policyholders of AIG companies around the world can rest assured that AIG's commitments will continue to be honored."
---
Q: Should I be worried if I have health or life insurance policies with AIG and what if I have a retirement annuity?
You should first keep in mind that AIG continues to operate, it has not filed for bankruptcy protection and has not been declared insolvent. Even if the insurance portion of the business was for some reason declared insolvent, there are protections in place similar to the FDIC insurance that backs up your bank deposits.
Life and health insurance, and products like annuities are covered by insurance guarantee associations that have been established in every state, said Peter Gallanis, president of the National Organization of Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Associations. The associations step in when insurance regulators in your state declare an insurance company insolvent and it's placed in receivership.
The level of coverage may vary by state, but every state association provides withdrawal and cash value coverage for annuities of at least $100,000. About a dozen states offer up to $300,000 and a few others offer up to $500,000.
Life insurance policies are backed up with at least $300,000 in life insurance death benefits and $100,000 in cash surrender or withdrawal value. States offer at least $100,000 in health insurance policy benefits.
In the past 25 years more than $20 billion in coverage benefits have been provided by the state associations for policyholders and annuity clients of dissolved insurance companies. In that time, the associations have provided protection for more than two million policyholders and worked on more than 60 multistate insolvencies.
---
Q: What should I do if I hold a homeowner's or car insurance policy with AIG?
Every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands have established property guarantee funds similar to those established to protect against losses in life and health insurance.
Guaranty funds generally pay the amount of coverage stipulated by the policy or $300,000, whichever is less. Each state has a law that places a cap on the coverage and some have higher amounts. New York, for example, has a property/casualty cap of $1 million.
Most state guarantee funds pay all of their state's workers' compensation benefits.
Since the late 1960s, the property/casualty guaranty system has paid out about $21 billion in claims on behalf of insolvent insurers. About $10 billion disbursed in the last six years, largely because of the frequent and severe hurricanes that have struck the Gulf Coast.
Since 1976, there have been about 600 insolvencies of property and casualty insurers. There are 2,648 property casualty insurers licensed to do business in the United States.
___
On the Net:
A.M. Best Co.: http://www.ambest.com
National Conference of Insurance Guaranty Funds: http://www.ncigf.org
National Organization of Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Associations: http://www.nolhga.com/ Top of page
More Markets
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Bank merger talks heat up
Bailouts - The new rate cuts
The Hot List
100 best places to start a business
Diesel: The truck stops here
'You're working for gas now'
Top Stories
Stocks slump on AIG, housing
Oil jumps as investors flee Wall Street
Google, GE to develop green energy technology
Why this (still) isn't a recession
SEC puts 'naked' short sellers on notice
Money
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TRADING
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Insurance customers of AIG shouldn't worry yet
Insurance industry; AIG insurance policy, annuity holders shouldn't worry
September 17, 2008: 05:27 PM EST
NEW YORK (Associated Press) - The financial problems at American International Group Inc. may be causing you great concern today if you hold an AIG life, health, home or auto insurance policy, or have an annuity with the company.
Insurance industry officials and analysts say there's little for policyholders to worry about today, but they say they're watching the situation carefully.
NOTE: AIG IS ONE OF THE TOP COMPANIES IN THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY.
They're keeping a close eye, because the potential impact in the United States for insurance policy holders is significant. The Insurance Information Institute says AIG ranks in the top 10 of insurance companies in fixed annuities sold through banks. Fixed annuities guarantee the principal and fixed payments to the buyer for a specified period of time, usually until death. AIG also ranks among the top writers of auto insurance, commercial insurance and life insurance. It led the nation in fixed annuities sold through banks, writing more than $5 billion in 2007. AIG also led in commercial insurance writing $24 billion in policies in 2007.
Here are the answers to some key questions about where AIG's insurance businesses stand and how it may effect you.
Q: What is going to happen to the insurance businesses owned by AIG?
A: The infusion of $85 billion into AIG offers financial stability so the company will have time to decide which assets or business segments it should sell and to whom. It hasn't been disclosed whether the insurance segment, or portions of it, would be sold.
"We believe the insurance subsidiary to be financially sound and continues to be sound today," said analyst Joyce Sharaf of A.M. Best Co., one of the nation's main insurance ratings companies. She said Wednesday that AIG holds major insurance businesses that "are enviable franchises that could be sold in whole or in part."
A.M. Best analyst Marc Steinberg said he's continuing to review AIG's ratings and analysts are closely monitoring the situation as it unfolds. Analysts believe, however, that insurance policyholders are safe for now, he said.
Insurance regulators in New York, which have regulatory oversight over New York-based AIG, and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners said the company's insurance operations remain solvent and can pay claims.
Insurance companies in the United States are closely regulated by government agencies established by the states in which they are based.
The company released a statement Tuesday evening which said: "Policyholders of AIG companies around the world can rest assured that AIG's commitments will continue to be honored."
---
Q: Should I be worried if I have health or life insurance policies with AIG and what if I have a retirement annuity?
You should first keep in mind that AIG continues to operate, it has not filed for bankruptcy protection and has not been declared insolvent. Even if the insurance portion of the business was for some reason declared insolvent, there are protections in place similar to the FDIC insurance that backs up your bank deposits.
Life and health insurance, and products like annuities are covered by insurance guarantee associations that have been established in every state, said Peter Gallanis, president of the National Organization of Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Associations. The associations step in when insurance regulators in your state declare an insurance company insolvent and it's placed in receivership.
The level of coverage may vary by state, but every state association provides withdrawal and cash value coverage for annuities of at least $100,000. About a dozen states offer up to $300,000 and a few others offer up to $500,000.
Life insurance policies are backed up with at least $300,000 in life insurance death benefits and $100,000 in cash surrender or withdrawal value. States offer at least $100,000 in health insurance policy benefits.
In the past 25 years more than $20 billion in coverage benefits have been provided by the state associations for policyholders and annuity clients of dissolved insurance companies. In that time, the associations have provided protection for more than two million policyholders and worked on more than 60 multistate insolvencies.
---
Q: What should I do if I hold a homeowner's or car insurance policy with AIG?
Every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands have established property guarantee funds similar to those established to protect against losses in life and health insurance.
Guaranty funds generally pay the amount of coverage stipulated by the policy or $300,000, whichever is less. Each state has a law that places a cap on the coverage and some have higher amounts. New York, for example, has a property/casualty cap of $1 million.
Most state guarantee funds pay all of their state's workers' compensation benefits.
Since the late 1960s, the property/casualty guaranty system has paid out about $21 billion in claims on behalf of insolvent insurers. About $10 billion disbursed in the last six years, largely because of the frequent and severe hurricanes that have struck the Gulf Coast.
Since 1976, there have been about 600 insolvencies of property and casualty insurers. There are 2,648 property casualty insurers licensed to do business in the United States.
___
On the Net:
A.M. Best Co.: http://www.ambest.com
National Conference of Insurance Guaranty Funds: http://www.ncigf.org
National Organization of Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Associations: http://www.nolhga.com/ Top of page
More Markets
Another thrashing for stocks
Bank merger talks heat up
Bailouts - The new rate cuts
The Hot List
100 best places to start a business
Diesel: The truck stops here
'You're working for gas now'
Top Stories
Stocks slump on AIG, housing
Oil jumps as investors flee Wall Street
Google, GE to develop green energy technology
Why this (still) isn't a recession
SEC puts 'naked' short sellers on notice
Money
Privacy Policy
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
© 2008 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy
Home Portfolio Calculators Contact Us Newsletters Podcasts RSS Mobile Widgets Press Center Site Map User Preferences
Advertise with Us Magazine Customer Service Download Fortune Lists Reprints Career Opportunities Special Sections Conferences Business Leader Council
Live Quotes automatically refresh, but individual equities are delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET.
* : Time reflects local markets trading time. † - Intraday data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. Disclaimer
Copyright © 2008 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. All Times are ET.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Hemscott.
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
AIG FATE HAS BIG IMPACT ON THIS SIDE OF THE HUDSON
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AIG Fate Has Big Impact on This Side of the Hudson
Posted on: Wednesday, 17 September 2008, 15:00 CDT
By RICHARD NEWMAN, STAFF WRITER
Beleaguered American International Group Inc., the largest U.S. insurer, is also a big player in New Jersey.
The New York-based financial services giant is the top underwriter of commercial lines in New Jersey and ranks eighth in auto insurance based on premium dollars.
"If AIG goes under, that's going to send ripples throughout the New Jersey and New York region," said James Hughes, dean of Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.
NOTE: HUDGES IS A WELL RESPECTED PERSONALITY IN THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY.
The federal government announced an $85 billion bailout of AIG on Tuesday night. It is one of the world's biggest financial services players, and a collapse would have had consequences for financial firms around the globe. AIG insures some of the largest assets in the world and does business in more than 100 countries.
More than a dozen AIG subsidiaries are licensed to operate in New Jersey, but the only one with headquarters in this state is auto insurer American International Insurance of New Jersey. By AIG's standards it is a comparatively small operation, covering 76,000 vehicles and generating $80 million in annual premiums.
The auto insurance unit is "well-capitalized," said Ed Rogan, a spokesman for the Department of Banking and Insurance, and AIG's holding company has not requested permission to access that capital. "We would not approve such a thing if in anyway it would impact consumers," Rogan said.
NOTE: ROGAN IS A WELL RESPECTED PERSONALITY IN AUTO INSURANCE INDUSTRY.
An AIG spokesman declined to comment.
An organization of state insurance regulators issued a statement Tuesday to address AIG policyholders' concerns.
"If you have a policy with an AIG insurance company, they are solvent and have the capability to pay claims," Sandy Praeger, president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, said in the statement. "Our job is to ensure that they continue to have the ability to pay."
Insurance regulators in New York and Pennsylvania are working with the holding company to give it access to capital in subsidiaries domiciled in those states.
"The holding company is at issue right now," said Roger Schmelzer, president of the National Conference of Insurance Guaranty Funds in Indianapolis. "The holding company could go bankrupt, and for policyholders it would be business as usual."
AIG shares plunged 21 percent Tuesday, to $3.75 a share.
Other insurers could benefit from AIG's woes. Warren-based Chubb Corp. rose $6.53, or 14 percent, to $55.05, and Newark's Prudential Financial Inc. climbed $6.64, or 9.2 percent, to $79.18.
***
American International Group in New Jersey
Market
Line Ranking* Share*
Commercial 1 10%
Automobile 8 4.7%
Homeowner 19 1.3%
*2007
Source: Insurance Information Institute
***
E-mail: newman@northjersey.com
(c) 2008 Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.
Source: Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.
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AIG Fate Has Big Impact on This Side of the Hudson
Posted on: Wednesday, 17 September 2008, 15:00 CDT
By RICHARD NEWMAN, STAFF WRITER
Beleaguered American International Group Inc., the largest U.S. insurer, is also a big player in New Jersey.
The New York-based financial services giant is the top underwriter of commercial lines in New Jersey and ranks eighth in auto insurance based on premium dollars.
"If AIG goes under, that's going to send ripples throughout the New Jersey and New York region," said James Hughes, dean of Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.
NOTE: HUDGES IS A WELL RESPECTED PERSONALITY IN THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY.
The federal government announced an $85 billion bailout of AIG on Tuesday night. It is one of the world's biggest financial services players, and a collapse would have had consequences for financial firms around the globe. AIG insures some of the largest assets in the world and does business in more than 100 countries.
More than a dozen AIG subsidiaries are licensed to operate in New Jersey, but the only one with headquarters in this state is auto insurer American International Insurance of New Jersey. By AIG's standards it is a comparatively small operation, covering 76,000 vehicles and generating $80 million in annual premiums.
The auto insurance unit is "well-capitalized," said Ed Rogan, a spokesman for the Department of Banking and Insurance, and AIG's holding company has not requested permission to access that capital. "We would not approve such a thing if in anyway it would impact consumers," Rogan said.
NOTE: ROGAN IS A WELL RESPECTED PERSONALITY IN AUTO INSURANCE INDUSTRY.
An AIG spokesman declined to comment.
An organization of state insurance regulators issued a statement Tuesday to address AIG policyholders' concerns.
"If you have a policy with an AIG insurance company, they are solvent and have the capability to pay claims," Sandy Praeger, president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, said in the statement. "Our job is to ensure that they continue to have the ability to pay."
Insurance regulators in New York and Pennsylvania are working with the holding company to give it access to capital in subsidiaries domiciled in those states.
"The holding company is at issue right now," said Roger Schmelzer, president of the National Conference of Insurance Guaranty Funds in Indianapolis. "The holding company could go bankrupt, and for policyholders it would be business as usual."
AIG shares plunged 21 percent Tuesday, to $3.75 a share.
Other insurers could benefit from AIG's woes. Warren-based Chubb Corp. rose $6.53, or 14 percent, to $55.05, and Newark's Prudential Financial Inc. climbed $6.64, or 9.2 percent, to $79.18.
***
American International Group in New Jersey
Market
Line Ranking* Share*
Commercial 1 10%
Automobile 8 4.7%
Homeowner 19 1.3%
*2007
Source: Insurance Information Institute
***
E-mail: newman@northjersey.com
(c) 2008 Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.
Source: Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.
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Sunday, September 14, 2008
NC INSURANCE COMMISSIONER ORDERS LOWER AUTO RATES
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Associated Press
NC insurance commissioner orders lower auto rates
Associated Press 09.11.08, 5:48 PM ET
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RALEIGH, N.C. -
North Carolina State Insurance Commissioner Jim Long on Thursday rejected an industry request for an almost 13 percent increase in auto rates and has ordered a reduction instead.
Long signed an order requiring a 16.1 percent reduction in private passenger auto rates and an 11.7 percent reduction in motorcycle liability rates.
NOTE: LONG IS A WELL RESPECTED STATE INSURANCE COMMISSIONER.
The reductions are effective Jan. 1.
The North Carolina Rate Bureau's request for a 12.9 percent increase was the subject of rate hearings in July and August.
Long said he decided the requested increase "just wasn't warranted. It's the largest increase they've requested in almost 15 years. I was surprised by the request, especially since last year the bureau filed for no change."
During the hearings, the department's attorney argued that the market for auto insurance had not changed significantly since 2007.
Rate Bureau general manager Ray Evans said the board was "surprised at the magnitude of the decrease. We don't think that's the appropriate decision."
The board meets next week and will decide whether to accept Long's decision or appeal it, he said.
Department experts said the bureau mistakenly included claims arising from the North Carolina Reinsurance Facility when determining its proposed rate increase. The facility insures riskier drivers, and bureau rates don't apply to them.
Instead, the facility files a separate rate proposal using its own claims data. But Evans said the facility also insures some drivers whom it believes should be included in its rate computations.
If the bureau appeals Long's decision, then companies can raise their rates and hold the difference in escrow. If the bureau lost the appeal, companies would have to refund the money in escrow, plus interest.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
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Associated Press
NC insurance commissioner orders lower auto rates
Associated Press 09.11.08, 5:48 PM ET
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RALEIGH, N.C. -
North Carolina State Insurance Commissioner Jim Long on Thursday rejected an industry request for an almost 13 percent increase in auto rates and has ordered a reduction instead.
Long signed an order requiring a 16.1 percent reduction in private passenger auto rates and an 11.7 percent reduction in motorcycle liability rates.
NOTE: LONG IS A WELL RESPECTED STATE INSURANCE COMMISSIONER.
The reductions are effective Jan. 1.
The North Carolina Rate Bureau's request for a 12.9 percent increase was the subject of rate hearings in July and August.
Long said he decided the requested increase "just wasn't warranted. It's the largest increase they've requested in almost 15 years. I was surprised by the request, especially since last year the bureau filed for no change."
During the hearings, the department's attorney argued that the market for auto insurance had not changed significantly since 2007.
Rate Bureau general manager Ray Evans said the board was "surprised at the magnitude of the decrease. We don't think that's the appropriate decision."
The board meets next week and will decide whether to accept Long's decision or appeal it, he said.
Department experts said the bureau mistakenly included claims arising from the North Carolina Reinsurance Facility when determining its proposed rate increase. The facility insures riskier drivers, and bureau rates don't apply to them.
Instead, the facility files a separate rate proposal using its own claims data. But Evans said the facility also insures some drivers whom it believes should be included in its rate computations.
If the bureau appeals Long's decision, then companies can raise their rates and hold the difference in escrow. If the bureau lost the appeal, companies would have to refund the money in escrow, plus interest.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
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* AIG Prepares For Major Restructuring
* Lehman's Debt Debacle
* Complete Coverage: Wall Street
The Highest-Paid Women In Corporate America
The Highest-Paid Women In Corporate America Here's a Plan: Work Longer
Here's a Plan: Work Longer College Football's Highest-Paid Losers
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Stock quotes are delayed at least 15 minutes for Nasdaq, at least 20 minutes for NYSE/AMEX. U.S. indexes are delayed at least 15 minutes with the exception of Nasdaq, Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 which are 2 minutes delayed.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
How to optimize your auto insurance
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September 3, 2008 -- Updated 1324 GMT (2124 HKT)
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How to optimize your auto insurance
* Story Highlights
* Don't just buy the cheapest auto insurance possible, expert says
* Carry a high deductible to bring the price of the premiums down
* Consider dropping physical damage coverage on older cars to save money
* Buy insurance that protects you against motorists who don't have insurance
* Next Article in Living »
By Tom Torbjornsen
Decrease font Decrease font
Enlarge font Enlarge font
New Cars, Used Cars, Kelley Blue Book Values at AOL Autos
(AOL Autos) -- We keep our cars tuned up, but what about our automobile insurance? Recently I had a chat with an insurance broker. The topic of conversation? Smart insurance buying.
The hospital bill from the people you hit can be expensive, so buy as high a liability limit as you can afford.
The hospital bill from the people you hit can be expensive, so buy as high a liability limit as you can afford.
Note: Torbjornsen is a respected personality in the insurance industry.
After our conversation I realized that the biggest mistake an uninformed consumer makes is to regard insurance coverage as a commodity... as generic as the oil purchased for the car.
An insurance policy is a personalized service contract that provides coverage for you and your family in the event of an accident. When you read your auto policy the language is anything but simple. And everyone knows it's not inexpensive!
To regard auto insurance as a "necessary evil" to be purchased as cheap as possible is a foolish and ignorant approach to this very necessary aspect of driving an automobile.
Based on our conversation, here's how to get the biggest "bang for your buck" when purchasing automobile insurance:
Buy as high a liability limit as you can afford
This is the coverage that protects you in the event you get into an accident and are accused of negligence. Remember, a lawsuit can be brought against you despite your culpability - and damages sought in today's court actions seldom fall below six figures.
Don't Miss
* AOL Autos: Auto insurance
* AOL Autos: Car loans
* AOL Autos: Auto repair
Often the spouse of the injured party seeks more than $100,000 for "loss of services." This doesn't include the dollars requested for the injured party. Question... how far would your present policy go in responding to this kind of a suit?
Be realistic, not ridiculous in determining the amount of liability you need. Most insurance companies will write liability coverage up to at least $500,000. Adding an umbrella liability policy in the amount of one, two, three million (or more depending on your situation) will go a long way in protecting you.
Only buying $50,000 coverage? See how long that lasts you when you get the hospital bill from the party you hit for three or four weeks... oh, and I forgot about the "loss of services."
Buy supplemental uninsured motorist coverage
This is the coverage that protects you in the event you are involved in an accident with an uninsured motorist, or a motorist with low limits of liability insurance coverage. AOL Autos: 10 cheapest cars in U.S.
Let's say that you're involved in an accident resulting in serious injury to you, and possibly your passengers. No matter what the amount a court might award, if the negligent party has inadequate liability coverage and few assets, your award is of little value.
The Supplemental Uninsured Motorist portion of your policy provides the liability coverage the other driver should have had, up to the limit you carry on your policy. AOL Autos: Safest cars -- sedans
Carry high deductibles on your physical damage
Higher liability as well as Supplemental Uninsured Motorist coverage means higher premiums. A good way to help pay for this is to carry as high a deductible on your collision and comprehensive as you can reasonably afford. This brings the price of the premiums down. AOL Autos: Most-popular fuel-efficient cars
Consider dropping physical damage on older vehicles
This is not an easy call. Typically, an insurance company charges less for collision and comprehensive on an older vehicle. In general, when a vehicle is six years old or more, it's worth considering this change.
Things to take into consideration when trying to make this call are value of the vehicle, its condition, how much you drive it, and the policy charge for the coverage. At some point the charge for the coverage will not be worth what you could collect in the event of a loss.
Never skimp on liability coverage in order to pay for less important physical damage coverage on a vehicle that is worth less than what the policy would pay in the event of a loss. AOL Autos: Best and worst resale value cars
Deal with an agent that has your confidence
Make sure your agent gives you the service you need. Ask questions about coverage under different scenarios and ask for recommendations. Deal with a full-service agency; one that offers all the products you need and has the staff to make the complex insurance marketplace bearable. AOL Autos: Fuel-efficient used SUVs and Crossovers
People spend money on maintaining their cars and ignore their insurance coverage. When you get in an accident and have the other party's lawyers breathing down your neck is not the time to find out that your insurance coverage was inadequate.
Get with your agent and tune up your insurance policy now!!!
E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend
Share this on:
Mixx Digg Facebook del.icio.us reddit StumbleUpon MySpace
| Mixx it | Share
© 2008 AOL, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
All About AUTO INSURANCE
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Weather Forecast Edition: U.S. | Arabic | Set Pref
September 3, 2008 -- Updated 1324 GMT (2124 HKT)
*
Share this on:
Mixx Digg Facebook del.icio.us reddit StumbleUpon MySpace
Share
* Save
How to optimize your auto insurance
* Story Highlights
* Don't just buy the cheapest auto insurance possible, expert says
* Carry a high deductible to bring the price of the premiums down
* Consider dropping physical damage coverage on older cars to save money
* Buy insurance that protects you against motorists who don't have insurance
* Next Article in Living »
By Tom Torbjornsen
Decrease font Decrease font
Enlarge font Enlarge font
New Cars, Used Cars, Kelley Blue Book Values at AOL Autos
(AOL Autos) -- We keep our cars tuned up, but what about our automobile insurance? Recently I had a chat with an insurance broker. The topic of conversation? Smart insurance buying.
The hospital bill from the people you hit can be expensive, so buy as high a liability limit as you can afford.
The hospital bill from the people you hit can be expensive, so buy as high a liability limit as you can afford.
Note: Torbjornsen is a respected personality in the insurance industry.
After our conversation I realized that the biggest mistake an uninformed consumer makes is to regard insurance coverage as a commodity... as generic as the oil purchased for the car.
An insurance policy is a personalized service contract that provides coverage for you and your family in the event of an accident. When you read your auto policy the language is anything but simple. And everyone knows it's not inexpensive!
To regard auto insurance as a "necessary evil" to be purchased as cheap as possible is a foolish and ignorant approach to this very necessary aspect of driving an automobile.
Based on our conversation, here's how to get the biggest "bang for your buck" when purchasing automobile insurance:
Buy as high a liability limit as you can afford
This is the coverage that protects you in the event you get into an accident and are accused of negligence. Remember, a lawsuit can be brought against you despite your culpability - and damages sought in today's court actions seldom fall below six figures.
Don't Miss
* AOL Autos: Auto insurance
* AOL Autos: Car loans
* AOL Autos: Auto repair
Often the spouse of the injured party seeks more than $100,000 for "loss of services." This doesn't include the dollars requested for the injured party. Question... how far would your present policy go in responding to this kind of a suit?
Be realistic, not ridiculous in determining the amount of liability you need. Most insurance companies will write liability coverage up to at least $500,000. Adding an umbrella liability policy in the amount of one, two, three million (or more depending on your situation) will go a long way in protecting you.
Only buying $50,000 coverage? See how long that lasts you when you get the hospital bill from the party you hit for three or four weeks... oh, and I forgot about the "loss of services."
Buy supplemental uninsured motorist coverage
This is the coverage that protects you in the event you are involved in an accident with an uninsured motorist, or a motorist with low limits of liability insurance coverage. AOL Autos: 10 cheapest cars in U.S.
Let's say that you're involved in an accident resulting in serious injury to you, and possibly your passengers. No matter what the amount a court might award, if the negligent party has inadequate liability coverage and few assets, your award is of little value.
The Supplemental Uninsured Motorist portion of your policy provides the liability coverage the other driver should have had, up to the limit you carry on your policy. AOL Autos: Safest cars -- sedans
Carry high deductibles on your physical damage
Higher liability as well as Supplemental Uninsured Motorist coverage means higher premiums. A good way to help pay for this is to carry as high a deductible on your collision and comprehensive as you can reasonably afford. This brings the price of the premiums down. AOL Autos: Most-popular fuel-efficient cars
Consider dropping physical damage on older vehicles
This is not an easy call. Typically, an insurance company charges less for collision and comprehensive on an older vehicle. In general, when a vehicle is six years old or more, it's worth considering this change.
Things to take into consideration when trying to make this call are value of the vehicle, its condition, how much you drive it, and the policy charge for the coverage. At some point the charge for the coverage will not be worth what you could collect in the event of a loss.
Never skimp on liability coverage in order to pay for less important physical damage coverage on a vehicle that is worth less than what the policy would pay in the event of a loss. AOL Autos: Best and worst resale value cars
Deal with an agent that has your confidence
Make sure your agent gives you the service you need. Ask questions about coverage under different scenarios and ask for recommendations. Deal with a full-service agency; one that offers all the products you need and has the staff to make the complex insurance marketplace bearable. AOL Autos: Fuel-efficient used SUVs and Crossovers
People spend money on maintaining their cars and ignore their insurance coverage. When you get in an accident and have the other party's lawyers breathing down your neck is not the time to find out that your insurance coverage was inadequate.
Get with your agent and tune up your insurance policy now!!!
E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend
Share this on:
Mixx Digg Facebook del.icio.us reddit StumbleUpon MySpace
| Mixx it | Share
© 2008 AOL, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
All About AUTO INSURANCE
* Save
From the Blogs: Controversy, commentary, and debate
loading Sit tight, we're getting to the good stuff
powered by Sphere
Top News
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Friday, September 12, 2008
California Life Home Car Insurance Quote Auto Insurance CALIFORNIA, CA
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California Life Home Car Insurance Quote Auto Insurance CALIFORNIA,CA
[California Life Home Car Insurance Quote Auto Insurance CALIFORNIA,CA]
California Life Home Car Insurance Quote Auto Insurance CALIFORNIA,CA
California Life Home Car Insurance Quote Auto Insurance CALIFORNIA,CA
Avatar Posted by bestantiochagent 1 day 21 hours ago (http://www.bestantiochagent.com) View profile
Category: Financial | Tags: california life insurance california home insurance californ
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California Life Home Car Insurance Quote Auto Insurance CALIFORNIA,CA
[California Life Home Car Insurance Quote Auto Insurance CALIFORNIA,CA]
California Life Home Car Insurance Quote Auto Insurance CALIFORNIA,CA
California Life Home Car Insurance Quote Auto Insurance CALIFORNIA,CA
Avatar Posted by bestantiochagent 1 day 21 hours ago (http://www.bestantiochagent.com) View profile
Category: Financial | Tags: california life insurance california home insurance californ
BESTANTIOCHAGENT.COM OFFER YOU PROFESSIONAL AND EXPERT INSURANCE HELP
Welcome to Farmers CALIFORNIA LIFE INSURANCE. The best resource for CALIFORNIA LIFE INSURANCE, AUTO INSURANCE, HOME INSURANCE, CAR INSURANCE etc. We are the top service providers in Domain of INSURANCE in CALIFORNIA (ca). The Farmers Insurance Group of Companies was founded in 1928 when Farmers Insurance Exchange, an automobile insurer, was formed. As customer demand for additional insurance services increased, the Fire Insurance Exchange and Truck Insurance Exchange were established for home and commercial insurance needs. Today, CALIFORNIA LIFE INSURANCE, CALIFORNIA HOME INSURANCE, CALIFORNIA INSURANCE QUOTE, INSURANCE CALIFORNIA, CALIFORNIA INSURANCE, CALIFORNIA CAR INSURANCE QUOTE, AUTO INSURANCE CA, CALIFORNIA AUTO INSURANCE, INSURANCE CA, AUTO INSURANCE CALIFORNIA, CAR INSURANCE CALIFORNIA, CALIFORNIA CAR INSURANCE, the Farmers Insurance Group of Companies is the country's third-largest writer of both private passenger automobile and homeowners insurance. You will have the added benefit of working with Farmers California agents who understand your needs.
We provide best services for California Insurance, (http://www.bestantiochagent.com/site/) and all you needs for Insurance California. A one stop shop for top rated services for Insurance ca.
We are best insurance quote in California to meet you investing as well as required needs of insurance. California Insurance Quote: Get a Personal Quote on your Insurance Needs, be it California Life Insurance, California Home Insurance, California Insurance Quote, Insurance California, California Insurance, California Car Insurance Quote, Auto Insurance CA, California Auto Insurance, Insurance CA, Auto Insurance California, Car Insurance California, California Car Insurance. etc, in ca. Home Insurance, Auto Insurance, Renters Insurance, Motorcycle Insurance, Boat/Watercraft Insurance , Recreational Vehicle (RV) Insurance, Camper/Trailer Insurance Flood Insurance Life Insurance, Health Insurance, Dental Insurance, Disability Insurance Long Term Care, Mortgages/Loans, Planning .
The term HEALTH INSURANCE is generally used to describe a form of insurance that pays for medical expenses. It is sometimes used more broadly to include insurance covering disability or long-term nursing or custodial care needs. Covered groups or individuals pay premiums or taxes to help protect themselves from high or unexpected healthcare expenses.
Health insurance works by estimating the overall risk of healthcare expenses and developing a routine finance structure (such as a monthly premium or annual tax) that will ensure that money is available to pay for the healthcare benefits specified in the insurance agreement. i, e : California Life Insurance, California Home Insurance.
Note: Insurance has been a must in California.
Everything that you must know before buying Home Insurance in California (ca), California life insurance, California home insurance, California insurance quote, insurance California, California insurance, California car insurance quote, auto insurance ca, California auto insurance, insurance ca, auto insurance California, car insurance California, California car insurance.
California AUTO INSURANCE protects you against financial loss if you have an accident. It provides best Medical coverage, liability coverage etc including complete Car Insurance in California. Auto Insurance provides financial protection for you and your family. Pays against Damage, injuries. repairing or stolen etc.
Thank you for visiting our Farmers California website. We have set up this website to be your complete California insurance resource and to assist you with all of your Ca. insurance needs. For More details Please contact us : http://www.bestantiochagent.com/site/ you can also contact on our toll free number :888-318-5626 or call us on phone : 925-777-9400 you can also fax us :925-777-9008.
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Homepage > Local News >
Receipts detail meals, car washes, insurance
By Rick Armon
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Sunday, Sep 07, 2008
Summit County MRDD Superintendent Tom Armstrong is meticulous about keeping receipts to back up his expenses.
Note: Armstrong is a respected personality in the Summit County.
In the last three years, he has been paid nearly $32,000 in expenses, ranging from meals to hotel stays to auto repair bills, according to a Beacon Journal review of his expense reports.
The receipts show:
• He has lunch and dinner meetings several times a month. He favors bars and taverns as opposed to high-end restaurants, often eating at places such as the Rusty Bucket Corner Tavern, Fado Irish Pub, Winking Lizard Tavern and Bennigan's.
''I'm not an extravagant guy,'' Armstrong said. ''I'm not trying to wine and dine on the county's dime.''
• The MRDD has a policy of not paying for alcohol. And while receipts often show alcoholic drinks, Armstrong doesn't seek reimbursement for them.
• County government workers aren't reimbursed for travel and meals inside the county. Armstrong is. MRDD is governed by an independent board and supported by a levy, with different rules applying to agency employees.
• Some of Armstrong's lunches and dinners are with board members and MRDD workers. Asked why meetings couldn't take place without billing taxpayers for a meal, board President Linda Bordenkircher and member William Ginter said the expenses are justified.
Lunch or dinner may be the only time available to meet, they said. Many meetings often take place without a meal, they added.
• Taxpayers paid his $750 membership to the NAACP in 2006.
• Armstrong doesn't skimp on car washes. He often has his car washed at the Ultimate Wash & Lube in Hudson and is charged $14. He usually provides a $3 tip — which also is picked up partially by taxpayers.
Armstrong said the washes are a legitimate maintenance expense.
• Taxpayers have paid $1,160 toward his personal auto insurance over the last three years. That expense also is justified, Armstrong said, because he has to pay more for insurance since he uses his vehicle more for work.
• Armstrong has his 2001 Land Rover Discovery II serviced at the Land Rover dealership in Akron. In February 2007, he paid $83 to have three new windshield wipers installed. Taxpayers picked up more than half that cost.
Carolyn Holladay, president of the Weaver Workshop and Support Association, representing 290 MRDD workers, said the union has raised questions about Armstrong's expenses in the past, but their concerns have been ignored.
''The taxpayers are going to be horrified, I think,'' she said.
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com.
Summit County MRDD Superintendent Tom Armstrong is meticulous about keeping receipts to back up his expenses.
In the last three years, he has been paid nearly $32,000 in expenses, ranging from meals to hotel stays to auto repair bills, according to a Beacon Journal review of his expense reports.
The receipts show:
• He has lunch and dinner meetings several times a month. He favors bars and taverns as opposed to high-end restaurants, often eating at places such as the Rusty Bucket Corner Tavern, Fado Irish Pub, Winking Lizard Tavern and Bennigan's.
''I'm not an extravagant guy,'' Armstrong said. ''I'm not trying to wine and dine on the county's dime.''
• The MRDD has a policy of not paying for alcohol. And while receipts often show alcoholic drinks, Armstrong doesn't seek reimbursement for them.
• County government workers aren't reimbursed for travel and meals inside the county. Armstrong is. MRDD is governed by an independent board and supported by a levy, with different rules applying to agency employees.
• Some of Armstrong's lunches and dinners are with board members and MRDD workers. Asked why meetings couldn't take place without billing taxpayers for a meal, board President Linda Bordenkircher and member William Ginter said the expenses are justified.
Lunch or dinner may be the only time available to meet, they said. Many meetings often take place without a meal, they added.
• Taxpayers paid his $750 membership to the NAACP in 2006.
• Armstrong doesn't skimp on car washes. He often has his car washed at the Ultimate Wash & Lube in Hudson and is charged $14. He usually provides a $3 tip — which also is picked up partially by taxpayers.
Armstrong said the washes are a legitimate maintenance expense.
• Taxpayers have paid $1,160 toward his personal auto insurance over the last three years. That expense also is justified, Armstrong said, because he has to pay more for insurance since he uses his vehicle more for work.
• Armstrong has his 2001 Land Rover Discovery II serviced at the Land Rover dealership in Akron. In February 2007, he paid $83 to have three new windshield wipers installed. Taxpayers picked up more than half that cost.
Carolyn Holladay, president of the Weaver Workshop and Support Association, representing 290 MRDD workers, said the union has raised questions about Armstrong's expenses in the past, but their concerns have been ignored.
''The taxpayers are going to be horrified, I think,'' she said.
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com.
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Posted by alan 04:49 AM, 09/07/2008
Given the success the guy has clearly achieved (great increase in money brought to Summit MRDD during his tenure), the small expense is money well spent. Must be a slow news day to make an issue over a NON-ISSUE...
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Posted by Dennis 07:20 AM, 09/07/2008
NAACP dues are NOT a Legitimate Expense....it's not necessary to do the job!!! What Fools are running slummit county!
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Posted by Greg 07:47 AM, 09/07/2008
Increased Medicaid $ resulted from efforts at the State level and benefiited all 88 counties in Ohio. Giving Armstrong credit for the additional medicaid $ is quite a stretch.
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Posted by Missy 09:01 AM, 09/07/2008
bring back topix
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Homepage > Local News >
Receipts detail meals, car washes, insurance
By Rick Armon
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Sunday, Sep 07, 2008
Summit County MRDD Superintendent Tom Armstrong is meticulous about keeping receipts to back up his expenses.
Note: Armstrong is a respected personality in the Summit County.
In the last three years, he has been paid nearly $32,000 in expenses, ranging from meals to hotel stays to auto repair bills, according to a Beacon Journal review of his expense reports.
The receipts show:
• He has lunch and dinner meetings several times a month. He favors bars and taverns as opposed to high-end restaurants, often eating at places such as the Rusty Bucket Corner Tavern, Fado Irish Pub, Winking Lizard Tavern and Bennigan's.
''I'm not an extravagant guy,'' Armstrong said. ''I'm not trying to wine and dine on the county's dime.''
• The MRDD has a policy of not paying for alcohol. And while receipts often show alcoholic drinks, Armstrong doesn't seek reimbursement for them.
• County government workers aren't reimbursed for travel and meals inside the county. Armstrong is. MRDD is governed by an independent board and supported by a levy, with different rules applying to agency employees.
• Some of Armstrong's lunches and dinners are with board members and MRDD workers. Asked why meetings couldn't take place without billing taxpayers for a meal, board President Linda Bordenkircher and member William Ginter said the expenses are justified.
Lunch or dinner may be the only time available to meet, they said. Many meetings often take place without a meal, they added.
• Taxpayers paid his $750 membership to the NAACP in 2006.
• Armstrong doesn't skimp on car washes. He often has his car washed at the Ultimate Wash & Lube in Hudson and is charged $14. He usually provides a $3 tip — which also is picked up partially by taxpayers.
Armstrong said the washes are a legitimate maintenance expense.
• Taxpayers have paid $1,160 toward his personal auto insurance over the last three years. That expense also is justified, Armstrong said, because he has to pay more for insurance since he uses his vehicle more for work.
• Armstrong has his 2001 Land Rover Discovery II serviced at the Land Rover dealership in Akron. In February 2007, he paid $83 to have three new windshield wipers installed. Taxpayers picked up more than half that cost.
Carolyn Holladay, president of the Weaver Workshop and Support Association, representing 290 MRDD workers, said the union has raised questions about Armstrong's expenses in the past, but their concerns have been ignored.
''The taxpayers are going to be horrified, I think,'' she said.
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com.
Summit County MRDD Superintendent Tom Armstrong is meticulous about keeping receipts to back up his expenses.
In the last three years, he has been paid nearly $32,000 in expenses, ranging from meals to hotel stays to auto repair bills, according to a Beacon Journal review of his expense reports.
The receipts show:
• He has lunch and dinner meetings several times a month. He favors bars and taverns as opposed to high-end restaurants, often eating at places such as the Rusty Bucket Corner Tavern, Fado Irish Pub, Winking Lizard Tavern and Bennigan's.
''I'm not an extravagant guy,'' Armstrong said. ''I'm not trying to wine and dine on the county's dime.''
• The MRDD has a policy of not paying for alcohol. And while receipts often show alcoholic drinks, Armstrong doesn't seek reimbursement for them.
• County government workers aren't reimbursed for travel and meals inside the county. Armstrong is. MRDD is governed by an independent board and supported by a levy, with different rules applying to agency employees.
• Some of Armstrong's lunches and dinners are with board members and MRDD workers. Asked why meetings couldn't take place without billing taxpayers for a meal, board President Linda Bordenkircher and member William Ginter said the expenses are justified.
Lunch or dinner may be the only time available to meet, they said. Many meetings often take place without a meal, they added.
• Taxpayers paid his $750 membership to the NAACP in 2006.
• Armstrong doesn't skimp on car washes. He often has his car washed at the Ultimate Wash & Lube in Hudson and is charged $14. He usually provides a $3 tip — which also is picked up partially by taxpayers.
Armstrong said the washes are a legitimate maintenance expense.
• Taxpayers have paid $1,160 toward his personal auto insurance over the last three years. That expense also is justified, Armstrong said, because he has to pay more for insurance since he uses his vehicle more for work.
• Armstrong has his 2001 Land Rover Discovery II serviced at the Land Rover dealership in Akron. In February 2007, he paid $83 to have three new windshield wipers installed. Taxpayers picked up more than half that cost.
Carolyn Holladay, president of the Weaver Workshop and Support Association, representing 290 MRDD workers, said the union has raised questions about Armstrong's expenses in the past, but their concerns have been ignored.
''The taxpayers are going to be horrified, I think,'' she said.
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com.
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Posted by alan 04:49 AM, 09/07/2008
Given the success the guy has clearly achieved (great increase in money brought to Summit MRDD during his tenure), the small expense is money well spent. Must be a slow news day to make an issue over a NON-ISSUE...
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Posted by Dennis 07:20 AM, 09/07/2008
NAACP dues are NOT a Legitimate Expense....it's not necessary to do the job!!! What Fools are running slummit county!
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Posted by Greg 07:47 AM, 09/07/2008
Increased Medicaid $ resulted from efforts at the State level and benefiited all 88 counties in Ohio. Giving Armstrong credit for the additional medicaid $ is quite a stretch.
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Posted by Missy 09:01 AM, 09/07/2008
bring back topix
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Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Katrina Victims Illiteracy Hampers Recovery
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Katrina Victims' Illiteracy Hampers Recovery
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
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NEW ORLEANS — Marsha Williams had always hesitated when mail arrived from the government. After Hurricane Katrina, she began to fear the letters.
One warned that her apartment building could be shut down because of unrepaired storm damage. There were legal notices and forms. What did they all mean? At age 51, Williams was embarrassed she could not read much more than her own name and address.
Three years after Katrina, residents of New Orleans are still buried in a blizzard of government paperwork. But for thousands of storm victims seeking federal aid, the challenge is made more difficult by a little-known obstacle: More than 40 percent of the city's adults lack the literacy skills to comprehend basic government forms. And recovery programs have done little to ease the burden.
"I didn't get a lot of school when I was a child. I guess they didn't have enough to go around," said Williams, who is learning to read in a YMCA adult-education course.
Rachel B. Nicolosi, program director for the Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans, estimates that as many as 100,000 people from New Orleans may have had assistance delayed, or they never applied for help at all, because they could not read the documents.
"It's a paramount issue. The rules are almost indecipherable for everyone," said Davida Finger, a staff attorney for Loyola University's New Orleans College of Law, which has helped 1,000 people seek rebuilding aid, nearly all of whom had trouble understanding the forms.
Katrina destroyed 27 adult literacy programs when it came ashore in 2005. Only 13 programs survived, so Nicolosi and others have asked for government rebuilding agencies to write aid forms in a "plain language" format that is already used for some federal health and safety documents.
But some government officials say too much plain language can leave out vital information.
"I concede the point that those who are functionally illiterate, they would have challenges with any form," said Brian Sullivan, a spokesman for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He said the agency has trained all of its 37 staff members in New Orleans to help "those with literacy disabilities."
The National Adult Literacy Survey indicates that 25 percent of U.S. adults read at the lowest functional level, meaning, for example, that they can locate an expiration date on a driver's license but cannot fill out most motor-vehicle forms.
In New Orleans, that figure is 44 percent, according to the survey, which is performed every decade and was last conducted in 2003.
Note: natural calamity has great effect in the economy.
The cornerstone of neighborhood rebuilding efforts is the $10.3 billion Road Home program, which asks participants to review dozens of documents and sign 18 final legal papers before aid is approved.
One paragraph reads: "Homeowner(s) agree(s) to the filing of certain covenants to run with the land on the property for which this Grant is awarded requiring generally as follows: flood insurance to be maintained if located in Special Flood Hazard Area and restraints on use, occupancy and alienation of the Property. The actual covenants are contained in the instrument to be executed by Homeowner(s) and recorded in the land records of the parish where the Property for which this Grant is awarded and located."
Christina Stephens, spokeswoman for the Louisiana Recovery Authority that oversees the Road Home program, said the papers are legal documents, which is "why they sound so serious." But she acknowledged that "it's equally important that people can understand what they are signing."
Since the program was created in 2006, it has held at least 22 training sessions for staff members specifically designed to help illiterate applicants, Stephens said.
Government officials "know who their audience is, and they should write for them," said Annetta Cheek, a spokeswoman for the Plain Language Action and Information Network, a group of federal employees who advocate for clearer language in government communications.
Cheek said the group asked three plain language "translators" to examine the 18 pages of Road Home documents. After several hours, the team was still uncertain of the program's requirements, even though two of the participants were lawyers.
The papers were so confusing that Thomas Wright drove three hours from Mississippi to talk to Road Home outreach workers.
Wright, a retired auto mechanic, graduated from high school in the 1950s and later took shop classes to get his mechanics' license. But when it came to the Road Home forms, he had to enlist friends.
"I needed help from educated people," said Wright, who is black and remembers the segregation of the city school system.
"We got your second-hand books, with half the pages torn out," he said.
Wright applied to Road Home a year ago, trying to rebuild a house in the Upper 9th Ward that was flooded with 8 feet of water. But his application remains stalled; program switchboards refer him back to the forms.
Wright was especially frustrated by one of the most important documents — the highly verbose form that asks applicants to choose among three options: stay and rebuild, sell their home to the state and relocate within Louisiana, or sell their home to the state and leave Louisiana.
"You got 1,500 words (on a form) that could be said in 500," Wright said.
Wright's generation is not the only one that's struggling. According to the Louisiana Department of Education, 42 percent of students who graduated from high school in New Orleans in 2004 had "unsatisfactory" English scores. And more than one in 10 students dropped out of high school.
Henry Lee Burton, 28, said he left school in the ninth grade to take a job and care for his diabetic mother, who died in the months after Katrina.
Though he evacuated to Houston after the storm, he never applied for the FEMA relocation assistance. He said neither he, his mother, nor sister, read well enough to understand the requirements.
Burton, who earns $24,000 a year as a Wal-Mart tire shop worker, said the only assistance he received was a $3,500 payout from his renter's insurance. Two years passed before he could gather up the courage to go to the office and tell his agent he did not fully understand letters from the insurance company.
Now he has a different plan: to learn to read well enough so he does not need help.
"It's something I've always wanted to do and something I need to do," he said. "You really can't depend on the government anyway. You have to do it yourself."
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FOXNEWS.COM HOME > U.S.
Katrina Victims' Illiteracy Hampers Recovery
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
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NEW ORLEANS — Marsha Williams had always hesitated when mail arrived from the government. After Hurricane Katrina, she began to fear the letters.
One warned that her apartment building could be shut down because of unrepaired storm damage. There were legal notices and forms. What did they all mean? At age 51, Williams was embarrassed she could not read much more than her own name and address.
Three years after Katrina, residents of New Orleans are still buried in a blizzard of government paperwork. But for thousands of storm victims seeking federal aid, the challenge is made more difficult by a little-known obstacle: More than 40 percent of the city's adults lack the literacy skills to comprehend basic government forms. And recovery programs have done little to ease the burden.
"I didn't get a lot of school when I was a child. I guess they didn't have enough to go around," said Williams, who is learning to read in a YMCA adult-education course.
Rachel B. Nicolosi, program director for the Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans, estimates that as many as 100,000 people from New Orleans may have had assistance delayed, or they never applied for help at all, because they could not read the documents.
"It's a paramount issue. The rules are almost indecipherable for everyone," said Davida Finger, a staff attorney for Loyola University's New Orleans College of Law, which has helped 1,000 people seek rebuilding aid, nearly all of whom had trouble understanding the forms.
Katrina destroyed 27 adult literacy programs when it came ashore in 2005. Only 13 programs survived, so Nicolosi and others have asked for government rebuilding agencies to write aid forms in a "plain language" format that is already used for some federal health and safety documents.
But some government officials say too much plain language can leave out vital information.
"I concede the point that those who are functionally illiterate, they would have challenges with any form," said Brian Sullivan, a spokesman for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He said the agency has trained all of its 37 staff members in New Orleans to help "those with literacy disabilities."
The National Adult Literacy Survey indicates that 25 percent of U.S. adults read at the lowest functional level, meaning, for example, that they can locate an expiration date on a driver's license but cannot fill out most motor-vehicle forms.
In New Orleans, that figure is 44 percent, according to the survey, which is performed every decade and was last conducted in 2003.
Note: natural calamity has great effect in the economy.
The cornerstone of neighborhood rebuilding efforts is the $10.3 billion Road Home program, which asks participants to review dozens of documents and sign 18 final legal papers before aid is approved.
One paragraph reads: "Homeowner(s) agree(s) to the filing of certain covenants to run with the land on the property for which this Grant is awarded requiring generally as follows: flood insurance to be maintained if located in Special Flood Hazard Area and restraints on use, occupancy and alienation of the Property. The actual covenants are contained in the instrument to be executed by Homeowner(s) and recorded in the land records of the parish where the Property for which this Grant is awarded and located."
Christina Stephens, spokeswoman for the Louisiana Recovery Authority that oversees the Road Home program, said the papers are legal documents, which is "why they sound so serious." But she acknowledged that "it's equally important that people can understand what they are signing."
Since the program was created in 2006, it has held at least 22 training sessions for staff members specifically designed to help illiterate applicants, Stephens said.
Government officials "know who their audience is, and they should write for them," said Annetta Cheek, a spokeswoman for the Plain Language Action and Information Network, a group of federal employees who advocate for clearer language in government communications.
Cheek said the group asked three plain language "translators" to examine the 18 pages of Road Home documents. After several hours, the team was still uncertain of the program's requirements, even though two of the participants were lawyers.
The papers were so confusing that Thomas Wright drove three hours from Mississippi to talk to Road Home outreach workers.
Wright, a retired auto mechanic, graduated from high school in the 1950s and later took shop classes to get his mechanics' license. But when it came to the Road Home forms, he had to enlist friends.
"I needed help from educated people," said Wright, who is black and remembers the segregation of the city school system.
"We got your second-hand books, with half the pages torn out," he said.
Wright applied to Road Home a year ago, trying to rebuild a house in the Upper 9th Ward that was flooded with 8 feet of water. But his application remains stalled; program switchboards refer him back to the forms.
Wright was especially frustrated by one of the most important documents — the highly verbose form that asks applicants to choose among three options: stay and rebuild, sell their home to the state and relocate within Louisiana, or sell their home to the state and leave Louisiana.
"You got 1,500 words (on a form) that could be said in 500," Wright said.
Wright's generation is not the only one that's struggling. According to the Louisiana Department of Education, 42 percent of students who graduated from high school in New Orleans in 2004 had "unsatisfactory" English scores. And more than one in 10 students dropped out of high school.
Henry Lee Burton, 28, said he left school in the ninth grade to take a job and care for his diabetic mother, who died in the months after Katrina.
Though he evacuated to Houston after the storm, he never applied for the FEMA relocation assistance. He said neither he, his mother, nor sister, read well enough to understand the requirements.
Burton, who earns $24,000 a year as a Wal-Mart tire shop worker, said the only assistance he received was a $3,500 payout from his renter's insurance. Two years passed before he could gather up the courage to go to the office and tell his agent he did not fully understand letters from the insurance company.
Now he has a different plan: to learn to read well enough so he does not need help.
"It's something I've always wanted to do and something I need to do," he said. "You really can't depend on the government anyway. You have to do it yourself."
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Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Pay as you Drive Insurance
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Pay as you drive insurance
Article Launched: 09/07/2008 07:35:31 PM PDT
When it comes to traffic reduction, California needs all the help it can get. And sometimes the only thing to finally get people out of their cars is to offer them cold, hard cash.
The proposal for a voluntary pay-as-you-drive insurance program for California drivers, being pushed by Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, might be one of the carrots that actually works. The draft proposal would let drivers have the option of buying auto insurance plans that are based on the number of miles they drive.
Note: Poizner is a well respected personality in the inurance industry.
His plan has received rave reviews from economists and environmentalists alike for providing a solution to our state's most pressing problems: clogged roads, air pollution, high fuel prices. But it is Poizner's emphasis on reporting mileage while maintaining driver privacy that is especially appealing to consumers.
The PAYD model would allow drivers to document their annual mileage in three ways: They could submit maintenance records; they could have an insurance company representative check their car's odometer; or they could have an electronic mileage-tracking device installed on their vehicle.
The latter option has been a source of debate among groups such as Consumer Watchdog. Former mileage-tracking technologies relied on a GPS device, which ignited privacy concerns. The idea of giving auto insurance companies access to drivers' location data was a bit too "Big Brother" for consumers.
That said, Poizner has said he will not
Advertisement
approve such devices.
Instead, electronic monitoring would simply track total miles driven, not a driver's destination or time of location. These improved trackers are currently used by insurance companies in other states and countries.
Poizner's plan seems like the ultimate solution for a combination of California's economic and environmental woes.
And there's research to back it up. In July, the Brookings Institution released a study on PAYD and its predicted impact on Californians. The study found that up to 64percent of California households would have lower premiums under PAYD, with an average savings of $276 annually per vehicle.
Savings are expected to be greater for lower-income households.
Furthermore, GMAC Insurance Group, which runs a PAYD program through General Motor Corp.'s OnStar system, has reduced customer premiums in other states by 13percent to 54percent.
PAYD supporters argue that a savings-incentive system would encourage motorists to drive less - and thus relieve traffic congestion.
The overarching future effects of PAYD on California are dramatic. Californians would save billions of dollars on gasoline, thereby decreasing the current energy crisis and contributing to the fight against global warming.
The Brookings Institute study also found that PAYD could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2percent.
While that's reason enough, the individual savings could be substantial as well. The Environmental Defense Fund predicts Californians could save about $40billion in car-related costs from 2009 to 2020 - and that's if just 8.5million drivers sign up for the new per-mile model.
Pay as you drive might not be the answer to all the state's traffic ills. But it is one good policy that, if followed by many more, can have a lasting and positive impact on California's prolonged environmental stresses and economic woes.
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2. McCain picks Alaska's Gov. Sarah Palin
3. Friday's Letters to the Editor
4. Schools fall short of federal test goals
5. Pine Avenue's Z Gallerie moving out
6. MATTIE lobbies to survive
7. Sarah Palin rocks the house
8. LAX worker charged with smuggling
9. Officer shoots fleeing suspect
10. Sunday Letters to the Editor
Headlines by FeedBurner
* Most Comments
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1. Man, 48, dies from West Nile
2. Long Beach woman slain; man injured
3. Long Beach seeks police recruits
4. Main Library's Ray of Hope
5. Doorman at Compton bar killed by gunman
6. Impact of cuts debated
7. Pine Avenue's Z Gallerie moving out
8. Paramount police seek killer of area man, 37
9. 2008 Press-Telegram Prep Football Schedule
10. LBCC makes big plays in opener
Headlines by FeedBurner
More News
Updated: September 07, 2008
# Winners of the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards
# Britney shines at MTV Video Music Awards
# Plan to cut rangers decried
# War Widows Join Forces
# Vern Hubatch was longtime youth coach
# Budget nearly finalized
# The Report: Varden's value lay in its potential
# A classic look for the Belmont Shore Car Show
# Feds seize Fannie, Freddie
# Tim Grobaty: k.d. lang coming to Big Town, thankfully
# Long Beach seeks police recruits
# Doorman at Compton bar killed by gunman
# Paramount police seek killer of area man, 37
# Long Beach woman slain; man injured
# A `welcome aboard' for ship visitors
Print Email Font Resize
Pay as you drive insurance
Article Launched: 09/07/2008 07:35:31 PM PDT
When it comes to traffic reduction, California needs all the help it can get. And sometimes the only thing to finally get people out of their cars is to offer them cold, hard cash.
The proposal for a voluntary pay-as-you-drive insurance program for California drivers, being pushed by Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, might be one of the carrots that actually works. The draft proposal would let drivers have the option of buying auto insurance plans that are based on the number of miles they drive.
Note: Poizner is a well respected personality in the inurance industry.
His plan has received rave reviews from economists and environmentalists alike for providing a solution to our state's most pressing problems: clogged roads, air pollution, high fuel prices. But it is Poizner's emphasis on reporting mileage while maintaining driver privacy that is especially appealing to consumers.
The PAYD model would allow drivers to document their annual mileage in three ways: They could submit maintenance records; they could have an insurance company representative check their car's odometer; or they could have an electronic mileage-tracking device installed on their vehicle.
The latter option has been a source of debate among groups such as Consumer Watchdog. Former mileage-tracking technologies relied on a GPS device, which ignited privacy concerns. The idea of giving auto insurance companies access to drivers' location data was a bit too "Big Brother" for consumers.
That said, Poizner has said he will not
Advertisement
approve such devices.
Instead, electronic monitoring would simply track total miles driven, not a driver's destination or time of location. These improved trackers are currently used by insurance companies in other states and countries.
Poizner's plan seems like the ultimate solution for a combination of California's economic and environmental woes.
And there's research to back it up. In July, the Brookings Institution released a study on PAYD and its predicted impact on Californians. The study found that up to 64percent of California households would have lower premiums under PAYD, with an average savings of $276 annually per vehicle.
Savings are expected to be greater for lower-income households.
Furthermore, GMAC Insurance Group, which runs a PAYD program through General Motor Corp.'s OnStar system, has reduced customer premiums in other states by 13percent to 54percent.
PAYD supporters argue that a savings-incentive system would encourage motorists to drive less - and thus relieve traffic congestion.
The overarching future effects of PAYD on California are dramatic. Californians would save billions of dollars on gasoline, thereby decreasing the current energy crisis and contributing to the fight against global warming.
The Brookings Institute study also found that PAYD could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2percent.
While that's reason enough, the individual savings could be substantial as well. The Environmental Defense Fund predicts Californians could save about $40billion in car-related costs from 2009 to 2020 - and that's if just 8.5million drivers sign up for the new per-mile model.
Pay as you drive might not be the answer to all the state's traffic ills. But it is one good policy that, if followed by many more, can have a lasting and positive impact on California's prolonged environmental stresses and economic woes.
Print Email Font ResizeReturn to Top
* SHARE YOUR COMMENTS
* GOT A QUESTION?
Type in your comments to post to the forum
Name
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Please note by clicking on "Post Comment" you acknowledge that you have read the Terms of Service and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Be polite. Inappropriate posts may be removed by the moderator. Send us your feedback.
* SHARE YOUR COMMENTS
* GOT A QUESTION?
Read questions about this story >>
Ask your own question >>
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Monday, September 8, 2008
Barack Obama's Convention Address
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Barack Obama's convention address
Thursday, August 28, 2008
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DENVER — Prepared remarks of Sen. Barack Obama for his address to the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night in Denver, as released by the campaign:
To Chairman Dean and my great friend Dick Durbin, and to all my fellow citizens of this great nation: With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.
Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the farthest_ a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours _ Hillary Rodham Clinton. To President Clinton, who last night made the case for change as only he can make it; to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service; and to the next vice president of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you. I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night.
To the love of my life, our next first lady, Michelle Obama, and to Sasha and Malia, I love you so much, and I'm so proud of all of you.
Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.
Note: Obama is a presidential candidate in the U.S.
It is that promise that has always set this country apart, that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well.
That's why I stand here tonight. Because for 232 years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women, students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors, found the courage to keep it alive.
We meet at one of those defining moments, a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.
Tonight, more Americans are out of work, and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes, and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach.
These challenges are not all of government's making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.
America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.
This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work.
This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he's worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.
We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.
Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land: enough! This moment, this election is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On Nov. 4, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough."
Now let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that, we owe him our gratitude and respect. And next week, we'll also hear about those occasions when he's broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need.
But the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.
Note: McCain is also a presidential candidate in the U.S.
The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives, on health care and education and the economy, Senator McCain has been anything but independent. He said that our economy has made "great progress" under this president. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And when one of his chief advisers, the man who wrote his economic plan, was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a "mental recession," and that we've become, and I quote, "a nation of whiners."
A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud auto workers at a Michigan plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on the brakes that they made. Tell that to the military families who shoulder their burdens silently as they watch their loved ones leave for their third or fourth or fifth tour of duty. These are not whiners. They work hard and give back and keep going without complaint. These are the Americans that I know.
Now, I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn't know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under $5 million a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than 100 million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people's benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?
It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it.
For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy _ give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is, you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, even if you don't have boots. You're on your own.
Well, it's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change America.
You see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country.
We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage; whether you can put a little extra money away at the end of each month so you can someday watch your child receive her college diploma. We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was president, when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000, like it has under George Bush.
We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job an economy that honors the dignity of work.
The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great, a promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight.
Because in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton's Army and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the GI Bill.
In the face of that young student who sleeps just three hours before working the night shift, I think about my mom, who raised my sister and me on her own while she worked and earned her degree; who once turned to food stamps but was still able to send us to the best schools in the country with the help of student loans and scholarships.
When I listen to another worker tell me that his factory has shut down, I remember all those men and women on the South Side of Chicago who I stood by and fought for two decades ago after the local steel plant closed.
And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle-management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman. She's the one who taught me about hard work. She's the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me. And although she can no longer travel, I know that she's watching tonight, and that tonight is her night as well.
I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me. And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as president of the United States.
What is that promise?
It's a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have the obligation to treat each other with dignity and respect.
It's a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road.
Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves, protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology.
Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity, not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work.
That's the promise of America, the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper.
That's the promise we need to keep. That's the change we need right now. So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am president.
Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.
Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.
I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the startups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.
I will cut taxes _ cut taxes for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.
And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: In ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.
Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stopgap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.
As president, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I'll help our auto companies retool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I'll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy; wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and 5 million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced.
America, now is not the time for small plans.
Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy. Michelle and I are only here tonight because we were given a chance at an education. And I will not settle for an America where some kids don't have that chance. I'll invest in early childhood education. I'll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support. And in exchange, I'll ask for higher standards and more accountability. And we will keep our promise to every young American _ if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.
Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don't, you'll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves. And as someone who watched my mother argue with insurance companies while she lay in bed dying of cancer, I will make certain those companies stop discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most.
Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.
Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses; and the time to protect Social Security for future generations.
And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.
Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I've laid out how I'll pay for every dime, by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don't help America grow. But I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less because we cannot meet 21st century challenges with a 20th century bureaucracy.
And Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America's promise will require more than just money. It will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our "intellectual and moral strength." Yes, government must lead on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and businesses more efficient. Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs alone can't replace parents; that government can't turn off the television and make a child do her homework; that fathers must take more responsibility for providing the love and guidance their children need.
Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility _ that's the essence of America's promise.
And just as we keep our keep our promise to the next generation here at home, so must we keep America's promise abroad. If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next commander in chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have.
For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face. When John McCain said we could just "muddle through" in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell, but he won't even go to the cave where he lives.
And today, as my call for a time frame to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush administration, even after we learned that Iraq has a $79 billion surplus while we're wallowing in deficits, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war.
That's not the judgment we need. That won't keep America safe. We need a president who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past.
You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in 80 countries by occupying Iraq. You don't protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. You can't truly stand up for Georgia when you've strained our oldest alliances. If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice, but it is not the change we need.
We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans _ Democrats and Republicans have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.
As commander in chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home.
I will end this war in Iraq responsibly and finish the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.
These are the policies I will pursue. And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain.
But what I will not do is suggest that the senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism.
The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America, they have served the United States of America.
So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.
America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose our sense of higher purpose. And that's what we have to restore.
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This, too, is part of America's promise, the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.
You make a big election about small things.
And you know what it's worked before. Because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn't work, all its promises seem empty. If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it's best to stop hoping, and settle for what you already know.
I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington.
But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the naysayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you.
For eighteen long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said enough to the politics of the past. You understand that in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old players and expect a different result. You have shown what history teaches us that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington. Change happens because the American people demand it, because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.
America, this is one of those moments.
I believe that as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming. Because I've seen it. Because I've lived it. I've seen it in Illinois, when we provided health care to more children and moved more families from welfare to work. I've seen it in Washington, when we worked across party lines to open up government and hold lobbyists more accountable, to give better care for our veterans and keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands.
And I've seen it in this campaign. In the young people who voted for the first time, and in those who got involved again after a very long time. In the Republicans who never thought they'd pick up a Democratic ballot, but did. I've seen it in the workers who would rather cut their hours back a day than see their friends lose their jobs, in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb, in the good neighbors who take a stranger in when a hurricane strikes and the floodwaters rise.
This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that's not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores.
Instead, it is that American spirit that American promise that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.
That promise is our greatest inheritance. It's a promise I make to my daughters when I tuck them in at night, and a promise that you make to yours, a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west; a promise that led workers to picket lines, and women to reach for the ballot.
And it is that promise that forty five years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln's Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream.
The men and women who gathered there could've heard many things. They could've heard words of anger and discord. They could've been told to succumb to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred.
But what the people heard instead, people of every creed and color, from every walk of life, is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one.
"We cannot walk alone," the preacher cried. "And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back."
America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise, that American promise, and in the words of Scripture, hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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FOXNEWS.COM HOME > POLITICS
Barack Obama's convention address
Thursday, August 28, 2008
By The Associated Press
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DENVER — Prepared remarks of Sen. Barack Obama for his address to the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night in Denver, as released by the campaign:
To Chairman Dean and my great friend Dick Durbin, and to all my fellow citizens of this great nation: With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.
Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the farthest_ a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours _ Hillary Rodham Clinton. To President Clinton, who last night made the case for change as only he can make it; to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service; and to the next vice president of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you. I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night.
To the love of my life, our next first lady, Michelle Obama, and to Sasha and Malia, I love you so much, and I'm so proud of all of you.
Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.
Note: Obama is a presidential candidate in the U.S.
It is that promise that has always set this country apart, that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well.
That's why I stand here tonight. Because for 232 years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women, students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors, found the courage to keep it alive.
We meet at one of those defining moments, a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.
Tonight, more Americans are out of work, and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes, and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach.
These challenges are not all of government's making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.
America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.
This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work.
This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he's worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.
We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.
Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land: enough! This moment, this election is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On Nov. 4, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough."
Now let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that, we owe him our gratitude and respect. And next week, we'll also hear about those occasions when he's broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need.
But the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.
Note: McCain is also a presidential candidate in the U.S.
The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives, on health care and education and the economy, Senator McCain has been anything but independent. He said that our economy has made "great progress" under this president. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And when one of his chief advisers, the man who wrote his economic plan, was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a "mental recession," and that we've become, and I quote, "a nation of whiners."
A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud auto workers at a Michigan plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on the brakes that they made. Tell that to the military families who shoulder their burdens silently as they watch their loved ones leave for their third or fourth or fifth tour of duty. These are not whiners. They work hard and give back and keep going without complaint. These are the Americans that I know.
Now, I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn't know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under $5 million a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than 100 million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people's benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?
It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it.
For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy _ give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is, you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, even if you don't have boots. You're on your own.
Well, it's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change America.
You see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country.
We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage; whether you can put a little extra money away at the end of each month so you can someday watch your child receive her college diploma. We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was president, when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000, like it has under George Bush.
We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job an economy that honors the dignity of work.
The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great, a promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight.
Because in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton's Army and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the GI Bill.
In the face of that young student who sleeps just three hours before working the night shift, I think about my mom, who raised my sister and me on her own while she worked and earned her degree; who once turned to food stamps but was still able to send us to the best schools in the country with the help of student loans and scholarships.
When I listen to another worker tell me that his factory has shut down, I remember all those men and women on the South Side of Chicago who I stood by and fought for two decades ago after the local steel plant closed.
And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle-management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman. She's the one who taught me about hard work. She's the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me. And although she can no longer travel, I know that she's watching tonight, and that tonight is her night as well.
I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me. And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as president of the United States.
What is that promise?
It's a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have the obligation to treat each other with dignity and respect.
It's a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road.
Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves, protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology.
Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity, not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work.
That's the promise of America, the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper.
That's the promise we need to keep. That's the change we need right now. So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am president.
Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.
Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.
I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the startups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.
I will cut taxes _ cut taxes for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.
And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: In ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.
Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stopgap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.
As president, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I'll help our auto companies retool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I'll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy; wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and 5 million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced.
America, now is not the time for small plans.
Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy. Michelle and I are only here tonight because we were given a chance at an education. And I will not settle for an America where some kids don't have that chance. I'll invest in early childhood education. I'll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support. And in exchange, I'll ask for higher standards and more accountability. And we will keep our promise to every young American _ if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.
Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don't, you'll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves. And as someone who watched my mother argue with insurance companies while she lay in bed dying of cancer, I will make certain those companies stop discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most.
Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.
Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses; and the time to protect Social Security for future generations.
And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.
Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I've laid out how I'll pay for every dime, by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don't help America grow. But I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less because we cannot meet 21st century challenges with a 20th century bureaucracy.
And Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America's promise will require more than just money. It will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our "intellectual and moral strength." Yes, government must lead on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and businesses more efficient. Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs alone can't replace parents; that government can't turn off the television and make a child do her homework; that fathers must take more responsibility for providing the love and guidance their children need.
Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility _ that's the essence of America's promise.
And just as we keep our keep our promise to the next generation here at home, so must we keep America's promise abroad. If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next commander in chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have.
For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face. When John McCain said we could just "muddle through" in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell, but he won't even go to the cave where he lives.
And today, as my call for a time frame to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush administration, even after we learned that Iraq has a $79 billion surplus while we're wallowing in deficits, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war.
That's not the judgment we need. That won't keep America safe. We need a president who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past.
You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in 80 countries by occupying Iraq. You don't protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. You can't truly stand up for Georgia when you've strained our oldest alliances. If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice, but it is not the change we need.
We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans _ Democrats and Republicans have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.
As commander in chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home.
I will end this war in Iraq responsibly and finish the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.
These are the policies I will pursue. And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain.
But what I will not do is suggest that the senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism.
The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America, they have served the United States of America.
So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.
America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose our sense of higher purpose. And that's what we have to restore.
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This, too, is part of America's promise, the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.
You make a big election about small things.
And you know what it's worked before. Because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn't work, all its promises seem empty. If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it's best to stop hoping, and settle for what you already know.
I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington.
But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the naysayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you.
For eighteen long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said enough to the politics of the past. You understand that in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old players and expect a different result. You have shown what history teaches us that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington. Change happens because the American people demand it, because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.
America, this is one of those moments.
I believe that as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming. Because I've seen it. Because I've lived it. I've seen it in Illinois, when we provided health care to more children and moved more families from welfare to work. I've seen it in Washington, when we worked across party lines to open up government and hold lobbyists more accountable, to give better care for our veterans and keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands.
And I've seen it in this campaign. In the young people who voted for the first time, and in those who got involved again after a very long time. In the Republicans who never thought they'd pick up a Democratic ballot, but did. I've seen it in the workers who would rather cut their hours back a day than see their friends lose their jobs, in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb, in the good neighbors who take a stranger in when a hurricane strikes and the floodwaters rise.
This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that's not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores.
Instead, it is that American spirit that American promise that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.
That promise is our greatest inheritance. It's a promise I make to my daughters when I tuck them in at night, and a promise that you make to yours, a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west; a promise that led workers to picket lines, and women to reach for the ballot.
And it is that promise that forty five years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln's Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream.
The men and women who gathered there could've heard many things. They could've heard words of anger and discord. They could've been told to succumb to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred.
But what the people heard instead, people of every creed and color, from every walk of life, is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one.
"We cannot walk alone," the preacher cried. "And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back."
America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise, that American promise, and in the words of Scripture, hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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