Here's some of what Obama talked about.
Obama talked about offshore drilling. "I understand how desperate folks are," he said, because of high gas prices. "If I thought by drilling offshore we could solve our problem, I'd do it."
The oil companies have 68 million acres of leases that they are not using. They are holding land they're not using and now they want some more.
The soonest you'd see a drop of oil off our shores is 10 years from now. The most you'd save would be a few cents then and gas could be $20 a gallon.
The polls say that most Americans want offshore drilling but this is not real, Obama said. The oil companies are shoving this down the throats of congress, he said.
Make the oil companies drill where they already have leases. We need to look at oil speculators and let's get serious about alternative energy. Let's.
Obama did a wee bit of rightful mocking today.
Obama said the argument the McCain camp is making: "He doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills. He's risky."
The Q&A portion of the town hall
Social Security: Social security is one of the most successful programs America has ever come up with, he said. We have to stop raiding the SS trust fund, he said. They've been using SS money to cover up the deficit. Unlike McCain, Obama said he doesn't think SS shouldn't be privatized. The stock market inherently has risks. People should buy stocks but not with their SS money. To get more money into the system, one of the fairest ways is to raise the cap on the SS taxes. You stop paying SS if you make $102,000 or more.
How to stop the bleeding:
He's calling for a second round of stimulus, closing corporate loophole tax cuts. McCain's tax plan gives tax cuts to Exxon Mobil, one of the most profitable companies in the world. "I want to give tax cuts to you."
Let everyone deduct a portion of the their mortgage on their taxes.
Eliminate income taxes on seniors' social security.
These things will give a cushion but then we have to deal with the long term problem. We need to use less oil.
There are plug-in hybrids that are ready to go right now. But we haven't helped bring them to market, he said.
We have to make healthcare more efficient and change our political system so that healthcare isn't about lobbyists.
Q How do you move the auto industry forward?
We need to invest in an Apollo program for energy, he said. We have to set goals.
Solving the energy problem could serve double duty: Cutting our reliance on foreign oil and creating 5 million new jobs on various energy programs, he said.
Q on Medicare: Here's the problem, more people are using it and healthcare is getting more expensive. Instead of making it efficient, we stop paying providers what they need. We need a comprehensive overhaul of our health system, including Medicare. We need to pay more attention to prevention, which eliminates costs in the long run. Obama says his daughter, Malia, has asthma. She got early treatment and it helped solve the attacks, he said. But some are in the emergency room every two weeks because they couldn't get early treatment.
The last questioner asked about holding business accountable for the environment. I'm going to hold them accountable by letting you know what's going on so you can hold me accountable. In other words, government will be more transparent so we'll know what's going on.
Americans voices have to be heard as much as big business.
Q How do you move the auto industry forward?
We need to invest in an Apollo program for energy, he said. We have to set goals.
Solving the energy problem could serve double duty: Cutting our reliance on foreign oil and creating 5 million new jobs on various energy programs, he said.
Q on Medicare: Here's the problem, more people are using it and healthcare is getting more expensive. Instead of making it efficient, we stop paying providers what they need. We need a comprehensive overhaul of our health system, including Medicare. We need to pay more attention to prevention, which eliminates costs in the long run. Obama says his daughter, Malia, has asthma. She got early treatment and it helped solve the attacks, he said. But some are in the emergency room every two weeks because they couldn't get early treatment.
The last questioner asked about holding business accountable for the environment. I'm going to hold them accountable by letting you know what's going on so you can hold me accountable. In other words, government will be more transparent so we'll know what's going on.
Americans voices have to be heard as much as big business.
We're going to post legislation before I sign it on the Internet so you can comment on it. We're going to continue to have town hall meetings like this one.
"We're going to shut down the revolving door." People work in government and then they go lobby.
We want every legislator to be accountable to Americans not business.
"We're going to shut down the revolving door." People work in government and then they go lobby.
We want every legislator to be accountable to Americans not business.
Here's McCain's new stab at being presidential.
