Capacity Crowd Hears Obama Unveil New Economic Stimulus Package In St. Petersburg, Florida

August 1, 2008 12:40 p.m. EST

St. Petersburg, FL (AHN) - Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) spoke to a capacity crowd packed into the gymnasium at St. Petersburg's historic Gibbs High School Friday morning.

His newest proposal was an emergency $1,000 economic stimulus payment to taxpayers paid for by windfall profit taxes on big oil companies.

The town-hall meeting was telecast live from a high school that, during Jim Crow segregation days, was the only one blacks could attend. Some observers thought there was special significance for the nation's first black presidential candidate to choose that venue for his appearance in St. Petersburg.

Obama's speech and answers to questions from the crowd was wide-ranging encompassing the nation's economy and its deficit, job losses, citizen's economic problems, energy, education, farming, global warming, treatment of veterans and health care, among other issues.

Much of the event focused on the economy, what the government was doing and the importance of changing what government was doing.

"This is the most important election of my lifetime and your lifetime," Obama said in concluding remarks. He asked the audience to enter the polling booth in November asking if we could continue with the same policies pursued by the Bush administration policies or if we need a change.

He ended by saying that, with voters help, he promises to change the economy.

"If we can prime the pump" a little to keep the economy from deteriorating further it's better in the long-run, Obama had said a few minutes earlier. His comments were part of his answer to a final question from the audience on the importance of economic stimulus packages to help the economy and how to pay for them without swelling the deficit.

"The decisions that we make in November, and over the next few years, will shape a generation, if not an economy and nowhere is that more true than in the economy," Obama said at the beginning of his speech.

He added that another 51,000 jobs had been lost last month and for those people who still had jobs, that wages and benefits fell further behind than at any point in the last 25, years. In addition, gas and groceries prices were up, college was less affordable and there were more home foreclosures than at any time since the depression.

Obama asked the crowd if felt they were better off than four or eight years before and if not if they felt they could afford another four years.

Saying that he had read in the newspaper that Florida was in recession for the first time in 16 years, Obama continued by saying, people feel as if "the American dream is slowly slipping away" along with the idea that people can make it if they try.

While pointing out that in a global economy Americans must work smarter to compete, Obama added a caveat.

Many problems in the economy have to do "with very specific failures in Wall Street and in Washington," Obama said.

He added that when wages are flat and costs are rising, eventually everyone suffers and America has had a government that hasn't cared as much about Main Street as it has about Wall Street.

A demonstration by members of the local International People's Democratic UHURU Movement movement interrupted Obama's speech. Hecklers raised a banner and chanted, "What about the black community, Obama."

His supporters responded by standing and chanting, "Yes We Can."

Obama regained control by asking the demonstrators to sit down and wait for the question and answer session and not disrupt the whole meeting. He asked them to be courteous and reminded them this was a town-hall style meeting with a question and answer component. He promised them they would have a chance to speak by asking him a question after he made his speech.

"You all are just feisty St. Petersburg," Obama said, without becoming flustered and he continued with his speech, saying he had been talking about Wall street and big business.

"I don't believe St. Petersburg, that we can afford to keep doing what we've been doing, and that's why I'm running for president," Obama said, making sure to tailored his comments to the audience before him, making them feel the focus of his comments.

Than comment was greeted by applause, one of numerous times during his speech that he was applauded, with supporters rising to applaud him.

He spent much of his time on economic issues.

He stated that everyone deserves a break on their mortgage, not just the wealthy, adding that he didn't think that senior citizens earning less than $50,000 should pay taxes because they were having a rough enough time making ends meet. He said that he also give tax breaks to companies that invested in the United States while cutting tax breaks for companies investing overseas.

But the real surprise during his speech was the announcement of a new economic stimulus plan to help beleaguered Americans.

Obama said citizens needed a second round of stimulus.

He announced that he had met with his advisors on Monday and came up with a new two-part economic stimulus package he wanted to see implemented in the fall.

First, his plan would provide a $1,000 emergency energy rebate to families for gasoline and home heating costs, or to offset other bills. To avoid further adding to the nation's swelling tax deficit, that he would pay for the rebate by taxing windfall profits of gas companies such as Exxon and Mobile.

Second, his plan would provide $50 billion in stimulus to communities for jobs.

Half of that amount would go to state governments with budget shortfalls to pay for police officers and firefighters, to help insure they don't let workers go, freeze salaries or raise property taxes. This money would also help state governments to help keep families threatened by foreclosure to stay in their homes.

The other half of the $50 billion stimulus package would be spent on the national infrastructure to save and create jobs, replenish the amount of tax base money available for infrastructure and to create a national infrastructure bank to rebuild crumbling roads and bridges, along with rebuilding crumbling schools, which would help kids and boost local economies.

Obama contrasted his plan to that of rival Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

Obama said that McCain's plan would cut taxes to gasoline companies and hope that they, in turn, would cut their prices. However, Obama said that he doubted the gas companies would use their $4 billion in tax cuts to cut prices to consumers and he said that another difficulty with McCain's plan was that it would strip jobs from highway construction.

"I think our economy is at its strongest when it's built from the bottom up," Obama said Saying that those were all short term solutions, Obama said that America needs to work on long term challenges as well, which he said he thought the nation could do if it makes a sincere effort to solve its problems.

Part of a sincere effort to solve problems would be to make America energy independent so it is less vulnerable, he said.

He told the audience that he wants to invest in renewable energy and create a new generation of energy efficient cars, built in America. He added that American workers had a right to jobs and a right to a secure retirement.

At the conclusion of his speech, the audience sang "happy birthday" to him.

He then took questions from the audience in a boy-girl alternating manner, with questions beginning with one on a catastrophic hurricane fund for Florida, which Obama answered in detail, calling on the UHURU hecklers next.

The UHURU audience member brought up attacks on the black community and asked why Obama hadn't spoken on behalf of the oppressed community facing the sub prime mortgage mess, the killing of Sean Bell by police in New York and the Jena 6 in Louisiana.

Obama replied, telling them that he was the first candidate to say that the treatment of the Jena 6 was wrong. He said when Sean Bell was killed, he issued an immediate statement saying it was wrong. His answer was met with a mixed response from the audience.

Questions from audience members moved on to a variety of issues including immigration reform, veteran services, education, what economic policies he would institute in the first 100 days and farming practices to maximize land use to feed people.

He answered the questions in depth, without hesitation and was frequently interrupted by applause while giving his answers.

One questioner asked what policies he could institute in his first 100 days to help the economy.

He responded by saying that instead of waiting, that Congress could begin now with his suggested second round of economic stimulus, which he had mentioned earlier.

He also said there was a need to remove vulnerabilities in the banking system with short and long term measures, including regulation.

But most importantly, he said, would be in the first 100 days to begin implementing an energy policy that moves America off oil and helps the U.S. auto industry retool, and to create 5 million jobs in the green sector that pay well, can't be exported, help America's security and help reverse global warming.