Sen. Leahy Blasts Bush's Policies For Rural Americans In Convention Address

Denver, CO (AHN) - Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) assailed the failed economic policies of President George W. Bush in his convention address on Tuesday.

"We are struggling from eight years of the Bush/Cheney economy," the veteran lawmaker told Democrats at the Pepsi Center in Denver. "Rural communities face disproportionately high unemployment rates, violent crime is up, and no one is hurt by record high energy prices more than we are."

He accused Bush for the 8 million rural Americans now living in poverty and said communities in his state had suffered a 10 percent drop in household incomes, or three times the national average.

"Barack Obama will give us the change we need. He will lift our economy immediately by taking some of big oil's windfall profits and returning $1,000 to the pockets of working families. He will invest in what rural America needs most of all, good new jobs, with a clean energy initiative that will move us away from oil and put 5 million Americans to work," Leahy added.

Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner is scheduled give the keynote address on Tuesday, the second night of the Democratic National Convention. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) will headline the prime-time spot.

Lily Ledbetter, the woman whose lawsuit against Goodyear led to the passage of the Fair Pay Restoration Act, will also be part of the program on Tuesday.