Republicans will make US a ‘Third World’ country: Obama
US: US President Barack Obama accused his Republican foes of wanting
to turn the United States into a “Third World” country Thursday as he
rallied support for his reelection campaign. The attack came a day after
Obama savaged Republican budget plans and unveiled his $4-trillion
deficit reduction drive that aims to raise taxes on the wealthiest
Americans in order to preserve for key social services.
The debate over fiscal policy will prove critical to the 2012
campaign and Obama sought to frame it as a “stark choice” between
investing in the future or watching the country fall apart.
“Under their vision, we can’t invest in roads and bridges and
broadband and high-speed rail,” Obama told a select group of the
Democratic faithful at the second of three fundraising events in his
hometown of Chicago.
“I mean, we would be a nation of potholes, and our airports would be
worse than places that we thought - that we used to call the Third
World, but who are now investing in infrastructure.”
Republicans plans to shrink the reach of government is “not a vision
that’s impelled by the numbers” but a “choice” to give a trillion
dollars in tax breaks to the rich rather than ask those who’ve been
“blessed” to “give a little more.”
Obama said his vision is of an ambitious, compassionate, and caring
America “where we’re living within our means but we’re still investing
in our future.”
“If we apply some practical common sense to this, we can solve our
fiscal challenges and still have the America that we believe in,” Obama
told supporters at Chicago’s N9ne restaurant.
“That’s what this budget debate is going to be about. And that’s what
the 2012 campaign is going to be about.”
The events in Chicago were Obama’s first fundraisers since he
officially launched his bid for a second term on April 4 and were
expected to raise about two million dollars.
Analysts predict Obama - who raised a record $750 million ahead of
the 2008 election - will build a billion-dollar war chest this time
around.
Money won’t be enough to win, senior advisor and 2008 campaign
manager David Plouffe told a crowd of 2,300 supporters gathered in a
ballroom at Navy Pier ahead of Obama’s speech.
“If only the people who normally vote in presidential elections vote
in this election it will be too close,” Plouffe said as he urged
supporters to get more people involved in the campaign.
“You’ve got to get these people to get involved and to vote so we can
make sure that we succeed in this election.”
Obama established his 2012 campaign headquarters in Chicago, the
first time a presidential reelection campaign was not based in
Washington.
He told supporters it was so the campaign would be “rooted in your
hopes and rooted in your dreams” instead of influenced by Washington
pundits and powerbrokers.
Obama reminded the cheering crowd of the sense of hope and
possibility they felt when they celebrated his election as the first
African American US president in Chicago’s Grant Park.
CHICAGO, Friday, AFP |