Posted on 05/08/2008 5:20:21 AM PDT by SilvieWaldorfMD
There should be two URLs for these Op-Eds. One is for Hillary Clinton (above) and this one is for Barack Obama:
http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/columna/402056
Both Op-Eds are in Spanish, but the newspaper provides a link to the English translations.
By Barack Obama May 8, 2008
At a time when our families are facing rising costs, stagnant wages, and the terrible prospect of losing a home, I understand how important it is to have a real partner in the White House – a President who is fighting for you, and treating you with the respect you deserve. And as someone who grew up in Hawaii, and appreciates the great pride you take in being part of your Isla del Encanto, that is the kind of partner I intend to be.
I will be a President who works with Puerto Rico to help the Island regain its economic footing so it can be competitive in the 21st century. We will give every child the worldclass education to compete in our global economy; provide universal health care for all; empower entrepreneurs with the support they need to expand their businesses; and invest in our infrastructure like roads and bridges, and in our green energy sector – so we can bring about a clean energy future, and create millions of good-paying jobs in the process.
As president, the first step I will take is to create a joint U.S. federal government-Puerto Rico economic task force. The task force will conduct a systematic review and report on specific ways to create jobs in Puerto Rico. The task force will report back no later than August 31, 2009, and I will immediately move to take action based on the report.
But there are steps we can take in the meantime. Since 1996, Puerto Rico has lost more than 40,000 manufacturing jobs. We need to invigorate the manufacturing industry with new incentives to invest on the island. I will also work to extend the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit; fully fund the Community Development Block Grant; and raise the minimum wage to benefit Puerto Rico families. I will strengthen the rural communities that have been neglected for too long improving their infrastructure and housing. We will not ignore other productive sectors of the island’s economy such as small businesses and tourism.
Any discussion of Puerto Rico’s economy would be incomplete without a discussion of the Island’s status. As president, I will make it my responsibility to guarantee that Puerto Ricans can have a fair process of self-determination. I will work with people from all sides to develop a fair process and I will respect and support whatever decision Puerto Ricans make.
You can trust me to fight for you because I have been fighting for ordinary Americans for over two decades. After college, I turned down a career on Wall Street to work as a community organizer in Chicago so I could help provide job training to the jobless after the local steel plants closed. I worked side by side with Hispanic leaders on issues ranging from failing schools to illegal dumping to un-immunized children. As a civil rights lawyer, I stood up for people who were denied opportunity on the job or justice at the voting booth because of what they looked like or where they came from. And in the Illinois Senate, I brought Democrats and Republicans together to expand health care to 150,000 children and parents, and put a $100 million tax cut in the pockets of working men and women.
I am offering a set of detailed policy proposals. But more importantly, I am offering a new kind of leadership in Washington – leadership that can unite Americans of all races, regions, and walks of life in a coalition for change that Washington cannot ignore; leadership you can trust to always be straight with you about the challenges we face; and leadership that will serve the American people, not the special interests.
I propose we forge real change for all American citizens, here in Puerto Rico and in the mainland. This is the message I will carry with me when I campaign across Puerto Rico in the coming weeks to earn your support. This primary represents an historic opportunity where you will have the chance to determine who will be the next President of the United States. This election – this moment – is too important to settle for more of the same. We must aspire more, and with your support on June 1, that is what we will do together.
http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/columna/402056
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My Commitment to Puerto Rico
Hillary Clinton
Democratic Presidential Hopeful
May 7, 2008
I want to share some of the ideas that will guide me in the White House because you deserve to know specifically what a candidate will do for Puerto Rico as president. You deserve a president who will give its issues as much attention as he or she gives to those of a State. I will do that.
Puerto Ricans have contributed greatly to the United States in both peace and war, and in all fields of endeavor. As First Lady, I led the presidential mission that recommended the special recovery assistance for Hurricane Georges. Later, I visited to stop the bombing on Vieques. I have served as a voice for Puerto Rico in the Senate, and helped lead Congress in passing legislation to treat the islands equally in expanding the Children’s Health Insurance Program – a measure that George Bush wrongly vetoed, co-sponsored a law that extended a tax cut for manufacturing in the States to Puerto Rico, and proposed bills that would extend Child Credit payments to all Puerto Rican working families and to save the Arecibo radio telescope.
From Day One as President, it will be my priority to work with all factions and Congress — and without preference among the options — to finally resolve the question of Puerto Rico’s ultimate status. I will address Congress on this and together, during my first term, we will enable the issue to be resolved. All people are entitled to a representative form of government at all levels, and Puerto Ricans are no exception. Puerto Rico should also have the status that a majority of its people want from among all of the options.
At the same time, I will help Puerto Rico overcome other challenges.
I will end inequities in health programs and provide truly universal health care in Puerto Rico. I am the only candidate who will ensure that everyone has health insurance — including the approximately half a million Puerto Ricans who do not now — by providing subsidies so insurance premiums do not exceed a small percentage of a family’s income and small businesses will provide policies to their workers. I am also the only candidate who will: eliminate the limit on federal contributions to Medicaid in Puerto Rico; ensure Medicare will pay the same for in-patient hospital services in Puerto Rico that it pays everywhere else; and treat Puerto Ricans equally in Medicare assistance for physician and other services.
I will also expand the Child Credit payments to all workers not just those with three or more children in Puerto Rico as now. And I will extend similar payments to low-income workers without children.
I am committed to providing new tax benefits to revitalize Puerto Rico’s economy, extending to Puerto Rico the wage credits and tax benefits of Empowerment Zones and other programs that stimulate investment in underdeveloped areas of the States. I will also make permanent the tax cut for income from manufacturing.
To fight crime, I will restore funding for the COPS program, among other measures.
I will also instruct federal agencies, such as the Census, to include you in all surveys and reports to make sure that you get your fair share of federal funding and to help businesses make investment decisions.
In Vieques, I will have the federal government give up ownership of all of the land of the former range not needed for environmental reasons.
I will personally share my ideas with you during this historic primary campaign. And I will honor your support and will work from my first day in the White House with Puerto Rico always in my heart. With your support, I will be a President for Puerto Rico as well as the States.
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Ping
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!! Where's my violin? That's from Obama's op-ed.... so he turned down a career in the Devilish Evilish Capitalist Wall Street to work the trenches in the Chicago "communities"?
Obama is wasting his time in PR.
He might as well speak in front of La Raza.
Hillary by 50%
He wants a medal.
The Presidential seal...
Hurricane Georges: SHE led the Presidential Task force....Gimme a break...
Tax breaks
Health Care....
Can you say Socialism??
Yes, this is complete bullsh!t.... I was a DC lobbyist for the Puerto Rican government in '98, and do not recall her office being involved in this at all.... if anything, it was Bill Clinton's Puerto Rico task force who was involved (and she was NOT part of it).... I recall working the midnight oil for weeks with FEMA, coordinating help for the Island.... for her to attempt to take credit for this is beyond insulting....
Hillary forgot to mention talking her husband into giving pardons to those Puerto Rican terrorists. She must be getting forgetful.
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