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August 27, 2008
Obama-nomics: Economic Policy in an Obama Presidency

Denver In this entry: Quotes, warm up questions, discussion questions, resources

Video summary:

This video follows Laura Tyson, a chief economist under President Clinton, now advising Senator Obama, as she walks around a Denver neighborhood with Economics Reporter Paul Solman.

They visit a house that is in foreclosure and then sit at the kitchen table with a middle class couple who are scared by the rapidly rising prices of gas, food and necessities.

(The NewsHour will do a similar report next week at the Republican Convention.)

Tyson touts Barack Obama’s economic policies, including middle class tax cuts and investments in education and alternative energy. She argues that a near decade of regulatory neglect and tax cuts for the wealthy have done real damage.

Select Quotes:

“Senator Obama is proposing a middle-class tax cut that would help a family like this about a thousand dollars a year.” - Laura Tyson, Obama economic adviser
“A thousand dollars is, what, $20 bucks a week. I mean, $20 bucks a week would make an actual difference in your life?” - Paul Solman, NewsHour Economics Correspondent
“He’s proposing in the 0-through-5 education age group to spend $10 billion a year of federal money, whether it’s to quadruple early Head Start, to give people more tax credits for child care so they can use those credits to basically send their children to preschool” - Laura Tyson, Obama economic adviser
“Hundreds of billions of dollars. Well, we’re already in deficit in this country. We’re worried about the liabilities we’ve taken on for Social Security, Medicare, and so forth. Where is all this money going to come from?” - Paul Solman, NewsHour Economics Correspondent
“We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars every year on Iraq. Some estimates run now into the trillions of dollars in total. We are going to be scaling that down.” - Laura Tyson, Obama economic adviser
“[Ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.] That’s $300 billion, most of which goes to the top 10 percent, the top 1 percent, and to — a large amount of which goes to corporations.” - Laura Tyson, Obama economic adviser

Warm-up Questions:

1. What are taxes? Do you think Americans pay too much tax or too little?
2. What do taxes go towards? What does the government do with money raised by taxes?
3. Do you think the government should only spend the amount of money it has, or is it okay to borrow money? Why?

Discussion Questions:

1. What do you think of Barack Obama’s economic policies?
2. Do you think they will help the couple in the video? Why or why not?
3. Do you think Obama is right to spend billions of dollars on preschool and education programs for the very young? Why or why not?
4. Compare the candidate’s economic policies (Barack Obama,
John McCain) and then watch this debate between the two campaigns.

Which plan do you think is better? If you were running for president what would your economics policy be? Do you think candidates running for president have to have certain elements in their economic plans that they might not have if they didn’t have to appeal to voters?

Related Resources:
Transcript of this report
NewsHour Economic Adviser Debate
Public Agenda Issue Guide: The Economy
Barack Obama’s Economic Plan,
John McCain’s Economic Plan

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