3 adopting energy efficient school and infrastructure repairs. In total, Obama’s $25 billion investment will result in 1 million jobs created or saved, while helping to turn our economy around.

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Partner with America’s automakers to help save jobs and ensure that the next generation of clean vehicles is built in the United States. Senator Obama pushed for $50 billion in loan guarantees to help the auto industry retool, develop new battery technologies and produce the next generation of fuel efficient cars here in America. Congress passed only half of this amount – it is critical that the administration speeds up the implementation of the first half and that Congress move q uickly to increase certainty by enacting the second half. In addition, Obama believes that with the tremendous uncertainty facing the auto industry, and the small and medium business suppliers who depend on them, it is critical that we keep all options on the table for helping them weather the financial crisis.

2. IMMEDIATE RELIEF FOR STRUGGLING FAMILIES

Even when the overall economy was growing, most American families were not sharing in this growth. The typical non-elderly household saw its income decline by more than $2,000 from 2000 to 2007 as expenses skyrocketed. Weekly wages, adjusted for inflation, are now lower than they were a decade ago. Barack Obama’s overall economic plan will relieve the squeeze on families and foster bottom-up growth. But he is proposing that we implement several measures immediately:

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A tax cut for 95 percent of workers and their families – plus seniors. Barack Obama proposes a permanent tax cut of $500 for workers and $1,000 for families. A first round of these tax cuts could be mailed out quickly by the IRS based on tax returns already filed for tax year 2007. In addition, Obama would extend these expedited tax credits to senior citizens who are retired as a down payment on his plan to eliminate taxes for all seniors making up to $50,000.

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Extend unemployment insurance benefits and temporarily suspend taxes on these benefits. Millions of Americans are looking for work but unable to find it in the weak economy. Today, more than one in five unemployed workers has been out of work for more than half a year – the highest level since early 2005. Obama supported extending unemployment insurance this summer, but already 800,000 jobless workers have exhausted those benefits and are being left without any unemployment compensation. Obama believes Congress should immediately extend unemployment insurance for an additional 13 weeks to he lp families that are being hit hardest by this do wnturn. In addition Barack Obama believes that we should temporarily suspend taxes on unemployment insurance benefits as a way of giving more relief to families.

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