how much do you want to but this guy wins NC. This is Edwards seat that the repubs thought they'd get. The repubs won't get Barbara Boxer's seat in CA either, they want that one also.
What other senate races are close do you know? Maybe the dems can take the senate, that would be great.
Bowles unveils plan to help N.C. jobs, economy
Senate candidate Erskine Bowles recommends a moratorium on international trade agreements, more investment in small business and more help for displaced workers in his platform on the economy.
Bowles, seeking the Democratic nomination for the office being vacated by John Edwards, discussed his plan Tuesday in a speech at the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce.
He displayed a front-page story in Tuesday's Citizen-Times that talked about the economy in Yancey County in the wake of an announcement that the Avondale Mills yarn factory will close, putting 163 people out of work.
"How many more Avondales do we have to have," Bowles said, ticking off a list of layoffs, "before we wake up and know we've got to get this economy going?"
He said tax cuts, increased government spending and low interest rates have given the economy a modest boost, but the impact of resulting federal deficits will slow growth in the future.
"We are experiencing a recovery of sorts in some areas of this country ... but I believe it's very short-term," he said.
Speaking to about 50 people Wednesday morning at the Ben Craig Center in Charlotte, Bowles said he had a "moral obligation" to do something about the 130,000 lost jobs in North Carolina over the past two years.
"I've spent my whole life focused on what I'm here to talk about today — jobs," he said.
"I think we have a moral obligation to do what we can in this country to get the economy going," Bowles said in his speech at the business incubator. "This is why I have put my heart and soul into this jobs plan."
Bowles' plan called for no new trade agreements "until Washington cracks down on illegal imports and certifies that all existing trade agreements are being enforced correctly."
He called for doubling Small Business Administration assistance, providing tax credits for businesses that provide health coverage, increasing business tax credits for research and development, and increasing spending for farm assistance, schools, roads, water-sewer systems and the Internet.
It includes several proposals specific to North Carolina, such as a buyout of the federal tobacco program and creation of an institute to train Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station workers. The state is hoping to save the base from closing.
The plan would cost $215.5 billion over the next 10 years, Bowles said. It would be financed by halving pork barrel spending, reducing the number of federal employees by 10 percent except in defense and security, and cutting some corporate tax breaks, among other measures.
Bowles also said he regrets his support of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"Free trade ... in theory makes a lot of sense, but it's got to be fair, and today it's not fair," he said.
Bowles, who headed the federal Small Business Administration in 1993 and 1994, said he believed NAFTA would allow textile manufacturers to better compete with the Far East.
But China has illegally shipped goods through Mexico to take advantage of the trade agreement. That must stop, Bowles said, and the United States must also make China change currency policies that give its goods an unfair advantage and extend quotas on Chinese textile imports.
Stephanie Hawco, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Richard Burr, who is seeking the GOP's Senate nomination, called the plan "a bunch of double talk."
Bowles, she said, "must have learned something from his last defeat because this time he sounds more like a Republican businessman than a Bill Clinton liberal."
wcnc.com |
