Clinton blasts Treasury plan, hits McCain
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/03/31/845424.aspxClinton blasts Treasury plan, hits McCain
Posted: Monday, March 31, 2008 4:59 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under: 2008, Economy, Clinton
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
HARRISBURG, PA -- The Treasury Department's plan to reform the way the financial system is regulated don't go far enough, Clinton said today.
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The New York senator also continued to bash presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, accusing him of not having a plan for dealing with the economy. "Today, the Administration, through the Secretary of the Treasury, has announced that finally the Bush Administration is going to take some action to better regulate the financial markets," she said during a roundtable at a diner here Monday. "Well, after years of a wait-and-don't-see approach to the regulatory failures that led to the housing and the credit crisis, they've announced a plan that comes late and falls short. No amount of rearranging the deck chairs can hide the fact that our housing and credit markets are in crisis, and they're sinking deeper every day. Every day we fail to take aggressive action is a day lost. You know, Sen. McCain recently gave speech on the economy, and best I could determine his plan was not to have a plan. If he got the 3:00 am call on the economy, he would just let the phone ring and ring and ring."
The senator briefly touched on her own proposals, which her campaign sent out earlier today, for regulating the industry and helping people facing economic hardship. "I have proposed immediate steps we can take right now to shore up the housing and credit markets and to restore confidence and keep millions of families in their homes," Clinton added. "We need minimum mortgage standards so mortgage lenders just can't make bad mortgages and then sell them off to the highest bidder somewhere in Shanghai or Berlin without responsibility. We need to have immediate regulatory safeguards against new risks in our financial markets, more transparency, more oversight of a lot of these new financial products that nobody understands."
The roundtable kicked off the fourth day of an economy tour meant to show Clinton is ready to manage an economic crisis and to help struggling families. She also spoke about doing more to help the middle class, listing some of the groups who have been hardest hit like truckers, farmers, and fishermen. "We want to extend the tax cuts that are about to expire and reform the Alternative Minimum Tax so that it doesn't hit middle class families," she said. "I will cut middle-class taxes by at least $100 billion a year."
Before the roundtable began, Clinton met outside in a light rain with about two dozen truckers who were on site to protest high gas prices, an issue she's been bringing up frequently on the campaign trail as she focuses on so-called kitchen table issues. Two of the truckers took part in the roundtable. ……..
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_559743.htmlChelsea Clinton campaigns on South Side
By Salena Zito
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Chelsea Clinton is in town to campaign for her mom, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton.
About 120 people were in Folino's Restaurant on Carson Street in the South Side to hear her speak, and 54 of them have volunteered to canvass afterward.
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Clinton was introduced by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who noted that he and Clinton are both 28 years old were born 21 days apart, he on Feb. 6, 1980, and she on Feb. 27 of that year.
Salena Zito can be reached at szito@tribweb.com or 412-320-7879.
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http://pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_559777.htmlClinton campaign opens Greensburg
By Richard Robbins
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Hillary Clinton's campaign headquarters opened in Greensburg on Saturday, and her true-blue supporters were on hand, talking up the New York senator and, for the most part, going easy on her rival for the Democratic nomination for president, Sen. Barack Obama.
The office at 113 N. Main St. looked very much like a working headquarters. Pasted on the walls were large sheets of paper on which volunteers were to affix their names and the times when they would be able to make telephone calls or canvass neighborhoods on Clinton's behalf.
In fact, these grassroot chores have been well under way for weeks, the volunteers who were on hand for yesterday's grand opening said.
"Come to my house this Wednesday," pleaded Belinda Staffieri of Belle Vernon, who attended yesterday's event with her friends, Erin Sinko and Colleen Arnowitz, both of Monongahela and both daughters of former Democratic Congressman Austin Murphy.
Staffieri said she expected a large group of Clinton backers -- both men and women -- to make phone calls to Democrats across the state in support of the former first lady at the gathering on Wednesday evening.
Luella Zeminski of Greensburg, a greeter at the Clinton headquarters yesterday, said the voters she has spoken to "think (Clinton) is the one who is going to turn things around" for the country.
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"We have people who are inspired by the cause" of making Clinton president, she added.
Richard Robbins can be reached at rrobbins@tribweb.com or 724-836-5660.