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Obama Proposes Economic Stimulus Plan In St. Pete

Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO

"Do you think that you are better off now than you were four years ago or eight years ago?" Barack Obama asked the St. Petersburg crowd.

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By WILLIAM MARCH | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 1, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - Barack Obama used a town hall meeting in St. Petersburg today to outline a new economic stimulus plan he wants Congress to enact even before he takes office, to be paid for with a windfall profits tax on oil company profits.

Appearing before a crowd of about a thousand at St. Petersburg's historically black Gibbs High School, Obama deftly handled a group of hecklers from the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement, and stirred supporters with his usual lofty but personable rhetoric.

"The only way we're going to solve our problems in this country is if all of us come together, black, white Hispanic, Asian, Native American, young, old, disabled, gay straight," he said, responding to a challenging question from one of the Uhuru group about whether he has been an advocate for black people.

After his morning appearance, Obama stopped in Plant City for a strawberry milkshake - 50 of them for his media and staff entourage, actually - and then talked about housing at a pre-manufactured housing company near Lakeland.

Recent economic news gave Obama easy applause lines in St. Petersburg. He used the traditional one originated by Ronald Reagan:

"Do you think that you are better off now than you were four years ago or eight years ago?" he asked. "Do you think you can afford another four years of the same failed economic policies that we've had under George W. Bush?"

Obama then said he wants Congress to approve another round of economic stimulus checks, $1,000 for a typical family, by this fall - before he would even take office as president in January - in time to be used to pay for home heating oil.

But as Congress heads into a recess that will last until Sept. 7, it's questionable whether it could act on that as quickly as Obama said he wants.

The plan also includes $50 billion in stimulus spending for highway, bridge and infrastructure improvements and bolstering state budgets.

Citing the recent Exxon-Mobil report of record quarterly profits for any U.S. corporation in history, he called for the plan to be paid for with a tax on profits.

Details including its cost and the amount the tax would produce weren't included in his speech or a conference call his staff held for reporters afterward.

But Obama economic adviser Jason Furman said the tax would affect profits "oil companies have made not because of their investments, not because of their ingenuity and skill, but just because of the increase in gas prices."

He acknowledged a criticism immediately launched by the McCain campaign -- that government studies showed the nation's last windfall profits tax, enacted by Jimmy Carter in 1980, was complicated to administer and resulted in a decline in oil production.

But Furman said that's because of the way the tax was structured, and that Obama would do it differently.

He said if the tax "falls entirely on a windfall, then it won't have any economic distortions associated with it," and won't affect costs of expanding oil production.

"There were mistakes made in the way this was done in 1980," which Obama won't repeat, he said.

McCain also branded the Obama proposal "hypocritical" because Obama voted for, and McCain against, a 2005 energy bill that included $2.8 billion in subsidies for fossil fuel exploration.

Fighting For Florida

Both Obama and McCain were in Florida today, a likely foreshadowing of the battleground the state seems likely to become in their race this fall.

Several recent polls have shown a deadlocked race for Florida's 27 electoral votes, which McCain probably must have to win the presidency and Obama appears to believe he can win.

McCain spoke to a largely black audience in the National Urban League convention in Orlando today, then made a stop at a Puerto Rican restaurant with Gov. Charlie Crist and Sen. Mel Martinez, before hosting a country music concert in Panama City tonight.

Obama will speak to the Urban League Saturday after another town hall meeting on the economy in Titusville.

But Obama could face tougher questioning in Titusville than he did in St. Petersburg, because of his announced plan to delay by five years NASA's Constellation plan to return to the moon.

But the Obama campaign has been pointing out that McCain has a Florida problem also - his opposition to a national catastrophe fund to back up home insurance, which Obama favors.

Obama reiterated that position in St. Petersburg, but added that it should be structured so as to discourage development in high-risk areas including vulnerable coastlines and floodplains.

Familiar Faces

The event included a crowd of prominent Democrats showing up to bask in Obama's reflected glow, including - Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, state Sen. Charlie Justice of St. Petersburg, and state Rep. Mike Scionti Jr. of Tampa and others.

But there were at least two prominent Republicans in the crowd as well.

Controversial pastor Randy White of the Without Walls megachurch in Tampa, said he's supporting Obama and believes his estranged wife and former partner in the church, Paula White, does also.

Also there was retired St. Petersburg businessman and philanthropist Fazal Fazlin, a Republican fundraiser and political donor who sometimes backs Democrats.

Fazlin contributed to McCain's two leading primary opponents, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, and was an major backer of Crist in 2006. But he said he thinks Obama "brings in fresh ideas. To a certain extent the [Republican] party has failed young people. When I look at my granddaughter, with all the debt we have, we need some fresh ideas and new concepts."

The Obama event was aimed partly at undecided voters, and it worked in the case of Patricia Kirby, 42, of Clearwater.

"I was probably undecided before. I'm probably decided now," she said afterward, citing his comments about health care and education, the top issues for her -- she doesn't have insurance.

"I saw him being honest. I saw him being sincere," she said.

Debbie Wilson, 52, of Pinellas Park, supported Hillary Rodham Clinton in the primary and said she has also been trying to make up her mind about Obama. A former trauma therapist, she said Obama's comments on taking care of war veterans cinched it for her.

Reporters Lindsay Peterson and George Wilkens contributed to this report. Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761 or wmarch@tampatrib.com.

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