Bob Graham for President 2004 Campaign Brochure

‘OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL’

A PLAN FOR AMERICA’S ECONOMIC RENEWAL

- Executive Summary -

I wrote this plan because I believe in the goodness of America and in the spirit of the

American people. America has always been a model for the world, but in the past three years,

we have fallen off course. We can do better. To be a model for the world, we need to begin by

getting back to being a beacon of hope and opportunity for all Americans.

America needs a new vision and new leadership. This plan will best help us bring our

nation together and will put America back on track to reach the potential of our minds and the

goodness of our hearts. I understand that with our nation’s great blessings come a grave

responsibility. This plan challenges us as a nation to be even greater and us as a people to

conquer new frontiers. It is with that resolve that I offer it. America deserves nothing less.

Here is an overview of my plan. -Bob Graham

BUILD AMERICA

School Construction and Repair: Phased up to an additional $12.5 billion per year, the rest to be matched by the states.

Transportation Infrastructure:

·  Highways and bridges: Ramping up federal investment to an additional $14 billion per year, with 50% state match.

·  Transit: Federal transit funding of an additional 12% over TEA-21 levels, roughly $1 billion per year.

·  Rail: Provide an additional $3 billion per year to move American into the era of high-speed rail.

Homeland Security: $13 billion a year in increased homeland security expenditures – sufficient, when matched 50-50 by state and local dollars, to fully fund the nation’s outstanding port security and first responder needs.

Technology:

·  Basic Research: A 10% increase in appropriations for basic research—about $3 billion above the baseline—each year.

·  Broadband: Current federal funding of about $3 billion per year will double, with the requirement of a state or local match; this will bring public sector investment to a total of $12 billion a year – roughly one-third of what’s needed to make this technology universal. This should leverage the private sector investment necessary to cover the country’s entire projected need.

·  Renewable Energy: The Graham Energy plan would cost approximately $4.5 billion dollars a year.

·  Expand incentives to invest in these technologies and to purchase alternative fuel cars, including funding to replace Bush’s Hydrogen Car Program with a serious hydrogen effort, R&D tax credits for companies researching affordable solar home construction, and an investment tax credit for innovative building technologies, including high efficiency furnaces and gas-fired heat pumps.

·  Increased funding for DOE and EPA research and development.

·  Reinstate and expand the Solar Roofs Initiative to meet a goal of 10 million solar roofs by 2015.

·  Help pay for these initiatives by eliminating the tax loophole that allows companies to deduct 100% of their Humvee and other tax and spending subsidies for environmentally harmful activities, saving about $2 billion per year, and outfitting federal buildings with advanced solar electrical systems to save the federal government $1 billion a year in energy costs.

Environmental Infrastructure: Provide a 50-50 matching fund available to all states to meet their drinking water and wastewater infrastructure needs, totaling $10 billion a year for the next twenty years, and raise funding for national parks by $600 million dollars a year, which will eliminate the maintenance gap over ten years.

OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL

Expanded HOPE Scholarship: Expand HOPE Scholarship tax credit to cover up to $2500 in tuition and educational expenses – enough to make college fully affordable for virtually every American family – for a full four years.

Equal Investment in Non-College Advanced Training: Make the same $10,000 for advanced education and training available to kids who choose not to go to college but enter the workforce and seek training to advance their skills. In fact, the Graham plan will provide this level of training to workers at any stage in their careers. The current Lifetime Learning tax credit provides a 20% tax credit for the first $10,000 of tuition and required fees – President Graham will effectively expand this to 100% of this expense (although recipients will have the option of taking the credit as an upfront voucher for“consumer”-driven job training).

REVERSE THE BUSH FISCAL PRIORITIES

Tax Fairness:

·  Repeal the Bush dividends and capital gains tax cuts.

·  Stop the phase-out of the estate tax at its 2009 level with an exemption of $3.5 million ($7 million for couples), and extend it permanently.

·  Reset the top rate at 38.6 percent – lower than the rate when President Clinton left office – and create a “Millionaire’s Bracket” at 40%

·  Step up enforcement efforts to close the gap between taxes legally due and those actually being collected, which the Internal Revenue Service estimates at $30 billion a year.

·  Repeal the tax advantages – and impose new penalties – for individuals and corporations who transfer assets offshore or renounce US citizenship to escape taxation.

Economic Stimulus For All:

·  If the economy is still in recession in 2005, put more money into the hands of working Americans who are likely to spend it by taking the first $10,000 of earned income of every American out of taxation under the payroll tax.

·  Permanently extend AMT relief for individuals and families

·  Extend marriage penalty repeal.

·  Extend and maintain the child credit at its highest level of $1000 per child.

·  An income tax deduction for up to the full cost of purchasing of long-term care insurance and a caregiver tax credit that phases in after four years to $3000 for taxpayers with long-term care needs.

·  Opportunity for All education & training credit will provide nearly $40 billion a year in tax relief to middle class families for advanced education and job training.

Balance Budget Within 5 Years.

Create More Than 3 Million New Jobs.

‘Biography of Bob Graham’

Bob Graham has dedicated his life to public service, and his constituents have recognized that commitment: He has never lost an election.

After two terms in the state House of Representatives and two terms in the state Senate, Graham was elected the 38th governor of Florida in 1978. After two successful terms as governor, he was elected to the United States Senate in 1986 by defeating an incumbent Republican. He has been reelected to the Senate twice, in 1992 and 1998.

He is now campaigning to become the 44th President of the United States.

Personal

Daniel Robert (Bob) Graham was born November 9, 1936, in Dade County, Florida. He is the son of Ernest R. "Cap" Graham, a mining engineer, dairy/cattleman and Florida state senator, and Hilda Simmons Graham, a schoolteacher.

Bob is the youngest of four children. His siblings are the late Philip Graham; William Graham of Miami Lakes, Florida; and the late Mary Crow.

Graham is a product of public schools. He attended Hialeah Elementary and Junior High Schools.

He began his political career as the student body president of Miami Senior High School, graduating in 1955.

He received a bachelor's degree in 1959 from the University of Florida, where he was Phi Beta Kappa, a member of Florida Blue Key and Chancellor of Honor Court.

Graham received a bachelor of law degree from Harvard Law School in 1962.

He married the former Adele Khoury, of Miami Shores, in February of 1959. They have four daughters: Gwen Graham Logan, Cissy Graham McCullough, Suzanne Graham Gibson and Kendall Graham Elias.

The Grahams also have 10 grandchildren, and when the Senator isn't working, they spend most of their time with the family.

His hobbies include reading, golf, swimming, tennis, hunting, horseback riding and walking.