Hillary Clinton comes to Graham

Clinton vows to invest in people at Graham stop

April 28, 2008
By Robert Boyer / Times-News

GRAHAM, N.C. -- Promising to "invest in the people who build America," Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton brought her presidential campaign to the Graham fire station on Monday.

Clinton, stumping in advance of her May 6 primary election with Democratic front-runner Sen. Barack Obama, spoke to about 500 enthusiastic supporters who crowded inside and outside the fire station on Pine Street. She touted reforms in health care and energy, including a temporary tax on big oil companies that Clinton said will ease high gas and diesel prices through the summer during her roughly 30-minute talk.

Clinton also promised to end the federal No Child Left Behind education program and said she has a plan to begin withdrawing "one to two brigades a month" of U.S. troops from Iraq "within 60 days."

Clinton signed autographs and posed with the crowd for photographs after the event. She then took questions from the media.

Clinton Criticizes Obamas Objection  to Gas Tax Holiday

Monday, 28 Apr 2008
By SARA KUGLER

GRAHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday criticized Barack Hussein Obama for opposing the concept of suspending the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax during the peak summer driving months (from Memorial Day to Labor Day), a plan she has endorsed.

Obama does not support the "gas tax holiday" and has said the average motorist would not benefit significantly from such a suspension; by some estimates, the federal government would lose about $10 billion in revenue.

"My opponent, Senator Obama, opposes giving consumers a break," Clinton said, campaigning in North Carolina. "I understand the American people need some relief."

Clinton said she would make up the difference in revenue by imposing a "windfall profits tax" on oil companies.

"If we suspended it and made up the lost revenues, that's the best of both worlds," she said.

 

Clinton commented at a firehouse in Graham, where she was urging North Carolinians to take advantage of the state's early voting, which opened more than a week ago ahead of the May 6 primary.

She and Obama have been pushing their supporters to go to the polls early here and Indiana, which also votes May 6.

Besides her push for early voting, Clinton was to spend part of the day raising money. She and daughter Chelsea were to appear at a closed-door fundraiser in Greensboro, with two more fundraisers scheduled later in Charlotte.