Ann Arbor, MI: Ralph Nader Oct 31
News Advisory
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ryan Mehta, 202-471-5833, rmehta@votenader.org (national); Arron Brewster, 715-703-0353 (local)
RALPH NADER TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE AND RALLY IN ANN ARBOR, MI, FRIDAY, OCT 31
WHO: Ralph Nader
WHAT: Press Conference and Rally
WHEN: Friday, Oct. 31 at 11:30 a.m. and 12 p.m., respectively
WHERE: University of Michigan- Michigan Union Ballroom, 530 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
On Friday, October 31 at 11:30 a.m., consumer advocate and independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader will hold a press conference in room 2105A at University of Michigan- Michigan Union Ballroom, 530 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 followed by a 12 p.m. rally. Mr. Nader will speak on a variety of topics including the economic crisis, the fraudulent Commission on Presidential Debates which excludes alternative voices from participating, and other pressing issues especially pertinent to Michigan residents.
Nader/Gonzalez opposes the $25 billion blank check bailout of the Big Three tucked away in a bloated energy package bill which received congressional approval to fund last month. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will cost taxpayers roughly $7 billion to finance the loans to bailout failing companies with no significant demands for oversight and accountability. Moreover, the loan was approved without a single public congressional hearing like those held in the late ’70s when Chrysler executives were ferociously grilled by our representatives after asking for a $1.5 billion loan guarantee to revive the struggling company. Chrysler eventually received the loan guarantee, but only after it agreed to a set of demands including the issuance of government stock warrants, an increase in its vehicles’ fuel efficiency standards, and to prohibit a decrease in worker wages. Nader/Gonzalez urges Congress to put in place similar safeguards this time around, without which, there will be nothing to guarantee the job security of automaker employees or the longterm viability of the industry.
In addition, Mr. Nader will speak about the growing, multifarious crisis Michigan residents confront, starting with a tanking economy, increasing environmental pollution and a broken health care system. According the US Census Bureau, Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the country which currently stands at 8.7%. It is also the only state in the union where incomes fell while poverty rose in 2007, before the onset of the national economic downturn.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, as of 2004, the United States had lost 1 million job opportunities due to the affect of NAFTA on the economy. Michigan alone had a net loss of 63,148 jobs attributed to NAFTA. Nader/Gonzalez would withdraw and renegotiate NAFTA and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
An April 2004 report by the Sierra Club, "Michigan Communities at Risk" found that weakened federal air, ground and water regulations have introduced severe new health risks in Michigan, shifted the costs of pollution abatement from large corporations onto the backs of individual tax payers, and encouraged the use by electric companies of coal over cleaner energy sources.
The Nader/Gonzalez team would fix Michigan’s pollution problem and create many new jobs with its crash program to switch the nation to a non-nuclear, non-fossil-fuel, solar-based economy—which is "off the table" for Obama/McCain. Enormous improvements in proven energy efficiencies from consumer, home and building technologies can become the norm if Washington overcomes the energy companies’ lobbies that do not want to see their sales diminish.
A March 2008 Families USA report, "Dying For Coverage In Michigan" found that in 2006, of the nearly 5,347,000 people between the ages of 25 and 64 living in Michigan, 13.4 percent had no health insurance and that uninsured Michigan residents are sicker and die sooner than their insured counterparts
While Obama and McCain offer health care plans that would enrich private insurance companies at the expense of tax payers, the Nader/Gonzalez campaign favors a Canadian-style public health insurance system with private delivery and free choice of hospital and doctor.
Mr. Nader will also address other critical issues the major party candidates have taken "off the table" that the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign has put on the table, including:
- a comprehensive, six-month negotiated military and corporate withdrawal date from Iraq;
- a single-payer, private delivery, free-choice public health insurance system for all;
- a living wage and repeal of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act;
- a no-nuke, solar-based energy policy supported by renewable, sustainable, energy-efficient sources;
- a carbon tax to deter global warming and a Wall Street securities derivatives tax to pay for the Washington bailout of Wall Street;
- an end to the corporate welfare and corporate crime waves that have resulted in millions losing pensions, savings and jobs and squandered tax dollars;
- a major public works jobs program to repair America’s schools, clinics, public transit, bridges, drinking water & sewage treatment systems paid for by reducing the bloated, wasteful military budget and ending corporate subsidies; and,
- more direct democracy reflecting the preamble to our constitution which starts with "we the people," and not "we the corporations."
About Ralph Nader
Attorney, author, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader has been named by Time Magazine one of the "100 Most Influential Americans in the 20th Century." For more than four decades he has exposed problems and organized millions of citizens into more than 100 public interest groups advocating solutions. He led the movement to establish the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and was instrumental in enacting the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and countless other pieces of important consumer legislation. Because of Ralph Nader we drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments. Nader graduated from Princeton University and received an LL.B from Harvard Law School.
About the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign
The Nader/Gonzalez independent presidential candidacy will be on the ballot in 45 states, is polling at 5-6 percent nationally, and despite being excluded from the presidential debates,* a recent Time/CNN poll shows Ralph Nader polling 8 percent in New Mexico, 7 percent in Colorado, 7 percent in Pennsylvania, and 6 percent in Nevada — all key battleground states.
For more information on the Nader/Gonzalez campaign, visit: votenader.org.
*National polls since 2000 have a majority of Americans wanting Ralph Nader on these debates.
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