Fact Check: Sen. Obama Followed Hillary's Lead On Stimulus

Fact Check: Sen. Obama Followed Hillary's Lead On Stimulus

1/18/2008 4:08:50 PM

Today, Sen. Obama falsely claimed that Hillary followed his lead on introducing a stimulus package:

And I have to say that Senator Clinton, she released her own stimulus package and it didn’t have these, this tax relief. And in fact, you know, she thought that that could wait until things got worse. And we were criticized by some in their camp, saying, “Well, that’s not the right way to go. We need to have this different approach.” Today, five years, five days after she released her plan, she said, “Well, you know what, we need a tax rebate.” Because now, apparently, she agrees with me. She’s got the same approach that we do.

Actually, the opposite is true. Hillary first suggested a stimulus package in December. When she introduced her plan on January 11, Sen. Obama was roundly criticized for claiming his existing package of long-term tax relief would function as stimulus. Two days later, he then introduced an actual stimulus package, that borrowed heavily from Hillary's package.

Despite Sen. Obama's claim that Hillary added tax relief to her plan, her $110 billion plan – introduced before Sen. Obama's - always included $40 billion in contingent tax rebates. After days of negative economic news, Hillary concluded yesterday that her full plan should be implemented immediately.

Detailed timeline below:

DECEMBER 5: Hillary became the first candidate of either party to call on Congress and the President to "fast acting, short term stimulus measures.” In her Wall Street Speech she laid out her principles for temporary, fast acting and progressive stimulus, and called for bold measures to end the housing crisis............

http://facts.hillaryhub.com/archive/?id=5300

"As soon as you find a factual error in this OP, let me know"

They never end up finding any factual errors.

As usual, Edwards was leading on the issues. The celebrity candidates followed.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120010108575785415.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

<snip> Sen. Clinton said Friday she will call in the Senate for $70 billion in emergency funds directed to housing, energy and unemployment assistance. If conditions worsen, she said, Congress should also provide a one-time $40 billion tax rebate for low- and middle-class workers to spur consumer spending.

Mr. Obama's campaign said he will unveil proposed stimulus legislation in coming days. </snip>

with this year's stimulus plans to deal with the recession.

Well first of all, Obama laid out his economic package in September and it did not rely solely on tax cuts. In fact, a key part of his plan was to challenge Wall Street to improve the lives of workers; "if we expect working Americans to accept and even embrace free trade, then I believe we all have a stake in embracing policies that will provide them with a sense of security. That means health insurance and a pension that they can always count on. That means skills and training that can actually help people find a job. And that means wages that actually make work pay."

Regardless, his entire plan is geared towards working people and contains a variety of proposals. The tax credits were up to $500 per person or $1,000 for each working family, to offset the payroll tax. This would effectively eliminate all income taxes for 10 million working Americans and give the poorest Americans immediate relief.
http://www.barackobama.com/2007/09/17/remarks_of_senator_barack_obam_24.php
http://origin.barackobama.com/issues/economy/

As your article says, they both released Economic Plans last year.

These are the stimulus plans:

Hillary released her plan on Jan 11, where she now calls for tax relief if the other proposals aren't sufficient. After criticizing Obama for his tax relief.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/11/572486.aspx

On Jan 13, Obama released his stimulus package, completely different than the much earlier economic plan that the Clintons are pretending was the stimulus package, with smaller, but similar tax assistance.
http://www.barackobama.com/2008/01/13/barack_obama_announces_plan_to.php