Clinton touts job training proposals

RALEIGH -- Sen. Hillary Clinton chose Wake Technical Community College today to call attention to her proposal to spend $12.5 billion over five years to train and educate workers.

"We may be competing in a new global economy, but our policies to equip American workers for the 21st century are stuck back in the 20th," she told an audience of at least 600.

She praised the retraining programs at Wake Tech.

"This campus is a place that has struggled to help people find work in a changing economy," she said. "This school and its spirit really represent what is best about our country. We embrace challenge; we don't turn away from it."

She reiterated her positions on wider issues, winning applause as she called for universal health care coverage. She also repeated her call for an end to tax breaks for oil companies, more investment in green companies and a renegotiation of NAFTA.

Clinton's speech was sprinkled with North Carolina references. She mentioned traffic jams on Interstate 40 as an example of the need for infrastructure improvements. And she praised Gov. Mike Easley's learn-and-earn program.

She pointedly contrasted her economic proposals with positions taken by Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

"He'd rather ignore the mortgage crisis or blame middle-class families instead of offering solutions," she said. "I think we've had enough of a president who didn't know enough about economics and didn't do enough for the American middle class. I don't think we can afford four years of that kind of inaction."

She did not mention her Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, who held a rally in Greensboro on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee issued a statement this afternoon saying that Clinton's economic plans, as well as Obama's, "recycle the same liberal, big government solutions" that will lead to higher takes and more spending.

Both Clinton and Obama misrepresented McCain's economic proposals, said RNC spokeswoman Katie Wright.

On the issue of worker training, Clinton said, the nation has not done enough to help workers who are still employed to gain skills and move up to higher-wage positions. Current programs, she said, focus on people already out of work.

Clinton said she was emphasizing specifics in her proposals so people will know what to expect if she is elected.

"We need to rebuild accountability and trust between our people and our president, and we need to know what it is we're voting for, what it is we will get, because this is one of the most important elections that our county has had in a very long time," she said.

Her campaign released a written summary of her worker-training proposal. It includes spending $10 billion over five years to make every dislocated worker eligible for training and other benefits. Currently, some assistance is limited to those who lose their jobs to plants overseas.

The plan also would expand financial aid to reach more displaced workers who enroll in training and education programs.

As for workers who still have their jobs, Clinton proposed:

- New "American Retirement Accounts," in which workers could make tax-deferred investments of $5,000 annually for education and training. The government would offer $1,000 in matching tax cuts to help workers save.

- $200 million a year to aid workers and communities threatened by global competition.

- Expansion of tuition benefit programs offered by employers to pay for literacy and English as a Second Language programs. Such programs now cover only college courses.

Clinton was scheduled to leave Raleigh for speeches at 2 p.m. today in Fayetteville and at 5:30 p.m.in Winston-Salem.

Former President Bill Clinton will be in the western part of the state Friday, and Chelsea Clinton is scheduled to attend a Young Democrats convention Saturday at the Sheraton Imperial in Durham.