Clinton back in Pa., focusing on economy

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton returned to Pennsylvania yesterday, talking about the economy and concerns of middle-class voters at an afternoon roundtable outside Harrisburg and an evening rally in Bucks County.

At both events, the Democratic presidential candidate stressed her plan to provide tax relief for middle-income Americans.

Her proposals, which would amount to $100 billion per year, include a $1,000 tax cut tied to individual savings, a $3,500 tax credit for college costs, and a $3,000 credit to help families care for elderly parents or disabled children.

"I believe that we can turn this economy around," she told 1,000 loud, enthusiastic supporters in Fairless Hills. "We're going to take the tax code and shake it up so it starts giving benefits to middle-class taxpayers and not to the wealthy and well-to-do."

The evening rally was on the grounds of the old U.S. Steel plant, in a vast building owned by Gamesa, which manufactures electricity-generating wind turbines.

Her rival for the nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, visited Gamesa three weeks ago. Both have stressed the importance of developing alternative sources of energy.

Clinton is trailing Obama in the popular vote, in total delegates, and in the national polls. But the most recent surveys in Pennsylvania give her a double-digit lead in the state's primary, which takes place three weeks from today.

The roundtable - which opened her three-day "Solutions for the American Economy Tour" - took place at a diner in Swatara Township, a Harrisburg suburb, which had been emptied out for the event.

There, Clinton was surrounded by about a dozen people, who spoke of their day-to-day difficulties in coping with such problems as the rising price of energy, the cost of sending their children to college, and the disappearance of high-paying manufacturing jobs.

"The anxiety level of the whole economic system is so high now," said one of her guests, a Realtor named Wayne Scott.

Clinton told Scott she intended to be a president "who focuses on the vast majority of our people and what they're trying to do."

In addition to the tax cuts, she promised to press for measures to make college more affordable and to invest in alternative-energy sources, thereby moving the nation toward energy independence and creating manufacturing jobs.

She spoke directly to Ana Vargas, a secretary who worries about what kind of education she will be able to provide for her daughter. Clinton told the single mother that maintaining her positive attitude would help her deal with whatever comes.

"I want you to be very confident; this will work out," the New York senator said. "Hopefully, one of the things that will happen is I'll be elected president and make it a whole lot easier."

Before the roundtable, Clinton met with a group of truckers who, earlier in the day, signaled their displeasure with the high price of fuel by making several, horn-blasting laps around the state Capitol.

She praised them for their efforts but told them: "We're not going to be able to do anything as long as Bush is president."

In recent days, leaders of the national Democratic Party have warned that the Clinton-Obama race has been getting too nasty. But yesterday, Clinton had critical words only for President Bush and Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed, a Clinton supporter, did say at the end of the roundtable that he had encountered a lot of politicians over the years who give nice speeches but are unable to deliver on their promises.

Such leaders, Reed said, "add to the cynicism" with which many people approach politics. "If you want to get things done, you have to know how to do it," he said.

Reed did not mention Obama by name, though the idea that Obama is "just words" while Clinton is the candidate of detailed proposals has been a central theme of her campaign.

Today, Clinton is to speak in Center City to the annual convention of the state AFL-CIO. She has rallies planned later in the day in Wilkes-Barre and Erie, to be followed by an "economic summit" in Pittsburgh tomorrow.

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