Disclaimer: The following are a bunch of things these people SAY they would do. I can pretty much assure you they all offer a lot more than they can deliver. I've tried to keep my opinions to myself but if you have any questions on any of the issues, comment and I will gladly respond with what I think.
Barack Obama, 46 DemocratJunior Senator, Illinois
Favorite Meal To Cook: Chili
Health Care: National health plan that would cover all Americans. Some of the important features of the plan include guaranteed eligibility, comprehensive benefits, and affordable premiums. Estimated cost of this plan ranges between 50 billion and 65 billion dollars.
Economy: Eliminate the tax cuts for the poor and create tax credits for the working families. His plan would eliminate income taxes for 10 million Americans.
Iraq: Voted against the war in Iraq when it wasn't the cool thing to do. His plan calls to remove all combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. Would keep some troops in Iraq to protect the US embassy and prevent al Qaeda from forming a base in Iraq.
Education: Obama's education strategy includes the "Zero to Five Plan" which emphasizes early care and education for infants and creates Early Learning Challenge Grants. Obama also plans to reform the No Child Left Behind program by changing the assessment used to track student progress. Obama's American Opportunity Tax Credit would make the first $4,000 of a college education free for most Americans.
Learn More About Barack
Mitt Romney, 60 RepublicanFormer Governor, Massachusetts
Hates: Eggplant
Health Care: Romney wants to make all health care costs tax deductible. Romney also plans to eliminate some "free care" in order to provide some individuals with private insurance.
Economy: Romney would lower income, corporate, estate, etc... taxes across the board for everything imaginable. You name it, if it pays taxes, it's being lowered.
Iraq: Romney supports sending additional troops to Iraq. Romney would also strengthen the military and attempt to work with our allies in the Middle East and other developed countries to form the "Partnership for Progress and Prosperity" in order to help "threatened" Islamic nations.
Education: Would give states that meet No Child Left Behind requirements more flexibility in setting their own requirements. Romney is a strong supporter of giving parents the right to choose what school their child wants to go to and thus a strong supporter of charter schools. Also promotes a tax credit for those parents who want to home school their children.
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Hillary Clinton, 60 DemocratJunior Senator, New York
Voted Most Likely To Succeed
Health Care: Clinton has been unarguably one of the strongest advocates of health care reform. Apparently, she was right. Her health care system would give the consumer choice to pick whether they want to keep their current insurance, choose from plans like those available to Congress, or choose a public plan like Medicare. Estimated cost, 110 billion dollars annually.
Economy: Clinton plans to cut taxes for the middle class and eliminate Bush's tax cut on those earning over $250,000. Plans to invest in alternative energy to create higher paying jobs.
Iraq: Clinton says that in her first day in the White House she would begin a plan that would start bringing back troops from Iraq within 60 days. She would work with the United Nations to help rebuild Iraq and be part of a group in order mediate between sectarian violence in the region.
Education: Clinton's plan for education focuses on making college more affordable by providing a $3,500 tuition tax credit and increasing Pell Grants. She would also create greater incentives for those students interested in public service.
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Rudolph Giuliani, 63 RepublicanFormer Mayor, New York City
Most likely to wear: Yankee Cap
Health care: A $15,000 income exclusion for those who don't have employee coverage in order to make health care more affordable. Would give incentives to states to come up with innovative solutions.
Economy: Read his lips, no more taxes. Would prevent unprecedented tax increases from happening. Would also the Alternative Minimum Tax to inflation to prevent it from unintentionally raising taxes.
Iraq: Does not believe in setting a timetable for Iraq.
Education: Giuliani plans to increase support to charter schools and also plans to increase a government voucher program to help disadvantage students have a greater choice of what schools they could attend.
Learn More About Rudy
John Edwards, 54 DemocratSenator, North Carolina
Favorite Movie: Shawshank Redemption
Health care: Universal health care program would require businesses to provide health insurance to their employees and would expand the current public health care system. Would create regional health care markets to make health care more affordable and provide more choices for the consumer. Estimated costs range between 90 and 120 billion dollars per year.
Economy: Edwards would create tax credits for families earning less than $75,000. Would repeal the tax cuts for household incomes earning over 250,000 and would also raise taxes earned on capital gains to 28 percent. Plans to increase the national minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2012.
Iraq: Plans to withdraw all combat troops within nine to ten months. Would keep Quick Reaction Forces just outside of Iraq (e.g. Kuwait) in order to maintain stability in the region. Would engage in direct talks with countries in the region in order to step up diplomatic efforts.
Education: Would create a universal pre-school program and would raise the pay of teacher s by up to $15,000 in high poverty schools. Also plans to change No Child Left Behind by making requirements broader and less dependent on standardized tests.
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John McCain, 71 RepublicanSenator, Arizona
Favorite TV Shows: 24 and Seinfeld
Health care: Does not believe in a government enforced universal health care system but wants to make health care affordable to all citizens by creating tax credits for low income families in order to help cover health care costs. Also plans to cut costs in the health care system by limiting the amount rewarded on malpractice suits.
Economy: Would cut taxes on the middle class and would keep corporate taxes low. Would make raising taxes even harder by requiring a 3/5 vote from Congress. Would cut cell phone and internet taxes.
Iraq: Would add additional troops in Iraq and accelerate the training of Iraqi armed forces and police. Also plans to stop rotating senior officials in the pentagon and make it clear who's in charge of what when it comes to handling the war in Iraq. Would call for international pressure on Iran and Syria.
Education: Supports charter schools and the use of government vouchers.
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Mike Huckabee, 52 RepublicanGovernor, Arkansas
Instrument: Bass
Health Care: Does not favor universal health care. Would provide incentives for the private sector to come up with cheaper health care. Would reform health care liability, adopt electronic record keeping, and make it easy to transfer health care from one job to another.
Economy: Supports the Fair Tax proposal that would eliminate income taxes. You would only be tax on the things you buy and people living below the poverty line would not pay taxes on necessities at all. Retail taxes would only apply to new goods.
Iraq: Believes that setting a timetable for withdrawal is a mistake. Would create a regional summit so that Iraq's neighbors would become more financially and militarily committed to stabilizing Iraq.
Education: Believes that music and arts are an essential part of the educational system and should be part of regular curriculum. Also believes that states should set their own benchmarks in regard to the No Child Left Behind law. Believes in testing teachers to make sure they are performing to an acceptable level.
Learn More About Mike
3 comments:
if any of them enjoyed a nice pair of slacks like i do, that candidate would've had my vote, without a doubt :(
you're my hero, Jorge.
hopefully this will get people to make informed choices, instead of going with whoever is more popular or cute (haha) or whatever.
i have to say, universal health care is pretty important to me, so you know who i'm leaning towards... :)
Thanks Jorge, you inspiored me to post my own version of political blog entry!
-E
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