Eyes on the Dems

It’s official: Barack Obama has won the Iowa Caucuses for the Democrats. Good for Obama! I’m excited for him, and yet, I am still undecided about my own vote when the primaries hit Connecticut in February. This being the case, I have gone through the most important issues in my mind as they are viewed by the top 3 leading candidates for the left: Edwards, Obama and Clinton. So, here we go…

Top 3 Democratic Candidates on the Issues

HEALTH CARE

John Edwards

• Make insurance affordable by creating new tax credits, expanding Medicaid and SCHIP, reforming insurance laws, and taking innovative steps to contain health care costs
• Require businesses and other employers to either cover their employees or help finance their health insurance
• Create regional Health Care Markets purchasing pools to give every American the bargaining power to purchase an affordable, high-quality health plan, increase choices among insurance plans, and cut costs for businesses offering insurance
• Once these steps have been taken, require all American residents to get insurance
• Families without insurance will get coverage at an affordable price
• Families with insurance will pay less and get more security and choices
• Businesses and other employers will find it cheaper and easier to insure their workers

Barack Obama

• Quality, Affordable and Portable Coverage for All
• National Health Insurance Exchange
• Employer Contribution
• Mandatory Coverage of Children
• Expansion Of Medicaid and SCHIP
• Flexibility for State Plans
• Lower Costs by Modernizing The U.S. Health Care System
• Lowering Costs by Increasing Competition in the Insurance and Drug Markets
• Advance the Biomedical Research Field
• Fight AIDS Worldwide
• Support Americans with Disabilities
• Improve Mental Health Care
• Protect Our Children from Lead Poisoning
• Reduce Risks of Mercury Pollution
• Support Americans with Autism

Hillary Clinton

• Offer and Ensure Quality Coverage Choices for All
• The Same Choice of Health Plan Options that Members of Congress Receive
• Lower Premiums and Increase Security
• End to Unfair Health Insurance Discrimination
• Promote Shared Responsibility between Insurance and Drug Companies, Individuals, Providers, Employers, and the Government
• Tax Relief to Ensure Affordability
• Limit Premium Payments to a Percentage of Income
• Create a New Small Business Tax Credit
• Strengthen Medicaid and CHIP
• Launch a Retiree Health Legacy Initiative

HIV/AIDS

John Edwards

· Guaranteeing health insurance for every American – including HIV/AIDS patients — the care they need when they need it and expanding Medicaid to cover HIV-positive individuals before they reach later stages of disabilities and AIDS

· Fighting the disease in the African American and Latino communities, where the harm is now greatest

· Calling for universal access to HIV/AIDS medicine across the world, investing $50 billion over five years to meet that goal

· Changing the policies that protect big drug companies, at the expense of people dying of HIV/AIDS in developing countries

Barack Obama

• More money – an additional $1 billion a year to the fight here and abroad
• Need for Realism
• Abstinence & Fidelity as Ideal, but Not Reality
• Removing the Stigma of HIV/AIDS Testing
• Reauthorizing Bush Effort in 2008
• Reassess What’s Worked and What Hasn’t

Hillary Clinton

• Double Research Funding & Support Evidence-Based Prevention Programs
• Providing $50 billion or more over 5 years to combat HIV/AIDS globally by 2013
• Developing and Implementing a Comprehensive National AIDS Strategy
• Guaranteeing Health Insurance for Individuals Living with HIV/AIDS
• Doubling the U.S. Contribution Towards Researching a Vaccine for HIV/AIDS and Increasing Commitments to Research
• Ensuring Access to Care for All Americans Living with HIV
• Increasing Funding for Evidence-Based HIV/AIDS Prevention
• Improving Opportunities for Substance Abuse Treatment
• Providing Housing Opportunities and Supportive Services for People with AIDS
• Increasing Funding for the Ryan White CARE Act
• Halting and Reversing the Burden of AIDS Among African-Americans and Latinos
• Ensuring Universal Access to Treatment and Care
• Committing to Access to Medications for All
• Expanding Prevention Efforts and Targeted Outreach
• Championing Universal Basic Education as a “Social Vaccine” to Combat HIV/AIDS
• Increasing Flexibility and Improving Accountability in Use of HIV/AIDS Funds
• Addressing the Disproportionate Impact of HIV Among Women
• Helping Children Gain Access to Treatment and Care

IRAQ

John Edwards

• Stop the Escalation and Immediately Start the Drawdown
• Require Troops to be Ready
• Clarify the Lack of Legal Foundation for the War
• Withdraw Combat Troops within Nine to Ten Months
• Take Additional Steps to Stabilize Iraq

Barack Obama

• Bringing Our Troops Home in 16 months
• Press Iraq’s Leaders to Reconcile
• Regional Diplomacy
• Humanitarian Initiative

Hillary Clinton

• Starting Phased Redeployment
• Securing Stability in Iraq While Bringing Troops Home
• Intensive Diplomatic Initiative: Non-interference, Mediation, Reconstruction Funding

IRAN

 

John Edwards

• Uniting the International Community
• Directly Engaging Iran
• Marginalizing Extremists
• Leverage through Increased Pressure
• Encouragement through Incentives
• Direct Negotiations with China and Russia

Barack Obama

• Tough, direct presidential diplomacy without preconditions
• Incentives for abandoning nuclear programs
• Economic pressure and political isolation

Hillary Clinton

• Diplomacy
• Economic Pressure
• Sanction

MILITARY

 

John Edwards

·        Build the military we need to meet the mission we have defined

·        Double the budget for recruiting and raise the standards for the recruiting pool

·        Invest in maintenance of our equipment for the safety of our troops

·        Create a Marshall Corps of up to 10,000 professionals

·        Provide both our soldiers and civilians with improved language skills and cultural understanding for their work overseas

·        Implement new training for future military leadership and create a new undersecretary of defense

·        Modernize our forces and greening the military

Barack Obama

• Rebuild Trust
• Expand the Military
• New Capabilities
• Strengthen Guard and Reserve

Hillary Clinton

• Heroes at Home Act
• Extend Family and Medical Leave Act to families of wounded warriors
• GI Bill of Rights
• Affordable and Quality Health Care for All Veterans
• Ensured Benefits
• Additional Opportunities to Serve
• Reduce Homelessness among Veterans
• Career Transition Assistance Program
• Expand Veteran Homeownership
• Increase Military by 80,000

POVERTY

 

John Edwards

• End Poverty by 2036
• Reform the Poverty Measure
• Make Work Pay
• Create One Million Stepping Stone Jobs:
• Create Opportunity in Rural America
• Strengthen Labor Laws
• Enforce Workplace Protections
• Create a Million New Housing Vouchers
• Revitalize Devastated Neighborhoods
• Fight Abusive Lenders and Help Working Families Save
• Strengthening Our Schools
• Support Responsible Families
• Enrolling Every Child in School
• Edwards Will Lead the World toward a Primary Education for Every Child
• Investing in Preventative Medicine
• Rescind the Global Gag Rule
• Creating Economic and Political Opportunity
• Creating a Cabinet-Level Post on Global Poverty

Barack Obama

• Expand Access to Jobs
• Make Work Pay for All Americans
• Strengthen Families
• Increase the Supply of Affordable Housing
• Tackle Concentrated Poverty

Hillary Clinton

• Partner with faith based community in empowerment zones
• $5000 at birth to pay for future college
• Time-out for mortgage companies on march toward foreclosure
• Equal access to capital and jobs
• Don’t criminalize the homeless
• Microcredit
• Link payments to good parenting behavior
• Establish a National Affordable Housing Trust Fund
• Tax credits to promote home ownership in distressed areas
• Fully fund AmeriCorps

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

 

John Edwards

• Capping greenhouse gas pollution starting in 2010 with a cap-and-trade system, and reducing it by 15 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050
• Leading the world to a new climate treaty that commits other countries—including developing nations—to reduce their pollution
• Creating a New Energy Economy Fund by auctioning off $10 billion in greenhouse pollution permits and repealing subsidies for big oil companies
• Meeting the demand for more electricity through efficiency for the next decade, instead of producing more electricity

Barack Obama

• Reduce Carbon Emissions 80 Percent by 2050
• Invest in a Clean Energy Future
• Support Next Generation Biofuels
• Set America on Path to Oil Independence
• Improve Energy Efficiency 50 Percent by 2030
• Restore U.S. Leadership on Climate Change

Hillary Clinton

• Cap and Trade System for Carbon Emissions
• Stronger Energy and Auto Efficiency Standards
• Increase in Green Research Funding
• $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund, paid for in part by oil companies, to fund investments in alternative energy
• Reduction of Reliance on Foreign Oil
• Increase fuel efficiency standards to 55 miles per gallon by 2030, but would help automakers retool their production facilities through $20 billion in “Green Vehicle Bonds”
• Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050
• Retrofitting and modernization of 20 million low-income homes and take concrete steps to reduce electricity consumption, including enacting strict appliance efficiency standards and phasing out incandescent light bulbs
• “Connie Mae” program to make it easier for low and middle-income Americans to buy green homes and invest in green home improvements
• Creation of a “National Energy Council” within the White House to ensure implementation of the plan across the Executive Branch
• A requirement that all federal buildings designed after January 20, 2009 will be zero emissions buildings

EDUCATION

 

John Edwards

• Preparing Every Child to Succeed
• An Excellent Teacher in Every Classroom
• Make Every School an Outstanding School

Barack Obama

• Zero to Five Plan
• Expand Early Head Start and Head Start
• Affordable, High-Quality Child Care
• Reform No Child Left Behind
• Make Math and Science Education a National Priority
• Expand High-Quality Afterschool Opportunities
• Expand Summer Learning Opportunities
• Support College Outreach Programs
• Support English Language Learners
• Recruit, Prepare, Retain, and Reward America’s Teachers
• Create the American Opportunity Tax Credit
• Simplify the Application Process for Financial Aid

Hillary Clinton

• Get more teachers into hard-to-serve areas
• Establish right to education from pre-school thru college
• Hold kids to high standards, starting at home
• Address teacher shortage with salary increases
• More after-school; smaller classes
• Metal detectors
• Arts education
• Give kids after-school activities to prevent gangs
• Allow student prayer, but no religious instruction
• Supports structured inner-city schools, with uniforms
• Incentive pay for school wide performance
• Transfer tax cuts from rich & corporations to student aid
• Reforms: teacher corps; more federal funding; modernize
• Opposes merit pay for individual teachers
• Scholarships for teachers who go to urban schools
• Increase resources to meet increased standards
• Total change in No Child Left Behind
• Supports public school choice; but not private nor parochial
• More teachers, smaller classes, no vouchers
• Charter schools

LGBT

 

John Edwards

• Equal Rights for Same-Sex Couples
• Workplace Discrimination
• Military Service
• Adoption
• Hate Crimes
• HIV and AIDS

Barack Obama

• Repeal Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell
• Expand Hate Crimes Statutes
• Fight Workplace Discrimination and Promote Rights
• Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples
• Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage
• Fight AIDS Worldwide

Hillary Clinton

• Repeal Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell
• Against Federal Marriage Amendment
• Supports Civil Unions
• Full Equality of Benefits

WOMEN

John Edwards

• Helping Women Balance Work and Family
• Securing Women’s Retirement
• Ending Poverty within a Generation
• Raising the Minimum Wage
• Protecting Women’s Right to Choose
• Fighting Workplace Discrimination
• Ending Violence Against Women
• Guaranteeing Health Care for Every Woman in America
• Strengthening America’s Research Agenda

Barack Obama

• Combat Employment Discrimination
• Pro-Choice

Hillary Clinton

• Pro-Choice
• And, well, she’s a woman!

Well, I don’t know if this has made things easier or more difficult. Personally, this blog has made me realize just how similar all of the front-running candidates are in their vision for the presidency. To be sure, no matter who becomes the Democratic running mate, each of the three would do an admirable job – especially compared to the man they would be replacing. The next month will be key, at least for Connecticut voters like myself, in determining the perfect candidate to support in the primary race. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for what happens next!

Oh and if you are at least 18 years of age and haven’t done so yet – REGISTER TO VOTE!

~ by peacewriter313 on January 4, 2008.