Brief Summary on Candidates Policy Plans...

Written by: David Reiter on Jan 22, 2008 9:54 PM EST

When researching the plans each candidate had to accomplish their various goals, I had no idea who I was going to vote for. To tell you the truth, I still don't know. During the process I recognized a few things I thought I would share...especially since some of you asked me to summarize their policies in a shorter format.

Firstly, I like Dennis Kucinich, and he was originally going to be included in the chart. Ultimately, he was not included because 1) When you go to his site you will notice that he has great ideas, goals, and platforms...but his website and other information researched was scant on the details of how he would pursue those goals...there simply was not 10 specific plans on each of the 5 issues highlighted. 2) The point of the issue chart was to focus on specific plans to achieve goals, not to list what the candidates say their goals are. 3) One of the 3 leading candidates are assured of gaining the Democratic nomination, no matter how you look at it, and we wanted to provide purely objective information.

Second, I will support whomever is nominated. No matter how much I dislike one candidate or another, all of the Democrats are better than Republican choices. I will not support some 3rd Party candidate to make a statement this year, because we have too much to lose if another war and fear-mongering candidate gets into office. I did the same research on the Republicans that I did on the Democrats, and let me tell you...it's scary!

Hopefully this link works this time...if you haven't seen the complete summary, click here

Finally, a brief summary analysis:

The economy and how to solve our financial woes is a difficult subject for most to understand and analyze. From what I can see, each of the candidates are making reasonable efforts to 1) transition us into a green economy, 2) support workers right to unionize, and 3) provide targeted tax cuts. There is a difference between the candidates tax plans that seems evident. Clinton seems to be addressing the middle and upper middle-class with her tax cuts via AMT reform, and tax credits aimed at the middle class. Obama seems to address more of the middle to lower class, specifically, with a plan to eliminate taxes on seniors with income less than $50,000, a raising and indexing of minimum wage, and $500 tax credit for all. Edwards clearly makes his case for a war on poverty with a tripling of the EITC, raising minimum wage a specific amount and indexed to inflation, and 'Work Bonds' for low to moderate income workers to save for their future. Obama and Edwards both want to close tax loopholes for offshore US companies.

On the environment, I think we can look forward to a President that will truly work to transition our economy and policies to address key environmental issues. All of the candidates plans solidly outline how to make the transition to an environmentally friendly economy, and I look forward to the dialogue finally rising into mainstream politics. I like the aggressive benchmarks that they have all set for us to achieve. I do have to say, however, that the cap-and-trade system seems a little suspect to me. It seems too easy for a company to continue to pollute and just pay a little extra as a cost of doing business, then pass that cost on to consumers. Personally, I would like to see a little more teeth in the plan in the way of penalties that will drive big polluters that choose not to reduce emissions, out of business.

On health care, every candidate plan falls way short of Universal or Single Payer health care. One good thing that they all support, is a law to prevent health insurers from denying coverage for preexisting conditions, medical history, etc., but that may actually drive the price of health care higher. Hillary's plan seems to mandate that everyone pay for care up front with a small tax credit on the back end, and adds in a federal plan as if it is just another company to choose from, that you will still have to pay for. Obama aims to subsidize those that cannot afford it based on income, and requires employers to subsidize plans for people that work. Edwards has a plan similar to Obama's, and also requires drug companies to stop advertising their drugs directly to the public, which may ultimately lower our cost of drugs. Both Obama and Edwards also want to create a centralized place for people to go to to fairly evaluate plans. In all cases, there is no true effort to actually lower the cost of health care...there are efforts to reduce our out of pocket costs, but ultimately we will pay the difference through our taxes or decreased salaries from employers paying for our health care. All plans seem woefully compromised with insurance industry interests, and seems to do nothing with the problem of people being denied for care based on a company trying to horde profits.

On national security, Obama seems to be the most concerned about homeland security and protecting things like our water supply, chemical and nuclear plants, as well as negotiating reductions in nuclear stockpiles around the world. Obama is also very eager to reach out to our friends, as well as enemies, to open dialogue and try to repair our our image and standing with the world. Clinton's strategy is to appoint good people to do her planning and negotiating for her, as well as engaging our enemies with diplomacy. She also wants to deploy new technology to stop the flow of illegal immigration, and help fund an effort for universal education throughout developing nations. Edwards wants to improve our intelligence agencies ability to supply accurate information to thwart terrorism, and reach out to China and Russia to devise ways to help their economy without aiding Iran's efforts for nuclear power. He also intends on igniting diplomatic efforts in the Middle East to devise a solution to deter terrorism in that part of the world. All of the candidates say they want to bring the troops home, but differ on the pace...Clinton does not define a timeframe, and leaves it to the military to decide, and Obama sets a timeframe of 16 months where Edwards suggests 10 months. None of the candidates plan to leave a base behind in Iraq.

On government and corporate accountability/responsibility they all support some sort of new reporting system so the public can easily see who our elected officials are meeting with, what they are asking for, and how much money they are contributing to their campaigns. Obama supports publicly financed campaigns with free TV and radio time, but I didn't see a specific plan to achieve that. Edwards has a plan for a hybrid system of public and private financing while banning federal lobbyists and requiring accurate tracking of anonymous donations. He also wants to break up media monopolies, but I saw no specific plan for that. Clinton and Edwards both support federally mandated auditable paper ballots, and I didn't find anything on Obama's stand on paper ballots...but I think I have heard him come out in support of it in the past (I'm not sure).

So that's my 'brief' summary...enjoy :-)

For the complete summary, click here.

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