Ameritocracy

One Last Look!

Hard to believe, but election day is tomorrow.  Thanks to the work of community members like you, Ameritocracy has a rich database of quotes from the candidates concerning the issues that matter to voters.   So we decided to help you take one last look at where the candidates stand on the issues.  Four major issues are presented to you here, and four more will follow tomorrow. Follow the links below to review, respond, and provide yourself and others with the context necessary to understand the issues and what the candidates have to say about them.

TAXES

• Obama: “I will cut taxes - cut taxes - for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.”
• McCain: “[European leaders] use real numbers and honest language. And we should demand equal candor from Sen. Obama. Raising taxes on some in order to give checks to others is not a tax cut; it’s just another government giveaway”
• Obama: “Senator McCain is proposing — and this is a fundamental difference between us — $300 billion in tax cuts to some of the wealthiest corporations and individuals in the country, $300 billion.”
• McCain: “[Sen. Obama] has voted in the United States Senate to increase taxes on people who make as low as $42,000 a year.”

HEALTH CARE

• Obama: “I exempt small businesses from the requirement for large businesses that can afford to provide healthcare to the employees but are not doing it.”
  
• McCain: “[With my proposed refundable tax credit], do the math. 95% of the American people will have increased funds to go out and buy the insurance of their choice.”
  
• Obama: “With McCain’s health plan “families will have to go out into the marketplace with that $5,000 tax credit and buy insurance on your own. But what Senator McCain doesn’t tell you is that the average cost of a family health care plan is…$12,680.”
  
• McCain: “I want to give every American a $5,000 refundable tax credit that they can take anywhere, across state lines.”

IRAQ

• Obama: “We are currently spending $10 billion a month in Iraq when they have a $79 billion surplus. It seems to me that if we’re going to be strong at home as well as strong abroad, that we have to look at bringing that war to a close.”
• McCain: “Senator Obama, who after promising not to vote to cut off funds for the troops, did the incredible thing of voting to cut off the funds for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
• Obama: “Look, over the last eight years this administration, including John McCain, have been solely focused on Iraq. That has been our priority. That has been where all our resources have gone. In the meantime, bin Laden is still out there.”
  
• McCain: “If we had done what Senator Obama wanted done in Iraq, and that was set a date for withdrawal…then we would have had a wider war, we would have been back, Iranian influence would have increased, al-Quaeda would have reestablished the base.”

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

• Obama: “We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country.”
• McCain: “[Senator Obama] voted against a ban on partial birth abortion, one of the late term abortion, a really one of the bad procedures, a terrible one.”
• Obama: “I am completely supportive of a ban on late-term abortions, partial birth or otherwise, as long as there’s an exception for the mother’s health and life.”
• McCain: “[Senator Obama]’s talking about the health for the mother. That’s been stretched by the pro abortion movement in America to mean almost anything. That’s the extreme pro abortion position, “health”.”

THE RUNNING MATES’ PITCH JOE BIDEN

• Biden: “Reinstating the middle class, making sure that they get a fair break, making sure that they have access to affordable health insurance, making sure they get serious tax breaks, making sure… we can help their children to get to college.”
• Palin: “Voters on November 4th are going to have that choice to either support a [that] supports policies that create jobs…. Or you support a ticket that policies that will kill jobs by increasing taxes… and saying no to energy independence.”

More to come tomorrow morning.

Happy voting!