1. Medicare Reform
From Bush's Website:
Governor Bush will reform Medicare by providing seniors with a prescription drug benefit as well as the ability to choose their own modern, comprehensive health plan. Governor Bush’s plan will cover all prescription drug expenses for low-income seniors, the full cost of Medicare premiums for low-income seniors, at least part of the premium cost for all seniors, and the cost of catastrophic Medicare costs for all seniors.
From Gore's Website:
Expanding Access to Health Care Coverage
Expand eligibility under the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP...Expand health care coverage to working families by extending CHIP to parents...Provide affordable health care options for Americans ages 55 to 65 with a 25 percent tax credit to buy into Medicare....Make health insurance more affordable for small businesses by offering a 25 percent tax credit for the premium costs of each employee.
Gore would strengthen Medicare through price competition among managed care plans and cost savings for competitive pricing.
Improving Medicare with a Prescription Drug Benefit: As President, Al Gore will expand Medicare to help seniors and people with disabilities afford prescription drugs.
Pretty much the same rhetoric except for one thing. Bush mentions CHOICE. Gore just makes old programs bigger.
Bush for me, I like choice.
2.Social Security reform
Bush:
Governor Bush believes Social Security is a defining American promise that must be kept. He will not change benefits in any way for current retirees or those near retirement. But to save Social Security for the next generation, he will lead a bipartisan effort to reform it by giving individuals the option of voluntarily investing a portion of their Social Security payroll taxes in personal retirement accounts. These accounts will earn higher rates of return and generate wealth that can be owned and passed on from parents to their children.
Gore:
Saving Social Security
Devote all Social Security Surpluses to Social Security and debt reduction.
Oppose efforts to raise the retirement age or reduce benefits by privatizing the system.
Improving fairness for Widows, Widowers and Mothers by giving parents credit toward Social Security for up to five years spent raising children -
Retirement Savings Plus Accounts:
Voluntary contributions, with a generous match that offers the greatest rewards for saving to lower-income Americans.
Securing Pensions for Working Americans: to expand pension portability, simplify the pension process for small businesses and protect employee pension funds.
There is no "social security surplus". They've ALL been playing numbers games with Social Security money since the '50's at least. No one is talking about raising the retirement age, privatizing or reducing benefits either. Everyone in the Congress is afraid to even mention SS, let alone actually change it.
Extra credit for non-workers who raised children? Who should pay for that? The folks that worked AND raised children? THAT doesn't seem too fair. Retirement Savings accounts with a GENEROUS MATCH? Guess we'll use tax money to make that Generous Match..so this is another transfer of wealth program...Democrats are famous for this.
"A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul."
-George Bernard Shaw
At least the portable pension has merit.
Still, Bush is going to leave things as they are for the Seniors (fair enough..this is even better than the deal they ORIGINALLY signed into and give the young guys a chance to put a small bit of THEIR OWN cash away for themselves in a "self-directed" savings mode?
"I believe that every individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor, so far as it in no way interferes with any other men’s rights."
-Abraham Lincoln
Did I mention Choice? Bush for me again.
3. Abortion
Bush:
Life Issues: Pro life with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother
Set the goal that all children should be welcomed in life and protected by law
Supports parental notification, banning use of taxpayer funds for abortion, and banning partial birth abortion
Supports efforts to increase adoptions
Opposes doctor assisted suicide, believes the role of a doctor is to relieve pain and suffering, not to end life
Make permanent the $5,000 adoption tax credit
Gore:
Protecting Women's Right to Choose: Al Gore believes that there is no challenge more fundamental than protecting women's reproductive health. Al Gore will fight to guarantee women the right to choose and make abortion safe, legal, and rare while making significant investments in family planning and education. Freedom of choice also means freedom from fear in making that choice, and we must not allow a woman's right to choose to be taken away by those who resort to violence.
Serious Question: Can anyone tell me where in the US a woman does NOT currently have the right to "choose" and where it is that abortion is NOT "safe, legal". AS far as I can tell, any woman can get an abortion anywhere in any of several safe, legal clinics.
So what is the big deal here? Ever since Roe V Wade abortion has been legal.
I suspect the REAL argument is over whether the government is going to provide free abortion using tax dollars of all citizens.
Gore is making a big deal out of an issue that has long been decided. So it's no issue.
Highly unlikely ANYONE can get Roe overturned, so non-issue there. Bush less likely to support government funded "personal choice" (Hey, it's YOUR choice...you pay for it!) I'll go Bush.[/b]
4. Gun control
Bush: Governor Bush believes the best gun control measure is to vigorously prosecute those who illegally sell guns, those who illegally carry guns, and those who illegally commit crimes with guns. Governor Bush’s priority as President will be to keep guns away from criminals and juveniles. He will make federal gun prosecutions a top priority, reversing the 46% decline in federal gun prosecutions under the Clinton-Gore Administration. In addition, he will protect law-abiding citizens’ constitutional Second Amendment rights while at the same time enacting reasonable, common-sense restrictions on the unsafe use of firearms.
Gore believes we must:
Increase penalties for gun-related crimes.
Hire new federal, state, and local gun prosecutors to get gun criminals off the street and put them behind bars.
Require gun manufacturers and federally-licensed sellers to report gun sales to a state authority.
Oppose weakening restrictions on concealed weapons and ban concealed weapons from places of worship.
GETTING GUNS OUT OF THE HANDS OF CRIMINALS
Require every buyer of a handgun to obtain a state-issued photo license, after passing a background check and safety test.
Ban so-called "junk guns" and assault weapons.
Limit handgun purchases to one-a-month and require a three-day waiting period for handgun purchases.
Fight to close the Gun Show Loophole that exempts unlicensed gun dealers at shows from the Brady Law, allowing them to sell guns without a background check.
Oppose special legal protections for gun manufacturers.
PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM GUNS
Require child-safety locks for all new handguns.
Raise the minimum age to possess a handgun from 18 to 21.
Prohibit juveniles from possessing assault rifles and large capacity ammunition clips.
Support Gun-Free Schools, requiring states to adopt a policy of mandatory 1-year expulsion for any student who brings a gun to school.
Extend the Brady Law to violent juveniles, barring youth convicted of serious violent crimes in juvenile court from owning firearms as adults.
I like the FAR GREATER emphasis Bush puts on punishing those criminals who use guns for violent crime. Gore has way to much interest in restricting (Don't restrict the good guys! Prosecute the bad guys!)the law abiding citizens who are not the problem.
Bush again, what a suprise.
5. Military spending
Bush:
Restore the morale of our armed forces.
Insist that deployments have well-defined objectives. Focus on defending the American homeland. Prepare the military for the challenges of the information age. Begin to build the military of the future.
GORE:
Rewarding the Men and Women in Uniform with Competitive Pay.
Reforming the Military Housing System.
Improving Family Services.
Investing in Health Care.
Fulfilling the Promise to Take Care of Retirees. Getting Our Soldiers Off Food Stamps Now. Increasing the Investment in Advanced Hardware. Supporting a Healthy Industrial and Technology Base.National Missile Defense. America must maintain its nuclear strength, with adequate offensive forces to ensure deterrence and to be ready to participate in peacekeeping, humanitarian, and other efforts.
Bush wants to start bringing US troops home from overseas. Gore doesn't, leans toward more involvement in forein problems. The rest of it is political boilerplate. Let me see...yup, Bush.
6.Economy
Bush:
Governor Bush believes that roughly one-quarter of the surplus should be returned to the people who earned it through broad tax cuts – otherwise, Washington will spend it. His plan will promote economic growth and increase access to the middle class by cutting high marginal rates. It will also double the child credit, eliminate the death tax, reduce the marriage penalty, and expand Education Savings Accounts and charitable deductions. The largest percentage cuts will go to the lowest income earners. As a result, 6 million families will no longer pay federal income tax.
Gore:
Help Working Families Care for Children and Aging Parents
Making child care more affordable for working families by making the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) refundable for the first time.
Providing tax relief for stay-at-home-parents: and expand family leave for those working outside the home.
Helping parents pay for after-school care through a new refundable After-School Tax Credit (ASTC) for children age 16 and under.
Supporting families with long-term care needs through a $3,000 tax credit.
Helping families pay for college with the College Opportunity Tax Cut that allows families to take a tax credit or tax deduction for tuition.Reward Work and Family
Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
Marriage penalty tax relief by raising the standard deduction, so that a married couple would get the same standard deduction as if they remained single.
Simplifying estate tax exemptions and raising the tax exemption for small businesses and family farms.
Lets' see.
Bush Plan: Tax Cut...those who paid the most in get the most back, those that paid the least in get the least back. Seems fair.
Gore Plan: Tax Cut and Credits. (Huge Democratic Transfer of Wealth Plan) Those that paid the most in get NOTHING back...maybe 25% of the taxpayers in this category. Those that paid the least in get some back plus some bonus matches paid by those who got NOTHING BACK. Those that paid NOTHING in get money back and bonus matches all paid for by those who got NOTHING BACK.
If there's going to be some redistribution of my paycheck, I'd like to redistribute it to the old folks in my family that have NOTHING. I'd like to do the redistributing myself.
Bush again. [/b]
7. Bringing people together and uniting both parties.
This isn't a campaign issue, it's a delusion. Washington is Washington and Politics is Politics. The people and the National interest come after lining your own pocket. No one can change it either.
Ran out of time on the rest of it. I suggest you folks that are undecided make a visit to the Bush and Gore websites. There is a great deal more information on specific issues than I clipped for this post.
While most of it is probably political fertilizer, it does lay out the position more clearly than the news media does.
It's "in their own words" so to speak, rather than distilled through the "talking heads" of the media.
TTFN
[This message has been edited by Toad (edited 11-03-2000).]
