Daily Almanac for
May 15, 2008
Info search tips
Bio search tips

Campaign 2008

Republican Candidates: Campaign Issues

Where they stand

 

Related Links

Mike Huckabee | John McCain

Mike Huckabee

Iraq

  • Supports surge.
  • Opposes setting timetable for troop withdrawal.
  • Proposed a regional summit to commit Iraq's neighbors militarily and financially to help stabilize Iraq.

Energy/Environment

  • Pursue all avenues of alternative energy: nuclear, wind, solar, hydrogen, clean coal, biodiesel, and biomass
  • Vows to achieve energy independence

Immigration

  • Supports plan to train and deploy 23,000 more agents, add four drone planes, build 700 miles of fence and 300 miles of vehicle barriers, and put up 105 radar and camera towers
  • Says people caught trying to enter illegally must be detained, processed, and deported
  • Opposes giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and supports legislation to prevent states from doing so
  • Will penalize employers who hire illegal immigrants

Health care

  • Portable insurance.
  • Expand health savings accounts to everyone.
  • Make insurance tax deductible.
  • Tax credits instead of deductions for low income families.

Taxes

  • Favors a fair tax--a consumption tax to replace income tax.

Education

  • Would encourage an emphasis on music and arts.
  • Test teachers, replace teachers who aren't competent, and impose reasonable waiting periods for tenure.
  • Provide bonuses and forgive student loans for high-performing teachers in low-performing schools.
  • Compensation based on merit.
  • State-developed benchmarks.

Mike Huckabee | John McCain

John McCain

Iraq

  • Favors deploying more troops.
  • Strengthen Iraqi armed forces and police.
  • Keep senior officers in place.
  • Call for international pressure on Syria and Iran to get involved to help stabilize Iraq.
  • Implement new counterinsurgency strategy.
  • Accelerate political and economic reconstruction.

Energy/Environment

  • Encourage developing nations, China, and India to join with other countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases
  • Implement a mandatory cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions
  • Seek ways to eliminate U.S. dependence on foreign oil
  • Limit carbon emissions by harnessing market forces that will bring advanced technologies, such as nuclear energy, to the market faster

Immigration

  • Vows to secure U.S. borders
  • Supports a temporary worker program
  • Recognize the importance of the assimilation of our immigrant population, which includes learning English, American history and civics, and respecting the values of a democratic society

Health care

  • Allow national insurance companies to sell across state borders.
  • Foster development of routes for safe, cheaper generic drugs and biologic pharmaceuticals; safety protocols to permit re-importation.
  • Eliminate bias for employer-sponsored health insurance, and $2,500 Health Insurance Credit for individuals ($5,000 for families).
  • Portable insurance.
  • Give veterans access to local physicians.
  • Require states receiving Medicaid to develop financial "risk adjustment" bonus to high-cost and low-income families.
  • Individual insurance through any organization or association.
  • Promote competition in health care system.

Taxes

  • Tax cuts for middle class families; repeal Alternative Minimum Tax.
  • Make Bush income and investment tax cuts permanent.
  • Permanent R&D tax credit.

Education

  • Tax deductions for college tuition.
  • Favors school choice: vouchers, charters, home-schooling.
  • Tax-free savings accounts for education expenses.

Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

    • Cite
    • Print
    • Bookmark
Did you know?
“Ohio” comes from an Iroquoian word meaning “great river.”