meet the immediate needs of Hurricane Katrina victims
Barack Obama
- Voted Yes to the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides coverage for 9 million uninsured children across the nation
- Voted Yes to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 and authorize grant programs to enhance low-income black students’ access to higher education
- Vote Yes to fund projects to prevent teen pregnancies and incidences of sexually transmitted diseases in racial, ethnic minority, or immigrant communities
- Vote Yes to eliminate practices that mislead and misinform voters about voting and establish
penalties for those attempting to prevent a person from voting - Obama’s plan
The Expert:
Robert Smith, Ph.D., a political scientist at San Francisco University
“Each of the …candidate’s records on social policy issues are well within the mainstream of their parties political ideology. I suspect that as president, none of them would push many programs that specifically target disparities between blacks and whites. Interestingly, Obama’s teen pregnancy legislation struck me as being very Clintonian, in that it creates a program that assists people but with the intent to also alter their behavior, much like the former president’s welfare reform program. There was a lot of controversy
over whether welfare reform did more harm than good for black people. Obama’s bill has a certain kind of political appeal, but doesn’t address the real causes of poverty and dispossession among blacks, such as access to education and jobs.
As president, McCain will likely follow the Republican party line of less government, and the two Democrats would continue the legacy of former President Bill Clinton, which is that you don’t talk about race; you talk about the middle class and programs that help everybody and the benefits will trickle down.”
National Security
John McCain
- Voted Yes on the $120 billion package to provide funding slated to support continuing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan
- Voted Yes to authorize the construction of 700 miles of double-layered fencing on the U.S.-Mexico
border by the end of 2008 - Voted Yes to a ban on cruel, inhuman treatment of detainees held by U.S. forces and to a
requirement that the military follow the Army field manual for interrogations - Voted Yes to authorize warrantless wiretapping and provided retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated in domestic spying
- McCain’s plan
Barack Obama
- Voted No to give U.S. spy agencies expanded power to eavesdrop on foreign suspects without a court order
- Voted Yes to tightening border security, cracking down on the hiring of illegal immigrants, and
providing a path for such immigrants to stay and work legally - Voted No on the $120 billion package to provide funding slated to support continuing military
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan - Voted Yes to authorize the construction of 700 miles of double-layered fencing on the U.S.-Mexico
border by the end of 2008 - Voted Yes to a ban on cruel, inhuman treatment of detainees held by U.S. forces and to a requirement that the military follow the Army field manual for interrogations
- Obama’s