On The Issues: Experts Speak on the Record

The Economy
John McCain

• Voted No to the Bush tax cuts but later voted Yes to extend them
• Voted No on a bill to end special funding for minority- and women-owned businesses competing for
  federally funded transportation
• Voted to disallow the use of any funds in the Legislative Appropriations bill to award, require, or
  encourage any federal contract on the basis of the race, color, national origin, or gender of the contractor
• Voted Yes to set aside 10% of highway construction funds for contracts bid on by businesses owned by minorities and women
• Voted Yes to increase the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25
• McCain’s plan

Barack Obama

• Voted No to extend the Bush tax cuts
• Voted Yes to offer tax breaks and incentives in what supporters have said was an effort to spur oil and gas companies to provide ways to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, conserve recourses, and reduce pollution
• Voted No to cut the federal estate tax permanently
• Voted No to repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax
• Voted Yes to increase minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25
• Voted No to make it harder for people to erase debt by declaring bankruptcy
• Obama’s plan

The Expert:
William Spriggs, Ph.D., chair of Howard University’s economics department and a member of the BE Board of Economists
“The voting records on these tax policy issues suggest where the candidates stand on the

Bush administration’s economic policies. [Sen. Obama shows his] opposition to the Bush policies that have made the federal tax structure more regressive, shifting a larger burden for taxes on middle-income wage earners. President Bush’s most recent budget clearly shows that he intends to offset the federal deficit resulting from his tax cuts and unfunded expenditures on the Iraq war by cutting middle-and low-income programs such as college tuition assistance and heating oil assistance. These votes show Sen. McCain, who backs Bush’s Iraq war policy, as proposing to extend Bush’s tax policy and thus suggests that he  will continue to spend huge unfunded amounts on the Iraq war. The continued growth in the federal deficit, in the face of the weakened dollar, would handcuff McCain in addressing the current economic downturn and undoubtedly lead him to the same laissez-faire approach taken by Bush. Obama has proposed more aggressive
measures to address the downturn, and these votes indicate their willingness to balance their stimulus plans with fiscal responsibility.”

Social Policy
John McCain

• Voted No to the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides coverage for nine million uninsured children across the nation
• Vote No to increase funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program by $3 trillion by
  closing corporate tax loopholes
• Voted No to restore federal voting rights to ex-felons
• Voted Yes to a welfare-to-work program that eliminated aid to families with dependent children and programs for job opportunities and basic skills training, and imposed a five-year limit to receive temporary assistance for needy families
• Voted Yes to the Second Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act to meet the immediate needs of Hurricane Katrina victims
• McCain’s plan

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 ong>
“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 plan

The Expert:
Stephen Zunes, a professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco
“Though more independent-minded that many of his fellow Republicans on a number of issues, John McCain appears at least as willing as has President Bush to apply military force overseas to advance America’s political and strategic goals. He supports an escalation in U.S. military involvement in Iraq
and has threatened war against Iran as well…. Barack Obama, like his rivals has also embraced a willingness to use military force in situations such as Afghanistan, though he has consistently opposed the war in Iraq. His public record, however, indicates that he would be more prone to examine the actual evidence of
potential threats before reacting, work more closely with America’s allies to maintain peace and security, and seek negotiated settlements to disputes.” (Adapted from the May 2008 issue)