federal contracting to immigration, Iraq, and job training. Our experts analyzed this information to project how, if given the chance, each candidate will lead our country.
HILLARY CLINTON
The Economy
- Voted No to extend the Bush tax cuts
- Voted No to offer tax breaks and incentives in what supporters said was an effort to spur oil and gas companies to provide innovative ways to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, conserve resources, and reduce pollution
- Voted No to permanently cut the federal estate tax
- Voted Yes to increase minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25
- Voted Yes to provide tax relief to middle-class families and small
- businesses, property tax relief to homeowners, relief to those whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and tax relief to America’s troops and veterans
Social Policy
- 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 on an amendment to increase funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program by $3 trillion by closing corporate tax loopholes
- Voted Yes to restore federal voting rights to ex-felons
- Voted Yes to establish a congressional commission to examine the federal, state, and local responses to the devastation created by Hurricane Katrina and to create corrective measures for the future
- Voted Yes to ensure that every eligible voter is given the opportunity to vote and that those votes are counted
National Security
- 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 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
JOHN MCCAIN
The Economy
- 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
Social Policy
- Voted No to the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides coverage for 9 million uninsured children across the nation
- Voted 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