The 2008 presidential campaign is turning out to be one of the most exciting periods in American political history. For Sen. John McCain, who sewed up his party’s nomination early on, the third time has proven to be the charm. While he works at looking presidential, meeting with world leaders and visiting Iraq, Democrats are worried about the increasingly divisive tone of the contest between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The two are in a virtual dead heat and neither appears willing to concede the race until the bitter end. Clinton and Obama often seem to spend more time challenging each other’s records, integrity, and judgment than they do highlighting their positions and solutions to America’s problems.
“The nomination is usually decided by this point, so if there’s been a rough and tumble fight, there’s time to heal. The nastier it gets, the more fodder for McCain,” says Peter Groff, a Colorado state senator, senior lecturer, and executive director of the Center for African American Policy at the University of Denver.
If they won’t talk about the issues, BLACK ENTERPRISE decided, we will. In our December 2007 issue (see “More Than Hot Air? You Decide,” Newspoints), we spoke with top presidential candidates about their platform issues and their vision for the country. In this issue, we went back to the legislative records of the remaining candidates to see if they are really walking the walk. We polled our readers to find out what issues matter most to them and then closely examined the front-runners’ voting record on the top three: the economy, national security, and social policy. Like most voters, our readers worry about a possible recession and America’s diminishing role on the world’s stage. The state of the nation’s economy also elicits fear that as the national deficit grows, the government’s social safety net will continue to shrink. We shared our findings with political analysts who offered insights on what issues the next president is likely to face and how he or she might handle them. More important, how will they handle the prevalent concerns of black Americans?
“McCain will essentially pursue the same kinds of issues that Bush has-tax cuts that will get the economy going-and if that works, everyone, even people at the bottom, will benefit, but there will be no need to have special programs to target those left behind. He won’t pursue social policy programs targeted to any particular group,” says Robert Smith, Ph.D., a political scientist at San Francisco State University.
He adds that Obama and Clinton have both adopted the neoliberal approach to dealing with poverty and other issues established by former President Bill Clinton. “As president, they will do things Republicans don’t approve of, like creating job training programs, making the case that the government will provide certain types of assistance, but in exchange for that, people will have to change their behavior.”
On the following pages, BE gets down and dirty with each front-runner’s key votes on issues ranging from small business, taxes, and 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 opportunities and basic skills training, and imposed a five-year limit to receive temporary assistanc for needy families
- Voted Yes to the Second Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act to meet the immediate needs of Hurricane Katrina victims
National Security
- 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
BARACK OBAMA
The Economy
- 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 resources, 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
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 to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 and authorize grant programs to enhance low-income black students’ access to higher education
- Voted Yes to fund projects to prevent teen pregnancies and incidences of sexually transmitted diseases in racial, ethnic minority, or immigrant communities
- Voted Yes to eliminate practices that mislead and misinform voters about voting and establish penalties for those attempting to prevent a person from voting
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 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 a requirement that the military follow the Army field manual for interrogations
Experts Speak on the Record
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. Both Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama show their 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. Both Clinton and Obama have proposed more aggressive measures to address the downturn, and these votes indicate their willingness to balance their stimulus plans with fiscal responsibility.”
Robert Smith,
Ph.D., a political scientist at San Francisco State University“Each of the three 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 Clinton, which is you don’t talk about race; you talk about the middle class and programs that help everybody and the benefits will trickle down.”
Stephen Zunes, a professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco
“Though more independent-minded than 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. Despite having recently shifted her position on Iraq in favor of an eventual withdrawal of U.S. combat forces, Hillary Clinton’s voting record, public statements, and foreign policy advisers indicate a foreign policy perspective on the hawkish wing of the Democratic Party, which appears more open to embracing exaggerated and alarmist reports regarding potential national security threats, supporting the unilateral use of military force over negotiations, and minimizing the importance of international law and building international coalitions. 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.”