Alright Alliance High seniors its your turn to start voting and you need to be informed. It is your civic responsibility and that is why I am here to guide you on your path to making informed political decisions. Each week I am going to feature one of the presidential candidates and what they stand for. After perusing these easy to read posts there will no longer be an excuse for you to not vote. Oh, and when you go get your new license when you’re eighteen, register to vote! This week I bring to your our President and our only Democrat for the general election. All of the information below comes from issues2000.org.
Abortion
- Opposed bill preventing partial-birth abortion
- Opposed legislation protecting born-alive failed abortions
- Ok for state to restrict late-term partial birth abortion
- Teach teens about abstinence and also about contraception
- Undecided on whether life begins at conception
- Voted against banning partial birth abortion
- Trust women to make own decisions on partial-birth abortion
- Extend presumption of good faith to abortion protesters
- Stem cells hold promise to cure 70 major diseases
- Constitution is a living document; no strict constructionism
- Pass the Stem Cell Research Bill
- Protect a women’s right to choose
Budget and Economy
- Reduce defense spending 1% in 2013; add 2% per year after
- Bottom-up economics instead of trickle-down economics
- Focus on economic justice instead of macroeconomic policy
- Supports federal programs to protect rural economy
- Freeze annual domestic spending for the next five years
- The bank bailout was necessary
- Us will emerge from this recession, stronger than before
- Fundamentals were weak before crisis; focus on middle class
- Pay attention to Main Street, not just Wall Street
- Prosecute mortgager fraud; require full mortgage disclosure
- More accountability in subprime mortgages
- Release people in bankruptcy due to health care problems
- Accountability and oversight over the financial markets
- Modify some of the fraudulent and predatory lending practices
- Regulate financial instruments to protect home mortgages
- Government regulation needed for when markets fail
- Voted against limiting credit to 30% because 30% is too high
- Opposed both the 2001 and 2005 bankruptcy bills
- Opposed paying down federal debt by rating programs’ effectiveness
- Opposed $40B in reduced federal overall spending
- Get minorities into home ownership and global marketplace
- Require full disclosure about subprime mortgages
- Reform mortgage rules to prevent foreclosure and bankruptcy
Stimulus Package
- Recovery Act averted a second Great Depression
- Across-the-board tax cuts wouldn’t stimulate economy
- Increased spending comes from the Bush’s automatic stabilizers
- Spending freeze now would be dissimilative; later is better
- Restore Pay-As-You-Go law
- Spending freeze is like a hatchet where you need a scalpel
- Deficit spending for $50B emergency economic plan
Civil Rights
- Constitution stained by nation’s original sin of slavery
- Balance isolation and engagement for international rights
- Many black disparities can be traced to legacy of Jim Crow
- Admired repeated acts of “self-creation” by Malcolm X
- Has stood together with Latino leaders for last 20 years
- Racial equality good for America as a whole
- Put the Confederate flag in a museum but not the state house
- Muslim heritage gives Obama unique influence in Muslim world
- No black or white America—just United States of America
- Forthright on racial issues and on his civil rights history
- Defend freedom and equality under law
- Politicians: don’t use religion to insulate from criticism
- Keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day’s work
- Past discrimination affects future generations
- Apply affirmative action to poor white college applicants
- Community organizing continues the civil rights movement
- Legalized discrimination meant blacks could not amass wealth
- Fight job discrimination to give women equal footing at jobs
- Remove discriminatory barriers to the right to vote
- Benefited from affirmative action but overcame via merit
- Include class-based affirmative action with race-based
- Supports affirmative action in colleges and government
- Opposes CA Prop. 8, one-man-one-woman marriage
- Hate crimes related to the immigration issue is unacceptable
- Being gay or lesbian is not a choice
- Decisions about marriage should be left to the states
- Homosexuality no more immoral than heterosexuality
- Legal rights for gays are conferred by state not by church
- Supports health benefits for gay civil partners
- Opposes gay marriage; supports civil union and gay equality
- Opposes ban of same-sex marriage
- Ending racial profiling is part of fight for justice
- Sponsored bill for special-needs evacuations plans
- Sponsored bill for a Rosa Parks commemorative potage stamp
- Provide benefits to domestic partners of Federal employees
- Reinforce anti-discrimination and equal-pay requirements
Crime
- Job training for ex-offenders, to avoid return to crime
- Reduce recidivism by providing ex-offender supports
- Ban racial profiling and eliminate disparities in sentencing
- Legislated protecting police detainees during interrogation
- Pushed Illinois bill to videotape all capital interrogations
- Reformed death penalty by listening and compromising
- Passed 150 laws to toughen penalties for violent crime
- Restrict police entry rules to protect our civil liberties
- Death penalty should be enforced fairly and with caution
- Death penalty should not discriminate by gang membership
- Supports alternative sentencing and rehabilitation
- Increase funding for “cops on the beat” program
- Reduce recidivism by giving offenders a Second Chance
Drugs
- Fight to rid our communities of meth
- Expand drug courts; help prisoners with substance abuse
- Do not lower drinking age from 21 to 18
- Experimented with cocaine but turned down heroin
- Admitted marijuana use in high school and college
- Deal with street-level drug dealing as minimum-wage affair
- Understand why adolescents want to use drugs
- End harsher sentencing for crack vs. powder cocaine
- Require chemical resellers to certify against meth use
Education
- Educate to Innovate campaign: make US top in math and science
- Invest in early childhood education and higher education
- Refundable $4000 tax credit for community college tuition
- Fight for social and economic justice begins in the classroom
- Make math and science policy a national priority
- $10B to guarantee early childhood education for all
- Cut banks out and add $4.5B to college loans
- Guarantee affordable life-long, top-notch education
- Provide decent funding and get rid of anti-intellectualism
- Address the growing achievement gap between students
- $10K college tax credit; forgive loans for public service
- $2,500 tax credit for all four years of college
- Pay for college education for those commit to teaching
- $4,000 college tuition for 100 hours’ public service a year
- Reward successful schools instead of funding the status quo
- Incentives to hire a million teachers over next decade
- pay teachers more money
- Free public college for any student with B-average
- Supports charter schools; it’s important to experiment
- First Senate bill: increase Pell Grant from $4,050 to 5$,100
- Sponsored legislations that recruit and reward good teachers
- Supported $52 for “21st century community learning centers”
- Supported $5B for grants and local educational agencies
- Supported $11B from corporate tax loopholes to education
Energy and Oil
- One million 150-mpg plug-in hybrids on road by 2012
- Opposes Yucca Mountain for nuclear waste storage
- Increase CAFÉ to 40 mpg
- Big promoter of clean coal technology and nukes
- Ten years to eliminate dependence on foreign oil
- $15B to free us from foreign oil
- Explore nuclear power as part of alternative energy mix
- Reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050
- Aggressively address accelerating climate change
- Cap and trade carbon emissions; raise CAFÉ standard
- Subsidize clean energy by canceling oil subsidies
- $15B in clean energy; plus market-based cap on carbon
- harness homegrown, alternative fuels like ethanol.
- Invest in alternative energy sources
- Tradable credits for renewable energy
- Set goal of 25% renewable energy by 2025
- Let states define stricter-than-federal emission standards
Environment
- Promised that anyone losing a job will spill would get BP check
- Support reforestation as carbon sequestration issue
- Regulate animal feeding operations for pollution
- Passed lead abatement and 21 other laws in Il Senate
- Voted yes on including oil and gas smokestacks in mercury regulations
- Sponsored health impact bill for environmental health
Families and Children
- Help families with paid sick days and better family leave
- Zero-to-Five plan: childcare for working parents
- Reward fathers who pay child support with larger EITC
- Sponsored bill banning high lead levels in children’s toys
Foreign Policy
- Global Poverty Act: spend 0.7% of GDP on foreign aid
- $50B annually to strengthen weak states at risk of collapse
- Against isolationism
- US policy should promote democracy to human rights
- Wrote 2006 law stabilizing Congo with $52M
- Increased aid to Republic of Congo
- U.S. funds for humanitarian aid to Darfur
- Invest in our relationship with Mexico
- U.S. needs to ameliorate trade relations with China
- Engage Russia regarding nuclear proliferation
- Strengthen NATO to face 21st-century threats
- $1.8B per year for mega-embassy in Iraq; same in Afghanistan
- fundamental commitment to strong US-Israel relationship
- supports Israel’s self-defense; but distrusted by Israelis
- supported cooperating with India as a nuclear power
- Sponsored aid bill to avert humanitarian crisis in Congo
- Condemn violence by Chinese government in Tibet
- Pressure friendly Arab states to end Israeli boycott
Free Trade
- Double our exports by 2014; starting with South Korea
- Enforce trade being reciprocal; not just a one way street
- Supports trade and globalization but opposes CAFTA job loss
- Assist workers who lose globalization’s race to the bottom
- Enforce environment and labor provisions in trade agreements
- Enforce existing safety laws agains Chinese products
- Stand firm against CAFTA for labor and environmental standards
- Amend NAFTA to add labor agreements
- Insist on labor and human rights standards for China trade
- Supports free trade agreement with Oman
- Extend trade restrictions on Burma to promote democracy
Government and Reform
- Open Government Initiative on first full day in office
- Cabinet members should hold national town hall meetings
- Give D.C. the opportunity to elect its own representatives
- Registered 150,000 new minority voters in Chicago in 1992
- Post all earmark request online before each vote
- Ended corporate jet travel subsidized by lobbyists
- Reduced cost TB ads for candidates
- Used state money for seemingly political mailings
- Doesn’t take PAC money or federal lobbyists money
- First bill ever passed was campaign finance reform
- Use technology to shine a light on spending
- In favor of more disclosure around earmarks
- Create “Google for Government” to track government spending
- Sponsored bill to disclose earmarks on the Internet
- Sponsored bill criminalizing deceptive infor about elections
- Sponsored resolution rejecting photo ID for voting
- Sponsored bill to post earmarks on the Internet
- Prohibit voter intimidation in federal elections
- Prohibit ‘voter caging’ which intimidates minority voting
Gun Control
- Opposed bill okaying illegal gun use in home invasions
- Ok for states and cities to determine local gun laws
- Respect 2nd Amendment, but local gun bans ok
- Stop unscrupulous gun dealers dumping guns in cities
- Keep guns out of inner cities—but also problem of morality
- Ban semi-automatics and more possession restrictions
- Voted no on prohibiting lawsuits against gun manufactures
Health Care
- Give more help to those denied a life of dignity and respect
- Reforms in prevention and drug price negotiation save money
- Address minority health needs by more coverage and targeting
- Allow prescription drug re-importation
- Advocated condom use to avoid AIDS at Saddleback Church
- Lead global fight against AIDS
- Repealing healthcare reform would cost $250B
- Health care is a right
- Include everyone who wants insurance in national pool
- Buy private insurance via National Health Insurance Exchange
- Against enforcement mechanism for mandating insurance
- Increase competition in the insurance and drug markets
- Will expand health coverage and allow meds to be re-imported
- Add 2,000 new primary-care residency spots
- Reduce premiums and uninsured get same coverage as Congress
- Young adults up to age 25 can be covered under parents’ plan
- Added 20,000 children to Illinois healthcare
- Focus on the affordability of a board healthcare plan
- Supports requiring negotiated Rx prices for Medicare part D
- Supports expanding enrollment period for Medicare part D
- Supports increasing Medicaid rebate for producing generics
- Supports negotiating bulk purchases for Medicare prescription drug
- Increase funding for AIDS treatment and preventing
- Improve services for people with autism and their families
- Establish a national childhood cancer database
- Preserve acces to Medicaid and SCHIP during economic downturn
Homeland Security
- New START treaty: more secure and fewer nuclear weapons
- Let gay people serve in military openly
- Promises to close Guantanamo and treat prisoners as POWs
- Obama Doctrine: moral interest as well as national interest
- Colleges must allow military recruiters for ROTC on campus
- Repeal Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell
- Grow size of military to maintain rotation schedules
- Give our soldiers the best equipment and training available
- $4,000 tuition tax credit in exchange for community service
- Expand Peace Corps and AmeriCorps to 266,000 slots
- Put forward a national service program
- Give 18-year-old women opportunity to serve
- Register women for draft, but not for combat
- Strengthen NPT to have automatic sanctions on Iran
- Secure all world’s without nuclear weapons
- Peruse goal of a world without nuclear weapons
- Rebuild a nuclear nonproliferation strategy
- Passed bill to reduce conventional weapon stockpiles
- Rebuild the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
- Increase funding to decommission Russian nukes
- No presidential power for secret surveillance
- No holding US citizens as unlawful enemy combatants
- Congress decides what constitutes torture, not president
- Restore habeas corpus to reach Muslims abroad
- Don’t allow our politics to be driven by fear of terrorism
Immigration
- Stop expelling talented undocumented workers
- Send 1,200 National Guard troops to southern border
- Crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrates
- Need to look at different aspects of immigration reform
- Have border patrolled, surveillance, and deploy technology
- Solve the driver’s license issue with immigration reform
- OK to provide government services in Spanish
- Reform must include more border security, and border wall
- Give immigrants who are here a rigorous path to citizenship
- Extend welfare and Medicaid to immigrants
- Support the DREAM Act for the children of illegal immigrants
- Supports continuing federal funds for declared “sanctuary cities”
- Supports comprehensive immigration reform
- Against declaring English as the official language of the US government
- Supports building a fence along the Mexican border
- Supports establishing a Guest worker program
- Supports allowing illegal aliens to participate in Social Security
- Supports giving Guest workers a path to citizenship
- Sponsored bill paying fair prevailing wage to guest workers
- Provide funding for social services for noncitizens
Jobs
- Wants to limit secret balloting for unions
- End incentives that move jobs overseas
- Supports Fair Pay Act
- Expand paid sick days to seven per year
- Focus farm programs on family farms
- Give public safety officers collective bargaining rights
- Make the minimum wage a living wage
- Overrode federal overtime rules and raised the minimum wage
- Fund Trade Adjustment Assistance for service workers
- Against terminating legal challenges to English-only job rules
- Supports restricting employer interference in union organzing
- Sponsored bill allowing an Air Traffic controller’s union
- Extend unemployment compensation during recession
Principles and Values
- Against conforming Samuel Alito as supreme Court Justice
- Against on confirming John Roberts for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
- Member of congressional Black Caucus
- Big believer in separation of church and state
Social Security
- Raise income cap to avoid future shortfall
- Raise cap on payroll tax for 3% of earners over $102,000
- Raise $97K cap on payroll tax exempting earnings under $250K
- Stop any efforts to privatize Social Security
- Against establishing reserve funds and pre-funding for Social Security
Tax Reform
- 2011 budget calls for top bracket of 39.6% to replace 35%
- no across-the-board tax cuts for wealthy
- tax cut for 95% of all working families, not corporations
- adjust capital gains tax up to where Reagan set it
- tax cut for middle class and relief to struggling homeowners
- expand the Earned Income Tax Credit
- Maintain the inheritance tax on wealthy
- Tax cut for seniors and those making $75,000 a year or less
- Restore progressive tax
- Tax incentives to create jobs at home instead of offshore
- Supports increasing tax rate for people earning over $1M
- Against allowing AMT reduction without budget offset
- Against raising the Death Tax exemption to $5M from $1M
- Against repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax
- Against rising estate tax exemption to $5M
- Against supporting permanent of estate tax cuts
Technology
- Double basic research funding
- Investing in future is federal responsibility
- $13B stimulus funds to upgrade rail lines and build new ones
- Cancel moon program
- Invest in a digital smart grid for electricity utilities
- Incentives for next-generation broadband in every community
- Invest on transportation and clean coal technology projects
- Against restoring $550M in funding for Amtrak for 2007
War and Peace
- Voted to fund war until 2006
- Late to vote against war is not late to oppose war
- Spending on the Cold War relics should be for the veterans
- Would have voted no to authorize the President to go to war
- Supported on redeploying US troops in 2008
- Against redeploying troops out of Iraq by July 2007
- Supported on investigating contract awards in Iraq and Afghanistan
Welfare and Poverty
- Help refinancing for homeowners facing foreclosure
- Cut poverty in half in 10 years, with faith-based help
- Stop Fraud Act
- Engages people of faith on all aspects of his public service
- Black churches minister social needs out of necessity
- Welfare recipients know how to succeed but need help
- $100M increase in IL Earned Income Tax Credit
- develop a strategy to eliminate extreme global poverty