Your Candidates

Super Tuesday was an adventurous day with the Republican race mathematically over (McCain in the driver's seat) as Romney stepped down the next day, but the Democratic bid still up for grabs with a basic split of delegates. With Obama sweeping the weekend though, he has inched ever so closely to Clinton in the democratic race, where he finds himself only 27 delegates behind. After the weekend votes, Obama is now over Clinton in the pledged delegates for the convention, while Clinton still holds the superdelegate edge. With the Democratic race so close and our primary on the 19th it would be helpful to meet the candidate's thoughts on a few main issues surrounding our nation at this time.

HILLARY CLINTON

BUDGET AND ECONOMY
- put 30 billion dollars in an emergency housing fund to help with the rising foreclosures
- a 90 day suspension on subprime foreclosures to work with the mortgage companies and large financial banks in order to keep people in their homes
- freeze interest rates for 5+ years to help stop rising mortgages that some may not be able to pay in the future
- put 25 billion dollars in an emergency energy fund for rising energy bills, in effect lowering cost of commodities
- stimulate unemployment insurance with 10 billion dollars
- put 5 billion into alternative and more efficient energy, which she says may create 5 million new jobs with clean renewable energy while combating global warming

IRAQ
- originally voted for the use of military in Iraq, but that "if we know now what we knew then" she would have voted differently
- voted for spending bill that would have withdrawn most troops by March 2008
- opposed Bush's plan to increase amount of troops in Iraq
- supports phased redeployment
- with the Iraqi government given everything they needed for a bright future, she would withdraw troops in a careful manner of 1 to 2 combat brigades per month.
- this would get the Iraqi government actively thinking about tough decisions instead of the current unactive stance without us withdrawing troops
- also engage diplomatically with other countries in the region
- best way to force Iraq to make decisions is to show them that we are on our way out

ENVIRONMENT
- would develop a new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012, which is basically an agreement by every country who ratified it to reduce greenhouse gases by 5% of 1990 levels (ironically we are the last to ratify this agreement)
- focus attention on international deforestation
- move towards energy independence towards more renewable sources
- place market cap on trading to reduce carbon emissions
- she states that with fuel efficiency, fuel standards and her proposal, that the US will contribute 80% less than it had in 1990 towards global warming
- opposes drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
- believes that not dealing with global warming will wreck economy and undermine the standard of living around the world
- it doesn't have to be a choice between the economy and global warming; proposes to fund energy and climate research by taking away from tax subsidies for the oil companies and putting them to work on alternative energy (people can make living doing this in America without outsourcing)

BARACK OBAMA

BUDGET AND ECONOMY
- have a short term stimulus of 250 dollars as a tax rebate for workers totaling 35 billion dollars
- have a short term stimulus of 250 dollars as a supplement for senior's Social Security check totaling 10 billion dollars
- there would be 45 billion dollars immediately going to Americans, but if we continued to see a drop in employment and other indications of further recession there would be additional dollars put in our pockets
- long term there will be a working out of the tax quota that currently burdens working families while giving tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations that find the many loopholes
- invest in education and energy independence
- these long term programs would be paid entirely by the government
- would rather jump start economy than try to balance budget or be stingy on stimulus package

IRAQ
- voted for spending bill that would have withdrawn most troops by March 2008
- opposed Bush's plan to increase amount of troops in Iraq
- supports phased redeployment
- once called for troop withdrawal to begin in by the close of 2006
- will bring troops home within 16 months
- will finish fight against Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, which is where we should have focused attention in the beginning
- doesn't just want to end war, but change mindset that got us into war by negotiating with our enemies (Hillary strongly opposed this in one of their debates)

ENVIRONMENT
- would implement an economy wide trade cap to reduce greenhouse gases to scientific recommended levels, charging every bit of pollution that is sent into atmosphere
- this will create a market so that people can make money by saving the environment
- "there is nothing we can not do if the ingenuity and creativity of American's is harnessed"
- make US the world leader in global effort by leading an international partnership on climate change
- would establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard to increase fuel efficiencies on cars
- create a program to help export healthier climate technologies to the developing countries in the world
- create incentives for management in0 sustaining forests globally
- also would create incentives to forest owners and farmers that plant trees and undertake other practices that help in capturing carbon dioxide from our atmosphere
- if we cap the emissions of greenhouse gases, power plants will have to change equipment and in effect charge more to consumers so we will each have to make small steps in making our houses more energy efficient

If anyone has any questions with terminology or anything at all I will be glad to answer. Also if there are any other issues you believe are important please let me know. I will also be talking about the Republican candidates later this week.

I strongly urge everyone to learn more about the Democratic candidates by going to meet with Chelsea Clinton Monday from 3:30-4:30 at the Memorial Union in the Second Floor Lounge or listen to Barack Obama at the Kohl Center on Tuesday where doors open at 6:15.