Candidates on the issues – links

It’s hard to still wrap my head around where all the candidates stand on the different issues, so I did some research and thought I would share what I found. Below is a list of links of sites that help summarize how the candidates stand on the issues. The first link is for a quiz to help determine who to vote for based on the issues, that seems to be pretty good.

http://www.selectsmart.com/president/2008.html

http://www.2decide.com/table.htm

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/issues.abortion.html

http://usinfo.state.gov/politics/elections/issues.html

http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/issues/index.html#/context=index/issue=health

Hope this helps!

Hillary: The Book

In the June 11th & 18th issue of the New Yorker, Elizabeth Korbert reviews the two most recent books on Hillary, “A Woman in Charge” and ” Her Way: the Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton”. The article does a good job of summarizing some of the main points the books made. Hillary and Bill declined to speak with the authors stating that they didn’t want to choose some writers over others. The books therefore rely on third party’s thoughts and memories and the “largely ghostwritten, highly santized account of her life, ‘Living History,’ published in 2003.

Some highlights from the article (and therefore the books) are:

• Her name – an interesting look at something as basic as her name begins with the “fabrication” that she was named after the first climber to reach the top of Mt. Everest, New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary (which is why she has two Ls in her first name), since Sir Edmund didn’t make that fateful climb until 1953. Her party now claims it was just a sweet tale her mom told her as a child. As for her last name – she didn’t take Clinton to be her surname until Bill was struggling to regain the Arkansas governorship (seven years after their marriage). Then stayed Hillary Clinton until Bill won the Presidential office, and soon after she was being called Hillary Rodham Clinton, the name she used until recently. In recent months, the Rodham has now disappeared off her campaign collateral. Hmmmmm….
• Health Care Debacle – after Bill refused to have a separate dept handle health care for his campaign, he gave the duty to his wife since she stood by him during the Gennifer Flowers ordeal. Hillary then divided 500 members into 34 committees and drove military type meetings – refusing photocopies and pens and pencils to enter the meetings. And when things were not working out (shocker), she “responded that the Administration was prepared to ‘demonize’ those who opposed the task force’s recommendations.” She refused to look at alternative plans when her plans weren’t panning out and have caused many to think that because of her actions, millions of Americans could be covered with health care who currently go uninsured.
• Iraq War – the thorn in just about everyone’s side. Ten days before the vote to go to war with Iraq, Hillary and all other members of congress were delivered a 90-page classified document, that mostly has not been seen by the public, which stated what the government knew about WMDs and what was not known about Saddam’s capabilities. However, the summary of this report, which was publicized, was mainly based on later proved to be false information. Senator Bob Graham of Florida read the entire report and determined the evidence of WMDs in Iraq was weak and urged his colleagues to also read the full report. Graham was one of only 23 senators to vote against the war). Hillary voted for the war, but claims now that her decision was not a mistake, but rather than she was not informed. The evidence shows that she probably didn’t read the full report before casting her vote. Had she read the report that was given to her, would she have voted differently?
• You Don’t Know Me – after announcing that Clinton was going to run for the White House, she went on many TV and radio programs and claimed to each of them, “I may be the most famous person you really don’t know.” So Hil, with just 8 months to the primaries, why don’t you tell us who you are.

The Democratic Debate

Disclaimer: The following information is what I have taken notes on while watching the debates on tv. Nothing I have written are complete direct quotes, but will give you the general idea of what went on during these debates. Please read on.

In my coverage of the debate, I will only be convering the statements made by who I see as the forerunners of this election, and the issues that I feel are the main issues for the 2008 election.

1) The first question of the night revolved around the Iraq war. Basically, all of the Democrats running are for pulling out of Iraq. But here are some of the responses from Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards.

Clinton: Congress has voted as of today to end this war. She proposes to fund the troops and limit the number of days that the troops serve in the war. She also mentioned that she wants to start to pull the troops out of Iraq, and to make the Iraqi government take on the sacrifices to get their own government to work. She also has taken responsibility of her own previous vote for the war, and that we should not concentrate on the past, but rather, “what do we do now.”

Obama: Obama feels that all of the troops need to have the proper equipment in order to perform at their best. He mentioned the American people and how “we” have said that it is time to end this war. He referred to a plan he created back in January that would begin to withdraw troops from Iraq, and there will be benchmarks that will need to be met, to slowly pull out of Iraq.

Edwards: Edwards believes that we need to regain our respect around the world, and in order to accomplish this, he feels we need to be a model. From his statements, it seems as if he feels that we have lost a lot of respect by starting this war with Iraq, and that in order to regain it, we will need to put an end to this war.

2) Abortion. Last week, the Supreme Court made a ruling to pass the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. Due to time constraints, Hillary Clinton was not asked her opinion on this issue.

Obama: He thinks that most Americans realize that abortion is a difficult decision, and that we need to trust women to make their right decision for themselves with their doctors, and religious leaders. He feels that we should not be concentrating on what we as Americans should not discuss what we do not agree on (abortion) and that we should start talking about things we do agree on. And one of those issues is to try to lower the teen pregnancy rate.

Edwards: Believes in a women’s right to choose, and also thinks it is important for candidates to realize this is a difficult issue and that they should respect that.

3) In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings, the issue of gun control is pushing towards the foreground of these elections. Hillary Clinton was asked if the Government failed the students at VT.

Clinton: “Yes.” Hillary feels that the government did fail the students at VT. She spoke of her memories of Columbine, and how after, the Clinton administration realized that they needed to get guns out of the hands of the wrong people and to limit the access to people who should not have guns. There needs to be a harsher background check and after the VT shootings, it is apparent that our current system does not work.

My own thought: What worries me is the fact that even the democratic candidates do not want to go against the 2nd amendment. I realize that being able to own a gun is supposed to be one of our rights as an American, but look at what owning guns has done recently. How can we determine one person is more sane than another. How do we know if someone who has not been committed to a mental institution, will not harm someone else. Were those kids from the Columbine shootings ever committed to a mental institution?

4) The last issue I will cover is Health-care. Universal Health-care has been a hot phrase among the Democratic candidates. All of them have been forced to come up with their own plans, which all remind me of Hillary Clinton’s plan (please refer to my last blog covering Hillary’s health-care).

Obama: He mentioned 3 steps that I was able to write down in my coverage. 1) that there will be a national pool that people can buy into similar to the way the health-care system is set up for federal employees. 2) The government will subsidize for those who cannot afford health insurance. 3) He will make sure that we will lower the cost of health-care, and provide preventative care. (All very similar to Hillary Clinton’s plan.)

Edwards: He wants to provide health-care with taxes. One of the things he will do, will be to take away the tax cuts for people who make 200 grand or more. He will also require the employer to cover all employees. He will also ban the pre-existing conditions rule that many insurance companies have. That is, if you have a pre existing condition, the new insurance you are on, will not cover that.

Final thoughts: I will have to admit, I have really been focusing all of my attention to Hillary Clinton during my coverage. Since I am the most familiar with her campaign and where she stands on most issues, I was not sure how the other candidates would compare. Barack Obama does have some clear cut ideas for some of the issues, but I do feel that he might be lacking on direct plans. I like how he is always referencing the American people. I believe he can possibly tie us all together. We have been split apart by this Bush Administration, and I believe that we do need to start to stand together. It would be beneficial for America to have a president that can bring us together, instead of pull us apart. I have to go out on a limb here, but I think that Barack Obama does have that quality. I also want to say that Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Congressmen in the U.S House of Representatives, made some very valid points. I think he could be a good president, but he is standing in the shadows of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards. I am not sure what he would have to do to get noticed. I will end with a statement made by Kucinich “This is not American Idol, we are voting for a President.” Well said Kucinich. Well said.

Hillary Clinton and Universal Health Care

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/video/20.aspx

In the above link, Hillary Clinton discusses her plan to achieve universal health care at a forum sponsored by SEIU and the Center for American Progress.

 

The Democratic Party stands united on this issue that there needs to be Universal Healthcare.  This is emerging as the number one issue for the 2008 Election.

 

Here were the main points made by Hillary Clinton on Universal Healthcare:

 

1)      She is in favor of Universal healthcare that rings in the 47 million who are uninsured.

2)      She wants to begin by guaranteeing coverage to people who already have insurance.  A lot of people think they have insurance until they need it because of pre-existing conditions.

3)      She wants to end insurance discrimination during while in the Senate.  Insurance discrimination is when people who have pre-existing conditions, are not covered under new insurance plans.  This can be very costly, and Hillary is determined to end this. 

4)      She wants the government to make better use of the money in the system.  We already spend more money than anyone in the world.  She wants to improve quality and control costs.

5)      We have to modernize and reform the way we deliver healthcare, and we have to change the way we finance healthcare.  To do that, we will have to take money away from people who make out well now.

 

Questions that arose after Hillary’s speech:

 

Who will we take money away from? 

      Insurance companies make money by spending a lot of money, to try to avoid paying for the healthcare.  She wants to change so that the insurance will cover preventative care which will in change, cost less money.

How will we acheive universal coverage?

      Every employer will provide insurance or pay into a pool that will provide money for their employees.  Massachusetts and California both have implemented Universal healthcare, which is achieved by having an individual mandate.  This individual mandate means that the individual is responsible for attaining their own health care policy. 

There are two other methods that we can draw from to acheive universal healthcare which are:  Medicare, which is for people over 65, and The Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan, which has a sharing pool, with a lot of different choices. 

Hillary stated that there can be a back up government complement approach, like the Federal Employees Health Benefit plan, along with requiring the employer to provide coverage. 

How are we going to aid low income families, who live on a fixed income, and have health insurance, but still spend a lot of money out of pocket, which they don’t have?  So how can we fix this?

 

1)      End insurance discrimination, and make it clear that the health insurance will have restrictions.

2)      Move us towards electronic medical records.  People in Healthcare spend so much time writing the records, and trying to read records.  There is a paper system in the healthcare field.  Because we rely on paper, we are wasting money.  We can save 100 billion dollars a year if we can move to electronic medical records. 

Where does the upfront money come from?

 

      We will need approximately 200 million dollars to change to Electronic Medical records.  We need to emphasize wellness and prevention, rather than waiting for a problem to happen.  How can we save money over the long run?  It will cost money upfront, so we can fix the system to serve people better. 

Hillary’s Super Monday

It was a big day in the world of Hillary Clinton today. She held a town hall meeting in Iowa’s capital, Des Moines, and stated that if elected she would create a universal health care system. Also announced today – former Iowa governor, Tom Vilsack who backed out of the race last month due to a lack of funds, gave his official endorsement for Clinton.

With all the good news in Iowa, Senator Clinton has also raised the most amount of money in one week – $10 million. The old record was held by John Edwards in 2004.  Man, she’s on a roll!

In related fundraising news, John McCain recently announced that he would not meet expectations by the first deadline for money raising, March 31st. McCain has only held four events since his announcement to join the race, but plans to have an additional 40 scheduled between now and May.