opportunities and basic skills training, and imposed a five-year limit to receive temporary assistanc for needy families
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