Copyright 2000 The National Journal, Inc.
The National Journal
View Related Topics
August 12, 2000
SECTION: POLITICS; Pg. 2618; Vol. 32, No. 33
LENGTH: 8625 words
HEADLINE:
Bush and Gore: Where They Stand
BODY:
ABORTION
Bush: Summary
Consistently opposes abortion.
Public Funding
Opposes the use of public funds to provide or to advocate
abortions. Can be expected to cut federal funds for domestic
family-planning services through Title X. As Texas governor,
signed laws
that restricted state family-planning funds. Wants to
greatly increase
federal funding for abstinence-only sex
education.
International Family
Planning
Would reinstate the Mexico City Policy, which during the
Administration of his father, President Bush, banned overseas
family-planning groups that received federal funding from
providing
abortion-related services, even with private money.
Military
Would
reinstate the ban that was in effect during his father's
Administration
prohibiting privately funded abortions at overseas
military bases.
"Partial-Birth" Abortion
Would sign legislation to ban the procedure.
Gore
Summary
Supports abortion rights across the board.
Public
Funding
Supports federal funding of abortions for Medicaid recipients in
cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment. Supports Clinton
Administration increases in federal funding for family planning,
including abortion, through Title X.
International Family Planning
Supports the Clinton Administration's reversal of the Mexico City
Policy.
Military
Supports the Clinton Administration's policy of
allowing military
personnel to obtain privately funded abortions at military
bases
overseas.
"Partial-Birth" Abortion
Opposes Republican-authored
legislation that would ban the
procedure.
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, CIVIL
RIGHTS
Bush: Summary
Opposes quotas and racial preferences.
Civil
Rights Enforcement
Declined to back a Democratic-sponsored hate crimes bill,
saying:
"All crime is hate crime."
Access to Education
Supports what
he calls affirmative-access programs. His "Texas 10
percent plan"
automatically admits those students who graduate in
the top 10 percent of
their high school class to any state
college or university.
Business
Opportunities
Declined to support the 1999 Nondiscrimination Employment Act,
which extends federal workplace discrimination protections to
gays.
Advocates breaking down government contracts into smaller
sizes to promote
entrepreneurship in all communities.
Gore: Summary
Supports affirmative
action across the board. Has strongly
opposed state and local efforts to end
affirmative action
programs.
Civil Rights Enforcement
Strongly
supports congressional hate crimes legislation.
Access to Education
Has
championed the Clinton Administration's establishment of an
Education
Department Advisory Board to advise the Education
Secretary on ways to
strengthen historically black colleges.
Business Opportunities
Supports
extending workplace protections to gays. Supports pay
equity for women.
AGRICULTURE
Bush: Summary
Supports a more market-oriented approach
to agriculture than does
Gore. Touts opening overseas markets as the best
way to boost
American farm income.
Freedom to Farm Act
Supports
eliminating most federal subsidies, but advocates
covering more commodities
under federal crop insurance. Would
phase out the estate tax and pursue tax
incentives to encourage
farmers to save money for lean years.
Biotechnology
Would call upon the European Union to open its markets to
bioengineered crops.
TRADE
Would push for fast-track
trade-negotiating authority and pursue
new markets abroad for American
agricultural products. Opposes
withholding food and medicine from countries
as part of
unilateral trade sanctions or embargoes.
Ethanol
Supports
federal funding for research into effective ways to use
ethanol and other
biofuels.
Gore: Summary
Would instate regular federal payments to
farmers to stabilize
farm income from year to year.
Freedom to Farm Act
Critical of the market-oriented 1996 Freedom to Farm Act, which
exchanged farm subsidies for "transition payments" aimed at
encouraging
farmers to plant as the market dictates. Favors
targeting federal aid to
small- and medium-sized farms, and more-
aggressive enforcement of antitrust
laws in agribusiness.
Biotechnology
Supports federal funding of
bioengineered agricultural products
and of efforts to open foreign markets
for them. But also urges
strong scientific review to address consumers'
safety concerns
about bioengineered foods.
TRADE
Supports opening
markets and reducing tariffs abroad for American
farm products, despite
opposition from labor leaders. Like Bush,
opposes including food and
medicine in unilateral trade
embargoes.
Ethanol
Supports federal
funding for research on ethanol and tax
incentives for using it.
BANKING
Bush: Summary
Supports vigorous enforcement of existing laws, but
opposes
increased government regulation of the industry.
Bankruptcy
Favors Republican-authored 1999 Bankruptcy Reform Act, which is
awaiting
final action in Congress. The bill would force some
bankruptcy filers to pay
off more of their debts to credit card
issuers.
Privacy
Backs
industry position that consumer-privacy protections in the
1999 Financial
Services Modernization Act are adequate. (Act
limits the information that
banks can share with third parties,
but lets them use that information to
pitch additional products
to their customers.)
Community Reinvestment
Act Reform
Supports provisions enacted in recent financial reforms that
require community groups filing comments on bank mergers and
expansions
to annually report information about their own
borrowing. Also supports the
newly mandated and less onerous
regulatory reviews of small banks'
fair-lending practices.
Gore: Summary
Favors increased
consumer-protection regulations in the banking
industry.
Bankruptcy
Opposes 1999 Bankruptcy Reform Act on the grounds that it
provides
insufficient consumer protections. Backs compromise
reforms that would
require credit card issuers to provide easy-
to-understand information about
their interest rates and fees.
Privacy
Supports strengthening the 1999
Financial Services Modernization
Act to prevent banks from using their
customers' personal data
for marketing purposes.
Community Reinvestment
Act Reform
Supports a review of the new financial services law's fair-
lending provisions, on the grounds that the rules may invite
small banks
to skirt their obligations to lend to the poor. Also
believes the law's
supposed "sunshine" provisions may actually
discourage public comment on
bank mergers and expansions.
BUDGET
Bush: Summary
Wants to set aside
one-quarter of the surplus for broad tax cuts,
and has proposed myriad tax
credits in areas from education to
health care. Has been less explicit about
direct domestic
spending, but wants to aid farmers, boost military salaries,
and
invest in schools and in research and development. Also wants to
overhaul the budget process. Would push for biennial federal
budgets and
for legislation that would keep the government
operating even if some
appropriations bills were not signed into
law. Would impanel a bipartisan
commission to eliminate pork
barrel spending. Would ask Congress for new
line-item veto
authority, in the wake of the Supreme Court's 1998 ruling
that
the line-item veto approved by Congress in 1995 was
unconstitutional.
Gore: Summary
Has been a longtime advocate of
fiscal restraint through
"reinventing" government and reducing debt; would
aim to pay off
the federal debt by 2012. At the same time, would increase
domestic spending in key areas. Has outlined a 10-year surplus
plan that
would furnish a Medicare prescription drug benefit and
boost federal
spending on education, law enforcement,
environmental protection, and
defense. Also would seek double
funding for research in information and
technology and create a
job-training account.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM
Bush: Summary
Supports raising campaign contribution limits, but would
tighten
disclosure and lobbying rules.
"Soft Money"
Would bar
corporations and labor unions from making unlimited
"soft-money"
contributions to the political parties. However,
would permit wealthy
individuals to continue making unregulated
soft-money donations.
Disclosure
Wants to require Internet disclosure of campaign
contributions
within a week of receipt. Endorsed recently enacted disclosure
laws aimed at so-called 527 political organizations. But does not
support requiring other types of politically active groups to
disclose
their issue-oriented expenditures.
Public Financing
Opposes public
financing of elections.
Paycheck Protection
Endorses so-called
paycheck-protection legislation that would
require labor unions to get
members' permission before spending
members' dues on political activities.
Contribution Limits
Wants to increase the limit on campaign
contributions to keep
pace with inflation. For example, the individual $
1,000
contribution limit would be indexed to $ 3,400.
Lobbying Reform
Wants to ban members of Congress from asking lobbyists for
political
contributions while Congress is in session.
Gore: Summary
Has proposed a
sweeping reform package that would ban unregulated
money and furnish
generous public subsidies to candidates.
"Soft Money"
Wants to ban all
"soft money," including unregulated
contributions from unions, corporations,
and individuals.
Disclosure
Wants to require all politically active
groups that broadcast
issue ads within 60 days of an election to disclose
their funding
sources.
Public Financing
Has proposed a
public-private Democracy Endowment, which would
raise $ 7.1 billion over
seven years to finance the campaigns of
general election candidates who
agree not to accept any other
private money.
Paycheck Protection
Opposes paycheck-protection legislation.
Contribution Limits
Opposes
raising the existing contribution limits.
Lobbying Reform
Wants to
require lobbyists to disclose more about their
activities, including the
names of those to whom they've
contributed, and to post that information
monthly on the
Internet.
CHILDREN, FAMILIES
Bush: Summary
Emphasizes the family's role in child care and wants to give
states
discretion in spending federal grants. Touts his
substantial child care
spending increases in Texas.
Child Care Tax Credits
Would double the $
500-per-child federal tax credit to $ 1,000.
Supports block grants that
would allow low-income families to
choose child care providers. Proposes
bigger tax cuts for
adoptive families and $ 2.3 billion for child-welfare
programs
over five years.
Child Care Standards
Supports measures,
now in place in Texas, that require child care
workers to undergo background
checks, receive training, and
submit to surprise spot inspections. As Texas
governor, has
boosted child care spending by $ 360 million since taking
office.
Out-of-Wedlock Births
Wants to see at least as much federal
spending on abstinence
education as on teen-contraception programs. Wants to
study the
effectiveness of federally funded sex education programs.
Gore: Summary
Proposes a $ 38 billion, 10-year federal program to make
child
care more affordable for working families. Some $ 30 billion of
the funding would come out of his $ 250 billion middle-class tax
cut
proposal, the rest from the federal budget surplus.
Child Care Tax Credits
Would offer a refundable tax credit to help parents cover as much
as 50
percent of child care costs, compared with 30 percent
today. Low-income
families with no tax liabilities would receive
up to $ 2,400 for child care.
Would offer a $ 500 tax credit to
stay-at-home parents with infants under
age 1.
Child Care Standards
Would provide $ 8 billion in grants to
states for day care
improvements, provided that they set up early-childhood
reading
programs, improve health and safety standards, require training
and background checks for child care workers, and perform spot
inspections of centers.
Out-of-Wedlock Births
Wants states to pass
laws requiring all fathers who owe child
support to pay up or go to work.
Wants to strengthen child-
support enforcement and give credit bureaus data
on "deadbeat"
parents and challenge credit card companies to deny them new
cards.
CRIME
Bush: Summary
Would support tough laws for domestic
violence, juvenile
offenders, and sex offenders. Also wants strong penalties
and
longer prison terms for violent offenders.
Death Penalty, DNA
Testing
Supports the death penalty for those who commit violent crimes.
Supports post-conviction DNA testing if, in the context of all
the
evidence, it can help determine guilt or innocence.
Mandatory Drug Testing
of Prisoners, Parolees
Has not staked out a position.
Victims' Rights
Supports a constitutional amendment that would give victims the
right to
be notified of trials and probation hearings, to give
input in plea
bargains, and to be told when a prisoner's release
is imminent.
Juvenile
Crime
Supports aggressive enforcement of existing handgun laws and
prosecution of gun offenses. Says he would support legislation to
prevent juvenile offenders from buying a gun when they become
adults.
Gore: Summary
Would support tough gun and gang laws, but places greater
emphasis than Bush on prevention. For example, would give federal
grants
to states for crime-mapping software to target crime hot
spots. Supports
federal funding to help local governments hire
50,000 new police officers.
Death Penalty, DNA Testing
Supports the death penalty for heinous
crimes; says it has a
deterrent effect. Has not stated a position on
post-conviction
DNA testing.
Mandatory Drug Testing of Prisoners,
Parolees
Supports mandatory drug testing and treatment of state prisoners
before release; would furnish states with $ 500 million in grants
to
cover the costs.
Victims' Rights
Supports a constitutional amendment
giving victims the right to
be notified of trials and probation hearings, to
give input in
plea bargains, and to be told when a prisoner's release is
imminent.
Juvenile Crime
Would support tough juvenile crime laws and
additional federal
funding for school anti-drug programs.
DEFENSE
Bush: Summary
Embraces high-tech weapons, including ones for a national
missile
defense program.
Defense Spending
Would increase defense
spending, particularly for troops' pay and
for weapons research.
National Missile Defense
Would dramatically expand the proposed system
of ground-based
rockets, probably adding sea-based and possibly air- and
space-
based interceptors; would do so, if need be, at the expense of
the Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia and of arms control
in
general.
Gays in the Military
Would retain the current "don't ask, don't
tell" policy, which
allows closeted gays and lesbians to serve in the
military.
Modernizing the Military
Would increase military
research-and-development spending by $ 20
billion over five years and focus
research on revolutionary
weapons that would "skip a generation" ahead of
current
technology.
Gore: Summary
Advocates spending increases;
would exercise caution on national
missile defense plans.
Defense
Spending
Would continue recent steady increases in defense spending.
National Missile Defense
Would continue President Clinton's cautious
course by balancing a
limited, ground-based system against international
objections and
the strictures of the Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty with
Russia.
Gays in the Military
Rejects the current "don't ask, don't tell"
policy as unworkable,
and would work to overturn the law that bans openly
gay and
lesbian people from serving in the military.
Modernizing the
Military
Focuses on reorganizing the Pentagon, particularly streamlining
business practices and increasing cooperation among the Air
Force, Army,
Navy, and Marine Corps, rather than on developing
radically new weapons for
each service.
ECONOMY
Bush: Summary
Favors a major cut in income tax
rates and the privatization of
Social Security.
The Surplus
Favors
making broad tax cuts, paying down the debt, and targeting
spending
increases and tax credits for education, health, and
defense.
Interest
Rates
Has said almost nothing about rising interest rates, a major
complaint of U.S. business, but generally supports Alan Greenspan
and
the Federal Reserve Board's strategy of raising rates to rein
in inflation.
Antitrust
Supports enforcement, with particular emphasis on
price-fixing.
On Microsoft case, has suggested he'd prefer an out-of-court
settlement.
Gore: Summary
Favors targeted tax cuts, broader
increases in spending, but no
major reforms or deregulation of the U.S.
economy.
The Surplus
Favors eliminating the national debt more than
cutting taxes or
increasing spending.
Interest Rates
Has had little
to say about interest rates, but has praised
Greenspan's handling of the
issue.
Antitrust
Has given no indication he would depart from current
policy. On
Microsoft, supports action against predatory behavior that
impedes competition, which is the basis of the case.
EDUCATION
Bush:
Summary
Supports vouchers and charter schools, but would expand federal
funding in a few areas, such as early-childhood education and
teacher
training.
School Choice
Would give vouchers to students in schools that
remain on a
state's "failing" list for three years; the vouchers would be
worth about $ 1,500 and could be used at a public or private
school.
Would offer $ 3 billion in loan guarantees to establish or
improve 2,000
charter schools in the next two years.
Accountability
Would require
states to annually test pupils in grades 3 through
8. Would establish a $
500 million fund to reward schools that
improve their test scores; would
give vouchers to pupils in
schools that fail. States that do not improve
test scores would
lose administrative money.
Teacher Quality
Would
consolidate federal funding for teachers; the move would
dissolve President
Clinton's class-size-reduction program and
increase total funding for
teacher recruiting, hiring, and
training from $ 2 billion to $ 2.4 billion.
Would expand the
current Troops-to-Teachers program budget from $ 2.4
million to $30 million.
School Safety
Supports federal prosecution of
juveniles who bring guns to
school. Would rate schools on their safety and
make the
information available to parents.
Paying for Education
Would increase the annual limit on contributions to tax-free
education
accounts from $ 500 to $ 5,000; the savings could help
pay for education
from kindergarten through college.
Early-Childhood Education
Wants to
make Head Start more focused on education, and to
require evaluations of
each program's effectiveness. Would spend $1 billion annually on a new federal
reading initiative based on
testing, remedial help, and teacher training.
Proposes $ 400
million for after-school programs.
Gore: Summary
Supports greatly expanding the federal role in education,
including
teacher hiring and training, school construction, and
early-childhood
education.
School Choice
Opposes vouchers but supports charter schools
and public school
choice. Would use federal money to triple the number of
charter
schools to 5,100 by 2005.
Accountability
Would create a $
500 million Accountability Fund to pay for state
improvement plans. Schools
would have to improve or face being
shut down. Would reward states that
improve their scores on the
National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Teacher Quality
Supports Clinton's effort to pay for 100,000 new
teachers. Would
offer grants to poor school districts to lure top teachers
by
giving higher salaries. Wants teacher testing and "fast, fair"
removal of bad teachers. Would establish a Teacher Corps to
encourage
professionals and high school graduates to teach.
School Safety
Would
offer grants to schools that enforce zero-tolerance
policies for guns on
campus and for alternative schools that
educate children who have discipline
problems. Unlike Bush, has
no formal plan on rating schools on their safety.
Paying for Education
Would create tax-free accounts for education
throughout a
person's life. Employers would be permitted to contribute.
Persons could contribute up to $ 2,500 a year to the account and
withdraw funds without paying taxes if they used the money for
educational purposes.
Early-Childhood Education
Supports Clinton's
proposal to spend $ 1 billion more on Head
Start. Would set aside money to
train preschool teachers. Favors
voluntary universal prekindergarten for all
4-year-olds.
ENVIRONMENT
Bush: Summary
Promises a more
state-directed, industry-friendly environmental
policy, although his
reliance on this approach while governor of
Texas has come under attack from
environmental groups.
Global Warming
Agrees that human activity is
causing warming, but opposes the
1997 Kyoto treaty, an international pact
signed by the Clinton
Administration, which would force industrial nations
to reduce
their greenhouse-gas emissions.
Energy Policy
Has not
articulated a detailed energy policy, but would furnish
tax incentives for
ethanol use, and has said that he supports the
development of
energy-efficient technologies. Supported
provisions in the Texas electricity
deregulation bill that
require state utilities to reduce pollution at their
oldest coal-
fired power plants.
Brownfields
Advocates flexible
cleanup standards and new financial support to
speed up reclamation and
development of brownfields-contaminated
waste sites in urban regions.
Snake River Dams
Opposes tearing down four dams on Washington state's
Snake River
to protect the seriously depleted local species of salmon and
other fishes. Instead, recommends alternative methods to save the
fish.
Gore: Summary
Promotes a continuation and, in some cases, an
acceleration of
the Clinton Administration's environmental policies.
Global Warming
Supports the Kyoto global-warming treaty.
Energy
Policy
Calls for a 10-year, $ 125 billion energy plan that would help
electric firms retrofit coal-fired power plants; develop new
energy
technologies; and provide tax breaks, loans, and grants to
consumers and
businesses who switch to environment-friendly
homes, factories, and
vehicles.
Brownfields
Calls for more funding to help companies
rehabilitate urban
brownfields. Would let state and local governments float
bonds to
pay for cleaning up abandoned factories.
Snake River Dams
Promises to hold a "salmon summit" to decide whether to breach
the dams
to protect the declining populations of salmon and other
fishes in the Snake
River.
FOREIGN POLICY
Bush: Summary
Emphasizes free trade and
internationalism, with an emphasis on
unilaterally asserting American
interests.
Arms Control
Opposes the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban
Treaty and would
withdraw from the Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty, if
necessary, to
build a robust national missile defense system. Is generally
skeptical of multilateral arms control agreements.
Peacekeeping
Would strive to reduce the role of U.S. forces in peacekeeping
missions
around the world and would shun future missions unless
vital U.S. interests
were at stake.
China
Favors a "one-China" policy, and supports the
Taiwan Security
Enhancement Act, which commits the United States to closer
defense cooperation with Taiwan.
Russia
Would refocus U.S.-Russian
relations on security matters. Would
likely oppose further loans to Russia
by the International
Monetary Fund.
Middle East
Would move the U.S.
Embassy to Jerusalem.
Kosovo
Advocates a timetable for withdrawing U.S.
troops and
transferring the peacekeeping mission to European allies.
Latin America and Mexico
Supports NAFTA and fast-track trade-negotiating
authority, and
proposes a hemispheric free-trade area for the Americas.
Iraq
Supports continued economic sanctions and advocates increasing
support for Iraqi opposition groups seeking to oust Saddam
Hussein. Has
publicly threatened to unilaterally strike any known
Iraqi sites used to
produce weapons of mass destruction.
North Korea
Has aligned himself
with foreign-policy advisers who have
criticized the Clinton Administration
deal that freezes North
Korea's nuclear weapons program, but provides fuel
oil to and
constructs civil nuclear reactors for that country.
Gore
Summary
Emphasizes free trade and internationalism, with an emphasis on
cooperative engagement through international institutions such as
the
United Nations.
Arms Control
Supports the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban
Treaty and a
renegotiated Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty. Is generally
supportive of multilateral arms control agreements.
Peacekeeping
Strongly supports the use of U.S. forces in recent peacekeeping
missions.
China
Supports a "one-China" policy, but opposes the
Republican-crafted
Taiwan Security Enhancement Act.
Russia
Helped
fashion current policy of multilayered engagement with
Russians to promote
both economic reforms and nonproliferation
efforts.
Middle East
Would delay any decision on moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem
until a
Middle East peace settlement is reached.
Kosovo
Advocates the continued
participation of U.S. troops in a NATO-
led peacekeeping force.
Latin
America and Mexico
Supports NAFTA and fast-track authority, and proposes a
free-
trade area of the Americas.
Iraq
Defends the present policy of
economic sanctions and
"containment" of Iraq.
North Korea
Supports
the Clinton Administration's deal that freezes North
Korea's nuclear weapons
program, but provides fuel oil to and
constructs civil nuclear reactors for
that country.
GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS
Bush: Summary
Proposes dramatic
restructuring and cuts to reduce the size of
government.
Government Jobs
Would eliminate 40,000 civil service management jobs. Would give
more
government work to private contractors. Would change civil
service rules to
reward individual performance.
E-Government
Would offer more government
services and data online. Would
create a chief information officer and
furnish $ 100 million for
computer automation.
Oversight
Would
establish a bipartisan Sunset Review Board to eliminate
duplicative and
ineffective programs.
Gore: Summary
Has been a longtime champion of
"reinventing government." Touts
federal staffing reductions and efficiency
gains made on his
watch.
Government Jobs
Says that the Clinton-Gore
Administration has eliminated 370,000
federal jobs over eight years. Has not
specifically called for
more job cuts, outsourcing of federal work, or
changes to civil
service rules. Supports giving federal workers more
on-the-job
flexibility, as long as goals are met.
E-Government
Would
offer more government services and data online, including
his Across America
initiative, which would target students, the
elderly, and rural communities.
Oversight
Has not stated a position. As an eight-year incumbent, has
less
reason than challenger Bush to emphasize oversight.
GUN CONTROL
Bush: Summary
Supports strong enforcement of existing gun laws, and
funding for
such federal programs as Project Exile, which brings prosecutors
and law enforcement officials together to target armed, convicted
felons
and violent criminals.
Background Checks at Gun Shows
Supports immediate
background checks of prospective buyers at gun
shows.
Gun Registration
and Licensing
Opposes government-mandated registration of guns.
Child
Safety Locks
Supports voluntary efforts to equip guns with safety locks;
however, will sign gun-lock mandates if Congress approves them.
Gore:
Summary
Supports strong gun control measures.
Background Checks at Gun
Shows
Supports background checks at gun shows, even if they cannot be
done instantly.
Gun Registration and Licensing
Supports national,
mandatory licensing; supports an alternative
to registration, whereby
sellers report identities of buyers to
state authorities; backs photo
licenses and gun safety tests for
new handgun owners.
Child Safety Locks
Supports mandatory child safety locks.
HEALTH CARE
Bush: Summary
Advocates reducing the number of uninsured citizens by
subsidizing their
purchase of private health coverage. Also
supports limited patients' rights.
Tax Credits
Would give people who don't have employer-sponsored health
insurance an annual tax credit of up to $ 1,000 per individual and $2,000
per family to cover up to 90 percent of the cost of health
insurance. The
subsidy would vary depending on income.
CHIP
Wants to give states more
flexibility in administering the
Children's Health Insurance Program, a
federal block grant, and
allow them to expand CHIP to other eligible people,
including
some parents.
Medical Savings Accounts
Wants to make
existing medical-savings-account pilot programs
permanent and to lift the
federal cap of 750,000 on the number of
accounts. Would allow all employers
to offer MSAs, and would let
both employers and employees contribute to
them. Would lower the
minimum deductible for accompanying catastrophic
health plans to $1,000 for an individual and $ 2,000 for families.
Patients' Bill of Rights
Supports giving patients in
federally governed health plans a
limited ability to sue their health plans
for denied medical
services.
Long-Term Care
Would make the cost of
long-term-care insurance fully deductible,
and establish a personal tax
exemption for home caregivers.
Group Purchasing
Would allow small
businesses to band together across state lines
and form association health
plans, in order to buy health
insurance through bona fide trade
associations.
Gore: Summary
Supports incremental movement toward
reducing the number of
uninsured citizens, first by expanding coverage
through existing
government programs. Also supports broad patients' rights
legislation, including patients' right to sue their health plans
for
denied services.
Tax Credits
Advocates the use of tax credits as a way
to make insurance more
affordable for the uninsured. The tax credit would be
the
equivalent of 25 percent of a person's health insurance costs.
CHIP
Supports enrolling more children, and some parents, in the state
Children's Health Insurance Program and in Medicaid. Would expand
eligibility to include children living at up to 250 percent of
the
federal poverty level (which would make a family of four
earning $ 41,000
eligible), and make states responsible for
enrolling eligible children.
Medical Savings Accounts
Opposes the widespread use of medical savings
accounts, which he
argues would mostly attract healthy people and pull them
out of
the regular insurance market, ultimately boosting costs for
others.
Patients' Bill of Rights
Wants a broad
patients' bill of rights that allows people who are
denied
medical services to sue their health plans.
Long-Term Care
Wants a $
3,000 tax credit for home caregivers. Has not proposed a
tax break for the
purchase of long-term-care insurance because he
wants to see quality
improvements in that market.
Group Purchasing
Would give tax credits to
small-business employees who join
health care purchasing cooperatives, which
could be run by
nonprofit organizations or other groups. Opposes association
health plans.
HOUSING
Bush: Summary
Would let local public
housing authorities give low-income
renters up to a year's worth of rental
vouchers in a lump-sum
payment, to cover home-purchase costs. Would permit
the use of
Section 8 vouchers to subsidize monthly mortgage payments. Would
furnish $ 1 billion in federal homeownership assistance over five
years.
Gore
Summary
Supports President Clinton's call for $ 690 million for
120,000
new Section 8 vouchers for fiscal 2001. Would also increase
support for the Housing and Urban Development Department's Home
Investment Partnership program and Community Development Block
Grant
program.
IMMIGRATION
Bush: Summary
Calls for changes in structure
and policy of the Immigration and
Naturalization Service.
INS Reform
Would divide the INS into two agencies-one that handles
enforcement of
current immigration law and one that focuses on
naturalization. Calls for a
$ 500 million funding increase over
five years to improve service through
employee incentives.
H1-B Immigrant Visas
Calls for an unspecified
increase in the number of H1-B visas for
high-skilled foreign workers.
Naturalization
Calls for a six-month deadline for processing
applications.
Family Reunification
Would change INS policy so that
spouses and children of permanent
legal residents can more easily obtain
visitor visas while their
applications for permanent residency are pending.
Gore: Summary
Supports changes in laws to allow families to stay
together;
supports Clinton Administration policies intended to streamline
the naturalization process.
INS Reform
Would encourage the agency to
separate enforcement and service
operations more clearly, but opposes
creating two separate
agencies. Supports the Administration's call for more
than $ 200
million in additional INS funding, most of it for enforcement and
border patrols.
H1-B Immigrant Visas
Would increase the number of
H1-B visas offered annually from
115,000 to 200,000, but would raise the fee
for them and use that
money for education programs.
Naturalization
Supports Clinton Administration efforts to streamline the process
with a
goal of reducing the time of processing applications to
three months.
Family Reunification
Supports provisions that would more easily allow
families to stay
together; would allow immigrants to have their papers
processed
in the United States, rather than in their home countries.
LAND USE
Bush: Summary
Advocates making greater use of the nation's
natural resources
and handing over more authority for land use policies to
the
states.
Land Preservation
Would encourage land conservation with
tax credits for private
parties and local governments. Recommends abolishing
the
inheritance tax so landowners won't be tempted to sell property
to
developers to pay taxes. Supports full funding of the federal
Land and Water
Conservation Fund, with a mandate that 50 percent
of the proceeds be spent
on state and local conservation efforts.
Oil Exploration
Supports
increased domestic production and exploration, including
in the protected
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Would
continue the current
moratorium on offshore drilling in
California and Florida.
National
Monuments
Opposes President Clinton's policy of protecting federal lands by
designating them as national monuments.
National Forests
Would
reverse Clinton Administration proposals to protect 43
million acres of
road-free national forests. Recommends more
logging on all national lands.
Gore: Summary
Would expand the land preservation policies of the Clinton
Administration.
Land Preservation
Recommends setting aside more
federal lands and paying for them
with new mining royalties from other
federal property. Calls for $2 billion in tax incentives to protect wilderness
areas from
development.
Oil Exploration
Opposes new oil exploration
in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge. Would go beyond the current
moratorium on oil-exploration
leases off the coasts of California and
Florida and ban new
drilling under existing leases.
National Monuments
Supports President Clinton's designation of new national
monuments.
National Forests
Supports Administration proposals to bar new
road-building on as-
yet-untouched national forest lands, but would take the
issue
further by including Alaska's Tongass National Forest in the
road-free designation. Also would prohibit logging in those
wilderness
regions.
MEDICARE
Bush: Summary
Advocates additional private-sector
health plan choices for
Medicare beneficiaries, including options with
prescription drug
coverage.
Medicare Reform
Wants to build on the
work of the National Bipartisan Commission
on the Future of Medicare; its
leaders recommended opening up
Medicare to more health plans as a way to
give the elderly more
choices while lowering costs.
Prescription Drugs
Supports offering a prescription drug benefit to Medicare
recipients
through a greater choice of plans. Also supports
giving financial assistance
to low-income elderly people to help
them pay for the plans.
Lockbox
Has not taken a position on Gore's proposal to put Medicare in an
off-budget lockbox.
Trust Fund
Proposes a unified trust fund for
Medicare Part A, which covers
hospitalization, and Medicare Part B, which
covers doctor visits.
Also supports doubling federal funding for Medicare
over 10
years, but has not said where the extra money would come from.
Provider Giveback
Has not taken a position on a bill to restore funding
to
hospitals and other health care providers that was lost as a
result
of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act. Supported the first
legislation to restore
funding, proposed in 1999, and has said
the issue is another reason to
revamp Medicare.
Gore
Summary
Defends the rights of the elderly to
remain in traditional fee-
for-service health insurance plans if they so
desire, and
advocates a prescription drug benefit that applies to all
Medicare beneficiaries.
Medicare Reform
Advocates rooting out waste,
fraud, and abuse and giving Medicare
more competitive tools, so long as
beneficiaries are protected
from premium inflation.
Prescription Drugs
Would create a prescription drug benefit that would cover half
the cost
of medicines up to $ 5,000 with no deductibles, and
catastrophic protections
after $ 4,000 in out-of-pocket payments.
Elderly people with annual incomes
below $ 11,000 would pay no
premiums or co-payments.
Lockbox
Wants
to put Medicare in an off-budget lockbox, so that savings
from Medicare
cannot be spent on other programs.
Trust Fund
Advocates using $ 75
billion of budget surplus money over 10 years
to extend the life of
Medicare's hospital insurance trust fund
until at least 2030.
Provider
Giveback
Would use $ 40 billion in budget surplus money to restore funding
to hospitals and other health care providers that was lost as a
result
of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act.
PRIVACY
Bush: Summary
Promotes
business practices that allow customers to choose
companies whose privacy
policies they favor, and has said that
people should have a veto over how
personal information is used
and sold: "The principle ought to be (that)
people should not be
able to use your information or mine without
permission."
Online Privacy
Expects to release position paper soon. Open
to requiring
companies to get consumers' approval before their data can be
used or sold.
Gore: Summary
Promotes business practices that allow
customers to choose
companies whose privacy policies they favor, a federal
"Privacy
Bill of Rights," and new laws to protect some aspects of medical
and financial privacy.
Online Privacy
Like Bush, prefers customer
choice and industry self-regulation
to new federal rules. Would provide a
"digital key" that gives
citizens secure access to online government
services. Backs
legislation being pushed by congressional Democrats to
restrict
the sale of any Social Security number without an individual's
permission.
RELIGION
Bush: Summary
Says government should turn
first to faith-based organizations to
help needy people. Would extend the
role and reach of charities
and churches, communities and corporations,
synagogues and
mosques, and mentors and ministers.
Faith-Based
Initiatives
Would establish an Office of Faith-Based Action in the Executive
Office of the President. Would remove barriers to faith-based
groups'
participation in government programs.
Public Funding
Would offer
competitive grants to faith-based groups for programs
that address problems
such as the needs of children of prisoners.
Would expand the federal
charitable deduction to people who do
not itemize on their tax returns,
would promote a new charitable
state tax credit, and would provide
incentives for corporate
giving.
Religion in School
Lamented recent
Supreme Court ruling that public school districts
cannot allow students to
lead stadium crowds in prayer before
high school football games. Supports
student-led prayer and
posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools.
Gore: Summary
Defends separation of church and state.
Faith-Based
Initiatives
Supports allowing states to enlist faith-based organizations to
provide basic welfare services as long as there is a secular
alternative
and no one is required to participate in religious
observances to receive
services. Opposes the use of faith-based
organizations as a substitute for
governmental programs.
Public Funding
Supports public funding for
faith-based organizations, but not to
the exclusion of government programs.
Calls for more private
support for religious groups.
Religion in School
Opposes government-mandated prayer in public schools.
SOCIAL SECURITY
Bush: Summary
Proposes allowing younger workers to divert an unspecified
portion (uses 2 percent in his examples) of their Social Security
payroll taxes into individual investment accounts. Has pledged to
maintain existing benefits for disabled workers and survivors, as
well
as for both current retirees and workers nearing retirement.
Solvency
Proposes a plan that would not extend the life of the trust fund,
as now
defined, because his plan would siphon younger workers'
taxes out of the
U.S. Treasury in an expensive transition to
private-sector accounts. Has
ruled out tax hikes to bridge the
shortfall, leaving unspecified benefit
cuts or a diversion of
general revenues as the future alternative.
Private Investment
Would allow workers to move some of their tax
payments into the
equity and bond markets to invest as they wish. Touts the
"wealth
creation" potential of private accounts, which are controversial
and would accrue more dramatically to upper-income investors.
Benefits
Acknowledges that individual accounts would mean less in the way
of
guaranteed benefits for the elderly, but says that nothing
about the Social
Security system has been "guaranteed" since
1935, because Congress has made
and continues to make legislative
changes along the way.
General
Revenues
Would divert an estimated $ 950 billion from federal coffers
between 2002 and 2010 into privately managed stocks and bonds,
according
to one recent analysis. Additional revenues would be
needed to cover
benefits to future retirees, unless benefits are
reduced.
Gore: Summary
Proposes to use the federal budget surplus to pay down debt and
reduce
the need for federal borrowing. Would credit the resulting
interest savings
to the Social Security system as an accounting
mechanism to extend the life
of the funds.
Solvency
Relies on federal debt reduction and reduced
interest costs to
extend the life of the Social Security trust fund to 2050.
Advisers say he could apply additional interest savings as they
materialize to extend solvency even further-to 2075.
Private Investment
Would offer workers supplemental individual tax-free retirement
accounts
("Retirement Savings Plus") matched with government tax
credits on a sliding
scale. Workers could deposit as much as $1,500 a year in accounts managed by
private financial
institutions and invested in broad-based equities, bonds,
and
government securities.
Benefits
Would add an expensive new
benefit: government-matched private
accounts similar to 401(k) plans. The
Gore plan includes no
benefit reductions to deal with the anticipated
shortfall
resulting from too few workers covering the costs of too many
retirees.
General Revenues
Says his supplemental accounts plan would
cost $ 200 billion over
10 years, but most independent analysts say the
price tag would
likely go much higher.
SUPREME COURT
Bush: Summary
Has promised not to apply ideological litmus test on abortion or
other
issues. Would be expected to nominate strict
constructionists, such as
Associate Justices Antonin Scalia and
Clarence Thomas, to the bench.
Gore: Summary
Has said that he will nominate Justices who recognize that
the
Constitution is a living, breathing document. Defends abortion
rights and the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision.
TAXES
Bush: Summary
Favors tax cuts of some $ 483 billion over five years, including
cuts in
the rate structure.
Marriage Penalty
Favors an $ 88 billion tax cut over
10 years for married couples.
Would restore the 10 percent deduction for
two-earner families so
they could deduct up to $ 3,000 more than now
permitted.
Low-Income Families
Would cut the marginal rate by more than
40 percent for low-
income families with two children, and by nearly 50
percent for
families with one child. Would increase the existing child tax
credit from $ 500 to $ 1,000 per child.
Research and Development
Would make permanent the research-and-development tax credit,
which
provides tax breaks to businesses conducting research.
Other taxes
Would
phase out the estate tax and use tax incentives to promote
savings for
education, the purchase of health insurance, land
conservation, housing
development, and charitable giving. Would
also use the tax code to help home
caregivers, families with
child care expenses, and farmers.
Gore:
Summary
Favors targeted tax cuts for specific purposes, as opposed to
Bush's more sweeping cuts. Favors modified Universal Savings
Accounts,
which would encourage retirement savings for people who
cannot take
advantage of IRAs or 401(k)s.
Marriage Penalty
Would address the
so-called marriage penalty by providing an $ 80
billion tax cut over 10
years for married couples, which is less
than that proposed by congressional
Republicans.
Low-Income Families
Would expand the earned income tax
credit by up to $ 500 for
families with three or more children, and increase
by $ 1,450 the
maximum income that two-wage married couples can earn before
their credit is phased out. Favors a $ 1-an-hour increase in the
hourly
minimum wage over the next two years.
Research and Development
Would
make permanent the research-and-development tax credit,
which provides tax
breaks to businesses conducting research.
Other Taxes
Would use tax
incentives to promote land conservation, education
savings, energy
efficiency, ethanol research, and the purchase of
health insurance. Would
use the tax code to help home caregivers
and families with child care
expenses.
TECHNOLOGY
Bush: Summary
Would promote technology
innovation with free-market policies,
increased government research, free
trade, and legal reforms to
curb lawsuits.
Education and Training
Would boost government funding to add Internet links to schools,
bolster
math and science education, and promote education reform
with vouchers.
Internet Taxes
Would extend existing moratorium that bars states from
collecting
sales taxes on out-of-state online vendors for at least three
years.
Stem-Cell Research
Supports current curbs against using
federal funds for research
on stem cells taken from human embryos, but has
also said he
would not restrict commercial technology development.
Gore:
Summary
Would promote technology innovation with free-market policies,
increased government research, and free trade.
Education and Training
Would connect every classroom to the Internet and promote smaller
classrooms and better teachers.
Internet Taxes
Has said he would
keep the federal moratorium that bars states
from collecting out-of-state
Internet taxes, but has also said
the federal government should support
state officials concerned
that Internet-tax losses create a "potential
fiscal catastrophe."
Stem-Cell Research
Supports federal funding of
research into stem cells taken from
human embryos, if nonfederal researchers
obtain the cells.
TRADE
Bush: Summary
Strongly supports free-trade
policies.
Trade with China
Supports permanent normal trade relations
with China as part of
Beijing's membership in the World Trade Organization.
Labor and Human Rights, Environmental Standards
Opposes conditioning
trade liberalization on progress on labor,
human rights, and environmental
issues.
High-Tech Trade
Committed to easing export restrictions on
commercially available
technologies, but supports trade sanctions to promote
his foreign
policy agenda.
Gore: Summary
Supports free-trade
policies, but also emphasizes fair trade.
Trade with China
Supported
permanent normal trade relations over opposition from
organized labor.
Labor and Human Rights, Environmental Standards
Supports using trade
deals to improve worker and human rights and
to protect the environment.
High-Tech Trade
Supports relaxing export restrictions on commercially
available
technologies.
TRANSPORTATION
Bush: Summary
Hasn't
announced a transportation agenda, but has attacked the
Clinton
Administration for higher gas prices, and has proposed a
modest plan to help
disabled Americans.
Investment
Would set aside $ 145 million over five
years to provide easier
transportation access to disabled Americans and
would target
community and faith-based organizations to provide this
transportation.
Gasoline Prices
Blames today's high gas prices on
the Administration's quest for
cleaner fuel and its failure to develop a
comprehensive national
energy policy. Also argues that the Administration
should
pressure OPEC to increase the supply of oil. Opposes efforts to
suspend the 18-cent-per-gallon federal gasoline tax to alleviate
higher
gas prices
Gore: Summary
Supports transportation alternatives to reduce
urban sprawl and
help clean the environment.
Investment
Would
provide $ 25 billion over 10 years to give Americans more
transportation
choices, such as high-speed rail, light rail, and
cleaner and safer buses.
Gasoline Prices
Blames today's high gas prices on possible price-gouging
by the
oil industry. Would provide tax credits to Americans who buy
energy-saving vehicles and appliances. Like Bush, opposes
suspending the
federal tax on gasoline purchases.
Compiled by Eliza Newlin Carney, with
contributions from Perry
Bacon Jr., David Baumann, Piper Fogg, Elisabeth
Frater, Sydney J.
Freedberg Jr., Siobhan Gorman, Louis Jacobson, James
Kitfield,
Margaret Kriz, Megan Lisagor, John Maggs, Neil Munro, Mark
Murray, Marilyn Werber Serafini, Alexis Simendinger, Bruce
Stokes, Megan
Twohey, Kirk Victor, and Shawn Zeller.
LOAD-DATE:
August 16, 2000 
