Showing posts for "General Election"
USA Today reports on differences between Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) over tax policy for oil companies. Obama would create a windfall profits tax on the companies, while McCain would implement a cut in the corporate income tax rate that could save oil companies billions of dollars each year.
“Injecting capital into our financial institutions is essential to stabilizing our economy, but we must make sure we are not giving sweetheart, insider deals that shift the risk to taxpayers without giving them sufficient upside. And we must make sure that these institutions are helping homeowners stay in their homes, which includes abiding by a 90 day moratorium on foreclosures for families who are making a good faith effort to pay their mortgages. Finally, the plan appears to extend a broader set of guarantees to banks without requiring any additional regulation, which represents more of the same failed philosophy that got us into this mess.”
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) released new details of his economic agenda on Monday. Obama’s plans include a ninety-day moratorium on home foreclosures and additional funding in government loan guarantees for automakers. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) also addressed economic policy in a speech on Monday. He promised to “open new markets to goods made in America and make sure our trade is free and fair.”
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) urged the Treasury Department on Thursday to “move as quickly possible” to implement the economic rescue package “so that we can ease this credit crisis that’s preventing businesses and consumers from getting loans and causing dangerous instability in our market.”
Obama praised the Bush administration’s decision to sell $6 billion in military equipment to Taiwan. A statement from Obama’s national security spokesman said Obama views the package as an “important response to Taiwan’s defense needs.” On Tuesday, McCain criticized the deal for not including submarines or new F-16 aircraft.
In their second debate, U.S. presidential candidates Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama (D-IL) sparred over the limping U.S. economy and energy policy; both tied the country’s recovery to the latter. Obama faulted McCain for a record of deregulation that he said has contributed to the current crisis; McCain, for his part, presented a new economic proposal under which the U.S. Treasury would buy up problem mortgages, in effect refinancing them (NYT) at prices homeowners can afford. The Wall Street Journal cites McCain’s campaign as saying the plan would cost roughly $300 billion. Opinion surveys have shown respondents more confident in Obama’s ability to handle an economic crisis.
Seeking to clarify a comment in the vice presidential debate, the McCain campaign has confirmed it opposes providing Iran access to nuclear energy (WashPost). “There is no circumstance under which the international community could be confident that uranium enrichment or plutonium production activities undertaken by the current government of Iran are purely for peaceful purposes,” McCain campaign foreign policy director Randy Scheunemann said. Current Bush administration policy is that Iran has a right to nuclear energy but not control over the process of producing fuel, because it could be diverted for nuclear weapons material.
U.S. Vice Presidential candidates Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) and Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) sparred on U.S. military deployments in Iraq and several other foreign policy issues in their only television debate before November’s election. On the financial crisis, Biden reaffirmed statements from Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) that any federal government package created to deal with the turmoil should be focused on the middle class (FT). Palin attacked “predatory” lending practices on Wall Street and said Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) past positions cast him as an economic reformer.
“India has been a responsible democracy and this agreement allows it to beco
me further integrated into the global effort to control proliferation of dangerous technologies. The agreement will also allow the U.S. and India to cooperate in taking maximum advantage of new technologies that can provide energy without relying on greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels.”
Which candidate will Asian Americans choose in November? In a new article, Slate writer Christopher Beam asks why pundits and pollsters don’t pay much attention to that question since Asian Americans are the fastest-growing minority group in the United States. One reason, he says, is size. Though Asian Americans make up about five percent of the U.S. population, they have “the lowest proportion of eligible voters compared with the populations (about 52 percent) of any racial group,” he writes.
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