Coming next
Today we are looking at some key issues in the Democratic race for president. On March 14, we will look at the key issues among the Republican candidates.
When Ohio Democrats go to the polls March 15, they’ll have the choice of voting for a U.S. senator and secretary of state who also was a first lady, or a U.S. senator and self-described socialist with decades of experience on Capitol Hill.
Here’s a look at where former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders stand on key issues:
Foreign Policy
Sanders and Clinton support working with allies to fight international terrorism. And both support the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, saying it is the best chance of keeping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Both would reinstate sanctions if Iran violated the agreement.
In Israel, Sanders prefers a two-state solution in which the Palestinians recognize Israel’s right to exist and Israel ends the blockade of Gaza and no longer allows Israelis to settle on Palestinian land. Clinton supports strengthening the defense of Israel, including Iron Dome, an air-defense system used there. She says those who challenge Israel’s security challenge America’s as well.
Clinton supports increased funding for troops, saying the United States must have the “best-trained, best-equipped, and strongest military the world has ever known.” Sanders argues for tightening the defense budget.
Medicare and health care
Clinton vows to oppose ending or privatizing Medicare. She wants Medicare to be able to negotiate for lower drug prices and to allow Americans to import lower-cost drugs from foreign countries as long as those drugs meet safety standards.
She also said she would encourage Medicare payment systems that bundle a series of treatments for a problem, rather than opt for the fee-for-service method.
Sanders would create a federally administered, single-payer “Medicare for all” program that would provide health insurance to all Americans, separating health care from employment.
He said his plan would be paid for through an income-based health-care premium paid by employers and an income-based premium paid by households, by increasing the taxation of capital gains and dividends, and by limiting tax deductions for households making more than $250,000.
Social Security
Clinton said she opposes privatizing Social Security, reducing annual cost-of-living adjustments and raising the retirement age.
She would reduce how much Social Security benefits decline when a spouse dies so that the surviving spouse wouldn’t struggle financially. And she would give a credit toward Social Security benefits to those who take time off from their careers to care for a child, aging parent or sick family member.
Finally, to aid the system, she’d raise the Social Security tax on the wealthiest Americans, either by taxing some income above the program’s current cap of $118,500 a year or taxing some income not currently counted by the program.
Sanders, meanwhile, would lift the cap on income subject to the Social Security tax, and he would make everyone who earns more than $250,000 a year pay the same percentage of income into Social Security as working families do.
He said doing so would extend the solvency of Social Security for the next 50 years and allow the system to expand benefits by an average of $65 a month.
Income and wages
Sanders has vowed to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour by 2020.
He would require employers to provide at least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, two weeks of paid vacation and seven days of paid sick time.
Clinton also would raise the minimum wage, but only to $12 on the federal level. She supports tax cuts for the middle class and would call for extending a tax cut of up to $2,500 per student to help with college costs.
Climate change and the environment
Clinton has set a national goal of having 500 million solar panels installed by the end of her first term, generating enough renewable energy to power every home in America.
She wants to reduce U.S. oil consumption by one-third. She has a goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to 30 percent below the 2005 level within a decade. And she would launch a $60 billion Clean Energy Challenge to partner with states and communities to encourage going beyond federal standards in cutting carbon pollution and expanding clean energy.
She also has vowed to end tax subsidies for oil and gas companies, investing instead in clean energy. She said she’d devote $30 billion to revitalize coal communities.
Sanders has set a goal of cutting U.S. carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030 and by more than 80 percent by 2050 by taxing carbon pollution, repealing fossil-fuel subsidies and investing in clean energy.
He blames much of what he considers a climate crisis on lobbyists for the fossil-fuel industry, which spends billions to block efforts to address climate change. He said he would ban those lobbyists from working in the White House, end subsidies that benefit fossil-fuel companies and create a plan that recognizes the increased health risks that low-income and minority communities face from climate change.
College affordability
Sanders said he would make tuition at public colleges and universities free for all students.
He also said he would lower student-loan interest rates to 2006 levels, allow Americans to refinance their student loans at today’s interest rates, and triple the federal work-study program to make college attendance debt-free. Sanders’ college plan would be paid for by imposing a tax on Wall Street speculators.
Clinton would spend $350 billion so that students do not have to borrow to pay tuition at public colleges in their state. She said her goal is for students to never borrow to pay for tuition, books and fees.
Her plan would allow past borrowers to refinance student loans at current rates. For those borrowing in the future, Clinton’s plan would significantly cut interest rates. She’d create an income-based repayment program so that borrowers never have to pay more than 10 percent of what they make.
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