Hillary Clinton (D)
From 2009-2013 Hillary Clinton served as the secretary of state under President Barack Obama. Previously, she’d represented New York in the Senate from 2001-2009. Clinton was also the First Lady of Arkansas from 1983-1992 and of the United States from 1993-2001.
Clinton is an alumna from Wellesley College and Yale University. She received her Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 1973.
Climate Change and Energy
According to her campaign website, Clinton has proposed a plan to “generate enough renewable energy to power every home in America” after 10 years of her taking office. She also plans to install “half a billion” solar panels by the end of her first term.
To accomplish this, Clinton proposes to create a Clean Energy Challenge which will provide competitive federal grants and other market-based incentives to reward states who meet and exceed federal carbon emission standards.
Clinton’s website states, as president, she will increase alternative energy incentives, fund more research and development in alternative energy, and expand solar and wind energies on public lands, federal buildings, and federally funded infrastructure.
Tax Reform
As president, Clinton will “build on the Buffett Rule,” a rule originally proposed by the Obama administration in 2012 to set the base income tax on households making more than $1 million a year at 30 percent.
As president, Clinton will reiterate her support for the Buffet Rule, which did not pass through the House of Representatives in 2012. Clinton also proposes to “crack-down on tax gaming and sheltering and ensure that the super-wealthy pay their fair share,” her website states.
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To accomplish this Clinton proposes to implement a Fair Share Surcharge on people making more than $5 million a year, her website states. The surcharge will be a four percent income tax for earnings after $5 million.
Healthcare
According to her website, Clinton will “defend and expand the Affordable Care Act,” by building “on its success to bring the promise of affordable health care to more people.”
Clinton also proposes to expand Medicare to include those over 55 and make a government-run health insurance agency to compete with private companies, her website outlines.
As president, Clinton plans to lower out-of-pocket medical costs, including copays and deductibles. Further, Secretary Clinton also calls for the Affordable Care Act to cover families regardless of immigration status.
Her expansion of the Affordable Care Act will be funded by a $40 billion budget over the next 10 years, according to Clinton’s website.
Foreign Policy, National Security, National Defense
On her website, Clinton has outlined three major goals to combat terrorism. First, to “take out ISIS’s stronghold in Iraq and Syria” by increasing the coalition air campaign against ISIS, giving more support of local Arab and Kurdish forces and using diplomacy to resolve Syria’s civil war.
Second, Clinton proposes to “work with our allies to dismantle global terror networks,” by working with European intelligence services to identify and target ISIS affiliates, and fighting “jihadist propaganda online.”
And third, she proposes to “harden our defenses at home” by supporting first responders, keeping assault rifles out of terrorists’ hands and strengthening relationships between law enforcement and American Muslim communities.
Donald Trump (R)
Donald Trump graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in economics in 1968. Afterwards, Trump worked for his father’s real estate company until taking control of the company in 1971.
Since then, the business mogul has grown his father’s real estate company, creating a worldwide personal brand and venturing into the entertainment industry in the process, having starred on the NBC show “The Apprentice” for 14 seasons.
Climate Change and Energy
According to his website, Trump proposes to “open onshore and offshore leasing on federal lands, eliminate the moratorium on coal leasing, and open shale energy deposits.”
Shale energy deposits are deposits of shale that contain traces of natural gas. They have become more viable for natural gas production with the use of the technique hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”
Trump also proposes to “reduce and eliminate all barriers to responsible energy production, creating at least a half million jobs a year, $30 billion in higher wages and cheaper energy,” his website states.
Part of his plan will be rescinding the Climate Action Plan put in place during the Obama administration, his website states.
Tax Reform
According to his website, Trump plans to cut taxes across the board, “especially for working and middle-income Americans who will receive a massive tax reduction.”
Increasing deductibles for parents is one portion of his plan, as his website lays out. Trump plans to “reduce the cost of childcare by allowing families to fully deduct the average cost of childcare from their taxes.”
He also proposes to increase the standard deductions for joint filers by $17,400, his website outlines.
Americans will be able to file above standard deductions for childcare and eldercare unless making more than $500,000 jointly or $250,000 individually, according to the plan outlined on Trump’s website.
Further, as president, Trump will create a three-bracket tax plan, lowering the number from seven, as he states on his website. For married joint-filers making less than $75,000, income tax will be at 12 percent. Filers making between $75,000 and $225,000 will be taxed at 25 percent. And filers making more than $225,000 will be taxed at 33 percent.
Trump further proposes to lower the business tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent for both small and large businesses.
Healthcare
According to his website, the centerpiece of Trump’s healthcare plan as president would be to “repeal and replace Obamacare with Health Savings Accounts.”
Trump’s proposed Health Savings Account would be a tax-free, cumulative account that would be considered a part of the estate of an individual and be accessible by “any member of a family without penalty,” as Trump outlined on his website.
Trump has proposed to allow people to buy insurance plans from providers across state lines, as a way to increase competition and reduce costs.
Further, Trump promises to “work with Congress to create a patient-centered health care system that promotes choice, quality, and affordability,” his website details.
Foreign Policy, National Security, National Defense
According to his website, Trump will combat domestic terrorism by temporarily suspending immigration from the “most dangerous and volatile regions of the world that have a history of exporting terrorism.”
As president, Trump plans to bolster the size of the military, increasing the U.S Army to 540,000 active duty soldiers, the U.S. Navy toward a goal of 350 ships from the current 276 and provide the U.S. Air Force with 1,200 fighter aircrafts.
Trump also proposes to increase the size of the U.S Marine Corps to 36 battalions, according to his website.
Trump has proposed on his website to pursue joint and coalition military operations to counter ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
As president, he would work to cut off funding going toward ISIS, expand intelligence sharing and increase efforts to cripple their propaganda and recruitment operations.
Gary Johnson (L)
Gary Johnson graduated from UNM in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science degree in political science. After founding and running a successful construction company, Johnson ran for public office in New Mexico. He was elected in 1995 and served as the governor of New Mexico until 2003.
Currently, Gary Johnson is the Libertarian candidate running for president.
Climate Change and Energy
According to his website, Johnson supports environmental regulation agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency as long as it is is “focused on its true mission.”
“In a healthy economy that allows the market to function unimpeded, consumers, innovators, and personal choices will do more to bring about environmental protection and restoration,” he states on his website.
The exact policies he would implement are not detailed. However, in the past Johnson has expressed belief in human-caused climate change, but does not support government policies that cap carbon emissions, as stated in an interview with CNBC in August, 2016.
Tax Reform
According to his website, as president, Johnson will support “the elimination of special interest tax loopholes, to get rid of the double-taxation on small businesses.”
Johnson also proposes a replacement of income and payroll tax to shift to a “single consumption tax that determines your tax burden by how much you spend, not how much you earn,” his website states.
In an interview with Communities Digital News in 2014, Johnson stated the consumption tax would be set at 23 percent on all purchases.
However, Johnson has not verified this number since 2014, and does not give any specifics on his official campaign website.
Healthcare
Johnson has historically spoken against the Affordable Care Act, though no section on his website gives his direct stance for the 2016 campaign.
In his presidential bid in 2012, Johnson released a statement regarding the Affordable Care Act shortly after it was upheld in the supreme court.
“Government cannot create a system that will reduce costs while increasing access. Only competition and the price transparency that competition will bring can accomplish the imperatives of affordability and availability,” Johnson said in the statement.
Foreign Policy, National Defense, National Security
Governor Johnson’s foreign policy is outlined clearly on his website. “The objective of both our foreign policy and our military should be straightforward: To protect us from harm and to allow us to exercise our freedoms,” it states.
According to his website, as president, Johnson would cut off funding to “extremist armies.”
His website also states that, as president, he would take measures to keep boots off the ground in the Middle East.
Though not on his official 2016 presidential campaign website, Johnson has criticized drone strikes as a measure to combat terrorism in Reason Magazine in 2015.
Jill Stein (G)
Jill Stein, the presidential nominee representing the Green Party, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1973 and from Harvard Medical School in 1979.
Stein practiced internal medicine for 25 years and taught at Harvard Medical School.
Stein was also the Green Party’s presidential nominee in 2012.
Climate Change and Energy
According to Stein’s website, as president she would implement a Green New Deal, a plan to “transition our energy system and economy to 100 percent clean, renewable energy by 2030, including a complete phase-out of fossil fuels, fracked gas and nuclear power.”
To do this, Stein plans to invest in clean energy technologies and redirect research funds from carbon to alternative energy industries, her website states.
Further, Stein’s plan envisions investment in city mass transit, railroads and infrastructure encouraging bicycle and pedestrian traffic, according to her website. Stein does not specify on her website if the infrastructure modifications will come from the local, state or federal level.
To pay for her proposed energy plan, Stein has outlined 50 percent funding cuts to the military to free up what her campaign estimates would amount to $500 billion a year, according to her website.
This money, paired with a proposed Carbon Tax of “at least $60 per ton (of carbon emitted),” as her website states, would be invested into alternative energy to support her Green New Deal.
Tax Reform
Stein’s website outlines her proposal to “rewrite the entire tax code to be truly progressive with tax cuts for working families, the poor and middle class, and higher taxes for the richest Americans.”
Her website does not outline specific income bracket for her proposed measures. However, in September, 2016, she stated she supported raising tax rates on inherited estates worth $3 million to 55 percent.
In the same article she proposed a 0.5 percent tax on Wall Street stocks, bonds and derivatives, which she estimates would make $300 billion in revenue.
Healthcare
Stein proposes a single-payer public health program “to provide everyone with quality health care,” her website states. Stein’s plan, as outlined on her website, would eliminate co-pays, premiums and deductibles.
According to Stein’s campaign estimates, this would reduce government expenses by “$400 billion annually,” by eliminating bureaucratic processes and paperwork. Her plan expands access to contraceptive and reproductive care, as well as morning-after contraception, her website states.
Foreign Policy, National Defense, National Security
As president, Stein would reduce military spending by “at least 50 percent and close the 700+ foreign military bases,” as her website outlines.
She would also provide “a just transition that replaces reductions in military jobs with jobs in renewable energy,” her website states.
As president, Stein proposes to reduce the U.S. military intervention in foreign affairs and “restore the National Guard as the centerpiece of our defense,” she said in her website.
Stein also supports the freezing of “bank accounts of countries that are funding terrorism,” she states on her website.
Brendon Gray is a news reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @notgraybrendon.
