So far, this presidential race has been an intense one and as college students, it is our duty to be involved.
Here is your personal cheat sheet for the 2016 United States presidential race. We’ve picked just a few issues that seem to be the most prevalent to college students: Health Care, Abortion, College Education, Jobs, and Immigration.
Though these are important topics, remember that these are NOT the only important topics. Be sure to take the quiz on www.isidewith.com to see which candidates you side with on certain issues and visit the website of each candidate to get more in-depth stances on issues like Civil Rights, Gun Control, the Enviornment, Foreign Policy, and more.
Democrats
Hillary Clinton, Former Secretary of State
https://www.hillaryclinton.com
Healthcare
“Affordable healthcare is a basic human right.” (hillaryclinton.com)
• Defend the Affordable Care Act and build on it to slow the growth of out-of-pocket costs.
• Crack down on rising prescription drug prices and hold drug companies accountable so they get ahead by investing in research, not jacking up costs.
• Support new incentives to encourage all states to expand Medicaid.
Abortion
“It’s big government to intervene on woman’s right to choose.” (Oct 2015)
• Stand up against attempts to defund Planned Parenthood and protect the Affordable Care Act, which bans insurance companies from discriminating against women and guarantees 47 million women and counting access to preventive care.
• Protect women’s access to reproductive healthcare, including contraception and safe, legal abortion.
College Education
“We need to make a quality education affordable and available to everyone willing to work for it, without saddling them with decades of debt.” (Aug 2015)
• Ensure no student has to borrow to pay for tuition, books, or fees to attend a four-year public college in their state.
• Enable Americans with existing student loan debt to refinance at current rates.
• Hold colleges and universities accountable for controlling costs and making tuition affordable.
Economy & Jobs
“Too many families are working harder and harder, but still not getting ahead. Our country is standing again, but we’re not yet running the way we should be.” (hillaryclinton.com)
• Give working families a raise, and tax relief that helps them manage rising costs.
• Create good-paying jobs and get pay rising by investing in infrastructure, clean energy, and scientific and medical research to strengthen our economy and growth.
• Raise the minimum wage and strengthening overtime rules.
• Close corporate tax loopholes and make the most fortunate pay their fair share.
Immigration
“The American people support comprehensive immigration reform not just because it’s the right thing to do—and it is—but because it will strengthen families, strengthen our economy, and strengthen our country. That’s why we can’t wait any longer, we can’t wait any longer for a path to full and equal citizenship.” (May 2015)
• Enact an immigration reform to create a pathway to citizenship, keep families together, and enable millions of workers to come out of the shadows.
Bernie Sanders, United States Senator
Healthcare
“Healthcare is a fundamental right in a civilized society.” (Sep 2015)
• Get health care spending under control by eliminating waste and focusing on patients.
• Prioritize the health of working-class families over the profits of insurance companies.
• Streamline the healthcare system to provide the best health care to all patients, not just the richest.
Abortion
“When it comes to the rights of women, we cannot go backwards. We have got to go forward” (berniesanders.com)
• Expand and protect the reproductive rights of women by not cutting funding for Planned Parenthood and other initiatives that protect women’s health, access to contraception and the availability of a safe and legal abortion.
College Education
“It’s time to make college tuition free and debt free.” (berniesanders.com)
• Make tuition free at public colleges and universities.
• Stop the federal government from making a profit on student loans.
• Cut student loan interest rates.
• Allow students to use need-based financial aid and work study programs to make college debt free.
• Fully paid for by imposing a tax on wall street speculators.
Economy & Jobs
“The Rebuild America Act will support more than thirteen million good-paying jobs – jobs that our economy desperately needs.” (berniesanders.com)
• Propose the Rebuild America Act that will invest $1 trillion over five years to modernize our infrastructure. It would be paid for by closing loopholes that allow corporations to avoid paying taxes and supply more than thirteen million jobs for the economy.
• Propose a $15 per hour minimum wage.
• Fight for America’s small and mid-sized farms and encourage the growth of regional food systems.
Immigration
“We are a nation of immigrants.” (berniesanders.com)
• Fight for comprehensive immigration reform that provides a roadmap to citizenship.
• Allow immigrants to purchase health coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
• Ensure the border remains secure and protects local communities.
Republicans
Ted Cruz, United States Senator
Healthcare
“Washington wants ObamaCare, the people want liberty.” (Feb 2015)
• Vows to repeal Obamacare and propose commonsense reform that makes health care personal, portable, and affordable.
• Expand competition in the marketplace and empower consumers and patients to make healthcare decisions with their doctors.
• Disempower the government from getting in between doctors and their patients
Abortion
“I have been proud to fight … and stand against Planned Parenthood, to defend life for my entire career.” (Aug 2015).
• States that every human life is a precious gift from God and should be protected from the moment of conception until the moment of natural death.
• Instruct his Attorney General to investigate Planned Parenthood on day one he is elected.
• Fight to take away taxpayers dollars from Planned Parenthood.
College Education
“Supports ending racial preferences for college admissions.” (Apr 2015)
• Embraces school choice as the civil rights issue of the next generation.
• States that every single child, regardless of race, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of wealth or zip code, every child in America has a right to a quality education.
Economy & Jobs
“Pass a flat tax and abolish the IRS, and jobs will follow.” (Sep 2015)
• Initiate the Cruz Simple Flat Tax creating a simple, single-rate flat tax for individuals. The existing seven different rates of individual income tax will become one low rate: 10%.
• As President, Cruz will pass the REINS Act, holding Congress accountable to vote on any major cost-inducing regulation.
• Audit the Federal Reserve in order to get beyond these cycles of boom, bust, and malaise, and return us to rising productivity, strong economic growth, and higher incomes for all.
Immigration
“Border security is national security. We need to secure the border once and for all.” (tedcruz.org)
• Build a wall that works, triple border security, and put in place the surveillance and biometric tracking to secure the border.
• Reform legal immigration to protect American workers.
• Suspend and audit H-1B visas and halt any increase in legal immigration so long as American unemployment remains unacceptably high.
John Kasich, Ohio Governor
Healthcare
“Obamacare is the wrong diagnosis and must be repealed and replaced.” (johnkasich.com).
• Believes Obamacare must be repealed and replaced with efforts that instead improve access by actually lowering healthcare costs without interfering with Americans’ personal health care decisions or imposing punishing burdens on job creators.
• Plans to implement the Ohio model for the nation: patient-centered care, choices, market competition, decentralized decision-making, higher quality, respect for individuals and an end to Obamacare’s big government interference.
Abortion
“Yes — I have always been for exceptions. …For rape, incest, and life of the mother. …Because I think it’s reasonable.” (Aug 2015)
• Plans to fight taxpayer funding for planned parenthood.
• Make adoption easier, less bureaucratic, and more affordable, and create a more accessible alternative to abortion.
College Education
“College should be affordable.” (johnkasich.com)
• An improved system to help high schools encourage more students to earn college credit while completing their high school courses is giving students a jump on their college careers and helping reduce college costs for them and their families.
• Would hope to pay colleges and universities based on helping students complete courses and graduation, not based on enrollment.
Economy & Jobs
“When you balance the budget & cut taxes, people get work.” (Nov 2015)
• Believes that a more competitive tax environment is essential to job creation.
• Replaced Ohio’s outmoded state-run economic development system with an innovative private sector approach called JobsOhio, a non-profit organization staffed by industry experts that can move at the speed of business.
• Believes that unnecessary regulation stifles job creators and discourages investment.
Immigration
“The idea that we’re going to deport all these people is ludicrous, and everybody knows it.” (Oct 2015)
• Plans to complete a border fence and crack down on illegal immigration.
• Refuses to slam the door on a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the U.S.
• Believes that people who are born here should be citizens.
Marco Rubio, United States Senator
*As of March 14, Rubio is no longer a candidate*
Healthcare
“ObamaCare is fatally flawed” (Nov 2015)
• Committed to fully repealing ObamaCare and to replacing it with consumer-centered health reforms that expand coverage and lower costs.
• Plans to promote innovation in the Medicaid program by giving states a per-capita block grant, which preserves funding for Medicaid’s unique populations while freeing states from Washington mandates.
• Plans to strengthen Medicare for future seniors by providing them with choices between a variety of private plans and traditional, fee-for-service Medicare.
Abortion
“Abortion is complex issue; we must reduce the number of them.” (Aug 2015)
• Believes that all life is worthy of protection, and all life enjoys God’s love.
• Committed to defunding Planned Parenthood.
• Supports pro-life policies, and will continue to do so in public and private life.
College Education
“Our higher education system is outdated and broken in multiple ways. It is too expensive, too time consuming, and too inflexible for busy single parents and working adults.” (marcorubio.com)
• Establish income-based repayment (IBR) as the universal repayment method for federal student loans;
• Consolidate the tangled system of higher education tax incentives into one simple provision for post-secondary education;
• Make existing higher education information available online in an easily-accessible format to help students and families make well-informed decisions.
Economy & Jobs
“Raising minimum wage would replace people with machines.” (Nov 2015)
• Enact pro-growth, pro-family tax reform that cuts taxes for all businesses to 25 percent and allows all businesses to immediately expense every dollar that they invest in the economy.
• Put a ceiling on the amount U.S regulations can cost our economy, allowing businesses to grow without interference from Washington
• Modernize higher education to equip workers with the skills they need in the 21st century.
Immigration
“I am the son and the grandson of immigrants and I know that securing our borders is not anti-immigrant and we will do it.” (Jan 2016)
• Plans to deport criminal illegal aliens
• Hire 20,000 new Border Patrol agents
• Implement a mandatory eVerify system and install $4 billion in new cameras and sensors on the border.
Donald Trump, Real Estate Mogul and Businessman
Healthcare
“ObamaCare is a catastrophe that must be repealed & replaced.” (Jun 2015)
• Repeal and replace Obamacare.
• Create a sound public policy that will broaden healthcare access, make healthcare more affordable and improve the quality of the care available to all Americans.
• Modify existing law that inhibits the sale of health insurance across state lines.
Abortion
“I’m pro-life, but with the caveats. It’s: Life of the mother (very important), incest and rape,” Oct 2015
• Defund Planned Parenthood
College Education
“That’s probably one of the only things the government shouldn’t make money off – I think it’s terrible that one of the only profit centers we have is student loans.” (Sept 2015)
• Plans to improve the job market so that borrowers will be able to make their payments.
• Believes that the government shouldn’t make money off of student loans.
Economy & Jobs
“Don’t raise minimum wage, but create more opportunities.” (Aug 2015)
• Create tax relief for middle class Americans, let people keep more money in their pockets, and increase after-tax wages.
• Enact the Trump Tax Plan, that will take nearly 50% of current filers off the income tax rolls entirely and reducing the number of tax brackets from seven to four for everyone else.
• Grow the American economy by discouraging corporate inversions, adding a huge number of new jobs, and making America globally competitive again.
Immigration
“I don’t care how they come in, if they come in legally.” (Oct 2015)
• Build a wall across the southern border and make Mexico pay for it.
• Only supports immigration plans that will improve jobs, wages and security for all Americans.
• End birthright citizenship.
Remember collegiettes, knowledge is power! Be sure to vote!