Who's really trying to ration health care

In the debate over the health care reform bills coming before the House of Representatives (pdf) and the Senate, the go to objection for conservatives and Republicans has been, "Do you want the government to be able to tell you what care you can receive?" Setting aside the logical inconsistency that care right now is rationed (either directly by insurance companies or indirectly through overpriced care and employment risks) this argument is hypocritical and self serving.

First, the bill linked above from the House expressly prohibits restricting coverage A (I)(C)(121)(c) pg. 26:

A qualified health benefits plan may not impose any restriction (other than cost sharing) unrelated to clinical appropriateness on the coverage of the health care items and services.

In fact, throughout all of Division A (the section that establishes both the public option and defines what meets the mandate specifications as an eligible private plan) the only restrictions this bill sets are on minimum quality of coverage. Most of these minimums go above and beyond what I see in private plans (mental health parity, elimination of pre-existing conditions, etc.) This isn't rationing of care, this is the opposite just as then candidate Obama promised on the campaign trail (although with the addition of a mandate as Hillary Clinton and John Edwards had proposed).

Throughout this entire debate I have heard only one group call for any government imposed restrictions on the type of care you can receive. This hasn't been Democrats trying to tell doctors to give this drug instead of that one. This hasn't been progressives trying to say which doctor you get to see.

The only people asking that the government not provide coverage has been Republicans. It is the Republican leadership and Congressmen that are trying to get an amendment passed that would restrict the care a woman can receive from her doctor. They want to impose a restriction on coverage that would prevent a woman from accessing legal safe abortions.

They're not trying to impose this restriction on medical grounds. They're not even trying to impose it based on cost savings. The one and only reason they have for proposing this is because their religious base says so. Because their religious base believes abortion is wrong, they want to deny this essential and sometimes life saving procedure to those who need it.

There is a reason our founders created a firm wall between church and state. They knew that forcing one's religious beliefs on another took away the freedoms of everyone. In fact, many of the first European immigrants came to these shores because others were attempting to force their religious beliefs on them.

Could you imagine the outcry if representatives with large Amish constituencies passed a provision banning the coverage for MRIs because they view that as wrong? Or Scientologists banning treatment of depression? The outcry from the "libertarian" right would be deafening. We can not let this hypocrisy stand or go unchallenged.

Remember this the next time you hear the "rationing" health care argument these reforms. Those who preach it the loudest already are the first to attempt to do so.

Please contact your Senators and Representatives and ask them to keep government out of decisions that should be between patients and doctors. Sign this petition from Democrats.com or contact them directly (Senator contact information, Congressperson contact information)

What stands between us and unity

Yesterday, my wife, son and I went to an Obama party to watch the final primary results. Originally it had been scheduled for a restaurant, but the level of response from area Obama supporters was so great, they had to move it to an art gallery at the last minute. When we got there just after six, there were easily fifty people around the room and (horrors) a giant Lou Dobbs on the projector (fortunately, the room was loud enough that his drivel was drowned out).

As the evening wore on toward the time the South Dakota primaries closed, more people crowded in. Eventually, McCain took the stage to a small smattering of "boo"s, but he was largely ignored similar to Dobbs. Every so often, the CNN delegate ticker would roll over as a new super delegate would pledge for Obama, bringing cheers from the whole room. There his counter was at 2114 when the head of the Missouri Democratic Committee took the stage. He and three other Missouri super delegates were still unpledged and had said that they would vote as a block. He told us, five minutes before the SD polls closed, that all four of them had decided to pledge their support to Obama. The applause of the couple hundred people was deafening.

With this enthusiasm we welcomed even Republican pundits calling McCain's just finished speech "the worst ever." We watched as South Dakota was projected for Clinton, but our spirits weren't dampened because we knew this nomination battle was finally won.

Then Senator Clinton took the stage. We applauded her; proud of the fight she had fought; respectful of the enormous effort that her supporters had put out for her as we had for Sen. Obama; glad to have such a strong leader on our side.

Then she began her speech: "I want to start tonight by congratulating Senator Obama and his supporters on the extraordinary race that they have run." "Uh oh," I said to my wife, "this doesn't sound too conciliatory..." In fact, to me it sounded like the sort of thing she would say to the loser of a contest. But we were still optimistic and applauded her praise of Obama.

"Nearly 18 million of you cast your votes for our campaign, carrying the popular vote with more votes than any primary candidate in history." Yup, there it was, the knife in the back. The glaringly misleading half-truth designed to divide the party. The tone in our room immediately changed. We knew that more than 18 million people also cast their vote, as best they could, for Obama. In fact, by all counts except one, Obama won more votes than any primary candidate. Even on that one in which he didn't, more people voted against Clinton than have ever voted against a primary candidate in history.

"And I am committed to uniting our party so we move forward stronger and more ready than ever to take back the White House this November." Ok, we thought, after what she has just said, how does she intend to do that?

"You know, I understand that that a lot of people are asking, 'What does Hillary want? What does she want?'" We are, Mrs. Clinton. We do want to know what you intend to gain by drawing this out with more divisive politics. What do you want?

"I want to end the war in Iraq. I want to turn this economy around. I want health care for every American. I want every child to live up to his or her God-given potential." So do we all. Work with us, help us get Barack Obama elected the next president of the United States and you will see all these things and more. "And I want the nearly 18 million Americans who voted for me to be respected. " Ah, there it is, 'I want to use those people that voted for me as bargaining chips." It couldn't have been said more clearly.

The problem with this is manifold. She herself showed in this speech that she doesn't hold respect for those voters beyond the power it will give her. She has also, with this stance shown that she does not have even that level of respect for the 18 million people who voted for someone else. And she has shown that she doesn't respect her opponent enough to even admit when he has had a clear victory. Even this morning, her communications director couldn't answer when asked whether Obama had won the majority of the delegates needed to become the nominee.

Senator Hillary Clinton, I do not know what drove you to take this stance on the day your own metrics for victory were met by your opponent. What I do know is that you threw away your best remaining chance to bring this party together, not as Clinton or Obama supporters, but as Democrats. Instead, for whatever reason, you have chosen to drive that stake into the heart of this party. You had the opportunity to leave with the strength of a leader, instead you have encouraged the idea that your due was stolen from you.

You, of all political leaders, know what this image means to so many. And yet, rather than leading your supporters past that, you chose to relish in it. You know better than most, that none of those things you hope for will be accomplished under a McCain presidency. You also know that without the support of your followers, we may be doomed to four years of McCain. But still, rather than securing a central role as a Democratic leader, you chose to hold your own party hostage.

I do know that your campaign has said you will concede the nomination this Saturday. My only hope is that such belated words will be strong enough to bring us all back together.

A Belated Re-cap

I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat. - Will Rogers

I think that quote is more self fulfilling than anything. Thursday was Missouri's congressional district caucus day. Unfortunately there was no wireless (on a university campus of all places...), so live blogging was right out, but here is the walk through as I took my notes throughout.

Doors there opened at 6:30PM and closed at 7:30. We got there just after 7. At the time there dozens of people milling about in the building's lobby and another several dozen in the auditorium/classroom where the main caucus was being held. A number of people were going around giving out form letters from Sen. Obama and a couple other party leaders recommending these people as national caucus delegates. I too walked around for a few minutes introducing myself as one wanting to be a national delegate.

Shortly after 7:30 we all took our seats as the head of the caucus meeting took the stage and called us to order. We then proceeded to go through roll call, going through twenty or thirty precincts worth of state delegates. Due to horrible communications, both at the precinct caucuses and in the month since, a large number of delegates didn't come to this meeting because they either weren't fully informed about the caucus or were told, as we were, that this was optional. After 45 minutes of this, there were 7 delegate seats for Clinton lost (I think just on the congressional caucus level, not state, but I'm not sure) and 18 Obama delegate seats. This left the Clinton caucus with 34 delegates and Obama with 70. Out of these, we needed to pick a total of 7 delegates to send to the national convention - 2 for Clinton, 5 for Obama and no alternates at our caucus.

To do this, we were split into our respective groups and a temporary caucus chairman was appointed to each group. For some reason, the main caucus chair already had a Clinton caucus chair picked, but asked for volunteers for the Obama caucus. The person in charge of our precinct caucus, Matt Robinson, was floated as a chair, but the main chair said "He's in charge of too many of my meetings lately, does someone else want to do it." Another gentleman near the front was the loudest one and most easily seen and was quickly appointed.

We then went upstairs to our separate conference rooms where the actual delegates were supposed to sit at the front of the room and alternates and observers were supposed to sit in the back. Of course, there was no enforcement of this so who knows what actually happened. After we all got in and took our seats, the temporary chairman was elected permanent chair because no one else wanted to compete for it.

Then came the mess of trying to pick our delegates. In order to be a national delegate and sent to the convention in Denver, we had to have already filled out Form F3, a fact not all of us were told in our precinct caucuses (Jaelithe and I only found out through her digging into it). This meant that many of us either didn't have the necessary paperwork, or didn't know if it was already filled out. So for the next thirty minutes we debated back and forth the best way to verify that all the potential delegates had the proper paperwork while the chairman repeated the quote above.

Eventually we started nominating delegates, men only first (we had to pick two men and three women) and the state officials with the list of people who filled out Form F3 (yes, there was a list, the debate was whether we should read out the names in advance or as the names were nominated) checked that we were eligible. Some people were nominating themselves, others were nominating boyfriends, brothers, sons, fathers, etc. My wife stood up and nominated me, making the comment that I was her husband. Later, I noticed that Mr. Robinson hadn't yet been nominated, even though I knew he wanted to be a delegate, so I raised my hand to nominate him. The chairman looked at me and said "I see your plan. Your wife nominated you and you are going to nominate her." Then he moved right past me and wouldn't listen to me. This completely ignored the fact that we weren't nominating women and people were nominating themselves. He went on making fun of half the other people nominated and complained that so many people wanted to participate.

Eventually twenty men were nominated. According to Form F3, we were supposed to be allowed one minute to make a speech and introduce ourselves. Instead the chairman was unwilling to give us any time, but was eventually forced to give us ten seconds each. And not a real ten seconds, instead the chairman would count to ten on his hand. If the candidate took less than "ten seconds" the chairman would then go on the mic and say "Wow, he only took 9 seconds!" (wasting more time than the speech itself.)

Then came the voting. Everyone was given a piece of green paper on which to write the names of two men. Now, according to the original roll call, we were only supposed to have 70 votes. The first vote, we wound up with more than that. Then we took fifteen minutes debating how to re-vote. Eventually we decided to do a roll call and give each delegate a piece of paper to do the second vote. So one person started calling out our names, and the chairman handed out the papers. Unfortunately, the names were called one after the other and were not matched against who was giving out the papers. After the second vote we had eighty-eight votes. Since it was the same number twice, we went with it.

While we were counting the men's votes, we started nominating the women. This time twenty-three candidates were nominated and, since most of the craziness was already worked out with the men, it went a bit smoother. The chairman still didn't want to let anyone speak, but was forced to give them the same "ten seconds" as the men. The best moment of this was when one of the women wouldn't give up the mic saying "You know we all have wanted to do this to him."

All the votes were finally counted. I ended with seven votes and Jae got ten. The winners however were Darryl Piggee, Burt Boxerman, Yaphett El-Amin, Jennifer Haro, April Ford Griffin - all party insiders except Jennifer Haro, who is the head of St. Louis's Obama group. I expect that these people will represent us well, but if it's just insiders in these caucuses, many of us outside may still question the outcome.

Here's hoping the state convention is better organized and maybe it won't be just insiders going to the national as Missouri's "at-large" delegates. Maybe they'll even have wireless...

For more info, check out my wife's write-ups over at her blog and Momocrats.

Welcome to the machine

Missouri, as many of you know, had it's primaries as part of the "Super {fill in your own superlative here} Tuesday" at the beginning of this month. Well, in usual confusing political style, Missouri Democrats also hold caucuses to pick the delegates to go to the state and national conferences. And guess what. It's not talked about almost anywhere...

Fortunately my wife is much more up on these matters and found out that the caucuses were being held yesterday evening so we decided to go and check out the process. Neither one of us has been greatly politically active, but we were both curious and this year has gotten us (and many many others) much more interested in what is actually going on.

Given that last fact, we expected there to be a large number of people showing up at this, even though almost the only places you could find any information was on the MO DNC website, with barely a mention in the local news. Doors were to open at 6 and the "festivities" were supposed to start at 7:30. To our great surprise, when we showed up at 7, there was almost nobody, just one older gentleman that I couldn't tell if he was affiliated with the caucus or just with the school where it was being held. It turned out that there had been one other person there who had been waiting since 6:30, but had been in his car when we got there.

After about 20 minutes or so two more people showed up, one of them being the person in charge, our local councilman as it happened. This gave us, with that first person, who turned out to be one of the heads of the county election board, a total of six people. As we were getting set up, our councilman got a call from another nearby township's caucus saying that they had one of our people at their caucus and that she was on her way over to us. This gave us the seven people we needed to meet our delegate quota.

So it looks like our curiosity was the only thing that made sure we were going to actually send all the delegates from our township that we were supposed to. According to the councilman, if there hadn't been enough people at the caucus for each candidate (there might not have been, depending on whether or not the election committee person can be a delegate for a candidate, as he and the first person were the only two that chose to be delegates for Clinton) those delegate seat(s) would have been "open" (your guess is as good as mine what that means).

Anyway, it looks like I'm now officially a delegate for Obama.

Now is when the procedures get really confusing. First, late in March, the congressional caucuses are held. During that, anyone who was picked as a delegate on the township level can be nominated to be a national delegate, about 2/3rds of our state pledged delegates are picked during these. If you can't make it to that, or just prefer to run during the state-wide caucus, you need to file paperwork by the middle of March, and you can try to get nominated in May. Even if you don't want to be a national delegate, if you are picked as a township delegate you are still supposed to show up at the state convention.

Does anyone else think this is a very complicated way to get your vote counted?

Everyone Has Rights

Or why we should have more than two parties

Last Sunday, Ralph Nader declared his candidacy for president this coming election. This has started a hail of denigrations and personal attacks on him, largely from Democrats and other groups on the left.

All I can say to these groups is shame on you! You stand up for civil rights, but when someone else exercises their civil rights in a way you don't like, you want to revoke them. The tactics taken on their behalf to remove his name from the ballots in key states back in 2004 were horrible. Everyone, whether as part of a party or not, has the right to be a part of the election.

As has been said in some free speech debates "To stand up for your right to free speech, you must defend the speech you hate." If anyone is allowed to arbiter who gets to say what because the general public doesn't like it, it is a very short step for that person/group to say I can't speak freely as well. The same thing goes for the right to run for president. It is a very short step for one group to go from blocking one person's right to be on the ballot to blocking someone else they don't like.

These things also remove our ability to argue morality on civil rights. We cannot in good conscious say that one set of rights we like and support, but these rights, or this person's rights, we don't like and so they shouldn't be allowed.

Addressing Nader's candidacy directly: Do I support him? No, but I fully support his right to run. Do I support his positions? Some, but others go too far in a direction I don't approve. I will, after the Democratic nominee has been selected, do a break down on all three major presidential candidates positions, similar to what I have already done. Am I afraid Nader will "steal" this election for the Republicans? No, Nader did not cost Gore the election in 2000. That election was won, by all counts, by Gore. It was handed to Bush by the Supreme Court. Take out your anger there. He had no effect on the election in 2004.

What we need to do is show how our candidate is better than the others, not denigrate the opponents or say that a vote for them is a vote for "the enemy" or other fear tactics like this. I believe that the Democratic candidate can win even against 100 Naders.

Break Down of the Issues - Part 8

Domestic Policy

Well it looks like I made it before whatever you want to call next Tuesday. This is the last major topic I intend to do a break down on, but if anyone has more areas they would like me to dig into to compare, please feel free to ask in the comments or email me. Once the Republican field has thinned a bit (maybe after today?) I will try to compare them on the same topics.

Domestic policy will be broken up into numerous sections as the candidates go in depth on plans for numerous topics. See also Part 1, Part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6 and part 7. Again, all of these policy statements are taken from the candidates' campaign websites.

Hillary Clinton	John Edwards	Barack Obama
Civil Liberties
Link Link Link Link	Link Link Link Link Link Link Link	Link Link Link Link(PDF)
Women
Support equal pay for women and men Expand access to family planning services	Require businesses to offer seven paid sick days a year Expand the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover more workers and help states offer paid leave Protect women's right to choose Support the Paycheck Fairness Act to strengthen the remedies for sex discrimination	Work to overturn the Supreme Court's recent ruling that curtails racial minorities' and women's ability to challenge pay discrimination Pass the Fair Pay Act to ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work Make preserving women’s rights under Roe v. Wade a priority
LGBT
Ensure that all Americans in committed relationships have equal benefits End Don't Ask Don't Tell	Support civil unions to guarantee gay and lesbian couples the same rights as straight couples Repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act Allow LGBT to serve openly in the military Allow gay and lesbian parents to adopt children equally to strait couples	Support civil unions that give same-sex couples equal legal rights and privileges as married couples Repeal Defence of Marriage Act Expand federal benefits to same sex couples Repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell
Government and Elections
Ban cabinet officials from lobbying a Hillary Clinton administration Strengthen whistle blower protections End abuse of no-bid government contracts and post all contracts online Cut 500,000 government contractors Restore the Office of Technology Assessment Publish budgets for every government agency Push the passage of the Count Every Vote Act Provides a paper trail for every vote cast Designates Election Day as a national holiday Allows same-day registration Makes sure that impartial officials administer our elections Allows the attorney general to bring suit against anyone using deceptive practices (like distributing flyers with incorrect information about voter eligibility) to keep voters from voting	Require the use of paper ballots verified by voters and mandatory audits Allow same-day voter registration Support the right of Washington, D.C. residents to have voting representation in Congress Enact a new law making intentional interference with the right to vote a federal offense Prohibit Chief of State election officials from publicly supporting federal candidates Create a federal matching funds program to do an 8:1 match on campaign donations, up to a maximum $800 (donations over $100 still get $800 matched); limit donations to $1,000 Provide for public matching funding for Congressional campaigns Require corporations to disclose all political spending and activity Create a line item veto restricted to one package of rescissions per bill that can be overruled by Congress Prohibit all federal candidates from accepting campaign contributions or bundled contributions from federal lobbyists Bar appointees from lobbying their former colleagues for five years Expand the definition of prohibited lobbying to include directing strategy for other lobbyists Ban corporate lobbyists and lobbyists for foreign governments from working in the White House Require lobbyists to disclose within 48 hours which federal officials they met with and what about Prohibit executive branch employees from accepting corporate gifts End the practice of issuing presidential "signing statements"	Create a centralized Internet database of lobbying reports, ethics records, and campaign finance filings Ensure that any tax breaks for corporate recipients, or tax earmarks, are also publicly available for viewing online Require independent monitoring of lobbying laws and ethics rules Support public financing of campaigns Provide free television and radio time to campaigns Require that nearly all government contract orders over $25,000 be competitively awarded Require all non-emergency bills be available to the American public to review and comment for five days before signing Require disclosure of the name of the legislator who asks for each earmark, along with a written justification, 72 hours before it can be voted on Ensure that all communications about regulatory policymaking between third parties and White House staff are disclosed to the public No political appointees will be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years No political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch during the remainder of the administration All new hires at the agencies to sign a form affirming that no political appointee offered them the job solely on the basis of political affiliation or contribution
First Amendment and Privacy
Unable to find specific information on her site	Prohibit surveillance of Americans’ phone calls and emails without a warrant Define robust public interest obligations for digital broadcasters	Encourage diversity in the ownership of broadcast media Promote the development of new media outlets for expression of diverse viewpoints Supports restrictions on how personal information may be used and create technology safeguards to verify how the information has actually been used Update surveillance laws to ensure that law enforcement investigations and intelligence-gathering relating to U.S. citizens are done only under the rule of law Appoint the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer Ensure the safety of our communications networks Ensure that each arm of the federal government makes its records open Ensure technological interoperability of key government functions
Miscellaneous
N/A	Close down Guantanamo Bay Restore habeas corpus	Eliminate sentencing disparities Give first-time, non-violent offenders a chance to serve their sentence, where appropriate, in drug rehabilitation programs

Break Down of the Issues - Part 6

Domestic Policy

Back on track. After a one week battle with our bathroom, we finally have a new floor in. My advice to anyone planning to do any work on ceramic tile, buy a wet saw. The other tools out there are important (tile scorer, tile nipper, etc.) but after fighting with these tools for three days to almost no avail, the wet saw let me cut everything and get it in mortar in about six to eight hours. And now on to the second most commonly discussed subject in this campaign - health care.

Domestic policy will be broken up into numerous sections as the candidates go in depth on plans for numerous topics. See also Part 1, Part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 and part 7. Again, all of these policy statements are taken from the candidates' campaign websites.

Hillary Clinton	John Edwards	Barack Obama
Health Care
Link	Link (PDF)	Link
Insurance
Give people the choice of current insurance plans or allow them to select from the congressional health plans Strengthen Medicaid and CHIP Require large employers to provide insurance at least partially, give small business tax cuts to provide insurance Give individuals a tax credit for coverage designed to keep premiums to a fixed percent of income Remove hidden taxes to reduce premium cost for current civilian plans Include mental, physical, and, in some plans, dental coverage End unfair health insurance discrimination	Create regional health care markets allowing individuals and businesses in a region to pool their money to get lower premiums Expand Medicaid and SCHIP to cover families with children making 50k or less Require businesses to cover employees, at least partially Refundable tax credits to reduce insurance costs Cover mental health care as well as physical Reform insurance laws to ensure everyone is eligible Lower premium incentives for healthy lifestyle	Create a public benefit program similar to the Congressional one Expand Medicaid and SCHIP Employers will be required to provide at least partial coverage, or contribute to a national plan Individuals who aren't eligible for Medicaid/SCHIP can receive federal subsidies if needed Create the National Health Insurance Exchange - watchdog group that will monitor participating insurance companies and provide individuals with a way to compare them Dependant coverage through a parent's plan expanded up to the age of 25 Cover preventative, mental, and pregnancy health care Guaranteed eligibility, no matter pre-existing conditions Simplify public plan enrollment Regular audits of participating insurance companies Set minimum standards for state health initiatives, but will not overrule plans that meet/exceed this standard Reimburse insurance plans for catastrophic event coverage, if reimbursement is used to keep premiums down
Providers
No new provider initiatives provided on her site	Pay doctors based on results Easily available health care provider quality reports Push the use of electronic medical records Restrict direct to consumer drug advertising for new drugs Strengthen FDA monitoring policy	Reward providers who give better quality results Require health care providers to publish care reports Independent institute to review providers Invest 10 billion to move paper records to electronic records over 5 years Bring antitrust laws to bear against malpractice insurance providers that overcharge physicians Allow consumers to buy drugs from other developed countries
Mandates*
Require individuals to obtain insurance	Require all Americans to get insurance (special case exemptions)	All children must be covered

*A mandate is a requirement for each individual to purchase insurance. Candidates have not yet specified on their sites what penalties will be faced by those who do not.

Break Down of the Issues - Part 5

Domestic Policy

Domestic policy will be broken up into numerous sections as the candidates go in depth on plans for numerous topics. See also Part 1, Part 2, part 3, part 4, part 6 and part 7. Again, all of these policy statements are taken from the candidates' campaign websites.

Hillary Clinton	John Edwards	Barack Obama
Economy
Link Link	Link Link	Link
Taxes
Expand the child tax credit Provide marriage penalty relief Expand the earned income tax credit Expand the child care tax credit	Create a new "Get Ahead" tax credit to match up to $500 a year in savings for families earning up to $75,000 Expand the child care credit to pay up to 50 percent of child and dependent care expenses up to $5,000 Triple the earned income tax credit for single adults and cut the marriage penalty	Create a tax credit providing up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family Create a Universal Mortgage Credit that even tax payers who don't itemize are eligible for Triple the earned income tax credit; increase it six fold for people caring for a child or paying child support Eliminate income taxes for seniors making less than $50,000 Simplify filing tax paperwork by allowing the IRS to supply pre-filled 1040EZ forms to people who request it Increase the child and dependent care tax credit and make it refundable Reduce the self employment tax Eliminate capital gains taxes on start-up companies Clean up the corporate tax code Create an International Tax Evasion Watch List to apply pressure on countries acting as tax havens
Mortgages and other debt
Develop strong licensing standards and require federal registration for mortgage brokers Eliminate prepayment penalties on mortgage products Expand Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's foreclosure prevention efforts	Pass a law that will strengthen underwriting standards to ensure that borrowers receive affordable loans suited to their means Create a new Family Savings and Credit Commission to protect consumers Cap interest rates on all payday loans at 36 percent	Push the STOP FRAUD act through Congress, strengthening the ability for the government to fight mortgage fraud Create a fund to help homeowners refinance mortgages Create a credit card rating system enforced by the FTC Establish a credit card bill of rights: CCs have to get consumer assent to change the agreement Interest rate changes only affect future debt Prohibit interest on fees Prohibit a change on interest rate based on failure to pay a third party Require CCs apply payments to highest interest debt first
Jobs
Nothing specific available on her site.	Raise the minimum wage to at least $9.50 an hour by 2012 and then index it to inflation Create a million short-term jobs to help individuals move into permanent work	Increase federal investments into transitional jobs Index minimum wage to inflation
Miscellaneous
Insist on a move back toward a balanced budget and surpluses by funding new expenditures with new revenues or cuts in other areas	Create a million vouchers over five years to help low-income families move to better neighborhoods	N/A

Break Down of the Issues - Part 4

Domestic Policy

Domestic policy will be broken up into numerous sections as the candidates go in depth on plans for numerous topics. See also Part 1, Part 2, part 3, part 5, part 6 and part 7. Again, all of these policy statements are taken from the candidates' campaign websites.

Hillary Clinton	John Edwards	Barack Obama
Environment
Link	Link	Link
Emissions
Initiate a cap and trade program All new federal buildings designed to produce zero emissions	Initiate cap and trade system, targets of 15% reduction by 2020, 80% by 2050	Initiate cap and trade system, target of 80% below 1990 levels by 2050 Create Low Carbon Fuel Standard - fuels reduce carbon emission by 10% by 2020 All new buildings to be designed for zero emissions by 2030
Energy
Reduce projected 2020 energy usage by 20% 25% of electricity produced by renewable sources by 2025 60 billion gallons of biofuels in the system by 2030 Fuel efficiency of 55 mpg by 2030, automakers funded in this by $20 billion in bonds Retrofit 20 million low income houses to increase energy efficiency Invest in a smart grid	Meet demand for more energy through increased efficiency, not increased production	25% of energy from renewable sources by 2025 Increase research funding for clean coal Get the first 2 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol by 2013 Create incentives to fund locally owned biofuel refineries 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels in the system by 2022, 60 by 2030 Double fuel economy standards by 2026 New building energy efficiency to increase 50% by 2030, existing buildings by 25% Invest in a smart grid
Research
$150 billion extra funding over 10 years, $50 billion from a new Strategic Energy Fund, this partially funded by oil companies A new ARPA-E agency modeled on DARPA to manage this research	Create an Energy Economy Fund with $10 billion for environmental R&D, funded partially through green house gas permits (see cap and trade) and partially through repealing oil company subsidies	$150 billion over 10 years to fund green energy research Double research and energy funding $10 billion per year for 5 years to fund venture capital for clean technology start-ups Create a competitive grant to fund early adopters
Miscellaneous
Require all publicly traded corporations to report the threat posed to them by climate change	Forge a new global climate change treaty that will include requirements for developing nations	Create incentives to increase forestation Work through the UN to address global climate change

Break Down of the Issues - Part 3

Domestic Policy

Domestic policy will be broken up into numerous sections as the candidates go in depth on plans for numerous topics. Check out part 1, part 2, part 4, part 5 part 6 and part 7. Again, all of these policy statements are taken from the candidates' campaign websites.

In this post I also want to make a request. Science has been the 800 lb gorilla in the room for the past several years. The candidates and the debates, unfortunately, give only passing mention of the real issues in science today. This is why I support the call for a full science debate this presidential election cycle. Please join me and thousands of others in supporting this debate.

Hillary Clinton	John Edwards	Barack Obama
Science and Technology
Link	Link Link	Link
Research and Funding
Increase NSF, DOE's Office of Science, and DOD funding 50% over 10 years Increase NIH funding 50% in 5 years, 100% in 10 years Require 8% of federal research funding go to "high risk" studies Have agencies create innovation awards, along the lines of the X-Prize Make the Research and Experimentation tax credit permanent Include diversity criteria when awarding grants to give women and minorities greater opportunities	Make the Research and Experimentation tax credit permanent Increase NIH/NSF funding	Make the Research and Experimentation tax credit permanent Double research agency funding
Internet
Tax incentives to increase broadband deployment No clear net neutrality stance since starting her campaign, did co-sponsor legislation before the campaign with Senator Obama meant to enforce it.	100% broadband coverage by 2010 FCC must enforce net neutrality	Universal broadband coverage through the auspices of the Universal Service Fund Increase the minimum speed that qualifies as broadband from the current 200 kbps Supports net neutrality; co-sponsored a bill with Senator Clinton meant to enforce it Protect personal privacy through new regulations on surveillance and data collection Create "Public Media 2.0" to promote internet safety, etc. to children Require distribution of tools to allow parents to regulate internet content
Please see also my previous post on education as the candidates also intend to increase science and math education

Break Down of the Issues - Part 2

Domestic Policy

Domestic policy will be broken up into numerous sections as the candidates go in depth on plans for numerous topics. See also Part 1, Part 3, part 4, part 5 part 6 and part 7. Again, all of these policy statements are taken from the candidates' campaign websites.

Hillary Clinton	John Edwards	Barack Obama
Education
Link Link	Link Link	Link
Early education through elementary
Create (expand?) Early Head Start	Universal Pre-school Expand Smart Start	Universal Pre-school Expand (Early) Smart Start funding fourfold Provide affordable childcare
Middle and High School
Reform No Child Left Behind	Reform NCLB Improve testing methods Give states control over how to reform under performing schools Create a "Second Chance" program to address dropout issue Increase guidance councilor availability	Reform NCLB Increase funding Improve testing methods Support under performing schools; don't punish them Increase focus on math and science education and, for Limited English Proficient students, English education Fund schools to address dropout issue Expand after-school/summer learning programs
College
Offer $3,500 tax credit to offset costs Increase Pell Grants to annually match against tuition costs $500 million in grants to improve community colleges Give colleges incentives to increase graduation rates Increase AmeriCorps education award to $10,000 Allow FAFSA application through tax return To offset costs for above programs, eliminate the guaranteed student loan program.	"College for Everyone" initiative Increase federal funding of state education programs to lower the cost of tuition Clarify, compared to current financial aid programs, requirements to get into his program Use information the government already has on applicants to remove 2/3 of the FAFSA form (no clarification on how, i.e. opt in on 1040, as part of the FAFSA form, etc.)	$4,000 fully refundable, immediate (available at time of college enrollment) tax credit FAFSA application through tax form
Teachers
Increase teacher and principal pay	Increase teacher pay Form a national school focused on training teachers Reduce class sizes	Teacher service scholarships (scholarship repaid by working in a high-need field/location) All schools for educators must be accredited Improve teacher incentives (incentives determined with input from teachers)

Break Down of the Issues - Part 1

Foreign Policy

In this and a series of post following (Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, part 5, part 6 and part 7) I will attempt to detail each leading Democratic candidate's position on a number of topics. For all of the information, I am pulling directly from each candidate's website (where information is available) and links will be provided to the relevant page. Where information is not available, I will pull information from recent (within the past few months) legislative action or speeches made by the candidates.

Hillary Clinton	John Edwards	Barack Obama
Iraq
Link	Link	Link
Troop Involvement
Work with Joint Chiefs of Staff to determine troop draw down rate Start pullout within 60 days Some troops left (unclear where) to deal with Al-Qaeda	40,000 to 50,000 troops removed immediately 100% (almost, see below) withdrawn by January 2010 3,000 to 5,000 left to protect US embassy and humanitarian workers	Withdraw 1 to 2 brigades (1,500 to 7,000 troops) removed per month 100% (from Iraq, see below) by mid 2010 No permanent bases in Iraq Some special forces troops left in Middle East to target Al-Qaeda
Diplomatic Efforts
Form coalition of our allies, other global powers, and Iraq's neighbors to: Keep Iraq's neighbors from interfering with the Iraq civil war Work with the UN to mediate between the Iraqi factions Collect money to rebuild Iraq	Bring all involved nations together to stop sectarian violence Convene a regional peace conference	Press Iraqi leaders to work together by showing we aren't going to stay Work through the UN to secure agreements on Iraqi federalism and oil revenue sharing Work with Iraq's neighbors to secure the borders, reconcile Iraqi factions, and fund rebuilding
Miscellaneous
Fund unspecified agencies to stabilize and rebuild. Get money from the UN to help Iraqi refugees	"Clarify the Lack of Legal Foundation for the War" (to Congress)	Form an international group to get $2 billion to help countries in the region handle the millions of Iraqi refugees and protect them in Iraq.
Iran
No specific information on her site Most direct references on the site only deal with Iranian leaders' anti-semitic comments Recently supported a bill to declare the Iranian National Guard a terrorist organization	Link Speak directly to Iran's leaders while working with a multi-national coalition Increase threat of targeted sanctions Offer incentives to start open talks Direct talks with Russia and China to increase their pressure on Iran	Link Condemns Iran's leadership's anti-semitic stance Stop constant threats against Iran (voted against declaring IRG a terrorist organization) Begin direct talks with Iranian leadership without preconditions Offer incentives for ending the nuclear program, but increase sanctions if they don't
General Diplomacy
Link Long involved in international affairs while in White House and Senate Strongly pro-Israel	Link Strengthen non-proliferation agreements; replace with an even stronger treaty Continue working with North Korea through the six party talks Encourage Russia to work with us on a number of the current international issues Push for UN and NATO intervention in Darfur and Uganda	Link Pushes for a two state solution in Israel/Palestine (Re)Open consulates and embassies worldwide, specifically in Africa Double funding to fight global poverty Strengthen NATO Secure loose nuclear material Strengthen non-proliferation treaties through automatic sanctions