Where does your candidate stand?
Do you know where your candidate stands on the important issues in this upcoming election? Did you know that John McCain stands for an expensive cap and trade program in his war against global warming? Did you know that Barack Obama wants huge tax increases on oil companies, which will in turn be passed on to the consumer?
The following is a list of issues and where your candidate stands on each one:
Taxes
Bob Barr: "Tax reform is desperately needed in the United States; but before we can reform the tax code, we must sharply reduce the tax burden on Americans made necessary. Second, we need a tax code that makes taxation fairer and simpler for all citizens. Meaningful tax reform begins with reining in government spending." – Bob Barr
John McCain: "I don’t want tax increases. But that doesn’t mean that anything is off the table." – John McCain
Barack Obama: "I think the best way to approach this is to adjust the cap on the payroll tax so that people like myself are paying a little bit more and people who are in need are protected." – Barack Obama
Government Spending
Bob Barr: "The American people simply cannot afford more of the same, which means more government spending; more special interest pay-offs; more fraud and waste; and continuing to treat American taxpayers like geese to be plucked rather than citizens of a free society and democratic republic." – Bob Barr
John McCain: "Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the presumptive Republican nominee…would swell annual federal outlays by $68.5 billion — almost 10 times the amount he was backing in January." – National Taxpayers Union Study
Barack Obama: "Obama’s annual spending platform ($343.6 billion) has increased by about 20 percent since January 29 ($287.0 billion), and by about 12 percent since March 3 ($307.2 billion)." – National Taxpayers Union Study
Guns
Bob Barr: “The individual’s right to keep and bear arms helps ensure all of our freedoms. The Supreme Court’s recognition of the constitutional right to gun ownership is a recognition of the right to life, liberty, and property for all Americans.” – Bob Barr
John McCain: "[McCain is] one of the premier flag-carriers for enemies of the Second Amendment." – NRA publication
Barack Obama: "Before [Obama] became a national political figure, he sat on the board of a Chicago-based foundation that doled out at least nine grants totaling nearly $2.7 million to groups that advocated the opposite positions. The foundation funded legal scholarship advancing the theory that the Second Amendment does not protect individual gun owners’ rights, as well as two groups that advocated handgun bans. And it paid to support a book called ‘Every Handgun Is Aimed at You: The Case for Banning Handguns.’" – Politico article
Global Warming
Bob Barr: "We must address the issue of climate change, but do so realistically, recognizing the importance of simultaneously expanding energy supplies and maintaining economic growth. Our greatest strength in confronting the problems of the future is our free market economy. Only by reducing government barriers to private research and development are we going to achieve the innovative, even transformational, changes necessary in the years and decades ahead." – Bob Barr
John McCain: "In fact, if ‘the market’ is your favored mechanism, Mr. McCain’s endorsement of a ‘cap and trade’ system is the worst choice for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions." – Wall Street Journal
Barack Obama: "This windfall profit tax, it’s politics—it’s terrible economics. I mean, it’s been tried before. Jimmy Carter tried windfall profit taxes. It drove down domestic production. It increased imports from OPEC. It’s just bad economics." – David Brooks of The New York Times during an interview with NPR regarding Obama’s plan for taxing oil companies.
Foreign Policy
Bob Barr: "America should not be the world’s policeman. The American purpose is to provide a strong national defense, not to engage in nation building or to launch foreign crusades, no matter how seemingly well-intentioned." – Bob Barr
John McCain: "Make it a hundred," McCain said, referring to how many years he’d be willing to maintain a military presence in Iraq.
Barack Obama: "As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan. We need more troops…" – Barack Obama
Civil Liberties
Bob Barr: “Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats can be trusted to protect the privacy and civil liberties of the American people. As president, I would never forget that it is a free society which we must defend. We must never sacrifice the individual freedoms that make America so unique.” – Bob Barr
John McCain: "[McCain believes that] neither the administration nor the telecoms need apologize for actions that most people, except for the A.C.L.U. and trial lawyers, understand were constitutional and appropriate in the wake of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.” – McCain Adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin
Barack Obama: "The ability to monitor and track individuals who want to attack the United States is a vital counter-terrorism tool, and I’m persuaded that it is necessary to keep the American people safe — particularly since certain electronic surveillance orders will begin to expire later this summer. Given the choice between voting for an improved yet imperfect bill, and losing important surveillance tools, I’ve chosen to support the current compromise." – Barack Obama
For more information on the Libertarian Party and its presidential candidate Bob Barr, please visit www.LP.org.
Please help Bob Barr and the Libertarian Party get on the ballot across America today by generously donating to ballot access efforts. Only through getting on the ballot will Americans have a real choice in 2008.
