Troop Recall, Tax Credits Among Sen. Clinton's Key Issues
This story was written by Ana McKenzie, Daily Texan
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will square off against Sen. Barack Obama in tonight's Democratic debate at the Recreational Sports Center. The following is a list of platforms Clinton has focused on in her campaign.
Higher education
-Make college affordable by creating a new $3,500 college tax credit.
-Lower college costs and hold colleges accountable for results through an online college-cost calculator, a college-graduation and employment-rate index and truth in tuition disclosure.
-Create a graduation fund to increase college graduation rates.
Energy & the environment
-A $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund, paid in part by oil companies, to fund investments in alternative energy. The fund will finance one-third of the $150 billion, 10-year investment in a new energy future contained in this plan.
-An increase in fuel-efficiency standards to 55 miles per gallon by 2030 and $20 billion of "Green Vehicle Bonds" to help U.S. automakers retool their plants to meet the standards.
-Create energy-efficiency agenda to reduce electricity consumption 20 percent from projected levels by 2020.
Family
-Extend middle-class tax cuts, including child tax credit and marriage penalty relief; offer new tax cuts for health care, college and retirement.
-Harness the power of innovation to create high-wage jobs.
-Offer matching tax cuts of up to $500 and $1,000 to help middle-class and working families save.
-Pro-choice.
Health care
-If a person has a plan he or she likes, keep it.
-If a person wants to change plans or is not covered, he or she can choose from dozens of the same plans available to members of Congress or can opt into a public-plan option like Medicare.
-Working families will get tax credits to help pay their premiums.
Homeland security and the conflict in Iraq
-Would begin to bring troops home within the first 60 days of her administration.
-Expand the Materials Protection, Control and Accounting program to lock down nuclear material and invest in forensic measures, which advance the country's ability to discover the origins of a nuclear weapon in the event of an attack.
-"Amidst the global transformation to an interdependent world, our nation confronts possibilities of promise and peril," she said in June, "We know the current security policy with its excessive reliance on unilateral force, its rejection of international agreements of all kinds and its preference for policymaking based on ideology, not evidence, has to change."
Source: http://www.hillaryclinton.com - Hillary Clinton's campaign Web site
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