The economic positions of Senators Clinton, Obama and McCain on taxes, public finances, health care, trade, financial markets and employment are assembled in the attached matrix (PDF), while below there is a short overview of the most important points.
The democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are in favour of ending the Bush tax cuts to balance the federal budget, while the Republican presumptive candidate John McCain wants to make the tax cuts permanent and curb spending to balance the budget.
Both democrats have health care plans that include some form of federal mandates (although there are minor differences between the two plans), while McCain is against any form of federal intervention and prefers individuals to make their own choices according to their needs.
On trade, John McCain emerges as the only true free trader, who is wary of protectionist backlashes in the US. On the other side, both Obama and Clinton want to review NAFTA and other free trade agreements, so that they can be amended to benefit American workers as much as possible. However, it is not clear how much of this is 'political positioning,' especially as far as Obama is concerned.
With regard to financial markets, all three candidates initially appeared to have strong positions in favour of the economic stimulus package by the US congress. Yet on the day of the vote Senator McCain decided to skip it, making him the only senator to do so, despite his plane landing in Washington DC in time. Many observers saw this as a move to increase his appeal to conservative Republicans, who were against the package and whose support Mr. McCain needs for the general elections in the fall.
Lastly, all candidates want to ease the burden for the middle classes and create jobs for those who lost them by reorienting the American economy.
Overall, it seems as if huge differences between the democratic candidates are hard to find. In addition, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, who admitted to not being an expert on economics, has many of the typical conservative economic policies of lower taxes and less federal spending, which should appeal to the more conservative base.
All the candidates have experienced economists as senior advisers, whose backgrounds influence their candidate's positions. The economic gurus for this year's presidential contenders are introduced on CNN Money: Douglas Holtz-Eakin, economic adviser to John McCain, Austan Goolsbee for Barack Obama and Gene Sperling for Hillary Clinton. It remains to be seen, what advice they will give on the rocky road ahead.
Benjamin Lucas Schoo is a member of the Atlantic Community's editorial team. Born and raised in Luxembourg, he attended the European School of Luxembourg and the University of York, where he completed his B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) in July 2007.
Related Materials on the Atlantic Community:
- Rüdiger Lentz: Obama or Clinton? Showdown in Texas and Ohio
- Christian Andreas Morris: Obama and Clinton: Who Would be Best for Europe?
- Samantha Ferrell: Republican Candidates on Europe
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April 10, 2008
Pat Patterson, Republican, (9)
Plus on the Arizona senator's road to Damascus it should be noted that he did vote against the original tax package and his conversion to supporting them is rather late. The two most interesting things that Sen. McCain has said about economic issues are his defense of the idea of moral hazard when investing and that reliance on ethanol has created some of the huge run ups in oil prices.
But I think your main point concerning free trade is accurate. Sens. Obama and Clinton will probably not make any major changes in trade agreements except to slow down new ones but will push for single payer health care because that is truly what the big unions want. While Sen. McCain has stated repeatedly that he supports the current trade agreements, wishes that the Columbian, Peruvian and Korean agreements are ratified.