John McCain: ”John McCain's strategy includes taking the near-term actions needed to provide immediate help to American families while also taking the longer-term steps necessary to secure America's economic prosperity and leadership in the world.”

In response to questions about the financial crisis in his debate with Senator Obama, McCain stated his support for a bailout provided there is transparency, accountability and oversight. His website further states: “Any assistance for borrowers should be focused solely on homeowners and any government assistance to the banking system should be based solely on preventing systemic risk.”

McCain’s proposals for future economic growth include: • Measures to promote greater job flexibility, • Decreasing business’ energy costs through increased domestic drilling and nuclear energy development, • Maintaining current income tax levels as well as dividend and capital gains taxes, while phasing out the Alternative Minimum Tax, cutting the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%, establishing a permanent research & development tax credit and reducing the estate tax rate to 15% with a $10 million exemption. • Reducing barriers to free trade, • A “HOME Plan” to allow 200,000 to 400,000 families with sub-prime mortgages to access government backed loans, • A “student loan continuity plan” to expand government tuition lending, • An overhaul of unemployment insurance programs to focus on retraining, relocating and assisting workers.

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website.

John McCain: John McCain believes it is strategically and morally essential for the United States to support the Government of Iraq to become capable of governing itself and safeguarding its people. He strongly disagrees with those who advocate withdrawing American troops before that has occurred.

It would be a grave mistake to leave before Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated and before a competent, trained, and capable Iraqi security force is in place and operating effectively. We must help the Government of Iraq battle those who provoke sectarian tensions and promote a civil war that could destabilize the Middle East. Iraq must not become a failed state, a haven for terrorists, or a pawn of Iran. These likely consequences of America's failure in Iraq almost certainly would either require us to return or draw us into a wider and far costlier war.

The best way to secure long-term peace and security is to establish a stable, prosperous, and democratic state in Iraq that poses no threat to its neighbors and contributes to the defeat of terrorists. When Iraqi forces can safeguard their own country, American troops can return home.

Syria and Iran have aided and abetted the violence in Iraq for too long. The answer is not unconditional dialogues with these two dictatorships from a position of weakness. The answer is for the international community to apply real pressure to Syria and Iran to change their behavior. The United States must also bolster its regional military posture to make clear to Iran our determination to protect our forces and deter Iranian intervention.

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website.

John McCain: John McCain believes we can and must provide access to health care for every American.

The key to health care reform is to restore control to the patients themselves. We want a system of health care in which everyone can afford and acquire the treatment and preventative care they need. Health care should be available to all and not limited by where you work or how much you make. Families should be in charge of their health care dollars and have more control over care.

Among its policies a McCain plan would: • Use competition to improve the quality of health care and lower prices, • For those who do not choose employer-based coverage, give a refundable tax credit of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families to offset the cost of insurance, • Make insurance more portable, • Expand the use of Health Savings Accounts, • Work with states to establish a guaranteed access plan for patients with pre-existing conditions, • Create incentives for activities that reduce costs – such as early intervention, prevention, disease management and individual case management, • Lower drug prices through re-importation and faster introduction of generic drugs, • Promote greater access through walk-in clinics, • Promote greater use of information technology, • Reform the payment systems in Medicaid and Medicare to compensate providers for diagnosis, prevention and care coordination, • Give states flexibility to experiment with alternative forms of access, • Pass medical liability reform, • Make public more information on treatment options, doctor records, medical outcomes, quality of care, and prices, • Facilitate the development of national standards for measuring and recording treatments and outcomes.

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website.

John McCain: Senator John McCain believes that the highest priority for any President is protecting the lives of American citizens, defending their personal freedom, and securing our land and resources.

Measures supported by McCain include: • Streamlining Congressional oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, • Encouraging homeland security plans that also consider threats posed by major accidents, or nature itself, • Working with our allies to find and disrupt terrorist organizations and their financing, • Enhancing our intelligence gathering and analysis capabilities, • Working to better share information the federal government has with state and local law enforcement authorities and allocating first responder funds to state, local and tribal governments on a risk assessment basis, • Securing the border by providing adequate funding to assure the most state-of-the-art technology, sufficient personnel, the construction of 700 miles of fencing, and the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – as well as increasing the ability to detain immigrants and improving employment eligibility verification, • Strengthening the process of screening both individuals and cargo before they enter our ports and airports, • Stepping up counter proliferation efforts, • Obtaining the international consensus for strict sanctions that would prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, • Providing first responders with interoperable communications, • Providing an effective framework for protecting the numerous areas of the country’s critical infrastructure, • Leading a national campaign to achieve energy security for America.

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website.

John McCain: Our nation's future security and prosperity depends on the next President making the hard choices that will break our nation's strategic dependence on foreign sources of energy and will ensure our economic prosperity by meeting tomorrow's demands for a clean portfolio. John McCain will lead the effort to develop advanced transportation technologies and alternative fuels to promote energy independence and cut off the flow of oil wealth to repressive dictatorships like Iran.

Included among John McCain’s energy policies, he would: • Expand domestic oil exploration by lifting the moratorium on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf, • Expand the use of domestic natural gas by building the infrastructure need for its transportation, • Provide a $5,000 tax credit for customers who buy a zero carbon emission car, with graduated tax credits for cars with low emissions, • Create a $300 prize for full commercial development of a plug-in hybrid and fully electric automobiles, • Eliminate mandates, subsidies, tariffs and price supports for corn-based ethanol, • Enforce existing CAFÉ standards, by creating effective penalties • Allocate $2 billion each year to advance clean coal technologies, • Construct 45 new nuclear plants by 2030, with a goal of eventually constructing 100 new plants, • Establish higher efficiency standards for federal buildings, • Reduce red tape to upgrade our national electricity grid and deploy SmartMeter technologies to encourage a more cost-efficient use of power, • Repeal the 54 cents per gallon tax on imported sugar-based ethanol.

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website.

John McCain: John McCain believes American education must be worthy of the promise we make to our children and ourselves. He understands that we are a nation committed to equal opportunity, and there is no equal opportunity without equal access to excellent education.

The deplorable status of preparation for our children, particularly in comparison with the rest of the industrialized world, does not allow us the luxury of eliminating options in our educational repertoire. John McCain will fight for the ability of all students to have access to all schools of demonstrated excellence, including their own homes.

No Child Left Behind has focused our attention on the realities of how students perform against a common standard. John McCain believes that we can no longer accept low standards for some students and high standards for others. In this age of honest reporting, we finally see what is happening to students who were previously invisible. While that is progress all its own, it compels us to seek and find solutions to the dismal facts before us.

If a school will not change, the students should be able to change schools. John McCain believes parents should be empowered with school choice to send their children to the school that can best educate them just as many members of Congress do with their own children.

As president, John McCain will pursue reforms that address the underlying cultural problems in our education system - a system that still seeks to avoid genuine accountability and responsibility for producing well-educated children.

John McCain: John McCain will balance the budget by the end of his first term.

The near-term path to balance is built on three principles: • Reasonable economic growth. • Comprehensive spending controls. • Bi-partisanship in budget efforts.

In the long-term, the only way to keep the budget balanced is successful reform of the large spending pressures in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

John McCain will institute broad reforms to control spending, including: • Freezing non-defense, non-veterans discretionary spending for a year and use those savings for deficit reduction, • A comprehensive review of all programs, projects and activities of the federal government to propose a plan to modernize, streamline, consolidate, reprioritize and, where needed, terminate individual programs, • Reclaiming billions of add-on spending from earmarks and add-ons in FY 2007 and 2008, • Holding overall spending growth to 2.4%, • Reviewing all special spending provisions to end subsidies to high-income individuals and corporations, • Vetoing every pork-laden spending bill, • Supplementing the current Social Security system with personal accounts - but not as a substitute for addressing benefit promises that cannot be kept, • Comprehensive health care reforms that will reduce the growth in Medicare spending,

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website.

John McCain: John McCain will establish a market-based system to curb greenhouse gas emissions, mobilize innovative technologies, and strengthen the economy. He will work with our international partners to secure our energy future, to create opportunities for American industry, and to leave a better future for our children.

John McCain's principles for climate policy are: • climate policy should use a market-based cap and trade system • climate policy must include ways to minimize costs and work with other markets • climate policy must spur development and deployment of technology • climate policy must ease international efforts to solve the problem A climate cap-and-trade mechanism would set a limit on greenhouse gas emissions and allow entities to buy and sell rights to emit, allowing the market to decide and encourage the lowest-cost compliance options.

The cap and trade system would allow for the gradual reduction of emissions on the following timetable:

2012: Return Emissions To 2005 Levels (18 Percent Above 1990 Levels) 2020: Return Emissions To 1990 Levels (15 Percent Below 2005 Levels) 2030: 22 Percent Below 1990 Levels (34 Percent Below 2005 Levels) 2050: 60 Percent Below 1990 Levels (66 Percent Below 2005 Levels)

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website.

John McCain: John McCain believes America's immigration system is broken. He is committed to a two-step process to reform.

John McCain's top immigration priority is to finish securing our borders in an expedited manner. Governors of border states will be required to certify that the border is secure.

Steps to border security include: • Setting clear guidelines and objectives for securing the border through physical and virtual barriers. • Ensuring that adequate funding is provided for resources on the ground, but also training facilities, support staff and the deployment of technologies. • Dedicating funding to US Attorney’s offices in border states. • Implementing sound policies for contracting Department of Homeland Security software and infrastructure. • Deploying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and other aircraft where needed. • Continued implementation of the US-VISIT comprehensive visitor security program.

Once the borders are secure, John McCain will: • implement a secure, accurate, and reliable electronic employment verification system to ensure that individuals are screened for work eligibility in a real-time fashion. • implement temporary worker programs that will reflect the labor needs of the United States • address the fact that we have a large number undocumented individuals living in the United States and working in our economy by: requiring all undocumented individuals enroll in a program to resolve their status; use background checks to identify criminal aliens for prosecution and deportation; assure that the remaining undocumented immigrants learn English, pay back taxes and fines, and pass a citizenship course as part of a path to legal status.

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website.

John McCain: John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned, and as president he will nominate judges who understand that courts should not be in the business of legislating from the bench.

Constitutional balance would be restored by the reversal of Roe v. Wade, returning the abortion question to the individual states. The difficult issue of abortion should not be decided by judicial fiat.

However, the reversal of Roe v. Wade represents only one step in the long path toward ending abortion. Once the question is returned to the states, the fight for life will be one of courage and compassion - the courage of a pregnant mother to bring her child into the world and the compassion of civil society to meet her needs and those of her newborn baby. The pro-life movement has done tremendous work in building and reinforcing the infrastructure of civil society by strengthening faith-based, community, and neighborhood organizations that provide critical services to pregnant mothers in need. This work must continue and government must find new ways to empower and strengthen these armies of compassion. These important groups can help build the consensus necessary to end abortion at the state level. As John McCain has publicly noted, "At its core, abortion is a human tragedy. To effect meaningful change, we must engage the debate at a human level."

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website.

Barack Obama: “As president, Barack Obama will implement a 21st century economic agenda to help ensure that America can compete in a global economy, and ensure the middle class is thriving and growing. He will increase investments in infrastructure, energy independence, education, and research and development; modernize and simplify our tax code so it provides greater opportunity and relief to more Americans; and implement trade policies that benefit American workers and increase the export of American goods.”

In response to questions about the fiscal crisis in his debate with Senator McCain, Barack Obama stated his support for a Washington led “rescue effort,” with four caveats: that a bailout would include “oversight;” that it would give taxpayers “the possibility of getting [their] money back and gains;” that any bill would limit CEO “golden parachutes;” and that a rescue package would include help for homeowners.

Policies Senator Obama proposes for near and long term economic growth include: • A windfall tax on oil the industry to give Americans $1,000 toward their energy bills, • $50 billion in state support to prevent cuts in healthcare and other services while promoting infrastructure development, • A tax cut for 150 million working Americans (up to $500 for individuals and $1000 for families), • Promotion of “fair trade” agreements which encourage investment in the US, • Investment of $150 billion over ten years to develop green energy technology and industry, • A $60 billion investment over ten years in transportation infrastructure, • Doubling federal funding in research & development and making an R&D tax credit permanent, • Eliminating capital gains tax on start-ups, and • Greater regulation of mortgages and the credit card industry.

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website and public statements.

Barack Obama: Barack Obama believes we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. Immediately upon taking office, Obama will give his Secretary of Defense and military commanders a new mission in Iraq: ending the war. The removal of our troops will be responsible and phased, directed by military commanders on the ground and done in consultation with the Iraqi government. Military experts believe we can safely redeploy combat brigades from Iraq at a pace of 1 to 2 brigades a month that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 – more than 7 years after the war began.

Under the Obama plan, a residual force will remain in Iraq and in the region to conduct targeted counter-terrorism missions against al Qaeda in Iraq and to protect American diplomatic and civilian personnel. Barack Obama will launch an aggressive diplomatic effort to reach a comprehensive compact on the stability of Iraq and the region.

Iran has sought nuclear weapons, supports militias inside Iraq and terror across the region, and its leaders threaten Israel and deny the Holocaust. Obama supports tough, direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions. If Iran abandons its nuclear program and support for terrorism, we will offer incentives like membership in the World Trade Organization, economic investments, and a move toward normal diplomatic relations. If Iran continues its troubling behavior, we will step up our economic pressure and political isolation.

Obama will make progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a key diplomatic priority. They will make a sustained push – working with Israelis and Palestinians – to achieve the goal of two states, a Jewish state in Israel and a Palestinian state, living side by side in peace and security.

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website.

Barack Obama: The Obama plan provides affordable, accessible health care for all Americans, builds on the existing health care system, and uses existing providers, doctors and plans to implement the plan. Under the Obama plan, patients will be able to make health care decisions with their doctors, instead of being blocked by insurance company bureaucrats.

Under the plan, if you like your current health insurance, nothing changes, except your costs will go down by as much as $2,500 per year. If you don’t like your health insurance, or you don’t have health insurance, you will have a choice of new, affordable health insurance options.

Among its policies, the plan: • Requires insurance companies cover pre-existing conditions, • Creates a tax credit to help small businesses provide affordable health insurance to their employees, • Lowers costs for businesses by covering a portion of the catastrophic health costs in return for lower premiums for employees, • Prevents insurers from overcharging doctors for their malpractice insurance, • Requires large employers that do not offer coverage to contribute toward the costs of their employees’ health care, • Establishes a National Health Insurance Exchange with a range of private insurance options as well as a new public plan that will allow individuals and small businesses to buy affordable health coverage, • Ensures everyone who needs it will receive a tax credit for their premiums, • Lowers drug costs by allowing the importation of medicines and increasing the use of generic drugs in public programs, • Requires hospitals collect and report health care cost and quality data, • Reforms the insurance market by taking on anticompetitive activity.

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website.

Barack Obama: Nearly seven years after 9/11, our country is still unprepared for a terrorist attack. As President, Obama will enhance our national resilience to any risk - natural, accidental or terrorist - by ensuring the federal government works with States, localities, and the private sector as an authentic partner in prevention, mitigation, and response.

The United States is trapped by the Bush-Cheney approach to diplomacy that refuses to talk to leaders we don't like. Obama and Biden are willing to meet with the leaders of all nations, friend and foe. They will do the careful preparation necessary, but will signal that America is ready to come to the table, and that he is willing to lead. And if America is willing to come to the table, the world will be more willing to rally behind American leadership to deal with challenges like terrorism, and Iran and North Korea's nuclear programs.

Obama's security initiatives include: • Expanding our foreign service and civilian aid work, • Doubling foreign assistance to $50 billion to support the goal of cutting extreme poverty in half by 2015, • Securing loose nuclear materials and negotiating a global ban on the production of new nuclear weapons material, • Establishing security regulations for chemical plants, • Establishing guidelines for spent nuclear fuel, • Upgrading the security efforts of drinking water systems, • Increasing the size of the Army by 65,000 soldiers and the Marines by 27,000 troops. • Transforming and strengthening our traditional alliances, like NATO, • Ending no-bid contracting and making military contractors subject to prosecution for abuses.

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website.

Barack Obama: America has always risen to great challenges, and our dependence on oil is one of the greatest we have ever faced. It’s a threat to our national security, our planet and our economy.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden have a comprehensive energy plan that provides immediate relief to struggling families. It also summons the nation to face one of the great challenges of our time: confronting our dependence on foreign oil, addressing the moral, economic and environmental challenge of global climate change, and building a clean energy future that benefits all Americans.

The Obama energy plan would: • Enact a windfall profits tax on energy companies to provide a $1,000 energy rebate to American families, • Help create five million jobs by investing $150 billion over the next ten years in alternative energy, • Within 10 years save more oil than we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela, • Put 1 million plug-in hybrid cars on the road by 2015, • Ensure 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025, • Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050, • Crack down on energy speculation, • Swap oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, • Increase fuel economy standards, • Create a $7,000 tax credit for purchasing advanced vehicles, • Establish a national low carbon fuel standard, • Promote the responsible domestic production of oil and natural gas, • Weatherize one Million homes annually, • Develop and deploy clean coal technology, • Prioritize the construction of the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline.

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website.

Barack Obama: The goal of [No Child Left Behind] was the right one, but unfulfilled funding promises, inadequate implementation by the Education Department and shortcomings in the design of the law itself have limited its effectiveness and undercut its support. As a result, the law has failed to provide high-quality teachers in every classroom and failed to adequately support and pay those teachers.

College costs have grown nearly 40 percent in the past five years. The average graduate leaves college with over $19,000 in debt. And between 2001 and 2010, 2 million academically qualified students will not go to college because they cannot afford it. Finally, our complicated maze of tax credits and applications leaves too many students unaware of financial aid available to them.

As part of his education plan, Barack Obama would: • Quadruple Early Head Start and increase Head Start funding, • Provide affordable and high-quality child care, • Better fund NCLB, • Improve the assessments used to track student progress, • Double funding for the Federal Charter School Program, • Double funding for afterschool programs, • Support transitional bilingual education and hold schools accountable for ensuring Limited English Proficient students complete school, • Create new Teacher Service Scholarships for mid-career recruits, recruit teachers with math and science degrees and create Teacher Residency Programs that will supply 30,000 recruits to high-need schools, • Promote innovative ways to increase teacher pay, • Create a new American Opportunity Tax Credit, which will ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is free for most Americans, • Streamline the financial aid process for college tuition.

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website.

Barack Obama: The cost of our debt is one of the fastest growing expenses in the federal budget. This rising debt is a hidden domestic enemy, robbing our cities and states of critical investments in infrastructure like bridges, ports, and levees; robbing our families and our children of critical investments in education and health care reform; robbing our seniors of the retirement and health security they have counted on. . . . If Washington were serious about honest tax relief in this country, we'd see an effort to reduce our national debt by returning to responsible fiscal policies.

Obama’s policies for fiscal responsibility include: • Reinstating PAYGO rules, • Reversing Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, • Requiring greater disclosure and transparency for special-interest earmarks, • Ensuring that federal contracts over $25,000 are subject to competitive bidding, • Stopping funding wasteful, obsolete federal government programs that make no financial sense, • Stopping the abuse of tax shelters and offshore tax havens to help close the $350 billion tax gap between taxes owed and taxes paid, • Eliminating special-interest loopholes and deductions, such as those for the oil and gas industry, • Removing subsidies to private insurers under Medicare, • Taxing Americans making more than $250,000 to contribute to Social Security.

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website.

Barack Obama: As president, Barack Obama will make combating global warming a top priority. He will reinvigorate the Environmental Protection Agency, respecting its professionalism and scientific integrity. And he will protect our children from toxins like lead, be a responsible steward of our natural treasures and reverse the Bush administration’s attempts to chip away at our nation’s clean air and water standards.

Barack Obama supports implementation of a market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary: 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.

Other initiatives include • Investment of $150 billion over 10 years in alternative energy technologies, • Ensuring that all new federal buildings are zero-emissions by 2025, • Providing incentives for energy conservation by ensuring utilities get increased profits for improving energy efficiency, rather than higher energy consumption, • Phasing out traditional incandescent light bulbs by 2014, • A major investment in our national utility grid, • Doubling fuel economy standards within 18 years, • Restoring the force of the Clean Air Act, • Reinvigorating drinking water standards and updating them to address new threats. • Working with local governments to protect and expand wetlands, • Restoring the strength of the Superfund program by requiring polluters to pay for the cleanup of contaminated sites they created, • Acquiring and conserving new parks and public lands, focusing on ecosystems such as the Great Plains and Eastern forests which do not yet have the protection they deserve, • Partnering with Landowners to Conserve Private Lands.

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website.

Barack Obama: Obama wants to preserve the integrity of our borders. He supports additional personnel, infrastructure and technology on the border and at our ports of entry.

Obama believes we must fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill.

Obama will remove incentives to enter the country illegally by cracking down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants.

Obama supports a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.

Obama believes we need to do more to promote economic development in Mexico to decrease illegal immigration.

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website.

Barack Obama: Barack Obama understands that abortion is a divisive issue, and respects those who disagree with him. However, he has been a consistent champion of reproductive choice and will make preserving women's rights under Roe v. Wade a priority as President. He opposes any constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's decision in that case.

Barack Obama is an original co-sponsor of legislation to expand access to contraception, health information and preventive services to help reduce unintended pregnancies. Introduced in January 2007, the Prevention First Act will increase funding for family planning and comprehensive sex education that teaches both abstinence and safe sex methods. The Act will also end insurance discrimination against contraception, improve awareness about emergency contraception, and provide compassionate assistance to rape victims.

Response compiled by E-thepeople staff using text from candidate’s website.

Bob Barr: We should seek to establish a wall of separation between government and the economy. The legitimate economic functions of government are to protect property rights, adjudicate disputes, and provide a legal framework in which voluntary trade is protected. The government should stop attempting to “manage” the free market.

Instead of trying to micromanage the economy, Congress should get busy addressing the policy mistakes that have gotten us into this mess. The first step is to end government pressure for irresponsible lending. We need fraud investigations and prosecutions to police the market. We must privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac so they can no longer be used as political tools to irresponsibly expand mortgage lending, and repeal the Community Reinvestment Act. We must adjust accounting rules, like the ‘mark to market’ standard, which have crippled the balance sheets of essentially sound companies.

It also means depoliticizing the nation’s money supply. The Federal Reserve cannot continue artificially inflating the money supply, which creates the illusion of a boom that is inevitably followed by a bust.

Instead of being panicked into voting for legislation, legislators should take a deep breath, stay out of the way as the market continues its painful adjustment process, and start fixing the financial problems that government caused over the years. The best person to oversee this process is someone who hasn’t been part of the problem in Washington.

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.

It is time to reemphasize the word “defense” in national defense. By maintaining a military presence in more than 130 nations around the world in more than 700 installations, with hundreds of thousands of troops deployed overseas, the U.S. spends more to protect the soil of other nations than our own. Bringing these soldiers home would better protect America while saving lives and money. The U.S. requires a military strong enough to defend this nation, not to support and defend much of the rest of the world.

Moreover, foreign aid has proved to be a drain on the U.S. economy while doing little good for the recipients. Aid is routinely used by corrupt foreign governments to oppress their people and enrich powerful elites. Foreign aid almost always discourages economic and political reform, while subsidizing nations which often work against U.S. interests.

American foreign policy should emphasize swift, decisive and winning action against those who vowed would harm us. This means defense, not foreign intervention. We should encourage private involvement around the world, particularly through free trade. The most effective way to preserve peace is through an expanding free market, backed by a full range of cultural and other private relationships.

Bob Barr: Access to affordable, quality health care is an important objective. For this reason, some politicians have pushed for government programs to extend health care benefits to those who cannot afford or who otherwise do not maintain private medical insurance. These efforts come on top of taxpayer-subsidized benefits in the form of Medicare and Medicaid.

There are many causes of today’s high healthcare cost “crisis”. Medical care costs more than it should; access to insurance is more limited by government than it should be; the practice of medicine is more regulated than it should be. The American health care system desperately needs to be treated for ill health.

Our health care policy should be reformed based on the principle of consumer-oriented health care. Regulations which mandate insurance coverage and inflate premiums should be eliminated. Controls which unduly restrict competition within the health care industry, and that limit access to insurance across state lines, should be ended. Moreover, current tax policy, which is biased towards employer-provided, comprehensive health insurance, should be reformed, encouraging individual purchase of less costly catastrophic policies.

Today’s health care problems are complex, but the solution is not socialized medicine in any form. Countries that have nationalized their medical systems inevitably ration care through the political system; costs are driven down only by denying needed care.

Bob Barr: Obviously, the federal government has a responsibility to protect Americans from terrorist threats. However, equally fundamental is the government’s responsibility to respect the liberties that the federal government is tasked to protect. If we sacrifice those basic freedoms, then truly the terrorists have won.

As president, I will focus U.S. law enforcement and military efforts on terrorists who have targeted Americans. I will not allow my administration to be sidetracked by unnecessary wars and interventions, such as in Iraq. As for Iraq, I will quickly withdraw U.S. troops, leaving Iraqis in control of their own destinies.

At home, I will restore the Constitution as the guide for U.S. policy. The government must combat those who wish Americans ill, but it must act within the law, ensuring accountability for U.S. officials. That means appropriate limits on and oversight of all surveillance, arrests, trials and imprisonment. Never can we forget that the American government is one of laws, not of men.

The attacks of 9/11 leave us with great responsibility for the future. We must defend Americans from those outside who threaten violence. We also must defend Americans from those at home who would sacrifice our liberties.

Bob Barr: Every American who drives an automobile knows that something needs to be done about the cost of energy in the United States. While Republicans are calling for more subsidies to oil companies and Democrats are seeking to micro-manage energy companies with more regulations and laws -- or to punish them by raising taxes on them -- Americans are left to watch helplessly as fuel prices go through the roof.

Government intervention, whether through more regulations or more subsidies (or both), hurts consumers in the end. The free market, driven by consumer choice and reflecting the real cost of resources, should be the foundation of America’s energy policy. The federal government should eliminate restrictions that inhibit energy production, as well as all special privileges for the production of politically-favored fuels, such as ethanol.

In particular, Congress should allow the exploration and production of America’s abundant domestic resources, including oil in the Outer Continental Shelf and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and alternative sources such as shale oil. We should develop our nation’s natural assets, which would lower costs to the consumer and assure more adequate and consistent supplies.

Bob Barr: School reform starts by shifting control over education from government to parents. We must abolish the Department of Education, eliminate federal grants and regulations, and begin moving power back to the states and local communities. States should consider tax credits or deductions for parents who home school or send their children to private schools. Public schools should be managed locally, increasing accountability and parental involvement. Parents should have control of and responsibility for the funds expended for their children’s education. Ultimately, education will best serve the children of America if it occurs within a competitive private system rather than a government system.

The more we increase government control over education, the bigger the problem becomes. Turning education over to the federal government, as through such legislation as the No Child Left Behind Act has not worked. Trying to fix failing schools with more money and regulations also has failed to do anything other than waste taxpayer money without results.

The free market naturally provides both choice and competition, providing goods and services of higher quality for less expense. These principles should be applied to education. Unfortunately, the government’s near monopoly on education in the United States has seized control of our children’s education from parents, and has trapped children in failing schools across the country.

Bob Barr: The cost of entitlement programs is pushing America towards financial ruin. Even though the traditional, bloated federal welfare system had been reformed in the late 1990s, other programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security are unsustainable at their current spending rates. With the latter two programs alone facing estimated total unfunded liabilities topping $100 trillion, the government will eventually face the choice of raising taxes by as much as 50 percent or defaulting on promised benefits, if we do not begin taking action right now.

Government should stop acting as the welfare agency of first resort under the guise of providing social insurance. In general, private charity should be the first resort for anyone in need. The process of welfare reform begun by Congress in 1996 should be continued to reduce even further people’s dependence on Washington. In 2007, for example, Americans gave more than $300 billion to charity, an increase over 2006 despite growing economic uncertainty. Government should eliminate regulatory barriers that inhibit private philanthropy, and expand tax deductions to encourage charitable giving.

As for Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, government must emphasize private choice in health care and private retirement accounts. Benefits also should be adjusted to reflect changing demographics as the Baby Boom generation retires, and to emphasize care for those most in need.

Bob Barr: One of the most complicated and controversial issues facing America is global warming. Although temperatures have increased in recent decades, the scientific community has been unable to make definitive judgments as to the past cause or future course of climate change. Indeed, the models which predict problems in the future did not predict the lack of any temperature increase over the last decade.

Thus, we need to conduct more and better scientific research about climate change to assess likely problems in the future and develop appropriate solutions. More dialogue is key to understanding global warming and developing the best means of dealing with the important questions surrounding the phenomenon. This dialogue must include scientists from all sides of the issue, including those who are skeptical of the assertion that humans are primarily responsible for global temperature changes and that those changes pose a substantial danger to humanity.

Moreover, we must develop cost-effective policies which will not undermine the U.S. economy. So-called cap and trade legislation, recently rejected by the U.S. Senate, would do grievous damage to the American economy, threatening to create a permanent recession by reversing industrial growth and destroying millions of jobs. Attempting to adjust global temperatures by artificially cutting energy consumption would undermine the very prosperous and innovative market system upon which we must rely for answers to our problems.

Bob Barr: The border can never be completely open or completely closed. But the starting point of any immigration policy is to secure the borders to the extent possible. America needs to be able to check potential immigrants, criminal background, communicable disease and possible terrorism. Only by deterring massive illegal border crossings can the U.S. put in place a fair and enforceable legal immigration policy.

Equally important, we must end government benefits and services for illegal immigrants. Many local communities and states have begun to reduce payments to those who come here illegally, but a 1982 Supreme Court decision mandates that we provide education to the children of illegal immigrants. This detrimental ruling should be overturned through another Court challenge or a constitutional amendment.

We also must transform our immigration bureaucracy and process that both impede legal immigration and encourage illegal immigration. We need to sharply increase the number of economically productive people allowed to enter the U.S. Americans benefit greatly from such immigration. At the same time, however, the government should improve the operation of the fabled “melting pot.” Policies, such as foreign language ballots, which discourage assimilation, should be ended. English should be made the national language for government and official public business.

The best policy would be to stop illegal immigrant flows while accepting more of the world’s economically productive.

Bob Barr: While personally pro-life, I do not believe this is an issue for the federal government to decide. It is best left to the states to determine for themselves.