Parties’ Policy Platforms

With the voting date for the 2000 elections approaching, Americans are being bombarded with the policy platforms of the candidates. The two front runners and their lesser known rivals use every medium available to spread their ideas on major issues. It is because of their use of the media that voters are able to compare and contrast policy views of multiple parties. Using two important policy areas (for the purposes of this essay, we will continue to use public education and social security) we will discuss and analyze the views of the two major parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, and a Public education is a headlining topic during elections. The current public education system has allowed the United States to have one of the highest standards of living in the world, but could use some improving. The republicans believe that by providing public school students with private school vouchers, every child will have access to a high quality, indeed, a world-class education. (the Republican National The democrats believe that the republican idea of private school vouchers would offer too few dollars to too few children to escape their failing schools. The feel that vouchers would be pulling bucks out of the schools that need them most. Instead of vouchers, the democrats want to invest more in Americas crumbling schools, even if that means providing less tax cuts for American citizens. (the Democratic Committee The green party also is against vouchers, but believes in Equalize School Funding with Federal Revenue Sharing: Federal financing of all public education (instead of by regressive local property taxes) so that every school has the resources it needs to provide he highest quality education for every child. The Green Party website: Social Security is another publicized issue. While all 3 parties have expressed interest to save social security, the way they will go about doing it varies. The republican party platform says that they will continue to stop the annual raids on the Social Security trust funds by balancing the federal budget without that program†s surplus. (the Republican National Convention website: www. rnc. org) The democratic platform states that to build on the success of Social Security, Al Gore has proposed the creation of Retirement Savings Plus – voluntary, tax-free, personally-controlled, privately-managed savings accounts with a government match that would help couples build a nest egg of up to $400,000. Also, separate from Social Security, Retirement Savings Plus accounts would let Americans save and invest on top of the foundation of Social Security's guaranteed benefit. Under this plan, the federal government would match individual contributions with tax credits, with the hardest-pressed working families getting the most assistance. (the Democratic Committee On the issue of Social security, the green party platform does not go into much detail stating: The actuarial protection of social security is essential to the well-being of our seniors, and the maintenance of the system†s integrity is an essential part of a healthy community. (the Green Party website: www. greenparty. org) While they do not offer their plan for improvement, it is clear that they do not plan on letting the program die out. While the basic, raw ideas of improving education and saving social security are shared by the 3 parties, their plan of execution varies.