Stephen Martino

As the election draws nearer by the day, it is of the utmost importance to truly understand the candidates and know their campaign platforms. Because of the media bias, it is at times difficult to decipher what is the truth. I therefore went to each of their web pages to compare and contrast the differences and similarities between them:

Taxes:

Trump:
1. Simplify taxes for everyone and streamline deductions. Biggest tax reform since Reagan.
2. Lower taxes for everyone, making raising a family more affordable for working families.
3. Reduce dramatically the income tax.
4. We will simplify the income tax from 7 brackets to 3 brackets.
5. Exclude childcare expenses from taxation.
6. Limit taxation of business income to 15% for every business.
7. Make our corporate tax globally competitive and the United States the most attractive place to invest in the world.
8. End the death tax
9. Lower the corporate tax rate to 15%

Clinton:
1. Implement a “fair share surcharge” on multi-millionaires and billionaires
2. Charge an “exit tax” for companies leaving the U.S.
3. Wealthiest and the largest corporations pay their fair share
4. Tax relief for Americans facing excessive out-of-pocket health care costs and for those caring for an ill or elderly family member

The two contrast considerably. Trump wants to cut taxes in order for the American people and business to grow, prosper, and expand. On the other hand, Clinton appears to want to punish businesses, increase handouts, and increase taxes to all non-poverty working families. Her plan is no different than Obama’s failed policies and has produced a pitiful 1.2% increase in GDP.

Regulations:

Trump:
1. A temporary pause on new regulations and a review of previous regulations to see which need to be scrapped.
2. Require each federal agency to prepare a list of all of the regulations they impose on American business, and rank them from most critical to health and safety to least critical. Least critical regulations will receive priority consideration for repeal.
3. Remove bureaucrats who only know how to kill jobs; replace them with experts who know how to create jobs.
4. Targeted review for regulations that inhibit hiring. These include:
5. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, which forces investment in renewable energy at the expense of coal and natural gas, raising electricity rates;
6. The EPA’s Waters of the United States rule, which gives the EPA the ability to regulate the smallest streams on private land, limiting land use; and
7. The Department of Interior’s moratorium on coal mining permits, which put tens of thousands of coal miners out of work.

Clinton:
1. Cut red tape for small businesses at every level of government and build a regulatory roadmap to help small businesses navigate the regulations and reduce compliance costs.
2. Crack down on unscrupulous big businesses. (I guess the federal government decides who is unscrupulous)
3. Provide incubators, mentoring, and training to 50,000 entrepreneurs and small-business owners in underserved communities
4. Provide federal, state, and local workforce development resources to prepare workers for good jobs.

It seems that the obvious difference between the two is that Clinton wants to increase the size of government and create new regulations in order to make starting a new business easier. Does this make sense?. Just think: when has increasing regulation ever made things easier? Plus, what is an incubator? If you can get over that word, maybe the rest could make sense. It seems as if she wants to create (funded by taxpayer money) government programs in order to generate new jobs- instead of creating incentives for hard-working Americans to do it themselves.

Trade Reform: Our trade deficit in goods is almost $800 billion on an annual basis

Trump:
1. Appoint trade negotiators whose goal will be to win for America: narrowing our trade deficit, increasing domestic production, and getting a fair deal for our workers.
2. Renegotiate NAFTA.
3. Withdraw from the TPP.
4. Bring trade relief cases to the world trade organization.
5. Label China a currency manipulator.
6. Apply tariffs and duties to countries that cheat.
7. Direct the Commerce Department to use all legal tools to respond to trade violations.
8. Reclaim millions of American jobs and reviving American manufacturing by putting an end to China’s illegal export subsidies and lax labor and environmental standards. No more sweatshops or pollution havens stealing jobs from American workers.
9. End China’s Intellectual Property Violations
10. Eliminate China’s Illegal Export Subsidies

Clinton:

1. Pursue smarter, fairer, tougher trade policies that put U.S. job creation first and get tough on nations like China that seek to prosper at the expense of our workers.
2. Opposing trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership

It seems that they both agree on at least two points. However, when Clinton was Secretary of State did she do create any trade reform? No. Plus, she sounds like a little kid jumping up and down yelling “me too” after Trump makes a point.

Energy Reform:

Trump:

1. Rescind all the job-destroying Obama executive actions including the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule.
2. Save the coal industry and other industries threatened by Hillary Clinton’s extremist agenda.
3. Ask Trans Canada to renew its permit application for the Keystone Pipeline.
4. Make land in the Outer Continental Shelf available to produce oil and natural gas.
5. Cancel the Paris Climate Agreement (limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius) and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs.
6. Modernizing infrastructure like dams, levees, and wastewater systems

Clinton:

1. Make America a “clean energy super power”
2. Make coal obsolete
3. Do not sign in legislation for the keystone pipeline
4. Reduce American oil consumption by a third through cleaner fuels and more efficient cars, boilers, ships, and trucks.
5. Make sure half a billion solar panels installed by the end of Hillary’s first term

First of all, what does it mean to be a “clean energy super power”. It obviously means shutting down the coal industry, making fracking more economically difficult, and killing all oil pipelines. Didn’t Obama promise essentially the same thing? Remember Solyndra? These clean energy policies have failed for over 7 years and tied America’s hand behind its back when competing with foreign nations like China. Do you want more of Obama’s failed policies? When you do the math, a half billion solar panels is more than the population of our country. Does that mean we all get one and a half solar panels if Hillary gets into office? In addition, if Clinton has more authority over America’s waterways, it will create more government control over the land and suffocating restrictions on the people who own it.

Infrastructure: 28 percent of our roads are in substandard condition and 24 percent of bridges are structurally deficient or worse

Trump:

1. Growth to boost our infrastructure including roads and bridges

Clinton:

1. Repair and expand our roads and bridges
2. Invest in building world-class American airports and modernize our national airspace system.

It seems both agree that the infrastructure need some fixing. However, I do remember Obama saying the same thing when Clinton was Secretary of State. Plus, I remember that huge stimulus plan. However, I didn’t see any improvement in America’s infrastructure.

Healthcare Reform:

Trump:

1. Completely repeal Obamacare and individual mandate.
2. Enable the sale of health insurance across state lines to create competition
3. Allow individuals to fully deduct health insurance premium payments from their tax returns under the current tax system.
4. Review basic options for Medicaid and work with states to ensure that those who want healthcare coverage can have it.
5. Allow individuals to use Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Contributions into HSAs should be tax-free and should be allowed to accumulate. These accounts would become part of the estate of the individual and could be passed on to heirs without fear of any death penalty.
6. Require price transparency from all healthcare providers
7. Block-grant Medicaid to the states and have states manage the administration of Medicaid
8. Remove barriers to entry into free markets for drug providers that offer safe, reliable and cheaper products.

Clinton:

1. Expand Obamacare
2. Keep individual mandate
3. Expand Medicaid
4. Expand Healthcare to illegal immigrants
5. Double funding for community health centers

The differences between the two could not be more different here. Clinton wants to greatly expand the government’s role in healthcare. Plus, despite the cost, inconvenience, and overall ineffectiveness of Obamacare, she wants to expand it in the face of major healthcare carriers like UnitedHealth and potentially Blue Cross/Blue Shield dropping it. Plus, who will pay for this massive expansion of government healthcare? You, the tax payer.

Veterans Administration:

Trump:

1. Ensure our veterans get the care they need wherever and whenever they need it.
2. Support the whole veteran
3. Fire the corrupt and incompetent VA executives
4. Modernize the VA, and by
5. Empower the doctors and nurses to ensure our veterans receive the best care available in a timely manner.
6. Increase funding for job training and placement services (including incentives for companies hiring veterans), educational support and business loans.
7. End waste, fraud and abuse at the VA
8. Hire more veterans to care for veterans
9. Embed satellite VA clinics in rural and other underserved areas

Clinton:

1. Ensure access to timely and high quality care and block efforts to privatize the VA
2. Build a 21st-century Department of Veterans Affairs to deliver world-class care.
3. Make the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill a lasting part of our social contract
4. Overhaul VA governance to create a new veteran-centric model of excellence

It seems as if the two agree. Our veterans need the respect and healthcare services that they deserve and have earned. Any other platform would just be simply un-American!

Immigration: In 2011, the Government Accountability Office found that there were a shocking 3 million arrests attached to the incarcerated alien population, including tens of thousands of violent beatings, rapes and murders.

Trump:

1. Build a southern wall
2. Triple the number of ICE officers.
3. Nationwide e-verify.
4. Mandatory return of all criminal aliens.
5. Detention—not catch-and-release. Send them back
6. Defund sanctuary cities
7. Enhanced penalties for overstaying a visa.
8. All illegal aliens in gangs should be apprehended and deported.
9. End birthright citizenship
10. Increase prevailing wage for H-1Bs to ensure Americans get hired first
11. Requirement to hire American workers first.
12. Applicants for entry to the United States should be required to certify that they can pay for their own housing, healthcare and other needs before coming to the U.S.
13. Increase jobs program for inner city youth by cutting the J-1 visa program
14. Increase standards for the admission of refugees and asylum-seekers
15. Before any new green cards are issued to foreign workers abroad, there will be a pause where employers will have to hire from the domestic pool of unemployed immigrant and native workers.

Clinton:

1. Keep a wide open border
2. Do not enforce the immigration laws in the book
3. Grant illegals a legal status
4. Create an easy pathway to full and equal citizenship
5. Close private immigration detention centers

Remember, a nation without a border is not a nation. Although immigration has been used to enhance our great nation, it has become a huge economic burden to the tax payers and a threat to the national security. What will America become if we have no borders? The answer is not a viable country any longer. It will increase the size of the welfare state and increase the amount of terrorists entering the country. Welcome to Hillary’s America!

Military:

Trump:

1. Strengthen/Rebuild the U.S. military and make it great again
2. Deploy military appropriately in the East and South China Seas
3. Destroy ISIS

Clinton:

1. Create a defense budget that reflects good stewardship of taxpayer dollars
2. Invest in innovation and capabilities that will allow us to prepare for and fight 21st-century threats.
3. Stick with our allies
4. Increase diplomacy
5. Build stronger ties with Cubans
6. Hold China accountable
7. Stand up to Putin

Unfortunately, neither candidate had much written on their web pages about their plans for the military, terrorism, or ISIS. However, we all have seen how Obama/Clinton created ISIS through their early withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. Not only was ISIS created but also Iran’s influence in the Middle East has grown, and they have pushed their borders into previous Iraqi held territory. Plus, Hillary claims to want to stand up to Putin. Wasn’t she is office when Putin annexed Crimea, and wasn’t she responsible for them obtaining uranium? Is that really standing up to him?

The facts above speak for themselves. Do you want a weak country without borders, self-respect, or a viable foreign policy or do you want to make America great again not only her but abroad? The answer is simple.

TRUMP

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