Iraq
“It was a mistake, in my view, to vote the way we did five years ago on that resolution.”
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“When you consider all the issues on the table, the reputation of our country in the world today, the lack of safety and security as a result of our policy in Iraq, I found it stunning tonight on the Iraq issue, quite candidly, that leading candidates were unwilling to say they intend to have our troops out of that country by 2013. I thought we all understood here, at least I believed this to be the case, that our safety and security, our isolation and vulnerabilities are directly related. We`re turning Iraq into an incubator for Jihadists. The policy is not working, we need a change of direction and the idea that you are unwilling to make a clear statement about your willingness to redeploy those forces out of Iraq in the next 6 years, I found breathtaking considering how important it was to voters last fall in electing a Democratic Congress to make a difference. That`s the issue tonight that I found rather remarkable.”
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“This is a civil war in the country. There's never been a military solution that was going to be achieved by ourselves there. I'm for beginning withdrawal and completing the process by April of next year.”
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“I'll offer that language, in fact, that we terminate the funding.”
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“The Iraqis are going to have to take responsibility for their future. This, in my view, is a strategy for success in Iraq. This is a reasoned and responsible approach. It is realistic. This is not cut-and-run. The alternative is for more of the same, in my view--endless occupation, violence, instability, and the erosion of America's global leadership and national security.”
Other Foreign Policy Issues
“We're allowing Hugo Chavez to win a public relations battle in Latin America, because we don't invest enough and care enough about people who are suffering in this part of the world.”
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“We've got major facilities in Kuwait and Qatar, we've got a major issue in Afghanistan that we don't hardly talk about. But we know that this is deteriorating. The Taliban is emerging more strongly than ever. Al-Qaida seems to be fine. Here's Osama Bin Laden issuing proclamations from either Pakistan or Afghanistan. And so, we need a major effort there; it's still the epicenter of terrorism. So I'd begin that process as soon as I possibly could.”
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“Certainly what we've done over the last 50 years I don't think has worked. Fifty years of this policy, of the embargo has basically left the same man in power, the same repressive politics, an economy that's been failing in the country. He has been using that as an excuse for his own failures. As president, I would begin to unravel that embargo. I would lift travel restrictions, so Cuban Americans can go visit their families. I would be lifting the restrictions on remissions. We need to understand that the hopes and aspirations of the Cuban people are as important as anything to us. We need safety and security; we need not fear Fidel Castro.”
Climate Change/Energy
“Well, I think I'm the only candidate at this dais here this evening that supports the corporate carbon tax. … Certainly, none of us would like to have to impose a tax, but you can't be serious about global warming unless you're going to make the price differential, because as long as it's cheaper to use fossil fuels, we're not going to move to these alternative technologies and fuels.”
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“We spend $300 billion a year, Chris, on buying foreign oil. $60 billion to $100 billion of that $300 billion come from nations who are very hostile to our interests. I think it's very little to ask here to put a tax on polluting emissions. It would allow these alternative ideas to be competitive with them economically. Let's get away from that Middle Eastern dependency on oil. Let's develop our own technologies -- the solar energy, the wind, the biodiesel, the biofuels, the geothermal -- all of these ideas that can really make a difference for our country, reduce global warming, reduce the health hazards, and become an independent nation when it comes to our energy needs. You can't do that unless there's a carbon tax. That's the big difference. I know it's tough.”
Healthcare
“In the last six years, those who have health insurance have watched their premiums go up 87 percent in cost in the last six years. It is now consuming well over 16 percent of our gross domestic product in the country. Let me even get more specific. The price of a GM automobile has a $1,500 health-care cost for every automobile. Compare that with a Toyota. The health-care cost per automobile is $150. So beyond the problems that Americans are facing who either don't have health care or are having to watch their costs go up, it is having a huge impact on our economy as well. Therefore, a universal plan that drives down costs, spreads out the risk, which is what I'm advocating here, a plan that I think I can achieve within four years of my inauguration.”
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“I'm looking at a possibility of also requiring at age 55, for instance, a physical exam 10 years before you'd qualify for Medicare so that we could make a determination as to whether or not things like smoking, diet, and so forth are going to contribute to the cost of that chronic illness and the Medicare dollar.”
Education
“I'm an advocate of universal pre-K.”
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“I'm an advocate of—and offered this most recently—of a free community-college education, and I do that by offering a match to any state that will equal 50 percent of that cost.”
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“I'm a believer that we need to have fundamental reform of No Child Left Behind, and start measuring growth, not abandoning schools that aren't doing well, and providing far less rigid criteria when it comes to highly qualified teachers. I would like to see that we apply additional resources to teachers who will go into the tougher schools in rural or urban America, where they need better teachers coming in, and provide some additional incentives for them, including pay & including the criteria that they have to meet to do so.”
Homeland Security
“Terrorism's a real issue. It's going to require a collective effort on behalf our nation working with others to make a difference. Terrorism is a tactic, it's not a philosophy, and it's going to require an inordinate amount of cooperation to solve that. Having the kind of first responders at home like the firefighters and police and EMS services that have the tools and the ability to stand up and defend our country has not been funded. While we haven't been attacked, I think we're vulnerable today more so than we were right after 9/11.”
Family
“I believe that civil unions are appropriate and proper. I don't support same-sex marriage. And the distinction there is one of what the traditions are over the years. But, basically, that's a distinction I make. Strongly support those civil unions.”
Taxes/Fiscal Policy
“We also need to make sure we don't allow these tax cuts (President Bush’s tax cuts for high income tax bracket) are going to become permanent in this country. We ought to put a stop to that. I'm hoping we will in the Congress. Providing that kind of benefit for the people at the very top levels would be a mistake.”
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“We're going to need some at least, not repeal of the estate tax, but to moderate it. But if we were to totally get rid of that, there would be a tremendous loss of revenues for the country.”
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“Fixing Social Security is a big job. To begin, we have to cut government waste where it exists in order to free up much-needed capital. By rolling back tax cuts for the wealthy, curtailing practices of giving billions of dollars in tax giveaways to big oil companies and prosecuting contractors who fraudulently billed the United States government for hundreds of millions of dollars for services they did not perform in Iraq, finding the billions of dollars, some of it in cash, that was pledged for Iraqi reconstruction and is now unaccounted for, we might have far less to worry about in terms of fully funding Social Security, not to mention our nation’s schools and broken health care system.”
Illegal Immigration
“We're a nation of immigrants here. We have succeeded in no small measure because we have been a welcoming people here. We also understand we cannot tolerate 400,000 to 500,000 people coming to this country as undocumented workers each year. We need to have a far better system in place that stops that flow coming in, to deal with the 12 million to 20 million who are here illegally.
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If in the meantime here we're dealing with children, we're dealing with crime problems, we're dealing with health issues at the local community, then you need to allow these locals communities to do that. If it means temporarily engaging in a sanctuary protection here, then so be it if that protects our country. In the meantime, we need to have national leadership, a president who would be able to bring together the Congress and could pass the kind of immigration laws that we, frankly, don't have on the books today.”
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“By eliminating the main reason for illegal immigration — access to jobs — the number of illegal immigrants will go down. As president, I will go to the source of the problem – poverty and instability in nations south of our border. I will speak to leaders in their native tongues to carve out a solution that strengthens all of us. That is what a president does.”
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