Iraq
"When John McCain suggests that we might be there 100 years, that, I think, indicates a profound lack of understanding that we've got a whole host of global threats out there."
“It is a course [the surge in troops] that will not succeed. It is a course that is exacting an enormous toll on the American people, enormous toll on our troops who have performed brilliantly and done everything that's been asked of them and is not making us more safe because it continues to put strains on our military and prevents us from tackling al-Qaida in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
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“If there are still large troop presences in -- when I take office, then the first thing I will do is call together the Joint Chiefs of Staff and initiate a phased redeployment. We've got to be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in, but military personnel indicate we can get one brigade to two brigades out per month. I would immediately begin that process. We would get combat troops out of Iraq. The only troops that would remain would be those that have to protect U.S. bases and U.S. civilians, as well as to engage in counterterrorism activities in Iraq. The important principle, though, is there are not going to be any military solutions to the problem in Iraq. There has to be a political accommodation, and the best way for us to support the troops and to stabilize the situation in Iraq is to begin that phased redeployment.”
Other Foreign Policy Issues
“I don't believe that we are safer now than we were after 9/11 because we have made a series of terrible decisions in our foreign policy. We went into Iraq, a war that we should have never authorized and should not have been waged. It has fanned the flames of anti-American sentiment. It has, more importantly, allowed us to neglect the situation in Afghanistan. We know right now that al Qaeda is hiding in the hills between Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
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“And we've got to unify the American people, getting them to come together around a long-term national security strategy in which stabilizing Iraq is only a part. It also has to include going aggressively after al-Qaida and has to include restoring or standing in the world and particularly among Muslims all around the world.”
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“I make an absolute commitment that we will do everything we need to do to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. One of the things we have to try, though, is to talk directly to Iran; something that we have not been doing. And one of the disagreements that we have on this stage is the degree to which the next president is going to have to engage in the sort of personal diplomacy that can bring about a new era in the region. And that means talking to everybody. We've got to talk to our enemies and not just our friends.”
Climate Change/Energy
“The issue of climate change is one that we ignore at our own peril. There may still be disputes about exactly how much we're contributing to the warming of the earth's atmosphere and how much is naturally occurring, but what we can be scientifically certain of is that our continued use of fossil fuels is pushing us to a point of no return. And unless we free ourselves from a dependence on these fossil fuels and chart a new course on energy in this country, we are condemning future generations to global catastrophe.”
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“Instead of subsidizing the oil industry, we should end every single tax break the industry currently receives and demand that one percent of the revenues from oil companies with over $1 billion in quarterly profits go toward financing alternative energy research and the necessary infrastructure.”
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“I don't think that we can take nuclear power off the table. What we have to make sure of is that we have the capacity to store it properly and safely, and that we reduce whatever threats might come from terrorism. And if we can do that in a technologically sound way, then we should pursue it. If we can't, we should not. But there is no magic bullet on energy. We're going to have to look at all the various options to reduce greenhouse gases and to put us on a path to energy independence.”
Healthcare
“"We know that as progressives we believe in affordable health care for all Americans, and that we're going to make sure that Americans don't have to choose between a health care plan that bankrupts the government and one that bankrupts families, the party that won't just throw a few tax breaks at families who can't afford their insurance, but will modernize our health care system and give every family a chance to buy insurance at a price they can afford."
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“My proposal says is we will set up a government program similar to the one that I utilize as a member of Congress, that anybody who wants to can buy into, that we will subsidize those who can't afford it. People who are currently uninsured who don't get health insurance from their job, who aren't covered by Medicaid or their children are not covered by the children's health-insurance program. That we will pay for those subsidies by imposing a set of cost-saving measures that will actually improve quality at the same time that they lower costs. So, critical examples would be putting more money into prevention so that we have people getting regular checkups as opposed to going to the emergency room for treatable illnesses like asthma. Using health IT, information technologies, not just for billing but for maintaining medical records, for communicating between doctors and nurses and pharmacists. To reduce errors and reduce bureaucracy. Managing the chronically ill. About 20 percent of the patients in our health-care system account for 80 percent of the costs. And if we manage them better with teams, then collectively all these savings we expect to be able to obtain, maybe $100 to $150 billion worth of savings each and every year. And we can use that money not only to provide health insurance for those who don't have it, but also to provide some relief on rising premiums for people who already have health insurance. We think that with a catastrophic insurance component we can provide a $2,500 reduction in premiums for the average family every year.”
Education
No Child Left Behind is "one of the emptiest slogans in the history of American politics.”
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“Across the board we're going to have to recruit a generation of new teachers. We're going to lose a million teachers as the baby boom generation retires over the next decade. That's both a challenge, but it's also an opportunity. Because the single most important ingredient in K through 12 education is the quality of the teacher at the front of the classroom. That means we're going to have to pay our teachers more, we going to have to give them more professional development, and we're also going to have to work with them rather than against them to improve standards. And it also means, I think, that we've got to provide bonuses for certain areas like math and science instruction where we just don't have enough teachers out as well as bonuses for teachers who are willing to teach in tough settings. Inner-city schools, rural schools. We've got to improve early childhood education, because that's the area where we can probably most effectively achieve the achievement gap that exists right now. We know that half our work force fairly soon is going to be black and brown, and those are the kids that are being failed most drastically by the school system. We've to step up, and the biggest thing we can do in addition to improving their teachers is also to make sure they've got the kinds of resources they need before they get to school so they're actually prepared.”
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“We must increase access to higher education, through increased grant aid, and improvements in student loan system, as well as by working to slow the rate of college tuition and cost increases. We must prepare students entering college with the skills they need to succeed. This starts with improving K-12 education, but colleges and universities can support marginal students who enter by working with schools to help them develop standards and instructional practices that make sure that high school graduates are college-ready.”
“I’ve consistently said I think we need to support charter schools. I think it’s important for us to experiment in terms of how teachers are compensated — working with teachers but looking at how we can reward excellence in classrooms.”
Family
"I think it is important for us to encourage churches and congregations all across the country to involve themselves in rebuilding communities. One of the things I have consistently argued is that we can structure faith-based programs that prove to be successful — like substance abuse or prison ministries — without violating church and state. We should make sure they are rebuilding the lives of people even if they're not members of a particular congregation. That's the kind of involvement that I think many churches are pursuing, including my own."
"There is one thing that I want to mention that I think is important. Part of what we've been seeing during the course this campaign is some scurrilous e-mails that have been sent out, denying my faith, talking about me being a Muslim, suggesting that I got sworn in the U.S. Senate with a Quran in my hand or that I don't pledge allegiance to the flag. I think it's really important for your readers to know that I have been a member of the same church for almost 20 years, and I have never practiced Islam. I am respectful of the religion, but it's not my own. One of the things that's very important in this day and age is that we don't use religion as a political tool and certainly that we don't lie about religion as a way to score political points. I just thought it was important to get that in there to dispel rumors that have been over the Internet. We've done so repeatedly, but obviously it's a political tactic of somebody to try to provide this misinformation."
Homeland Security
“[The US should] strengthen and improve intelligence capabilities. We must reform our domestic intelligence capabilities in a manner that balances the risks of impeding on the civil liberties of our citizens and increase international cooperation on all fronts. We should also give the Director of Intelligence the authority he or she needs over budget and personnel to be effective and accountable.”
Taxes/Fiscal Policy
"I respect that John McCain, in the first two rounds of Bush tax cuts, said it is irresponsible that we have never before cut taxes at the same time as we're going into war. And somewhere along the line, the `Straight Talk Express' lost some wheels and now he is in favor of extending Bush tax cuts."
Illegal Immigration
What I would do as president is pass comprehensive immigration reform, and the federal government should be doing what it's supposed to be doing, which is controlling our borders, but also providing a rational immigration system, which we currently don't have.”
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Barack Obama wants to preserve the integrity of our borders to reduce illegal immigration. He supports additional personnel, infrastructure, and technology on the border and at our ports of entry. Obama believes we need additional Customs and Border Protection agents equipped with better technology and real-time intelligence. However, enforcing our borders is only one step of comprehensive immigration reform. Despite tripling the size of the U.S. Border Patrol along the southern border between 1990-2005, the undocumented population doubled in size, the death rate of border crossings tripled, and the per-apprehension cost increased from $300 in 1992 to $1700 in 2002, according to the Center for American Progress.
To remove incentives to enter the country illegally, we need to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. Barack Obama has championed a proposal with Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), and Max Baucus (D-MT) to create a new employment eligibility verification system so employers could verify that their employees are legally eligible to work in the U.S., making it fair to legal workers and tougher on employers.
America has always been a nation of immigrants. There are millions of people living in the shadows that would like to fully embrace our values and become full members of our democracy. For the millions here illegally but otherwise playing by the rules, we must encourage them to come out of hiding and get right with the law. Barack Obama supports a system that requires undocumented immigrants that are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, not commit crimes, go to the back of the line for citizenship, and then after all those conditions are met, they would be granted the opportunity to stay in the United States.
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