2016 Postmortem

portlander23

(2,078 posts) Mon Oct 12, 2015, 11:32 PM Oct 2015

4 big differences among the leading Democratic candidates ahead of Tuesday's debate

4 big differences among the leading Democratic candidates ahead of Tuesday's debate
Max Ehrenfreund
The Washington Post

The minimum wage

O'Malley and Sanders support a national floor on wages of $15 an hour ... Clinton has not said exactly how much she thinks workers should be paid at a minimum.

Social Security

Another unanswered question is what Clinton thinks should be done about Social Security. Sanders and O'Malley have both called for more generous benefits for retirees.

To pay for expanded benefits, O'Malley and Sanders have suggested increasing taxes on workers with incomes above $250,000. Sanders has additionally proposed a tax on capital gains in excess of that figure, so his plan would likely do more to improve Social Security's finances over the long term. The program's trustees have forecast that Sanders's proposal would allow beneficiaries to be paid in full for the next five decades or so.

The big banks

... Clinton's proposal did not go as far as O'Malley and Sanders on the question of bank regulation ... Clinton's husband repealed that law, known as the Glass-Steagall Act, during his presidency. It's one decision he made that his wife does not intend to reverse. Clinton's liberal critics say the end of Glass-Steagall was partly to blame for the recent financial crisis, a position that many Democratic economists reject. O'Malley and Sanders would ask Congress to reenact it, forcing major financial institutions to sell off desks doing business in the wrong category.

The guns

Clinton and O'Malley both argue for stricter gun control. Clinton would require not just customers at licensed gun dealerships to submit to a background check, according to a plan published by her campaign, but also some sellers doing business online or at gun shows.

O'Malley's proposal goes even further. He would require authorities to fingerprint anyone who wants to buy a gun, and he would make it illegal for any American under the age of 21 to possess a handgun.

In 1993, soon after his election to the House of Representatives, Sanders voted against the Brady bill, which first established the background-check system. More recently, he voted to expand background checks after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and he has consistently supported a ban on assault weapons.

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