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Hillary Rodham Clinton wants to ease the pocketbook pinch caused by high gas prices by suspending the 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal gas tax for the three summer months.
“Middle-class families are facing devastating choices every day between buying groceries and filling up their gas tanks.” she said. “These families need immediate relief. … The typical family could get $70 in relief, and families that drive more for work could get even more.”
Barack Obama calls that a “political gimmick” that Republican presidential candidate John McCain cooked up. He said Clinton adopted the idea because it's politically popular but economically meaningless because it would save drivers only 30 cents a day and cost thousands of jobs.
A better approach, he said, is to invest money in developing alternative fuels and increasing the mileage standards automakers have to meet. Clinton also supports higher mileage standards.
Clinton called for a windfall tax on oil companies to pay for the gas tax holiday. Obama said there's no way to ensure that oil companies wouldn't jack up their prices to make up the difference.
The gas tax holiday is one of the few policy areas that split the two Democratic candidates sharply as they fight to what pollsters say likely will be a photo-finish race Tuesday.
Among the other issues the candidates have discussed with Hoosier voters:
Clinton voted for use of military force in Iraq but now says she would have voted differently “if we knew then what we know now.”
Obama was not in the Senate when it authorized the war in 2002 but says he opposed it at the time. He said he would withdraw one or two brigades a month, which would take 16 months to fully disengage from Iraq.
Both candidates voted for a war spending bill that would have withdrawn most U.S. troops by March 2008 and opposed President Bush's plan to send additional troops to Iraq.
Both Clinton and Obama supported the Bush-backed immigration legislation, which included a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants. In addition, it would have increased funding and improved border security technology and improved enforcement of existing laws. Both also voted to authorize construction of a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexican border.
Clinton advocates a freeze on foreclosures to help relieve the housing crisis. Obama says that approach would drive up interest rates and keep other people from getting mortgages.
Both candidates endorsed legislation to help homeowners whose houses are worth less than their mortgages. Clinton also wants the federal government to buy those mortgages and reduce payments to a level homeowners can afford.
Both rivals say they would renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, which lifts most barriers to trade with Mexico and Canada. Clinton says she would invoke a “timeout” on other trade agreements.
Neither was in Congress when NAFTA was negotiated and advocated by President Clinton. Hillary Clinton said she argued against it in the White House; Obama said he would have opposed it if he had been in the Senate.
Obama promotes a health insurance system that would allow people who have coverage to keep it. People whose employers don't provide it would be allowed to participate in the massive system open to federal employees. And people who can't afford the premiums would be subsidized.
Clinton's approach is nearly identical to Obama's. But under her plan, everyone would be required to have insurance. Obama would mandate coverage only for children.
Clinton said she would abolish the No Child Left Behind law, which requires schools to meet certain achievement levels. Obama would make changes but not eliminate it.
sylviasmith@jg.net
