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Save This Page• What matters to Richmond area
With campaign staffs on the ground and television commercials under way, the presumptive major-party presidential nominees have begun to discuss issues that may be of particular interest to Virginia voters.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch asked Richmond-area residents what issues they wanted the candidates to focus on.
Answers included high gas prices, the war in Iraq and the economy.
Taking note of the high gasoline prices, Republican John McCain has changed his position and now wants to allow oil companies to drill off the nation's coasts, if the affected states approve. Federal officials estimate as much as 3 billion barrels of oil lie underground 50 miles off the coasts of Virginia, Delaware and North Carolina. There is a federal moratorium on drilling.
"We have trillions of dollars worth of oil and gas reserves in the U.S. at a time we are exporting hundreds of billions of dollars a year overseas to buy energy," the Arizona senator says on his Web site, www.JohnMcCain.com.
On www.BarackObama.com, the Democratic senator from Illinois says this is "a gimmick" that will "grow our addiction further."
He has proposed higher fuel standards for cars and investing $150 billion over the next 10 years in alternative sources of energy, such as wind power, solar power and advanced biofuels.
He wants to tax excess profits of oil companies and use the money to help families pay their energy bills.
McCain also wants to invest in alternative-energy sources and proposes building 45 nuclear power plants. He opposes subsidies for corn-based ethanol and tariffs on imported ethanol.
The two candidates remain divided on the Iraq war. Although he says mistakes have been made in the implementation of the war, McCain has been in favor of the war. He was one of the foremost proponents of the military surge. The surge is working and Obama should acknowledge this, he says.
Obama opposed the Iraq war from the beginning but was not in the U.S. Senate when the war began and did not have to vote on the military action. He has called for withdrawing American troops, a brigade or two a month, within 16 months. He would not build permanent bases in Iraq.
McCain has said troops may have to be kept in Iraq for years. There should be only limited withdrawals until the country is stabilized, he says.
Both senators voted for the recent legislation extending the GI Bill to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, although McCain initially had reservations because he thought it would encourage personnel to leave the military service.
Virginia has one of the largest military presences in the country. Both candidates want to expand the size of the military but do not specify by how much.
Here's how the two candidates stand on other issues:
Virginia's economy, buoyed by defense spending, has remained better than the national economy. The unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the nation. There have been about 4,800 foreclosures, well below the national average.
Obama: He wants to cut income taxes by $1,000 for working families to offset the Social Security tax. He wants another economic stimulus package, with new tax relief of $300 per family. He would establish a $10 billion foreclosure-prevention fund to help homeowners facing the loss of their homes. He would eliminate the income tax for all seniors making less than $50,000 a year.
McCain: He would double the personal tax exemption for each dependent from $3,500 to $7,000. He wants to extend President Bush's tax cuts, which are scheduled to expire in 2010. He would create a new mortgage plan to allow hard-pressed homeowners to retire the existing loan and replace it with a loan guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration. He would reduce the federal corporate income tax from 35 percent to 25 percent.
Obama: He wants to expand preschool and Head Start funding and reform No Child Left Behind by fully funding the program. In higher education, he would create the opportunity tax credit to ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is free for most Americans.
McCain: He believes parents should be allowed to choose where their children go to school. He thinks all federal financial support should be predicated on providing parents the ability to move their children from failing schools. He does not address higher education.
Obama: He believes in full disclosure of earmarks. In his first three years in the Senate he proposed $740 million in earmarks, of which about one-third were approved. The biggest program was $10 million for a military arsenal at Rock Island, Ill.
McCain: He has never sought earmarks and would veto them if elected.
Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6780 or twhitley@timesdispatch.com.
