Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney
Texas Gov. Rick Perry
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
Economy:
Romney plans to lower taxes, with less regulation, a balanced budget and more trade deals to spur growth. He proposes to replace jobless benefits with unemployment savings accounts. He’s offering a repeal of the Dodd-Frank Act toughening financial-industry regulations and he wants to change the law tightening accounting regulations in response to corporate scandals, to ease the accountability burden on smaller businesses.
Perry wants to spur the economy by repealing regulations, Obama’s health care law and the law toughening financial-industry regulations after the meltdown in that sector. He plans to create jobs in the energy sector by removing obstacles to drilling and production. He also wants to cut corporate taxes.
Gingrich wants to repeal the 2010 financial industry and consumer protection regulations that followed the Wall Street meltdown, and repeal the 2002 regulations enacted in response to the Enron and other corporate and accounting scandals. He aims to restrict the Federal Reserve Bank’s power to set interest rates artificially low. He seeks to make work training a condition of unemployment insurance and have states run it.
Immigration:
Romney believes that immigrants who have been in the country for many years should be able to sign up for permanent residency or citizenship, but those who want full citizenship should leave the country first until they are granted citizenship. On this issue, Romney claims to be the most conservative candidate in the nomination race. He wants to build a physical fence between the United States and Mexico.
Perryis endorsed by Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona because of his experience working to secure the Texas border, an unparalleled effort among the Republican candidates. As governor, he signed legislation to grant children of illegal immigrants in-state tuitions at some Texas universities.
Gingrich suggested that some illegal immigrants might earn the right to become legal citizens. He suggested a modified draft system as a process of granting citizenship. He attacked Barack Obama for failing to control the Mexican border, as president and called for humane immigration policies, compared to the other Republican candidates. He believes immigrants in the U.S. should be tried on a case by case basis.
Health Care:
Romney promises to work for the repeal of the federal health care law, modeled after his universal health care achievement in Massachusetts. He aims to let insurance be sold across state lines to expand options, and restrict malpractice lawsuits to restrain health care costs. He plans to introduce undetermined subsidies to help future retirees buy private insurance, instead of Medicare. His Massachusetts plan requires people to have coverage, penalize those who don’t and penalize businesses of a certain size if they do not provide coverage to workers.
Perry plans to repeal the Obama health care law. He aims to raise eligibility age for Medicare benefits, limit benefits for the wealthy and give people the choice of receiving federal aid. As Texas governor, he signed a law to allow Texas to band together with other states and take over the role of providing health care coverage for the elderly, the poor and the disabled.
Gingrich aims to repeal Obama’s health care law. He plans to limit medical lawsuits to restrain health care costs and let people in one state buy policies in another. He plans to block-grant Medicaid and send it back to the states. He previously supported proposals that would make people required to carry health insurance.
Foreign Policy:
Romney’s first foreign trip will be to Israel, to show the world the country cares about that country and that region, because of the Obama administration’s handling of Israel on the campaign trail. Romney said Iran would obtain a nuclear weapon if Obama is reelected.
Perry repeatedly said that in his potential administration, foreign aid for all countries would “start at zero dollars.” He said Pakistan is sending messages that “they don’t deserve our foreign aid.” “It’s time for us as a country to say no to foreign aid to countries that don’t support the United States of America,” he said. “I don’t trust them.” Gingrich hailed Perry’s idea as exceptional.
Gingrich takes his foreign-policy beliefs from the 1980s, particularly the “Reagan-John Paul II-Thatcher strategy” of aggressive, rhetorical democracy promotion. Despite his goal of promoting democracy abroad, he is against U.S. intervention in the Libyan conflict, after altering his position in March.
President Barack Obama: When he first ran in 2007, his high priorities were health care for everyone, ending the war in Iraq and social security. While serving his first term as president, Obama signed several legislative pieces, such as the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal and the Affordable Care Act, into law.
Economy: He supports the American Jobs Act, which would cut payroll taxes and introduce work programs to reduce joblessness. Obama also wants to raise taxes on wealthy Americans.
Immigration: Obama supports the DREAM Act and immigration reform. However, his administration deported a record number of undocumented immigrants in 2010.
Health Care: Obama supported the Affordable Care Act, which requires individuals to purchase health insurance, states to organize high-risk patient insurance exchanges, and prohibits insurance companies from dropping clients based on pre-existing conditions.
Foreign Policy: Obama has seen foreign policy successes with the death of Osama Bin Laden and the successful overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya after U.S.-backed NATO intervention. As promised in his 2008 campaign, Obama ended the combat mission in Iraq in August 2010.
Herman Cain: Following sexual harassment scandals and accusations of infidelity, businessman Herman Cain dropped out of the GOP presidential race Dec. 3. Despite his exit from the race, Cain denies that he sexually harassed female employees as leader of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s and that he conducted a 13-year extramarital affair with Ginger White. Cain said that he chose to suspend his campaign because he could no longer discuss policy issues with voters without questions over his personal life becoming involved. Cain said that he has always had a Plan B, and that he will soon launch a website called “The Cain Solution” in order to promote his 9-9-9 tax plan. He also announced that he will endorse another GOP candidate for the presidential nomination.
