From the Business Section of The Chicago Tribune
Factbox: Highlights of the Democratic Party election platform
Reuters–Tue, Sep 4, 2012
Charlotte, North Carolina (Reuters) - The Democratic Party late on Monday unveiled its election platform, a non-binding political document that party delegates will vote to adopt at the national convention in Charlotte on Tuesday evening.
The document highlights a sharp divide in the economic and cultural agendas of the Democratic and Republican parties going into the November election.
The platform seeks higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans, backs same-sex marriage and a woman's right to have an abortion.
Below are some principles highlighted in the document called "Moving America Forward."
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
The Democratic Party platform supports gay marriage and equal rights for gay couples, marking a significant change from the party and Obama's stance four years ago.
The party's platform calls for a full repeal of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and is against constitutional amendments seeking to define marriage as between one man and one women, as the Republican platform supports.
"We also support the freedom of churches and religious entities to decide how to administer marriage as a religious sacrament without government interference," the platform document said.
ABORTION
The platform supports a woman's right to seek a "safe and legal" abortion, regardless of her ability to pay.
"We oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right," the platform said. "Abortion is an intensely personal decision between a woman, her family, her doctor, and her clergy -- there is no place for politicians or government to get in the way."
The Republican Party's anti-abortion platform states that an unborn child has a fundamental right to life and makes no exceptions for pregnancies as a result of rape or incest.
MEDICARE
The Democratic Party opposes Republican plans to overhaul Medicare, the popular government-run healthcare program for the elderly, which Republicans argue is unsustainable.
"We will block Republican efforts to subject Americans' guaranteed retirement income to the whims of the stock market through privatization," the platform document said, adding that nearly 50 million Americans rely on the program yearly.
The platform backs Obama's signature healthcare law. Its supporters say it improves care and benefits and aims to find cost savings by lowering reimbursements to hospitals and insurers and eliminating waste.
In other sections the platform calls for building on the healthcare law, which the Republican platform vows to work to repeal.
TAXES
Democrats call in their platform for extending tax cuts for the families who earn less than $250,000. The platform document notes the typical family has saved $3,600 during Obama's first term.
Obama is also fighting to extend tax relief for working families and people paying for college, while asking the wealthiest and corporations to "pay their fair share" -- a common refrain in his election pitch to voters.
The Democrats' plan says Romney tax proposals could raise taxes on typical families by at least $2,000, would cut taxes for those making over $3 million by an average of $250,000 and would create incentives to send jobs overseas.
The Republican platform pushes tax reform, broadening the tax base and lowering tax rates, which Republicans say will jump-start growth.
DEFENSE
The platform defends military funding cuts due to the harsh fiscal climate but says Democrats are committed to a strong military presence to ensure its global leadership and national security.
As commander in chief, President Obama has brought the war in Iraq to a close, dealt blows to the Taliban, and killed leaders of militant group Al-Qaeda, including Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, the platform said.
America and its allies have laid the foundation for a drawdown in Afghanistan and have begun bringing troops home.
"With the support of our allies, the President has outlined a plan to end the war in Afghanistan in 2014," the platform says, adding that the United States will not build permanent bases in Afghanistan.
Republicans have criticized the Obama administration for cutting military funding and being weak against nations facing international sanctions, such as Iran.
IMMIGRATION
The platform document said the American immigration system is in need of comprehensive reforms. Republicans are blamed for blocking past efforts.
Democrats seek to repair the system in a way that brings "undocumented immigrants out of the shadows" and requires them to "get right with the law, learn English, and pay taxes in order to get on a path to earn citizenship."
The Republican platform calls for a mandatory nationwide requirement that employers verify the legal status of their employees and rejects any amnesty for illegal immigrants.
(Full text of platform:
(Reporting By Eric Johnson; Editing by Alden Bentley)
FACTBOX-Highlights of the Republican Party election platform
August 27, 2012|Reuters
Aug 27 (Reuters) - The Republican Party has finalized its election platform, a non-binding statement of principles that will come up for a vote on Tuesday at the national convention in Tampa, Florida.
Many of the Republican delegates who have shaped the platform are among the party's most conservative members and reflect its move toward the right in the past decade.
The views in the platform may be more conservative than the party's politicians will ultimately pursue to win votes in the Nov. 6 general election.
Below are some highlights of the principles as defined by the platform committee and drafted in a document obtained by Reuters.
THE FEDERAL RESERVE
Many Republicans have put pressure on the party to step up transparency of the Federal Reserve. The platform incorporates language pressing for an annual audit of the Fed's activities.
"Such an audit would need to be carefully implemented so that the Federal Reserve remains insulated from political pressures and so its decisions are based on sound economic principles and sound money rather than on political pressures for easy money and loose credit," the draft platform said.
However, the careful wording in the section did not make clear whether monetary policy would be exempt from the audit.
GOLD
The party wants to create a commission to look at possible ways to set a fixed value for the dollar, 40 years after President Richard Nixon ended its link to gold.
The commission would be similar to that created in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan to consider restoring the convertibility of the dollar into metal. That commission advised against such a move in the end.
ABORTION
The party's anti-abortion platform has remained little-changed since 2004. The position states that an unborn child has a fundamental right to life that cannot be infringed, making no exceptions for pregnancies as a result of rape or incest.
The 2012 platform also adds that the Republican Party supports a "human life amendment" to the Constitution, which gives unborn children the same right to life as all Americans.
The anti-abortion language was approved by the platform panel with little discussion amid unflattering headlines caused by U.S. Representative Todd Akin, a Senate candidate in Missouri who had posited that women's bodies have a way to protect them from impregnation after "legitimate rape."
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY VALUES
The platform called for a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one women, and opposed the Obama administration for supporting same-sex marriage.
The party also said it supports education for teenagers to teach them that abstinence from sexual activity until marriage is the "responsible and respected standard of behavior."
The platform opposes school-based clinics that provide referrals, counseling or related services for abortion and contraception.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
The platform promises to get tough on China for "manipulating" its currency by allowing the Commerce Department to slap duties on Chinese goods if Beijing does not change its practices to let the yuan rise more quickly against the dollar.
It also promises a stronger effort to fight counterfeiting of U.S. goods and other forms of intellectual property theft in China and around the world.
ENERGY POLICY
The platform said the Republican Party is committed to domestic energy independence and said public officials must encourage responsible development of natural resources.
Criticizing the Obama administration for threatening to bankrupt anyone who builds a coal-powered plant, the platform said Republicans would encourage development in the sector, including coal-to-liquid, coal gasification and related technologies for enhanced oil recovery.
The platform supports offshore energy development along the East Coast and favors opening the Outer Continental Shelf for energy exploration and development. The platform criticized Obama for blocking the Keystone XL Pipeline, a project to carry Canadian oil sands crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast that has drawn concern from environmentalists.
NATIONAL SECURITY
The platform said unstable governments in Iran and North Korea are "determined to develop nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching the United States" which could put a nuclear weapon in the hands of a terrorist group. As a result, the Republicans believe the United States should not abandon a missile shield.
The party also said the United States needed to maintain an effective strategic nuclear arsenal at a "level sufficient to fulfill its deterrent purposes".
It said the United States must lead the effort to prevent Iran from building and possessing nuclear weapons.
HEALTHCARE
The platform said Republicans would prioritize repealing Obama's sweeping healthcare law which includes the controversial requirement that all Americans must have health insurance.
The platform supports a market-based health insurance system. It seeks to reform the system so states regulate local insurance markets and care for poor citizens who cannot afford healthcare through a reformed Medicaid system.
Republicans propose restructuring Medicaid for the poor and Medicare for the elderly. It proposes changing Medicare from its current "defined-benefit entitlement model" to a "premium-support model" which would give the elderly a government contribution toward private coverage.
The platform also calls for raising the age eligibility for Medicare but does not specify what age.
IMMIGRATION
The platform committee approved language that satisfies conservatives' stance on immigration, calling for a mandatory nationwide requirement that employers verify workers' legal status and denies "any forms of amnesty" for illegal immigrants in the United States.
The position calls for stricter border security enforcement and supports "human procedures" to encourage illegal immigrants to voluntarily self-deport.
The position does not support the Dream Act, legislation stalled in Congress that would put students who are illegal immigrants on a path to permanent residency.
TAXES, MORTGAGE INTEREST RATE
The platform urges fundamental tax reform, broadening of the tax base and lowering tax rates to spur growth and job creation.
It calls for an extension of the Bush tax cuts pending reform of the tax code to keep tax rates from rising. It also proposes a reduction of marginal tax rates by 20 percent across-the-board and an elimination of taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains for lower and middle-income taxpayers.
As part of doing away with tax loopholes, Democrats charge Republicans would have to turn to some important middle-class tax breaks such as the popular mortgage-interest deduction. The Republican platform includes a caveat that if they cannot achieve broad tax reform, they would preserve the mortgage interest deduction, which encourages home ownership.
(Reporting by Deborah Charles, Alister Bull, Kim Dixon, Doug Palmer and AlinaSelyukh; Editing by Todd Eastham and Jim Loney)