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Obama vs. McCain: Children’s Issues
By Tyler Peckham
Now that it has become clear who the presumptive nominees will be for the Democratic and Republican national parties, it is important to learn where they stand on the issues. As the election this November comes closer and closer with each day, the Philadelphia Children’s Foundation has decided to take a closer look at our two next possible presidents – Barack Obama and John McCain – to see how they match up on key children’s issues. Remember that when us adults go and vote this November that it is our votes that will choose who represents our children.
Barack Obama has made a number of promises while on the campaign trail to help families and their children if elected. One of the key differences between himself and Senator McCain is that he has spoken in favor of expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act so that companies over 25 people (currently it’s 50 employees or more) are required to provide leave for employees based on family related issues. He would also allow for time to be taken off based on elder care or domestic violence, both of which currently are not covered. In addition, he has pledged to set up a fund for individual states to set up individual paid-leave systems, allowing for workers to take paid leave for family problems. He also supports age-appropriate sex education for children in schools, stressing that children should be taught abstinence as well as basic knowledge of contraception to better prevent teen pregnancies.
Obama also supports the belief that parents should have control over what comes over the airwaves and the Internet. While he said that his daughters right now are mostly watching Nickelodeon, “they know how to work a remote.” He feels parents should have the final say on kids watching increasingly more violent television and playing violent video games. He has also sponsored bills in the past that would ban lead in children’s toys.
John McCain takes a similar stance on the issue of parental control over the Internet, television, and video games. He advocates parents taking an active role in filtering what media children are exposed to, and supports initiatives to allow that. This includes a labeling policy for video games and music to inform parents of inappropriate content. Despite this, in 1999 McCain did just the opposite, voting YES to kill an amendment that would have prohibited the distribution of violent video programming to the public during hours when children are reasonably likely to comprise a substantial portion of the audience.
In education McCain supports charter schools and teaching a set of “virtues” in every school. He has also made statements supporting higher pay of teachers, and to create a pool of retirees that would be able to give back to the community by tutoring students.
One of the biggest differences between Obama and McCain is their split on the idea of universal health care. Obama has stated that he would try to implement a universal health care by the government. This means that his program would make sure that every American has health coverage. McCain has stated that he would not mandate coverage for American citizens, and has instead offered a possible tax credit $5,000 to cover health costs. Some have stated that this could result in health care companies hand-picking their clients, leaving certain Americans with sub-standard health care, despite the credit. At the same time, critics assess that Obama’s plan will lead to a lower standard of health care for Americans. Although these differences are important to research, both candidates have come out with ideas meant to help ease the costs of health care for Americans and their children.
The Philadelphia Children’s Foundation encourages you to do more research on each candidate, and we hope that this article has informed, or at least perked your interest about, this upcoming election.
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