The Republicans and Democrats each had debates last week giving the candidates a national forum to explain the policies they would pursue as our next President and lay out their vision for the country. And those competing visions highlight the contrast between the parties.
The Republicans discussed tax reform options to lower the burden and simplify the Tax Code. The Democrats promised to increase taxes on the "rich," but in practice, every worker could see their taxes go up: the proposal for a national paid leave entitlement benefit would be financed by a new payroll tax.
On the spending side, during the Republican debate, two of the candidates discussed options to balance the budget. Viewers also heard several candidates promote non-defense discretionary cuts as well as reform options that would slow the expected growth in outlays for entitlement programs. In the Democratic debate, very few spending cut ideas were presented, and on entitlements, the candidates vowed to "strengthen and expand" programs like the Affordable Care Act, or to replace it with a single-payer universal health care program.
The Republicans 4th Debate: Pricing the Proposals
Highlights:
A detailed line-by-line analysis is available as a pdf.
Generally speaking, in their second debate, the Democrats did not offer very many new specific spending-related proposals beyond those they presented in the first debate, which NTUF analyzed here. A full analysis from Saturday night will be forthcoming on CandidateCost.org.
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