Too many issues, so little time. Students who still have not decided who they will vote for Tuesday can decrease mental anguish by evaluating John McCain and Barack Obama based on the three Es of the 2008 presidential election for students.

Education

John McCain proposes that the federal government and the individual states expand the number and dollar amount of loans they are offering to college students. The aim of McCain’s plan is to ensure that students who attend college are able to stay in college, even if their private loans are not renewed for the following school year because of the global financial crisis.

He also plans to reform federal laws regulating private lenders to better protect students from predator lenders.

McCain will encourage other college-aged students who are not currently enrolled at a higher education institution to seek enrollment by offering them enough money in federal loans to cover the price of in-state tuition in their respective states.

Lastly, McCain plans to reform FASFA so college students and their parents have better access to loans and grants and knowledge about the financial aid process overall.

McCain plans to fund these initiatives by eliminating earmarks and simplifying the higher education tax benefit process so more families understand how they can claim and obtain them.

Christian Morgan, executive director of the Kansas Republican Party, said the key to understanding McCain’s proposed education policies was realizing that eliminating earmarks and reducing deficit spending increased the amount of money the government had at its disposal to spend on higher education.

“He’s not going to give away the farm like Barack Obama is for everyone in college,” Morgan said. “When you reform the overall system, you will find certain cost savings that can be applied to that.”

Barack Obama will allow most college students to exchange 100 hours of community service for the first $4,000 of tuition costs. Obama’s Web site does not explain which students would be ineligible for this tax credit.

Obama’s higher education plan is also meant to provide a means for students who are financially unable to attend college to afford the first year of their schooling. According to Obama’s Web site $4,000 is enough to cover the cost of the first year at an in-state community college and two-thirds of a year at most state colleges.

“I think it’s a good start, but it’s rather vague,” said Jonathan Earle, associate director for programming at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics.

Allan Cigler, professor of political science, said Obama’s education plan was not meant to be a fix-all.

“The aim isn’t to pay you for doing that,” he said of the community service. “The aim is to make students feel they have a stake in the system . . . I don’t think anybody is going to do that stuff for the money itself.”

Obama also plans to get rid of FASFA entirely. Obama plans to amend tax-filing forms so that families need only to mark a box to authorize their tax information to be used when obtaining student loans.

Earle said he thought McCain had given up on trying to win college-aged voters, which is why McCain’s higher education program was not as helpful to college students as Obama’s.

“I wouldn’t say that’s because John McCain doesn’t care,” Earle said. “You have to divide you resources evenly. He’s not counting on you guys to vote for him in large numbers – it’s a political calculation.”

Cigler said students should not expect too many educational incentives from either candidate when it comes down to it.

“I would think the main challenge for college students in affordability and given the resources the country has right now, I wouldn’t think it’s a high priority,” Cigler said.

Economy

John McCain will cut corporate taxes from 35 to 25 percent to encourage American business to stay in the United States instead of relocating overseas to countries with lower tax rates.

If all goes according to McCain’s plans, the tax cut will pay for itself because fewer businesses will relocate and thus more tax revenue will be brought in by big businesses overall. This will supposedly create more job opportunities for Americans as well.

Even though McCain’s plan does not directly affect certain groups of Americans, such as college students, he thinks that a more stable economy will help all Americans obtain and retain jobs.

“He believes, rightly so, that when you keep taxes low, companies are able to build more and better-paying jobs, and isn’t that why kids go to school these days?” said Christian Morgan, executive director of the Kansas Republican Party. “You can go to college and learn all you want, but its nearly pointless if you can’t get a job afterwards.”

McCain also plans to revitalize the unemployment system, changing its primary focus from financial support to retraining and re-employing people without jobs.

Obama’s most commonly known economic plan is to cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans who make less than $250,000 a year.

Jonathan Earle, associate director for programming at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, said he thought Obama’s economic plan would help students more than McCain’s would because McCain’s plan hinged on job creation, not direct economic relief.

“I actually don’t think it works as smoothly as that,” Earle said. “I don’t know any college students, not a single one, that makes more than [$250,000].”

Obama will continue to push for passage of the Patriot Employer Act of 2007, which he cosponsored, as well. The act will give companies tax credits for increasing the number of Americans working for the company relative to the number of employees working overseas, paying decent wages and maintaining their corporate headquarters in the U.S., among other positive business practices.

Obama will also stop giving businesses whose headquarters are overseas tax reductions, he states will save taxpayers billions of dollars.

Obama also plans to raise the minimum wage and the Earned Income Tax Credit. Obama’s Web site states that he plans to adjust the tax credit to inflation and the realistic cost of living.

He also plans to double funding for Manufacturing Extension Program, which works to improve the efficiency, technology and growth of manufacturers in the U.S. According to Obama’s Web site, the program helped create and protect more than 50,000 jobs in 2006.

“I think what everybody has to decide is which of these two men can handle this economic crisis — And there, you’re making a guess,” Cigler said. “It’s going to be hard for either candidate to put tax incentives and other initiatives into place.”

Energy

Jonathan Earle, associate director for programming at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, said the importance of becoming independent from foreign oil was clear the United States.

“You hear the chant at the rallies ‘drill, baby drill.’ There is a real desire even among the younger generation to do something here at home and to become more energy independent,” he said.

McCain believes in exploring and exhausting all alternative fuel options before settling on only one. McCain’s plan to drill in Alaska for oil is often misinterpreted as his only plan to reduce the United States’ dependency on foreign oil.

“The price of oil has plummeted because the oil speculators notice that there is a strong thirst for domestic drilling,” Christian Morgan, executive director of the Kansas Republican Party said, but then added, “You can’t just limit yourself and refuse to look at all options. All options have to be on the table to bring energy independence to the U.S.”

McCain projects that other nations with nuclear power, such as North Korea, are not going to discontinue using nuclear power to produce energy, so he argues that the U.S. should begin using nuclear energy as well. McCain hopes to begin the creation of 45 nuclear power plants with a 2030 construction deadline, and create 100 new plants in the U.S. altogether.

McCain indicates that not only will this plan push the U.S. towards energy independence — it will create about 700,000 new jobs. McCain also posits that his clean coal inactivate will create 30,000 new jobs.

As far as coal is concerned, McCain’s Web site states that the government would invest $2 billion a year in clean coal research. The investment would play for itself because the U.S. could sell its model to other countries.

His plan for renewable energy is not as detailed. McCain said he would give homeowners who utilized wind, hydro and solar power tax credits; however he does not say how much said credits would be and whether they would be enough to cover the installation costs of this technology.

McCain’s administration would offer a $300 million prize to the first company that can create battery technology for the commercial use of cars that would power fully electric automobiles and plug-in hybrids.

According to McCain’s Web site battery-powered cars would cost individuals 30 percent less to run than gas-powered cars at current prices.

McCain also supports the creation of alternative gasoline sources and fuel flex vehicles, which can run on gasoline in addition to other fuels. He has also proposed a reduction on tariffs on these materials so we can use them to produce fuel.

Obama also supports the creation of Plug-in hybrid cars. His goal is to have a million electric powered cars in use by 2015.

Additionally, Obama will give individuals a $7,000 tax credit for purchasing advanced technology vehicles; however, his Web site does not define the conditions of this credit.

He will also require that 10 percent of electricity be powered by renewable energy by 2012 and 25 percent by 2025. Obama has not said how much money he would refund to tax payers for using renewable energy either.

Earle said he was leery of both candidates’ energy plans because neither candidate had outlined their proposed policies in full detail.

“I don’t know if I oppose [nuclear power] so much, but what makes me nervous is what you do the nuclear waste product. No one that I know has come up with a great, safe way to dispose of nuclear waste,” Earle said of McCain’s plan. But on the other hand he said of Obama’s plan, “Right now I’d love to put solar panels on my house and get heat for free, but those cells are really expensive.”

Obama will force oil companies to develop what he estimates to be $68 million acres of already leased but undrilled on land, or return the land.

Obama supports the creation of clean coal technology as well, but he favors a cap-and-trade system, which he projects will reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

The system would set the amount of carbon emissions each company can release. The catch is that companies who use less than the mandated emissions cap could sell their remaining credits to other companies, encouraging companies to reduce the amount of emissions they use to both save and gain money.

Conclusion

Cigler said that in the end, students needed to decide which candidate to vote for based on their individual characteristics, not the issues.

“What we should look at is something about how these people would react in a crisis situation,” he said. “Would they fall back not on their ideology, but their character?”

Cigler said concerns about McCain included his lack of energy and impulsive decisions, but Obama could be seen as too slow to respond and he has no real executive experience.

Earle said the philosophical differences between the candidates should be apparent to potential voters at this point in the election process.

“We really do have a choice between two very different candidates, with two very different temperaments,” he said.

— — Edited by Tara Smith