The 2024 presidential election is just days away, and candidates are doing everything they can to convince voters to support them. However, many of the actual policies that the candidates support are often lost in the constant battle of personal attacks. The Wire has compiled a list of policies from both party platforms on some of the top issues facing America today, so voters can have a better understanding of what each candidate wants to accomplish in office.
Republican Party. Ticket: Donald Trump/JD Vance
Diplomacy
The Republican party’s approach to diplomacy involves heavy spending on the military including building an “iron dome” missile defense system for America. The Republicans also want to make our allies pay their fair share into international organizations such as the UN and NATO. They plan to find a diplomatic end to the war in Ukraine, and bring peace to the Middle East.
Abortion
The Republican Party believes that the issue of abortion should be left up to individual states. They believe that unborn children have a right to life and shouldn’t have that taken away from them. The Republicans intend to oppose late term abortions while supporting policies that advance prenatal care, IVF, and access to birth control.
Health care
Republicans plan to reduce healthcare costs by promoting increased market competition. They plan to protect Medicare and ensure that healthcare remains affordable for seniors. The Republicans also plan to make healthcare more affordable by deporting millions of immigrants, who they believe to be one of the main drivers of healthcare prices.
Economy
The Republican economic plan involves continuing the Trump tax cuts passed in 2017. The main economic policy that they want to pass is implementing high tariffs on the prices of foreign goods. Republicans believe that high tariffs will generate revenue for the government while promoting companies to move their operations to the US.
Education
Republicans want to place a big emphasis on parental rights in education. This involves policies like removing federal funding for public schools with “woke” policies such as critical race theory. Republicans also want to close the Department of Education and leave its operations up to the states.
Immigration
Republicans intend to “seal the border, and stop the migrant invasion” and “carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.” They plan to increase funding to continue building Trump’s wall. They also want to deport all illegal migrants currently in the country.
Climate change
The Republican platform doesn’t really address climate change. The closest it comes is highlighting a commitment to invest heavily in oil and nuclear power to make the US energy independent.
Democratic Party. Ticket: Kamala Harris/Tim Walz
Diplomacy
The Democratic party wants to cooperate with US allies to defend nations such as Ukraine from autocratic dictatorships, and promote free trade throughout the globe. They support a strong NATO alliance.
Abortion
Harris promises to protect reproductive freedom for all women. She will ensure that a national abortion ban will not go into place. She will also sign a bill that restores the protections of Roe v. Wade if passed by Congress.
Health care
Harris plans on making the Affordable Care Act permanent and expanding it. She is focused on increased transparency and competition between health care providers. To increase credit scores of the average American she plans to erase medical debt from credit reports. Her administration will make the $35 cap on insulin and $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket costs available to all Americans.
Economy
The Democratic Party’s approach is focused on a bottom up approach, aimed to strengthen the middle class. Harris plans on solving the housing shortage by partnering with the private sector to build 3 million new homes, partnered with that, Harris’s Administration plans on providing $25,000 in down-payment assistance to help create more homeowners in America. The Democratic Party is also focused on the growth of small businesses. To aid in this she has proposed increasing tax deductions in the first year of start up businesses from $5,000 to $50,000.
Education
The Democratic party will provide free and universal preschool for 4 year olds. They plan on investing in other forms of higher education like career and technical education. The Harris administration plans to wipe out student loan debt through mass debt relief, as well as an increase in Pell Grants by increasing the amount of students receiving them. They will work on subsidizing tuition at minority serving institutions.
Immigration
Harris plans on signing a bill that removes loopholes in the asylum process. She plans to bring back the bipartisan security deal which will provide “more than 1,500 additional U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel, more than 1,200 additional Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, more than 4,300 additional asylum officers, and 100 additional immigration judges.” She also believes that a reform in the immigration is needed to form more possible pathways for citizenship.
