With the election finally here, many people are still deciding how to cast their vote, Hillary, Trump, or maybe a third party. In order to sort through the madness that is this election season, there’s nothing like a handy policy guide to lay out the policies of each candidate in a simple and easy to understand way. We will split their policies into 4 groups: taxes, economics, foreign policy, and social/green policy. We HIGHLY recommend doing some research on your own, but this is a great place to start.

Hillary Clinton:

Clinton has a long history of changing her position on issues such as gay marriage, Iraq, trade deals, and attitudes towards Syria, which may be revealing of her true character. Additionally, while her handling of emails was careless, the ruling not to indict is consistent with mens ra, a legal term that means that takes into account the intent of the accused. Since Hillary wasn’t trying to hide classified documents, she wasn’t indicted. Now let’s begin.

Hillary’s tax policy basically keeps it the same as it currently is, with a minor raise on the wealthiest people and the introduction of a caregiver tax cut, for people who are taking care of an elderly or sick person.  She is also increasing the capital gains tax, for people who make more than $400,000 per year. This tax plan will likely increase the national debt to by $200 billion in the next 10 years.

Hillary has a semi-hawkish foreign policy. She wants a no fly zone in Syria to protect civilians, however it could easily increase tensions with Russia, especially if they fly into it and get shot down. Hillary is in favor of military action across the Middle East, especially drones and air strikes to fight ISIS and terrorism. She wants to continue giving aid to Israel and Saudi Arabia, and to honor our treaties with Japan and South Korea. Hillary wants America to continue to be the main power in the world, but is not in favor of deposing Assad unless the international community is. Finally, she wants to spread women’s rights around the world and oppose Russia in Europe.

Hillary has a standard neo-liberal economic policy. She is in favor of free trade (although not the TPP) and wants to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.  She is in favor of NAFTA and wants to expand the Dodd-Frank bill, but doesn’t want to go as far as Glass-Steagle. She wants paid-family leave and an increase in workers benefits. She wants to strengthen the Affordable Care Act and decrease healthcare cost and may be in favor of a public option. She is not in favor of universal healthcare.

Hillary supports gay marriage and the ruling of Roe v Wade, protecting the right of a woman to an abortion. She wants more laws protecting the LGBTQ+ community and other minorities from perceived bigoted businesses and protecting Muslims from Islamophobia that is so expansive in our country today. She is in favor of spreading fracking around the world, which is harmful to the water supply and may cause earthquakes. However, Hillary does want to honor the Paris agreement, increase funding for the EPA, and create a 5 billion dollar stimulus package for green jobs.

Donald Trump:

As most of you have probably heard, Donald Trump said he committed sexual assault in his now famous “locker room talk” video. While he says it isn’t true, he does have a few sexual assault cases currently against him in court. Remember, these are allegations, not convictions.

Trump’s tax plan would cut taxes for most people, but it isn’t spread out evenly. Trumps tax plan would lower taxes by about 20 -25% for most Americans, which means that the richest are getting the biggest benefit. However, this also decreases the federal government’s budget and adds at least 2 trillion dollars to the national debt in the next 10 years. This is bad because it increases the US debt to over 100% of its GDP, which makes people lose their belief that the US will pay back its loans, which makes people lose faith in the US dollar, which is the world reserve currency, which could collapse the world economy on a massive scale. It is possible that Trump could avoid this but it is very unlikely.

Trump’s foreign policy can be confusing as he contradicts himself often. Trump is mostly non-interventionist, such as when he said that we should let Putin deal with ISIS and when he didn’t want to topple Assad in Syria. However other times he has said we should “bomb the families of ISIS” (civilians) and increase military spending by 500 billion in 10 years, so it’s a bit unclear exactly what he wants to do. Trump wants to ease tensions with Russia and work with Putin against ISIS. He wants to stop China from increasing its power in Asia and the South China Sea, and give nukes to South Korea and Japan to stop them.  He wants to rip up the Iran Nuclear Deal, which allowed the international community to inspect Iran’s nuclear reactors to stop them from getting a nuke, and stop Syrian refugees and ALL 1.6 billion Muslims from entering the U.S. temporarily, which is unconstitutional. He’s also pro-torture and wants to rip up the Geneva Convention.

Trump has an interesting economic policy, which is very different from most other republicans. He opposes free trade deals such as the TPP and NAFTA, and is in favor of a tariff to protect US industry, both of which most Republicans and Democrats don’t want. He wants to get rid of 90% of regulations and abolish the FDA and EPA, which protect your food and the environment. Trump wants to decrease funding for welfare programs and abolish Obamacare and replace it with “something else”.

Trump has a mixed social policy. He wants to overturn Roe v Wade and return abortion decisions to the states. However, he is in favor of protecting the lgbtq+ community in the job market and is okay with affirmative action “for now”.  Trump used to be in favor of decriminalizing most drugs, but now is only in favor of legalizing medical marijuana and leaving recreational marijuana to the states. By now, most people know Trump’s infamous immigration policy, but few realize “the wall” would cost $25 billion to just build, let alone staff and that there is no way to make Mexico pay for it without going to war.

So that’s Trump and Clinton. If neither of their policies really satisfied you there are 3 alternatives you can vote for. The likelihood of the alternative candidates winning is extremely low, but it is important to vote for whom you like in order to help their party to grow for the future. I will be briefly going over their policies here but if you would like to learn more the Internet is a great resource.

Jill Stein:

Jill Stein is running as the Green Party candidate and is extremely liberal. (Not neo-liberal there IS a difference.) She is in favor of universal healthcare, universal college, and decriminalization of most drugs at a federal level. She is in favor of more regulation, especially when it comes to the environment, higher taxes, and a more non-interventionist foreign policy. Think Bernie Sanders.

Gary Johnson:

Gary Johnson is the Libertarian candidate for president and is a typical libertarian. He wants smaller government and less taxes, regulation, and military spending. Gary wants an isolationist foreign policy and free trade with all countries. His most notable point is that he doesn’t want to abolish the EPA, making him less conservative than some other people in his party.

Evan McMullin:

Evan is running as an independent and has been very popular in Nevada and Utah, but nowhere else. He is your stereotypical Republican, wanting lower taxes, more military spending, less welfare, and more free trade. If you are a Republican but don’t like Trump, this guy may be for you.

While all these candidates are extremely different in ideology and style, they all agree on one thing. You should vote! Even if its not for Hillary or Trump, it is extremely important for you to vote! If you don’t, your voice and opinions won’t be heard and the politicians in Washington will have no reason to represent you. Voting is power, and to quote CGP Grey, “Without power, you can change nothing.”

Sources (Check them out):

https://thinkprogress.org/hillary-clinton-isnt-getting-indicted-here-s-why-cfda473444c3#.n3z6ov68a

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgicDQHbV3M

www.hillaryclinton.com

www.ontheissues.org

https://www.thebalance.com/hillary-clinton-2016-economic-plan-3305767

www.theguardian.com

www.donaldjtrump.com