Barack Obama

Obama would try to grow the economy through job-creating investments in infrastructure, energy, education, and healthcare. The American Jobs Act, his proposed $447 billion stimulus package for job creation and economic growth, includes $250 billion in tax cuts and $200 billion in spending on infrastructure, unemployment benefits, and aid to states.

Obama supports ramping up border security and penalizing companies that hire undocumented workers while also expanding immigration quotas.

Obama has said that the Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party movements are “not that different.” On both sides of the political spectrum, he said, “people feel separated from their government. They feel that their institutions aren't looking out for them.”

Obama favors reducing America’s dependence on oil; he’d like to see U.S. oil imports fall by a third by 2025. He would invest in the development of biofuels, renewables, natural gas, and low-emissions coal plants.

Obama supports the right to legal abortion, ended “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and has said that his stance on gay marriage is “evolving.”

Obama supports maintaining Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. He says Medicare and Medicaid are in line for some “modest adjustments” that include minimizing “wasteful subsidies” and “erroneous payments.” Obama also favors speeding up the approval of generic drugs and revising the way healthcare providers are compensated, envisioning higher pay for doctors with improved outcomes.

Obama supports approaching the debt problem with a combination of spending cuts and tax revenues.

Obama defends his foreign policy record, which includes killing Osama bin Laden and winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He opposes the use of waterboarding and torture more generally, and favors a "steady, determined” approach to “isolating the Iranian regime."