It is an issue that is not being addressed. We are losingthe war on drugs because we are bnot defending our boarders plus of course JOBS!

What Barack Obama has done so far... - Crack Down on Employers: Obama championed a proposal to create a system so employers can verify that their employees are legally eligible to work in the U.S. - Fix the Bureaucracy: Obama joined Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) to introduce the Citizenship Promotion Act to ensure that immigration application fees are both reasonable and fair. Obama also introduced legislation that passed the Senate to improve the speed and accuracy of FBI background checks. - Respect Families: Obama introduced amendments to put greater emphasis on keeping immigrant families together. What he and Joe Biden want to do... Create Secure Borders Obama and Biden want to preserve the integrity of our borders. He supports additional personnel, infrastructure and technology on the border and at our ports of entry. Improve Our Immigration System Obama and Biden believe we must fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill. Remove Incentives to Enter Illegally Obama and Biden will remove incentives to enter the country illegally by cracking down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants. Bring People Out of the Shadows Obama and Biden support a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens. Work with Mexico Obama and Biden believe we need to do more to promote economic development in Mexico to decrease illegal immigration. Additional info: http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/ImmigrationFactSheet.pdf Source: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/immigration/ What John McCain says he has done so far... "As you know, I and many other colleagues twice attempted to pass comprehensive immigration legislation to fix our broken borders; ensure respect for the laws of this country; recognize the important economic contribution of immigrant laborers; apprehend those who came here illegally to commit crimes; and deal practically and humanely with those who came here, as my distant ancestors did, to build a better, safer life for their families, without excusing the fact they came here illegally or granting them privileges before those who have been waiting their turn outside the country. Many Americans did not believe us when we said we would secure our borders, and so we failed in our efforts. I don't want to fail again to achieve comprehensive immigration reform." Source: http://www.johnmccain.com/informing/issues/68db8157-d301-4e22-baf7-a70dd8416efa.htm What he has actually done... Once Deal is Reached, McCain Jumps on the Immigration Bandwagon After a deal on immigration reform was reached in the Senate, McCain, "who has distanced himself from the negotiating table as he prepares to stress a borders-first approach for his presidential run," reemerged to participate in the press conference with Sens. Kennedy, Kyl, and others. McCain noted, "I'm proud to have been a small part," of the deal. Source: The Hill, 5/18/07; New York Times Political Blog, 5/17/07 Republican Blasted McCain for Parachuting In at the Last Minute Republican Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) called out McCain for being "out of line" by choosing to "parachute in" at the last minute to take credit for the current immigration bill in the Senate despite not sitting in on negotiations all year. McCain exploded under the pressure of his failed balancing act by accusing Cornyn of "making a 'chickens-t' argument" and shouting to Cornyn, "[Expletive] you!" Source: Washingtonpost.com, 5/18/07; Roll Call, 5/21/07 McCain Backed Out of Leadership Role on Immigration Reform "Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who until recently joined Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, in pushing for a compromise in overhauling immigration, has moved away from a lead role on the issue in the Senate." Source: New York Times, 4/22/07 McCain Said He Would Reconsider Position on Immigration "As he left Iowa, Mr. McCain said he was reconsidering his views on how the immigration law might be changed. He said he was open to legislation that would require people who came to the United States illegally to return home before applying for citizenship, a measure proposed by Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana. Mr. McCain has previously favored legislation that would allow most illegal immigrants to become citizens without leaving the country." Source: New York Times, 3/20/07 McCain Abandoning Immigration Reform with Ted Kennedy Because of Conservative Pressure "McCain's hesitancy about joining [Senator] Kennedy on the same issue they worked together on in the previous Congress," the Boston Globe reported, "speaks to an emerging dynamic in the Republican presidential race. McCain has encountered anger from hard-line immigration foes on the campaign trail, particularly over an aspect in last year's bill that would have allowed most undocumented immigrants to work toward citizenship." Source: Boston Globe, 3/22/07; New York Times, 3/20/07 2003: McCain Said "Amnesty Has To Be a Component" of Immigration Reform The Politico reported that "McCain himself embraced the term ["amnesty"] during a news conference a few years ago in his office in Tucson, Arizona, "McCain Pushes Amnesty, Guest-Worker Program," reported the Tucson Citizen of May 29, 2003. The senator is quoted as saying: 'Amnesty has to be an important part because there are people who have lived in this country for 20, 30 or 40 years, who have raised children here and pay taxes here and are not citizens. That has to be a component of it.' The newspaper also quoted McCain as saying: 'I think we can set up a program where amnesty is extended to a certain number of people who are eligible and at the same time make sure that we have some control over people who come in and out of this country.'" Source: The Politico, 6/4/07 McCain Championed the McCain-Kennedy Earned Legalization Immigration Bill in a Nationwide Tour and Urged Immigrants To Take To The Streets In Support Of It Alongside Ted Kennedy, McCain pushed their immigration bill which focused on "earned legalization" for illegal immigrants. The bill allowed for all illegal immigrants passing a background check and paying fines and fees to register as guest workers to obtain a visa "which could be renewed once, would be valid for three years. Then the immigrant would have to return to his home country or be in the process of getting legal residency status[.]" McCain championed his bill in New York city at "a boisterous multiethnic rally in support of his legislation" and "at a packed town hall meeting" in Miami with "more than 1,000 cheering and chanting supporters." In Miami, McCain "urg[ed] all to garner grass-roots support for the bill" and said to the supporters, "You've got to work not only here in Miami-Dade and around Florida but around the country" for the McCain-Kennedy bill to prevail. Source: Houston Chronicle, 5/27/05; Associated Press, 2/28/06; Miami Herald, 2/24/06 2007: While Pushing the Immigration Reform Bill, McCain Argued That Amnesty "Didn't Work" in the 1980's Defending new immigration reform legislation, McCain argued, "It requires six years of working, and then eligibility for a green card and five years after that. That doesn't fit any definition of amnesty. In fact, it's very, very tough and that's a major provision of it. That's not amnesty. We tried amnesty in the 1980's and it didn't work. This is fine, penalty, working, passing background checks. It's not amnesty, its earned citizenship. That's what it is." Source: ABC, Good Morning America, 3/29/06 Conservatives Derided McCain-Kennedy Immigration Plan as "Shamnesty" Conservative political writer Tom Bevan wrote that McCain's stance on immigration reform made no sense if he was trying to win conservative votes. Bevan wrote, "Many conservatives have long since deemed McCain's immigration proposal 'shamnesty,' a derisive term meant to conjure up unfavorable comparisons with the dreaded Simpson-Mazzoli bill of 1986." Bevan added that "if McCain is really concerned about conservatives staying home in November, how can he think that passing a comprehensive immigration bill, opposed by large numbers of conservative activists in districts all over the country, is something that will help improve Republican prospects? It makes little sense." Source: foxnews.com, 7/30/06 McCain Criticized Federal Funding for Border Security Earmarks in Arizona In 2001 and 2002, Senator McCain criticized federal funding for projects that would be used by border and law enforcement agencies to increase security measures. McCain listed opposition to earmarks for several projects in Arizona that included a detainee facility in Prescott, a border guard service processing center in Florence, a sector headquarters in Tucson, and border patrol stations in Yuma and Douglas. Source: McCain Release, 9/13/01; 2001 & 2002 Congressional Pig Book McCain Criticized Federal Funding For Border Patrol And Border Fence Earmarks In Arizona In 2003, Senator McCain criticized $25.6 million for construction of a U.S. Border Patrol station in Tucson, Arizona. A Republican congressman from Tucson said White House officials requested money for it in their budget, but McCain deemed the project as wasteful spending because it didn't go through proper legislative channels. In addition, McCain's 2005 Congressional Pig Book criticized $500,000 in federal funding for the construction of a border fence in Nogales, Arizona. Source: Gannett, 4/10/03; 2003 & 2005 Congressional Pig Book McCain Said Border Couldn't Be Fully Protected Because Good Jobs Would Continue to Drive Illegal Immigration "We're not going to have a secure border as long as there's this kind of attraction of jobs into the United States of America. Our border between Arizona and Mexico is long, it's desolate and it cannot be fully protected 24 hours a day." Source: McCain Press Conference, 7/25/03 John McCain Voted Opposite 35 Republicans to Force The United States to Consult with Mexico Before Securing the Border John McCain voted for Arlen Specter's amendment to force consultation with Mexican officials before acting to protect the U.S. border with Mexico. The amendment required that the U.S. Secretary of State, and federal, state and local law enforcement "shall work with the appropriate officials from the Government of Mexico" on "improved border security." Additionally, "federal, state and local representatives in the United States shall consult with their counterparts in Mexico concerning the construction of additional fencing and related border security structures along the international border, before the commencement of any such construction[.]" The amendment passed by a vote of 56-41; McCain voted "yea" in support of the amendment and against 35 of his Republican colleagues who voted against the amendment. Source: S.Amdt. 4188, Vote #156, 5/25/06; CR S5259, 5/25/06 McCain Missed Vote Key to Republican Base on Border Security John McCain missed a vote on an amendment that would have required the DHS to certify that the border was secure before the implementation of a guest-worker program. This amendment, which was supported by a majority of the Republican caucus and "would have bent the bill toward the enforcement emphasis favored by the House," failed. Source: Senate vote #121, S.Amdt. 3961, senate.gov, 5/16/06; Los Angeles Times, 5/17/06 McCain Downplayed the Importance of His Guest Worker Proposal to Appease Border Security Hawks in his Party When faced with increased criticism about his guest worker proposal from Republicans, McCain acknowledged that security was the priority and reasoned that the other provisions of his reforms could come later. "We all know that border enforcement is the first and foremost requirement because it's a national security issue. As long as we agree that it's a comprehensive approach that should be taken, I mean, after all, are you just going to leave 11 million people here illegally washing around in our society? I don't think so. Then I think it's negotiable as to when those programs could kick in. They do take time to set up." Source: ABC News, 7/2/06 McCain Called Implementing Deportation of Illegal Immigrants a "Fantasy," and said Supporting "Report To Deport" Policy Was "Insane." In reasoning the need to document illegal immigrants, McCain said it was unrealistic to expect undocumented immigrants to voluntarily surface leave the country. "The reality is 11 million people are not going to voluntarily come out of the shadows just to be shipped home. 'Report to deport' is not a reality and isn't workable" McCain said, and noted that the idea "borders on fantasy." McCain reasoned that the administration would be "insane" to support a 'report to deport' policy, and called such a policy "a not too appealing opportunity" for immigrants. Source: Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, 7/26/05; Roll Call, 10/6/05; NPR, 3/31/06 McCain Voted Against McCain-Kennedy and in Support of a "Report To Deport" Provision McCain voted against cloture on the Specter Amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act which had "embraced the thrust of" the McCain-Kennedy bill. Instead, McCain threw his support behind a Republican sponsored compromise that "requires illegal immigrants who have been in the United States between two years and five years to return to their home country briefly, then re-enter," but "those in the country less than two years would be required to leave without assurances of returning, and take their place in line[.]" Such a policy has been labeled as "report to deport." McCain claimed his vote was driven by politics, reasoning his vote saying "he would not bow to the Democrats' tactics and vote to end debate" on his own bill. Source: 109th Congress, S. Amdt. 3192, Vote #88, 4/6/06; San Francisco Chronicle, 3/17/06; AP, 4/6/06; Washington Post, 10/18/05, 4/6/06

Thank you for putting the condition in your question. Good luck with that. My opinion is that anything run by the government is a scary thing. I believe Obama wants public healthcare, so I would have to say based on that, I'd have to go with McCain. Although, I haven't heard anybody come up with an actual good plan for it.

Our government is already spending the same amount on health care that it would take to provide the same health care coverage for all citizens as Canadians have for all citizens. It makes sense to me that everyone should have healthcare. The one payor system takes the HUGE amount of waste on administration of health care in the U.S. to a very small percentage, allowing those dollars to go to actual health care, not the insurance companies. Obama.

Neither one! The only way to ruin healthcare completely is to get the government involved more than it already is involved!! The way to fix healthcare is to have more people obtain educations and good paying jobs, so that the healthcare industry doesn't spend billiions of dollars taking care of people that contribute little or nothing to society but then expect wrold-class healthcare. Healthcare is fine, but it costs money. People need to expect to pay for it. If we make it free, then that's exactly what it will be worth!

McCain Obama's will reduce overall quality and quanity.

Congratulations on raising the tone of the Answerbag Presidential Election Debate. I'm afraid I can't quote many facts, but the article at the link indicates to me that McCain's plans would boost insurance company profits and doctors' salaries, although I'm impressed with his aim to create access plans for Americans with expensive chronic conditions and those denied health insurance coverage. Obama's Plans would also boost doctors' salaries, but would also try to offer benefits similar to those in federal employee health plans to more people. So I would prefer the Obama approach, although I must confess to not being a US citizen, living in a country with what many US citizens call a "socializes healthcare system", so my opinion is probably worth very little. http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/09/01/gvsa0901.htm

B. Obama has stated: "My plan begins by covering every American. If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change for you under this plan is the amount of money you will spend on premiums. That will be less. If you are one of the 45 million Americans who don't have health insurance, you will have it after this plan becomes law. No one will be turned away because of a preexisting condition or illness.” http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/ J. McCain has stated: While still having the option of employer-based coverage, every family will receive a direct refundable tax credit - effectively cash - of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families to offset the cost of insurance. Families will be able to choose the insurance provider that suits them best and the money would be sent directly to the insurance provider. Those obtaining innovative insurance that costs less than the credit can deposit the remainder in expanded Health Savings Accounts. http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/19ba2f1c-c03f-4ac2-8cd5-5cf2edb527cf.htm Dr. Ron Paul has stated: As a medical doctor, I’ve seen first-hand how bureaucratic red tape interferes with the doctor-patient relationship and drives costs higher. The current system of third-party payers takes decision-making away from doctors, leaving patients feeling rushed and worsening the quality of care. Yet health insurance premiums and drug costs keep rising. Clearly a new approach is needed. Congress needs to craft innovative legislation that makes health care more affordable without raising taxes or increasing the deficit. It also needs to repeal bad laws that keep health care costs higher than necessary. We should remember that HMOs did not arise because of free-market demand, but rather because of government mandates. The HMO Act of 1973 requires all but the smallest employers to offer their employees HMO coverage, and the tax code allows businesses – but not individuals – to deduct the cost of health insurance premiums. The result is the illogical coupling of employment and health insurance, which often leaves the unemployed without needed catastrophic coverage. http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul339.html Bob Bar - Libertarian Party has stated: Our health care policy should be reformed based on the principle of consumer-oriented health care. Regulations which mandate insurance coverage and inflate premiums should be eliminated. Controls which unduly restrict competition within the health care industry, and that limit access to insurance across state lines, should be ended. Moreover, current tax policy, which is biased towards employer-provided, comprehensive health insurance, should be reformed, encouraging individual purchase of less costly catastrophic policies. Federal health care programs, most notably Medicare and Medicaid, have become financially unsustainable. These programs need to be transformed to emphasize patient choice, focus on the truly needy, and add cost-saving incentives. Here, too, market principles should be applied to bring better quality health care at less cost. http://www.bobbarr2008.com/issues/health-care/ PS: It is impossible to enclose all issues, please read the enclosed links.

I was wondering why everyone was talking about Health Care. Somebody who can't read flagged your two questions as duplicates. Nitwits.

OK I guess this is more of an opinion then a fact but simply Obama will be WAY better for the America's image (which needs a TOTAL facelift right now) AND not because he's black but for the simple fact that he is NOT Republican.