The Money

When it comes to specific policy issues, Gore is also the better choice. Perhaps the most important domestic issues of this election year deal with taxes and social security.

Both candidates' tax plans have focused concern on middle-class and wealthy Americans rather than the poor, and neither plan contains an adequate proposal for general reform. But whereas Bush's plan shamelessly benefits the very wealthy, Gore's proposal supports a number of admirable programs. Gore has proposed to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, a program that rewards the working poor and softens the blow of welfare reform. Furthermore, the Gore's plan won't blow a hole in the budget; the Bush plan would cause deficits even if the budget surpluses materializes as expected. Still, neither plan does enough to address the current tax loopholes that benefit wealthy individuals and corporations. Closing the loopholes, which should be the priority of the upcoming administration, would mean a tax break for the working poor rather than the Fortune 500.

On Social Security, Bush's large-scale reforms, which partially privatize the program, are fraught with hidden risks and dangers. Although the lure of high returns from private investing might seem attractive, such promises assume an unreasonably bullish market and do not account for obligations to our current retirees--essentially spending the same money twice. In fact, the best estimates of Bush's plan show that it would cause a 20-year period of Social Security bankruptcy. The recent volatility of the stock market should make voters wary of such drastic privatization. Not to mention the fact that Bush's social security plan, like much of his fiscal policy, is unattractive to lower-income individuals who currently would earn lower returns with private accounts.

Gore's plan, by contrast, is more modest, and would prolong the program through 2050 with general revenues. As a promising alternative to privatizing social security, Gore has argued in favor of a separate program that would match savings of lower- and middle-income Americans with tax credits.