Torch, Spring/Summer 2008

Higher costs for energy and food last year pushed inflation up by the largest amount in 17 years. Energy costs rose by 17.4 percent this past year while food costs rose by 4.9 percent. Both were the biggest increases since 1990. Gasoline prices were up 29.6 percent, the biggest increase since 1999 when prices rose by 30.1 percent. John McCain desires to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. He believes this action will provide a longer-term stimulus to personal purchasing power and will result in a more sustained recovery in the economy. Democrats favor a quick end to the tax cuts and the restoration of larger amounts of funding for entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the potential provision of a universal, federally funded health care program. Further, they see another increase in the minimum wage as a more effective way to increase the purchasing power of the American consumer than a permanent tax cut. The War in Iraq/The War on Terror America’s fight against terrorism is viewed by many to be the most important policy question in this election. For more than six years we have been spared from a second September 11. Maintaining and enhancing that protection will be the most important job of the next president. The surge, President Bush’s strategy for Iraq that just passed its first anniversary, appears to be accomplishing many of its goals and laying important groundwork for military and political initiatives yet to be fulfilled in a war that is now in its fifth year. This plan called for more than 20,000 additional troops on the ground in Baghdad and Anbar province, increased responsibility for the Spring–Summer 2008 9 A U.S. Army soldier talks to an Iraqi boy while providing security during a humanitarian mission in Iraq Sept. 27, 2007. Iraqi police forces were giving gifts to the children to help strengthen their relationship with the local populace. U.S. ARMY Photo/Sgt. Amanda Davis