NC Penguin

I thought I'd start a thread to ask both Americans and those who can't vote yet live in the US what their top five issues are for this year's Presidential election.

This was prompted by something I read in my local paper (Herald Sun, online) that Latino voters top issues are jobs and the economy. Immigration policies are not amongst the top priorities of this voting group. This surprised me.

So, I'll start the ball rolling with my top five (in no particular order)
the Iraq War
the domestic economy
healthcare
immigration
US education

Manc

1. Economy, jobs, benefits
2. Foreign Policy (iraq + general perception around the world)
3. Education
4. Environment
5. Crime
6. Responsible spending, reducing the deficit
7. Affordable health insurance for all.
8. Social Security

Yosser

Thats 8 Manc.........theres always one aint there

Lion in Winter

I think this depends a lot on whether they are people of "latino" extraction, or actual immigrants themselves. There are substantial differences of opinion between the two communities, but obviously the immigrant group has many fewer people with the vote.

Yosser

1. Healthcare
2. Healthcare
3. Economy
4. Education
5. Immigration

austin_d_powers

Can't vote but if I could:

1. Economy
Whichever party can keep big companies spending money on their IT budgets, I am a computer consultant.
Factors include fiscal responsibility (budget) and maintaining a feel good factor (consumer confidence).

2. Offshore Outsourcing
Whichever party can keep jobs in the US, especially high tech jobs.
Keeping jobs in the US, keeps the money circulating in the US, which physically helps the economy, not to mention the feel good factor which also helps the economy (see 1)

3. Iraq War
Whichever party can get the US out of Iraq as soon as possible.
Bill Clintons surplus has disappeared and the US debt is growing fast because of the "war" in Iraq. This will soon have a negative effect on the Economy (see 1.).
Some people will say that the economy benefits from the spending on the war, but the truth is that a few select people will make many millions of dollars (executives of Haliburton, etc), but most of the money spent will never generate a return for the US economy.

4. Education
Whichever party doesn't (yes, does not) do something to increase the supply of US citizens with high tech degrees.
OK neither party is going to do this any time soon.
In general high tech quality education is more important in other societies (like India, Japan) than it is in the US.
Keeping the supply low and demand high is good for me, but offshore outsourcing is still a problem (see 2).

5. Healthcare
Whichever party doesn't have free healthcare like the UK.
The healthcare industry has a hugh impact on the economy (also insurance and legal industries). If I should ever really need healthcare I could return to the UK.


To summarize: like most peoples top five issues money, money, money, money and more money.

As far as Latino voters (citizens) are concerned:
Jobs and the economy = money, money, money, money and more money
Immigration = Less jobs and worse economy = Less money.

rincewind

1) Healthcare
2) Jobs Economy
3) Ending the war in Iraq
4) Education
5) Reforging alliances

Yosser

[QUOTE=austin_d_powers]Can't vote but if I could:

5. Healthcare
Whichever party doesn't have free healthcare like the UK.
The healthcare industry has a hugh impact on the economy (also insurance and legal industries). If I should ever really need healthcare I could return to the UK.

QUOTE]

Not quite understanding this one? you would vote for the person that doesn't have free healthcare like the U.K? So your saying ***** the people that can't afford any type of healthcare here in the U.S then?

If you get sick you would go back to the U.K for treatment? so when you ticker plays up, your high tail it back to the U.K for free treatment?

Bob

1) Environment - costs of dealing with it, and spreading the costs more I guess.
2) Healthcare- Needs to address the "middle" class, people that work, but get shite benefits.
3) Education - "no kids behind" is BS, and it's to uneven across the board.
4) Immigration - Way to messed up
5) Foreign Policy - regards to Israel, Iraq and other trade issues related to EU etc.

Celtic_Angel

guess by reading all these you can safely say we all pretty much agree,
no body's stuck on the Vietnam thing, lesbian daughters, bad hair days and "gasp" forcing their religious beliefs on others...guess we're all a decent educated intelligent lot......now ain't it a damn shame we can't vote!!

anotherlimey

I'm hoping by this you mean an administration with a plan to pull out of Iraq as soon as possible while maintaining the country's stability. Lets not leave it like Afghanistan after the Russians were driven out.

I half agree with you here but I would extend it to all degrees. While the current administration tries to encourage everybody to get a degree I don't think it's necessary or that good for the economy. The reason being you end up with a huge over-educated middle class who think they all deserve good jobs and are unwilling to work in manufacturing etc.

Return to the UK, are you kidding? I think John Kerry has the right idea here, to try and get affordable health care for all, it doesn't necessarily have to be run by the government. It really pissed me off the other day when Bush made the comment about government run healthcare being worse than private healthcare when I can't really see a difference between Britain's and America's, you still wait for hours in A & E. Cuba has an excellent healthcare system, arguably better than the US'.

My finacee and her family, all Hispanic, are more worried about healthcare than jobs and the economy and unsurprisingly aren't too worried about immigration.

Just my $0.02.

-tom

Rockgurl

1) Gay marriage - can't sit by and watch Bush legalize discrimination.
2) Healthcare - the US definitely needs something akin to the NHS.
3) Economy - well...after all...money is the only thing Bush cares about.
4) The war. Just pull out of Iraq. Just let them all blow each other up and bring our girls and boys home.
5) Homeland security. This is not to be underestimated as a selling point.

AmerLisa

Healthcare
Foreign Policy
Jobs
Taxes
Education

Mine are not in any particular order. However, I am quite interested in something being done about healthcare. I'm American and we've just moved back to the US from the UK. To say I'm gobsmacked at the utter chaos of healthcare is an understatement. How Bush could have the gall to stand up and say a government run healthcare would provide bad healthcare - to millions of people who don't even have basic (good, bad or indifferent) healthcare, annoys the hell out of me.

Bob

Aye, would have to agree about that, it's alrigh for him when he can afford the best that there is to offer, but for many people that work and don't get decent insurance, it's a major pain, and also, unless your in a large town, healthcare can be very patchy and expensive.

veryfunny

Education
Environment (New fuel energy)
Quality paying jobs (better competition environment)
Foreign policy
health care (stem cell research)