2016 Presidential Election: Who's Working for the Military Community?

This election year, the presidential nomination process has been unprecedented. For the first time in the nation’s two-party system, we have nominees unlike any we have had before. Information seems to be spewing from each candidate faster than the general public can digest, making it difficult to discern where each candidate stands on particular policies. To make things more difficult, much of this information is void of real answers as to how to confront the current issues facing our country. Military families have a particular interest in this race. To be quite frank, the new president will be each service member’s new boss. Every future military-related bill that is passed will affect a service member - either in terms of their job and/or their family. But how do we sift through all the fat and get to the meat of each candidate’s plan for these issues that are important to our community? We asked military spouses what they and their families are most interested in knowing about each candidate. There were four topics that were mentioned as the most important: national security, foreign policy and relations, VA healthcare and benefits, and education. Here is a breakdown of where the candidates – Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State (Democratic nominee); Gary Johnson, former Governor, (Libertarian nominee); and Donald Trump, businessman (Republican candidate), stand. NATIONAL SECURITY Clinton Clinton’s stance on national security is to ensure safety on the homefront while dealing with foreign terrorist threats both overseas and on US soil. She wants to find a diplomatic way to work with Muslim forces overseas while helping support ground and air coalitions to defeat ISIS. Clinton wants to work with tech companies to fight online support and communications between terrorist groups to protect the homeland. In order to protect US citizens on our soil, she wants to encourage strong relations with law enforcement, giving them the tools they need to prevent attack. Part of her national security plan is supporting veterans and their families, as well as enacting stricter gun control laws. To read more about Hillary Clinton’s national security policies, click here . Johnson Johnson’s national security and foreign relations policies go hand-in-hand. He believes that the United States needs to limit their policing of other countries and use that money to take care of issues on the homefront. He wants to repair relations with allies so as to create cooperation among partners especially during acts of domestic terrorism. Johnson believes that our investment should be in our nation’s security and not that of other countries. To read more about Johnson’s policies on national security policies, click here . Trump Trump’s national security policy focuses on issues such as military dominance and immigration. Trump maintains that his presidency would ensure that our military forces would be so big and so powerful that enemies would be too afraid to go up against our nation in combat. He also maintains that a big threat to our national security are immigrants. He believes that illegal immigrants contribute to the crime and domestic terrorism on our soil, and he wants to take steps to limit the number of immigrants coming into the country. He also wants to create a shift in respect for law enforcement in order to decrease the amount of crime committed and the number of police incidents in recent years. To learn more about Donald Trump’s policies on national security, click here FOREIGN POLICY AND RELATIONS Clinton Clinton believes in using all available tools to communicate during foreign policy issues including “diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural” tools. She believes that creating more opportunities at home through innovation and education will help to strengthen our nation when it comes to foreign relations. She wants to continue to strengthen relationships with allies while also coming down strong on those against us including Iran, China, Russia, and ISIS. Clinton’s main objective is to limit the amount of wartime combat and deal with foreign relations in a diplomatic way. To read more about Hiliary Clinton’s foreign relations policies, click here . Johnson Johnson holds the stance that the United States should not be the world’s police force. He believes that most of the issues with Islamic terrorism that our country faces today is because of our nation’s previous engagements in trying to fix other countries. Johnson believes that simply putting more “boots on the ground” will not fix any wartime issues. He promises to only send troops overseas after a lengthy discussion and approval from Congress. Johnson wants the use the money that is spent on overseas endeavors on issues here at home, making the country stronger from the inside. To read more about Gary Johnson’s foreign relations policies, click here . Trump Trump’s foreign policy, in a nutshell, is a bigger, faster, and stronger military. He is not afraid to jump into a military engagement if the situation deems necessary. However, he does want to narrow the United States’ involvement in other countries. He explains that our nation has spent a pretty penny ($4 trillion to be categorically exact) to “topple other countries’ leaders.” He argues if that money was used, instead, as an investment in our own country’s infrastructures, that we would be better off as a nation. He also wants to renegotiate contracts with countries like Japan and Germany, who we currently offer protection as reciprocity for our presence. Trump’s biggest talking points seem to be ISIS, who he promises to eliminate swiftly and through military intervention, and coordinating talks with China and Russia to help foster cooperation and understanding. His foreign policy mission promises to make things better by making our military stronger and scarier to enemies. To read more about Donald Trump’s foreign relations policies, click here . VA HEALTHCARE AND BENEFITS Clinton Clinton believes the VA healthcare system needs to be overhauled. She wants to reform the system so that veteran’s receive timely and high-quality service. She wants to block the privatizing of the VA system to ensure that veterans are not lost in shuffle, especially when it comes to mental health and other invisible wounds that both service members and their families face today. She wants to ensure that all veterans receive the care they need and deserve, regardless of where they live. Clinton wishes to see more female healthcare needs taken care of by the VA as well. Her main focus for the VA is to create “a culture of accountability, service, and excellence” by revamping the budget concerns and the leadership issues. To read more about Hilary Clinton’s thoughts on VA Healthcare and Benefits, click here . Johnson Johnson’s stance on VA Healthcare and Benefits is limited. His only comment on the issue comes from a town hall meeting where he states that he would reduce the military budget by 43%, with the exception of VA healthcare and benefits. To read more about Gary Johnson’s policy on VA Healthcare and Benefits, click here . Trump Trump’s stance on VA healthcare and subsequent benefits is that its current state is unacceptable. His plan includes ensuring that veteran’s get the healthcare they need when and where they need it. He wants to allow any veteran to be able to walk into any clinic that accepts Medicaid and be able to get treated immediately. He also wants to increase programs for things like PTSD, traumatic brain injuries, and other invisible wounds of war. Trump believes the lack of leadership at the VA is to blame for many of these issues, and he resolves to rectify them while in office. He believes that hiring more veterans to take care of veterans can help the VA healthcare system as whole, since veterans have a unique understanding of what their fellow service members may be experiencing. He also wants to increase the number of women healthcare facilities in the VA. To read more about Donald Trump’s policy on VA Benefits and Healthcare, click here . GENERAL EDUCATION Clinton In regards to education as a whole for the nation, Clinton wants to rebuild schools and prioritize the teaching profession by providing teachers with the resources, support, and pay needed to adequately do their jobs. Uniquely, she also wants to give every student the chance to learn computer science. As for older students, she wants to make college more affordable for everyone by keeping colleges accountable for their costs, allowing Pell grants to be used for college-related expenses other than tuition, and proposing students work on campus and have their salaries go towards their tuition. For those that have completed college and are currently paying off student loans, she proposes that students be allowed to refinance their loans at lower interest rates. These reforms would be paid for by higher-income tax payers. Clinton also wants to create more opportunities for vocational practices. To read more about Hilary Clinton’s views on national education policies, click here . Johnson Johnson believes that the Department of Education should be disbanded- arguing that a child’s education cannot be maintained by politics in Washington DC, but they should rather be maintained on a local level. He believes that healthy competition between schools will make education better throughout the nation, and he even proposed giving each student in grades K-12 a monetary voucher in his home state of New Mexico to attend any school that they wish in order to increase this competition between schools. In terms of student loans in higher education, Johnson does not have any plans in his policies. However, he does believe that the reason tuition is so high is because student loans are available, but he would not eliminate student loans because of his belief in the free market system. In other words, if banks are offering loans and students are taking them, then the Federal Government should not be involved in eliminating them. To read more about Gary Johnson’s views on national education policies, click here . Trump Trump believes that public education should be brought down to the local level and that funding to the Department of Education should be slashed. He believes that trying to run an education system from Washington DC doesn’t work when talking about the needs in different areas of the country. He also wants to reverse the Common Core curriculum. As for higher education and college student loans, Trump wants to eliminate the Federal Government in taking interest so as to help those who are paying loans pay them off faster. He also promises more jobs under his administration and better regulation on college’s spending so students have a fair opportunity to pay off the money they’ve borrowed. To hear more about Donald Trump’s policies on national education, click here . VOTE IT UP The 2016 Presidential race has been filled with more than just talks of policy issues. There have been personal attacks, bias reporting, and unsubstantiated claims from all sides making it hard to decipher what is real. As military families, we have an inherent responsibility to learn about the candidates to make the most informed decision possible when selecting those representing our county. Military families represent a specific special interest group when it comes to this nation- national security, foreign relations, veterans affairs, and familial support are all huge issues that are handled at a federal level thus making it all that more important to ensure that our voices are heard during election season. The Federal Voting Assistance Program helps military service members and eligible family members get in their votes no matter where they are stationed. To learn more about this program and how to apply for an absentee ballot or how to register to vote, click here . To learn more about Hillary Clinton and her campaign, click here . To learn more about Gary Johnson and his campaign, click here . To learn more about Donald Trump and his campaign, click here . Connect with us on Facebook!

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