Essay/Term paper: History

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Humanities

In my paper the Democratic Candidates are Al Gore and Bill Bradley. They both have a

lot of the same views on issues that have come out in the campaigning. For the

Rebublicans it is George W. Bush and John McCain. Both of these guys have different

views on their issues. The debates between these two men have really been heating up

and it will be interesting to see the outcome of this election. But also on the other side of

this the Democratic battle has also been a though one but I think Bradley will drop out.

He feels and knows he is over matched.

Al Gore served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. He worked for seven years as a

newspaper reporter and then was elected to Congress from Tennessee. After eight years

in the House of Representatives and eight years as an U.S. Senator from Tennessee, he

was elected Vice President of the United States.

For almost seven years, Al Gore has been a central member of President Clinton's

economic team -- helping to design the program that has led to our strong economy,

casting the tie-breaking Senate vote for the plan in 1993, helping to pass the first balanced

budget in 30 years. He has helped to usher in the longest peacetime economic expansion

in American history -- with over 18 million new jobs, wages rising twice the rate of

inflation, the lowest African-American and Hispanic poverty on record, the highest level

of private home ownership ever, more investment in our cities, and the lowest

unemployment in 29 years.

Since his days in the House and Senate, Vice President Gore's environmental

record has been unparalleled. He leads the Administration's efforts to protect the

environment in a way that also strengthens the economy -- such as working with the Big

Three auto makers to support the development of a new generation of fuel- and

energy-efficient vehicles, and working to combat global warming in a way that also

creates new jobs, by helping America lead the estimated $400 billion worldwide market

for new technologies that clean up the environment.



Bill Bradley was born on July 28, 1943, in Crystal City, Missouri, the only

child of Warren and Susan Bradley. The Bradleys lived a comfortable,

middle-class life in a small, multiracial, multiethnic town on the banks of the

Mississippi River, thirty-six miles south of St. Louis. The Crystal City of Bill's

youth was a blue-collar company town with a single stoplight and a population of

3,492. With the support of his family and the close-knit community around him,

Bill developed the values that have guided him as a leader, athlete, writer, U.S.

Senator, and presidential candidate.

While Bill was growing up, Warren Bradley was a respected small-town

banker. He had been forced to quit high school at age sixteen to help support his

family, taking a job with the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad. A few years later,

he began what was to become a long and fulfilling career at the local bank, first

"shining pennies," and working his way up to become assistant cashier, cashier,

and eventually president of the bank. He gave Bill his first job as a janitor at the

bank during school breaks. A reserved man, Warren Bradley had a clear sense of

ethics and lived by a strict code of conduct. Warren's proudest achievement was

that he never foreclosed on a single homeowner throughout the Great

Depression, something that earnedhim the admiration and gratitude of the local

community.

Bill's mother was an energetic and strong-willed former schoolteacher.

Susie Bradley taught Sunday school classes at the Presbyterian Church across

the street from the Bradley home, which the family attended every week. She also

doted on her only son. Susie kept Bill active and involved as a child, enrolling him

in piano, trumpet, French, swimming, basketball, boxing, and French horn. She

was the den mother of his Cub Scout group and attended all of his activities and

sporting events. Susie stressed the importance of manners and modesty to Bill.

He would win a race or game, but she would convince him that he hadn't won,

that he just had longer legs than the other boys. Susie also made sure the

neighborhood kids felt welcome in their house. The Bradley home became a

popular gathering place for Bill and his friends, where they played pinball in the

basement, watched "American Bandstand" on TV, and traded baseball cards in

the backyard.

Basketball was Bill's passion, but under his mother's guidance, he developed into a

well-rounded young man and a good student. As a Boy Scout, he earned the rank of Eagle

Scout. While his high school's student body president, Bill organized a state student

council convention, bringing together student leaders throughout Missouri to Crystal

City. He was also a member of the baseball and track teams.

The college basketball recruiters flocked to Crystal City Bill's senior year. Susie

Bradley wanted her son to stay close to home and attend the University of Missouri.

Warren Bradley didn't understand all the fuss being made about their son's athletic

prospects. In all, seventy-five colleges offered Bill athletic scholarships. Bill chose Duke

University in North Carolina.

But during the summer between high school and college, Bill's future took a

different turn. Warren Bradley sent his son to Europe on an educational tour. This trip

exposed the small-town boy to the larger world and sparked his interest in international

affairs. In particular, Oxford, England, caught Bill's eye. He learned about the Rhodes

Scholarship, which provided college graduates with the opportunity to study at Oxford

University. After he returned home, Bill broke his foot. For the first time he was

confronted with the possibility of not being able to play basketball. At the last

minute-four days before the Duke freshman class convened-Bill changed his mind and

decided to attend Princeton University, a school that did not give out athletic

scholarships, but, as Bill had learned, had an impressive record of producing Rhodes

Scholars.



Al Gore supported the Largest Single Increase in Education Investment in 30

Years. As part of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, Congress passed the HOPE scholarship

tax credit program proposed by the Administration. This new program will give students

a $1,500 tax credit that will help make the first two years of college universally available.

The HOPE Scholarships are expected to help 5.9 million students attend college. The

1997 Act included other tax deductions that helped make it the largest single increase in

education spending in 30 years.

The Vice President has called on Congress to build upon the successes made last

year to reduce class sizes in grades 1-3. As part of the Fiscal 1999 budget, Congress

agreed to partially fund an Administration initiative to help schools hire and support

additional teachers. Gore is now challenging Congress to finish the job by providing the

funding needed to hire 100,000 new teachers.

As part of the Fiscal 2000 budget plan, the President and Vice President

introduced a proposal to build and modernize 6,000 schools nationwide. In announcing

this new proposal, Vice President Gore stated that we "…need to ensure that our children

are learning 21st Century skills in 21st Century classrooms," and that "no child should be

forced to learn in a temporary trailer."

In 1996, Vice President Gore launched the national initiative to wire every

classroom to the Internet. Under the E-Rate program more than 62,000 school districts

and libraries applied for E-rate funds in the first two grant cycles. In the first eighteen

months of the program, more than 80,000 schools and libraries received $1.66 billion in

funding – helping to connect 640,000 classrooms to the Internet. More than 53% of those

schools and libraries receiving funding were in the poorest neighborhoods.

As Vice President, Al Gore has worked hard to bring advances in technology into

the classroom to help prepare today"s students for the challenges of the next century.

Investments in educational technology have increased thirty-fold under this

Administration – from $23 million in 1993 to nearly $700 million last year. Gore"s

commitment to educational technology began when he was member of Congress. In 1984,

he introduced the National Educational Software Act, to establish the National

Educational Software Corporation to provide venture capitol for educational software

development. Gore also sponsored the National High-Performance Computing Act of

1991, which encouraged development of a National Research and Education Network to

help link teachers, students, and researchers.



Bill Bradley believes in a strong federal commitment to public education. He

believes education starts at birth, continues through life, and must include everyone.

Bradley realizes that really improving student achievement requires thinking about

education in broader terms. Whether a child does well in school isn't just about 30

different little programs that come down from Washington. It's also about whether she is

well fed, cared for at home, healthy, and attends a safe school. Bradley thinks outside the

"education box" -- he thinks about the child.

That's why he has proposed a strong, integrated and targeted agenda to improve

American education. In the early years, he will help ensure that children are ready for

school. In the K-12 years, he will concentrate on putting qualified teachers in every

classroom, holding schools accountable for student achievement, providing parents with

information and choices, and developing rich after-school opportunities. In the later

years, he would make lifelong learning possible by strengthening our community college

system and make college loans more affordable. To do these things, Bradley will invest

$175 billion over ten years in education.

Other candidates talk about cutting tax rates. Bill Bradley has done it. He was the

moving force behind the 1986 Tax Reform Act, the most sweeping tax reform since the

income tax was introduced in 1913. The Act consolidated 15 tax brackets (the highest 50

percent) to two-15 percent and 28 percent. Six million low-income Americans were

removed completely from the tax rolls. The Act also eliminated nearly $200 billion

annually in tax loopholes.

The reform achieved what many before had tried and failed: it lowered tax rates

across the board and created a fairer tax system in which people with equal income pay

about equal tax. It ended long-standing tax provisions that allowed the politically

powerful to avoid taxes at the expense of the middle class. And it provided for

markets-not special interests and politicians-to determine how investment capital is

allocated.

Even after the enactment of the 1986 Tax Reform Act, Bradley continued to push

for a simpler and fairer tax code. He repeatedly proposed that many of the remaining

loopholes-often known as corporate welfare-be stricken from the code. Bradley proposed

or supported the elimination of wasteful tax expenditures, including a tax break for

tobacco advertising and countless other special interest tax breaks that made their way

back into the tax code after 1986.





Governor George W. Bush George W. Bush is the 46th Governor of the State of

Texas. Now entering his second term, Governor Bush has earned a reputation as a

compassionate conservative who shapes policy based on the principles of limited

government, personal responsibility, strong families, and local control.

During two Texas Legislative sessions, Governor Bush has worked in a spirit of

bipartisan cooperation with Lt. Governor Bob Bullock, House Speaker Pete Laney, and

members of the Texas Legislature to enact historic reforms to improve public schools, put

welfare recipients to work, curb frivolous lawsuits and strengthen criminal justice laws.

In 1998, Texas taxpayers began receiving the largest tax cut in Texas history, a $1 billion

dollar school property tax cut funded by savings from state government.

Governor Bush's first priority is the education of Texas children. He has worked

with the Legislature to increase the state's share of funding for schools, to restore local

control, to strengthen the state's accountability system, to give parents and students

greater choice of schools, and to foster competition and creativity through charter schools

and an expanded menu of educational opportunity. His most profound goal for Texas is

that every child will learn to read by third grade and will continue to read at grade level

or better throughout public school.

George W. Bush was born July 6, 1946 and grew up in Midland and Houston,

Texas. He received a bachelor's degree from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard

Business School. He served as an F-102 pilot for the Texas Air National Guard. He began

his career in the oil and gas business in Midland in 1975 and worked in the energy

industry until 1986. After working on his father's 1988 presidential campaign he

assembled the group of partners that purchased the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in

1989 and which later built the Ranger's new home, the Ballpark at Arlington.



Throughout his public career, John McCain has been a leader in the most critical

issues facing the country. He has waged a determined and often solitary campaign against

pork barrel spending, fighting for ten years to pass a line-item veto. He has been a

persistent proponent of lower taxes, genuine deregulation and free trade. He has become

one of Congress' most respected voices for a strong national defense, and for sound

foreign policy.

He has been an outspoken advocate for the reform of government institutions, and

he has led a principled fight to change a campaign finance system that favors the interests

of a special few over the needs of the majority. He is also considered one of the leading

defenders of the rights of Native Americans.

John McCain was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982. As a

long time admirer of Ronald Reagan, McCain was an early foot soldier in the Reagan

Revolution. He served two terms in the House before being elected to the Senate in 1986.

He was re-elected to a third Senate term in November, 1998. In that election, he received

nearly 70% of the vote, a total which included 65% of the women's vote, 55 % of the

Hispanic vote, and even 40% of the Democrats.



George W. Bush preaches personal responsibility to the school children of Texas

but they can't hear him. The Texas Commission on Alchohol and Drug Abuse conducted

the sixth statewide school survey of drug and alcohol use among in-school youths.

Gov. George W. Bush, in a day laced with pageantry and new policy nuggets, said

Wednesday that he opposes President Clinton's push for more federal money to hire

100,000 teachers. The Republican presidential front-runner also criticized the annual

budget tussles in Washington and urged the federal government to follow Texas' lead and

move to a two-year budget.



In conclusion a couple of candidates have dropped out of the running. One is Bill

Bradley he lost too many states in the primaries to win the candidacy. But the run for the

Republican race has gotten real close. I feel that George W. Bush will be the front runner

because of the amount of money that he has. And his background with his father. He has

too much money for any other candidate to keep up with him.