Making the call – Obama or McCain

As a result of the economic conditions, many nonprofits are facing unprecedented economic conditions that will affect philanthropy. In the next few days, we will each have to make our own call on who best represents our goals. When Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama debated on the campus of the University of Mississippi, they were asked by moderator Jim Lehrer of the NewsHour on PBS about what fiscal priorities they would “adjust” as a result of the current economic bailout:

LEHRER: …what are you going to have to give up, in terms of the priorities that you would bring as president of the United States, as a result of having to pay for the financial rescue plan?

OBAMA: Well, there are a range of things that are probably going to have to be delayed. We don't yet know what our tax revenues are going to be. The economy is slowing down, so it's hard to anticipate right now what the budget is going to look like next year.

But there's no doubt that we're not going to be able to do everything that I think needs to be done. There are some things that I think have to be done.

We have to have energy independence, so I've put forward a plan to make sure that, in 10 years' time, we have freed ourselves from dependence on Middle Eastern oil by increasing production at home, but most importantly by starting to invest in alternative energy, solar, wind, biodiesel, making sure that we're developing the fuel-efficient cars of the future right here in the United States, in Ohio and Michigan, instead of Japan and South Korea.

We have to fix our health care system, which is putting an enormous burden on families. Just -- a report just came out that the average deductible went up 30 percent on American families.
They are getting crushed, and many of them are going bankrupt as a consequence of health care. I'm meeting folks all over the country. We have to do that now, because it will actually make our businesses and our families better off.

The third thing we have to do is we've got to make sure that we're competing in education. We've got to invest in science and technology. China had a space launch and a space walk. We've got to make sure that our children are keeping pace in math and in science.

And one of the things I think we have to do is make sure that college is affordable for every young person in America.

And I also think that we're going to have to rebuild our infrastructure, which is falling behind, our roads, our bridges, but also broadband lines that reach into rural communities.
Also, making sure that we have a new electricity grid to get the alternative energy to population centers that are using them.

So there are some -- some things that we've got to do structurally to make sure that we can compete in this global economy. We can't shortchange those things. We've got to eliminate programs that don't work, and we've got to make sure that the programs that we do have are more efficient and cost less.

LEHRER: Are you -- what priorities would you adjust, as president, Senator McCain, because of the -- because of the financial bailout cost?

MCCAIN: Look, we, no matter what, we've got to cut spending. We have -- as I said, we've let government get completely out of control.

Senator Obama has the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate. It's hard to reach across the aisle from that far to the left.

The point -- the point is -- the point is, we need to examine every agency of government.

First of all, by the way, I'd eliminate ethanol subsidies. I oppose ethanol subsidies.

I think that we have to return -- particularly in defense spending, which is the largest part of our appropriations -- we have to do away with cost-plus contracts. We now have defense systems that the costs are completely out of control.

We tried to build a little ship called the Littoral Combat Ship that was supposed to cost $140 million, ended up costing $400 million, and we still haven't done it.

So we need to have fixed-cost contracts. We need very badly to understand that defense spending is very important and vital, particularly in the new challenges we face in the world, but we have to get a lot of the cost overruns under control.

I know how to do that.

Click here to see the complete transcript.

In a nutshell:
Obama would continue to place early-childhood education, science education, affordable college tuition, energy independence, fixing the health-care system, and rebuilding the country's infrastructure as his priorities.

McCain’s priorities would be an elimination of ethanol subsidies, cut costs in defense by eliminating cost-plus contracts and freeze spending on everything but veteran’s affairs, and Social Security.

Who best represents your nonprofit priorities?

Who will be our next President?

The economy was on everyone’s minds last week as the final Presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama got underway. McCain launched his attack concentrating on Obama’s $60 billion proposal to improve the economic problems in the U.S, suggesting that this plan would mean tax increases for many Americans. Both candidates spoke directly to “Joe the Plumber” who had confronted Obama Monday at a rally in Ohio regarding his tax policies. Joe Wurzelbacher, the plumber, suggested that Obama’s plan would increase his taxes. According to Obama, his plan would increase taxes on wealthy American’s making over $250.00, so “Joe the Plumber” must expect to do pretty well if he thinks he will be impacted. McCain asked Obama why he would want to increase anybodies taxes right now. “We both want to cut taxes,” Obama said. “The difference is who we want to cut taxes for.”

Obama fought back using his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden’s comment that McCain’s campaign advertising had been 100% negative according to a study by the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project that examined TV ad spending by the two candidates from September 28 to October 4.

According to the Campaign Media Analysis Group,"An analysis of campaign commercials aired over the last seven days shows Obama outspent McCain nationwide by more than 2-1: $21.5 million vs. $9.2 million. But just under half of the money Obama is spending is going toward negative spots, meaning the Illinois senator is roughly keeping pace with his GOP rival when it comes to negative commercials, in terms of cash spent," the story said.

Was there a clear winner in that debate? Which plan will offer the best hope for a bright future in the nonprofit sector? Let us know what you think.