2008 Presidential Election: George Allen

The 2008 presidential election looms every closer. Townhall.com is polling visitors about presidential candidates, so I thought it would be interesting to take a look at each of the ten men featured in the poll.

I’ll be providing a biography of each candidate, as well as a summary of their stance on key issues taken from their voting record. The issues I’ve chosen to highlight are: Abortion, Budget/Taxes, Defense, Education, Healthcare, Immigration, and Iraq. Finally, I’ll note religious background for each person.

In the next couple weeks, I’ll post about each candidate.







George Allen (Allen family pictured above)

Biography (taken from Allen’s official bio)-

2001 – Present 51st United States Senator from Virginia
1994 – 1998 67th Governor of the Commonwealth
1991 – 1993 U.S. Representative, elected in a special election
1983 – 1991 Virginia House of Delegates

Allen is married to Susan and they have three children. For his first term as a US senator, Allen lists a few priorities including national defense and homeland security, jobs, improving technology, and reduction of tax burdens on families and small business owners.

Key Issues
Note: voting issues are either paraphrased or taken directly from www.vote-smart.org.

Abortion:
NO-to federal pregnancy prevention
YES-to prohibit partial birth abortion

Budget/Taxes:
YES-to increase statutory limit on public debt
YES-to pass a bill that authorizes and extends $70 billion in tax credits and cuts.
NO-to increase funding for Title I grants and reduce debt by closing corporate tax loopholes. NO-to fully reinstate the pay-as-you-go requirement through 2011.

Defense:
YES-to authorize funds for military construction and defense activities
YES-to approve 3.2 % for DoD and national security programs at DOE
YES-USA Patriot and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization

Education:
NO-to increase maximum Federal Pell Grant
NO-to provide additional funding for title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
YES-No Child Left Behind Act

Healthcare:
YES-to pass a bill that would add prescription drug benefits to Medicare.
YES-to pass a bill that would institute procedures for the introduction of generic drugs into the prescription drug market and would also allow importation of prescription drugs from Canada into the United States.

[unable to find voting record on immigration or Iraq]

Immigration: Believes illegal immigration must be curbed by securing our borders, not rewarding illegal behavior, reforming legal immigration.

Iraq: Allen seems optimistic about Iraq’s future and US participation in their freedom. He is very supportive of the changes being made like unifying Iraqi government, but also seems to think there is a hard road ahead.

Religion: Allen is Presbyterian.

Coming up! 2008 Presidential Election: Sam Brownback