Democratic and Republican Parties

1
Democratic and Republican Parties

• Class Notes

2
Key Idea

• The Democratic Party and the Republican Party
  have differing views on the role of government.

3
Party Similarities

• The parties agree that there should be a safety
  net but they disagree on how big and expensive
  it should be, who should be eligible, and whether
  it is publicly or privately funded (who should
  pay for it?).
• Publicly funded means that the government pays
  for it.

4
Primary Belief

• The Democratic Party
• It is the duty of society to help the less
  fortunate through government safety nets.
• Government should play a larger role in paying
  for social services (healthcare, welfare, etc.)

5
Primary Belief

• The Republican Party
• The private sector and/or the individual are
  better suited than government to control their
  own lives.
• Private sector means businesses
• Government should play a smaller role in paying
  for social services. Markets will optimize the
  outcomes rather than government mandates.

6
Taxes

• The Republican Party
• There should not be a highly progressive tax
  system. There should be lower taxes and more tax
  cuts Progressive taxes punish people who have
  large incomes.
• Reaganomics reduced income tax rates would
  allow people to put more money into the economy,
  lead to more growth and prosperity, and as a
  bonus, generate more revenue for the government.

7
Taxes

• The Democratic Party
• There should be a progressive tax system (people
  with higher incomes should pay higher taxes than
  people with lower incomes. They believe high
  earners got their money from society and
  therefore owe society a larger share of their
  income.
• Democrats criticize Reaganomics and call it
  Trickle-down economics that favors the rich
  over the poor.

8
Environment

• The Democratic Party
• Democrats are pro-environment and favor
  conservation of natural resources together with
  strong environmental laws against pollution.

9
Environment

• The Republican Party
• Favor reduction of environmental regulations
  (There should be fewer government rules about the
  environment. These rules hurt the economy.
  Individuals and businesses will compete and this
  competition will result in lower emissions and
  help the environment).

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The Economy Labor Unions

• The Republican Party
• favors less governmental intervention in the
  economy supports restricting organized labor

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The Economy Labor Unions

• The Democratic Party
• favors government regulation of the economy
  supports organized labor

12
Welfare

• Definition financial or other assistance to an
  individual or family from a government

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Welfare

• The Democratic Party
• favors keeping welfare in place for the poor and
  disadvantaged

14
Welfare

• The Republican Party
• favors cutting back welfare benefits in order to
  foster initiative for welfare recipients to find
  work

15
Education

• Vouchers
• Definition a government tax credit for parents,
  equal to all or part of the cost of educating
  their child at an elementary or secondary school
  of their choice.

16
Education

• The Republican Party
• favors school funding initiatives that allow for
  parental choice, including school vouchers for
  private schools

17
Education

• The Democratic Party
• favors school funding initiatives that create
  competitive public schools

18
Healthcare

• Universal Health Care
• Definition Universal health care is health care
  coverage for all eligible residents of an area
  and often covers medical and dental care.
  Typically, costs are covered mostly by
  publicly-funded programs.

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Healthcare

• The Democratic Party
• favors a national health insurance system

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Healthcare

• The Republican Party
• opposes a single payer (government based)
  universal healthcare system and wants to improve
  the current system