The presidential election , which has been known for constant surprises and childlike arguments, is about to come to an end.
Although early voting has already started, the last day to vote is at the polls Nov. 8. Voters will be able to vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton, Republican Donald Trump, Libertarian Gary Johnson or Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
The Daily News compared the candidates’ views on four important issues. Here is where the candidates stand:
Economy and Jobs
Clinton (D)
Clinton wants to implement a 100-day job plan that would invest in infrastructure, small business, technology, clean energy and research.
According to Clinton's campaign website, she will also fight against the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, a deal she supported when she was Secretary of State. The candidate withdrew her support of the deal at a primary debate in Las Vegas last year saying, “It was just finally negotiated last week, and in looking at it, it didn’t meet my standards.”
Trump (R)
Trump wants to make the tax system simpler and calls it the “biggest tax reform since Reagan" on his campaign website.
He wants to lower taxes for everyone, limit the percentage of a business’s income tax to 15 percent for all businesses and end the estate tax, which is a tax on people's right to transfer property at their death. The candidate also wants to reform trade by renegotiating NAFTA and backing out of negotiations with the TPP trade deal.
Johnson (L)
Johnson wants to stop deficit spending and plans to propose a balanced budget without tax increases if he becomes president. According to Johnson’s campaign website, he believes the national debt is the greatest threat to the country’s national security.
The presidential candidate sees the tax code as a massive deployment of government force on Americans' lives, finances and freedoms. He plans to replace all income and payroll taxes with a single consumption tax. Johnson believes eliminating income taxes on businesses will create a tax haven in America that will bring jobs back to the U.S.
Stein (G)
Stein proposes “A Green New Deal” that would put the U.S. on track to use 100 percent clean and renewable energy by 2030, according to her campaign website. She's said she believes this would create millions of living-wage jobs for any American that needs work. The program would invest in public transit, sustainable agriculture and infrastructure.
The candidate compares the “Green New Deal” to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and hopes the program will launch a WWII-like mobilization of the workforce. Stein also supports a $15 minimum wage and a guaranteed minimum income. The candidate plans to simplify the tax code and cut taxes for the poor and middle class and raise taxes for rich Americans.
Higher Education
Clinton (D)
Under a Clinton administration, the candidate hopes to make all community colleges free, and by 2021, she wants families who make $125,000 or less to have free tuition at public universities if the institution is in that family’s state.
She also plans to push a policy to help students who are in debt from loans. Students who borrow money won’t have to pay more than 10 percent of their income.
After 20 years of payments, she wants any remaining college debt to be forgiven. If Clinton becomes president, she says she will also take executive action to give students with federal loans a three-month moratorium to organize their loans and consolidate them.
Trump (R)
The Republican candidate for president is highly against the Department of Education and he believes education should be administered at a local level.
“I am totally against these programs and the Department of Education. It's a disaster. We cannot continue to fail our children — the very future of this nation,” Trump said in his book "Crippled America."
Additionally, the candidate believes the federal government shouldn’t have any opportunity to make profit from student loans.
Johnson (L)
The libertarian candidate would like to terminate the Department of Education. He believes states are losing money by taking funds from the federal government. He also doesn’t agree with federal mandates and regulations that states have to follow to receive the funds.
On the issue of student loans, the candidate said if there were no such thing as student loans, then tuition costs at colleges would be lower.
Stein (G)
When it comes to education, she wants schooling from preschool to college to be tuition free and believes in a bailout program for students with college debt.
On her Twitter page, Stein tweeted, “If we can bail out the crooks on Wall Street we can certainly afford to bail out our students. It's time to abolish student debt."
Environment
Clinton (D)
A goal for the candidate is to power all the homes in America with renewable energy. Her method to do this would include installing 5 million solar panels throughout the country. According to her website, this would be done by the end of her first term.
In an effort to reduce environmental harm, the candidate hopes to cut oil consumption by one-third by using alternative fuels and more efficient technology.
Trump (R)
Trump believes climate change is a hoax and the EPA is hurting the economy.
He wants to increase energy production by withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement and cutting all funds from the U.N. global warming programs. Drilling for oil and natural gas in the Outer Continental Shelf and working with TransCanada to build the Keystone Pipeline, which President Barack Obama denied in November 2015, are also goals of the presidential candidate.
Johnson (L)
Johnson believes the government has a role in protecting the environment but does not have the role of manipulating the energy marketplace by creating winners and losers. He has said he thinks the free market should be in charge of innovating and inventing ways to produce energy.
The candidate also believes climate change is real and humans have a hand in it, but he doesn’t believe the government’s current effort in the energy market is making a difference that justifies the cost.
Stein (G)
The Green party’s focus is to be environmentally friendly.
Overall, Stein would like to transform the economy into a green economy by 2030. Her goal is for the U.S. to run solely on clean and renewable energy. The candidate believes water should be tested for radioactivity and heavy metals. She is also a proponent of restoring shorelines, deltas, and forests to “zero out climate emissions.”
Foreign policy
Clinton (D)
Clinton’s plan to combat the Islamic State is to continue with coalition airstrikes against the group and its infrastructure, along with supporting Arab and Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria.
She would also like to help end Syria and Iraq’s complicated conflicts through a diplomatic process.
Trump (R)
Trump has made comments about “bombing the hell” out of the Islamic State and wants to keep Guantanamo Bay open. Additionally, he believes that the U.S. can’t afford to police the world and NATO allies need to pay more.
Johnson (L)
Johnson believes the policies of former president George W. Bush Bush and President Obama have made the country less safe and has helped extremist groups like the Islamic State prosper. The candidate wants the options of boots on the ground and dropping more bombs on the enemy to be replaced with strategies that will isolate extremist groups.
Stein (G)
Stein wants to cut military spending by at least 50 percent and close more than 700 military bases around the world to save money. She would also cease financial and military support to countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel. The candidate cites human rights abuse as the reason to remove support from these countries.
If the candidate obtains the presidency, she would try to end the supply of arms coming out of the country as well as enacting a policy to further reduce America’s nuclear arsenal.
