Candidates on Financial Literacy

We believe Americans of all ages should have access to tools to help manage their finances, and save for the future and better, easy to understand information to help them increase their financial literacy and manage their money wisely.

The bolded candidate is listed first, then the statement we identified for the candidate. In some cases, we may not have identified a statement for the Divided We Fail principle listed above.

Democrats

Hillary Clinton

"The New Savers Act lays out a series of practical and relatively low cost steps we can implement to help Americans start saving more and create wealth for their kid's education, for the purchase of a home and for their retirement," said Senator Clinton. The Secretaries of the Treasury Department and the Department of Health and Human Services are instructed to undertake a number of programs and strategies to promote access to wealth building financial services. Efforts will focus on encouraging the use of electronic payments, linking benefits cards to savings products, and providing the resources, incentives, training and assistance to connect individuals to a variety of wealth building financial products and services.
(Senate website, August 6, 2007, http://www.senate.gov/~clinton/news/statements/details.cfm?id=280606

Barack Obama

Obama has introduced the STOP FRAUD Act to provide the first federal definition of mortgage fraud, increase funding for federal and state law enforcement programs, create new criminal penalties for mortgage professionals found guilty of fraud, and require industry insiders to report suspicious activity. Barack Obama will enact laws to ensure that all prospective homebuyers have access to accurate and complete information about their mortgage options. Obama will create a Homeowner Obligation Made Explicit (HOME) score, which will … allow individuals to easily compare various mortgage products and understand the full cost of the loan.
(Campaign website, November 1, 2007) http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/SubprimeFactSheet.pdf

Republicans

Mike Huckabee

"I think in a world where media is so available, not just the internet but digital television, there's so many different ways to communicate, it's inexcusable that we don't have a greater means of getting information out, and it can happen online, it can happen by way of television, but it also can happen by community meetings. I think there should be a public-private partnership to help bring financial literacy to communities across America, to give people the opportunity to understand about investing…" (AARP-NH candidate event with Governor Huckabee, October 17, 2007)

John McCain

Divided We Fail has done extensive research of the candidate's website, speeches and campaign literature without finding any statements on this particular issue by John McCain.

Ron Paul

"People should not be punished for working hard, saving, and building wealth…. The American dream is based on making a better life for one's children, despite the empty rhetoric of the class-warfare politicians in Washington. Building wealth is not sinister, it is admirable. Our tax rules should encourage the decidedly American virtue of saving for the future."
("Will the Estate Tax ever be Repealed?" Texas Straight Talk, October 24, 2005)

Mitt Romney

"[The Massachusetts state treasurer] began a program in our state of having the state treasurer and his people go out to high schools and teach kids about economic literacy. I'd like to find a way for us to do this in our schools. Just have people around the country realize that, as a part of math, perhaps, or, who knows which subject, that you teach people about the economics of saving."

"And one of the things I would like to do is to…help our seniors when they are in their homes about something about their economics and what Medicare part D is. I mean, Medicare A, B, C, D and Medicaid, it's pretty complicated."
(Divided We Fail forum, Iowa state fair, August 11, 2007)

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