Tonight's last presidential debate is set to focus on several topics of importance to working families. Here's what you need to know about the candidates on those issues in advance of the debate, so you can see how they stack up.
Immigration
Hillary Clinton
- Will fight for immigration reforms that will level the playing field and create a road map to citizenship for people who have lived and worked in America for years so they can unite with their families and stand up for their rights at work.
- Knows that the only ones benefiting from our broken immigration system are unscrupulous employers who profit from cheap, exploitable labor.
- Says immigrants have contributed to the strength of America. Will extend deferred action protections to people who contribute to their communities.
- Will protect our borders but says immigration enforcement should be targeted and humane.
- Supports the rights of all workers, regardless of immigration status.
Donald Trump
- Would create a deportation force to remove 11 million women, men and children, including many union members and their families.
- Refers to Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists and has said a judge cannot be fair because of his Mexican heritage.
- Would build a 2,000-mile wall on the southern border that would cost tens of billions of dollars.
- Immigrant workers at Trump facilities have been exploited and allege to have been assaulted for trying to exercise their right to come together in a union.
Social Security, Medicare and Health Care
Hillary Clinton
- Supports expanding Social Security benefits for those who need it most and are treated unfairly today. She would increase Social Security benefits for widows and would give workers who take time out of the paid workforce to raise a child, take care of an aging parent or look after an ailing family member credit toward their Social Security benefits.
- Proposes strengthening Social Security’s financing by having the highest-income Americans pay more, including by raising the current cap on taxable earnings and by taxing income not currently counted by the Social Security system.
- Wants a public option for health insurance. Immediately, she will use the flexibility allowed under the Affordable Care Act to allow interested governors to establish a public option. Clinton supports allowing people ages 50 and older to buy into Medicare until they become eligible for regular Medicare at 65.
- Wants to repeal the 40% tax on high-cost, union-negotiated health care plans.
- Wants to build on and improve the Affordable Care Act. She would repeal the tax on union-negotiated health plans and lower out-of-pocket health costs for families struggling to pay rising deductibles and drug prices. She would save money by having Medicare negotiate prescription drug prices with the corporations that produce them.
- Opposes any efforts to privatize or weaken Medicare: Clinton will oppose Republican plans to privatize or "phase out" Medicare as we know it. Clinton supports efforts to reward quality and improve value in Medicare by building on delivery system reforms that have been piloted under the Affordable Care Act. Clinton will oppose Republican attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would raise costs and limit coverage for seniors.
Donald Trump
- Has called Social Security a "Ponzi scheme."
- Says a growing economy is the best way to preserve Social Security. His plan for economic growth includes a proposal to cut taxes, which would cost at least $4.5 trillion over 10 years, to repeal the financial reform law and to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act.
- Trump’s health care proposal embraces private insurance and converts the Medicaid program into block grants. This suggests he opposes a public health care option.
- Would repeal the Affordable Care Act that has allowed 20 million Americans to get health insurance and return us to for-profit, private insurance-provided health care.
- Says he will make no cuts to Medicare. However, a Trump adviser said they would "take a hard look at entitlement programs, like Social Security and Medicare, to see what they can do in a bipartisan way."
The Economy
Hillary Clinton
- Has been a strong supporter of labor rights. She supports laws to make it easier to come together in unions, opposes "right to work" laws and supports prevailing wage, project labor agreements, a higher minimum wage, paid sick days, paid family leave, and equal pay laws.
- Would triple the number of trade enforcement officers and create a new chief trade prosecutor to identify and stop trade violations before they cost jobs.
- Has said we need to take a fundamentally different approach to trade that does not give new rights to corporations.
- Has said that to create jobs and raise wages, she and a Democratic Congress would: strengthen laws protecting a workers’ right to join a union, maintain prevailing wage laws, Buy American policies and Project Labor Agreements; and raise the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour.
- Would raise taxes on the wealthiest 1% of earners, require millionaires to pay at least 30% in taxes (the Buffett Rule) and introduce a surcharge on income greater than $5 million. Clinton also would tax high-frequency stock trading that increases market volatility.
- Is committed to expanding Buy America policies that say the government should give preference to American-produced and -grown products when buying goods.
Donald Trump
- Does not support the right of working people to join unions—in the United States or anywhere else. He has tried to prevent working people from coming together in unions at his Las Vegas hotel, supports anti-union right to work laws and said UAW members should take lower-paid, nonunion jobs to compete with Mexico.
- Criticizes corporations that move jobs to low-wage countries but manufactures his own products overseas—in Bangladesh, China, Mexico and other low-wage countries.
- Would negotiate new trade deals in private with his billionaire and CEO friends.
- Has said that to create jobs, he would: support anti-union right to work laws and weaken labor rights. He said wages are too high and has changed his position on minimum wage several times. He now says he supports a $10 federal minimum wage but that "states should decide."
- Would slash the corporate tax rate, cut taxes on offshore corporate profits, eliminate the inheritance tax and lower taxes for wealthy individuals, benefiting his businesses and heirs, and reducing funds for public programs and investments by at least $4.5 trillion.
- Says the United States needs more manufacturing jobs but offshores the manufacturing of his own products.