The folks at Politico are running a piece with this headline,

McCain has no national service plan

It then begins as follows.

John McCain, who’s predicated his presidential run in no small part on his distinguished military record, frequently exhorts Americans — and especially young Americans — to serve their country. Despite that appeal, he has yet to offer any proposals to expand or transform national service outside of the military.

Barack Obama, by contrast, has proposed dramatically expanding Americorps and the Peace Corps, adding 65,000 members to the military and creating an annual $4,000 tax credit for post-secondary education in exchange for 100 hours of community service.

Now let's think about this -- McCain has been a big supporter of various national service programs over the years. He has wroked to provide opportunities for such service -- but in the end, he recognizes that any sort of national service ought to be voluntary. Obama, on the other hand, has proposed an expansion of (not really) voluntary service programs (under which the federal government will not directly mandate service but will withhold funding from high schools, colleges, and universities that don't mandate voluntary service).

So let's look at the differences -- Obama wants more government programs, while McCain wants to (at most) tweak what we have. And McCain supports voluntary volunteerism, while Obama's program envisions mandatory volunteerism.

In other words, it is all a question of how much freedom the government will allow us to have in the future. Michelle Obama spilled the beans when she told the American people that "Barack Obama will require you to work." For free, as a condition of being permitted an education.

Posted by: Greg at 02:31 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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