While McCain, once a critic of ethanol, supports wider use of biofuels, he rejects any mention of subsidies or mandates for ethanol production. Instead, McCain favors such money traveling to increased research and development of renewable energies. In particular, McCain worries that biofuel mandates would challenge the simple economic rules of supply-and-demand. When the 2007 Senate energy bill called for a five-fold increase in ethanol production by 2022, McCain shot back that ethanol was on its way to consuming one-third of the nation’s corn crop in 2008.

“This subsidized [ethanol] program—paid for by taxpayer dollars—has contributed to pain at the cash register, at the dining room table, and a devastating food crisis throughout the world,” he said.

Food Safety

In February 2008, the U.S. Department of Agriculture led a recall of 143 million pounds of frozen beef, a move that prompted Obama to release this statement: “When I am president, it will not be business as usual when it comes to food safety. I will provide additional resources to hire more federal food inspectors. I will also call on the Department of Agriculture to examine whether federal food-safety laws need to be strengthened, in particular to provide greater protections against tainted food being used in the National School Lunch Program.”

Obama soon followed with the introduction of a Senate bill in July aimed at further addressing food safety. While he did not suggest any changes at the procedural level of food processing, he did propose a $25 million grant for state and local food safety agencies to boost capacity in order to improve detection, outbreak communication and coordination, and surveillance.

McCain, who spoke at this year’s National Restaurant Association (nra) Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show in May, has not addressed the food-safety issue, and his campaign office did not offer comment on the issue.

Health Care

Obama has pledged to create a national health care plan, one that includes: guaranteed eligibility; comprehensive benefits; affordable premiums, co-pays, and deductibles; and the creation of a National Health Insurance Exchange to help those who wish to purchase a private insurance plan. He has also discussed expanding Medicaid and creating a Small Business Health Tax Credit to provide, according to his campaign, “small businesses with a refundable tax credit of up to 50 percent on premiums paid by small businesses on behalf of their employees.” The new credit, he feels, “will provide a strong incentive to small businesses to offer high-quality health care to their workers and help improve the competitiveness of America’s small businesses.” He also said he would demand employers make a meaningful contribution to their employees’ health care needs.

In contrast, McCain has repeatedly insisted that Americans themselves should be in charge of their health care needs, believing that competition would restore control to the patients and allow them to select the plan that best fills their needs. Striking against universal health care plans, McCain said, “We will replace the inefficiency, irrationality, and uncontrolled costs of the current system with the inefficiency, irrationality, and uncontrolled costs of a government monopoly.”

McCain has also championed portability in health care, plans that would move with the individual from job to job. He has also trumpeted the benefits of Health Savings Accounts, tax-preferred accounts used to pay insurance premiums and other health costs. He believes affordable health care is possible without a federal mandate and has indicated his wish to provide $2,500 refundable tax credits for individuals and $5,000 for families.

Immigration Reform

Few issues evoke as much debate and chatter among industry insiders as immigration, given that immigrants—both legal and illegal—constitute a healthy portion of the restaurant industry’s workforce. And both McCain and Obama have clear positions on the issue.

McCain, no stranger to the issue as his home state of Arizona borders Mexico, sponsored the bi-partisan Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, one that promised to increase security along the U.S.-Mexico border; allow long-time, law-abiding illegal immigrants a path to citizenship; and increase the number of guest workers. Obama, in fact, voted in favor of that bill.

Today, McCain sings a similar tune, though he insists amnesty has never been a part of the discussion. At a Republican debate in January, McCain outlined his priorities.