College Costs With student loan debt now totaling $1.2 trillion, Mrs. Clinton wants to make a college education “as debt-free as possible.” The price tag could be substantial: Some liberal groups say tens of billions of dollars a year are necessary to increase student aid and limit tuition increases.  Universal Prekindergarten Mrs. Clinton would give money to states to provide preschool for every 4-year-old within a decade. Only a fraction of those children are currently in publicly funded prekindergarten. President Obama has called for investing $75 billion in prekindergarten over 10 years for children from lower- and middle-income families.  Child Care Mrs. Clinton and her advisers are considering a mix of tax relief and new federal spending to expand programs for children from birth to age 3. Mr. Obama has called for “universal child care” and proposed $200 billion in subsidies over 10 years. Mrs. Clinton would also double federal spending on Early Head Start programs, which would probably cost about $2 billion a year.  Jobs Mrs. Clinton has promised to create an infrastructure bank and sell bonds to pay for improvements to roads, bridges, railways and other job-generating projects. Mr. Obama and congressional Democrats have proposed a $50 billion bank. Mrs. Clinton has also spoken generally of creating “new incentives for companies that give their employees a fair share of the profits.”  Gun Safety After the church massacre in Charleston, S.C., Mrs. Clinton called for “common-sense gun reforms" that keep guns "out of the hands of criminals and the mentally unstable while not penalizing responsible gun owners.” She has yet to lay out specifics. Universal background checks would expand federal policy regarding guns. Costs might be involved if, for instance, Mrs. Clinton proposes grants to states to help with background checks.
Both candidates have laid out lofty policy proposals that would require high levels of new spending in areas ranging from child care to job growth.