WASHINGTON -- When Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton take the debate stage Monday, they will be asked questions on three broad topics: America's direction, achieving prosperity, and securing America.
To get a sense on how the candidates might respond here's what they've said previously about them.
America's Direction
Clinton sounded a lot like President Ronald Reagan in her acceptance speech, talking about how the U.S. was recovering from the Great Recession (morning in America, anyone?) but still had a ways to go.
"Our economy is so much stronger," Clinton said. "But none of us can be satisfied with the status quo. Not by a long shot. We're still facing deep-seated problems that developed long before the recession and have stayed with us through the recovery."
Where race stands before 1st debate
Trump painted a dystopian picture of America, with jobs leaving, crime rising and terrorists streaming across open borders.
"Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it," Trump proclaimed in July after winning the Republican nomination.
In August, he described the conditions in which urban minorities live this way: "Poverty. Rejection. Horrible education. No housing, no homes, no ownership. Crime at levels that nobody has seen. You can go to war zones in countries that we are fighting and it's safer than living in some of our inner cities that are run by the Democrats."
Achieving Prosperity
To keep companies from moving overseas, Clinton proposed eliminating the tax break they currently get since they can deduct the costs of shifting jobs and production away from the U.S.
"We must stop that, and we must make them pay back any tax breaks they received from any level of government in our country," Clinton said last month in Warren, Mich. "For those that move their headquarters overseas to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, they're going to have to pay a new exit tax. So if they want to go, they're going to have to pay to go."
She also called for rebuilding roads and bridges, investing in clean energy, and providing all Americans with access to high-speed Internet connections by the end of her first term in the White House.
While Clinton supported raising taxes on multimillionaires and billionaires, Trump proposed a tax cut weighted toward wealthy Americans.
Under his plan, the top 1 percent of U.S. taxpayers would see taxes reduced by $86,355 to $135,460 a year, while the bottom 20 percent would save $97, according to an analysis by the Tax Foundation, a Washington research group whose board of directors include two former House Republicans.
In addition, Trump proposed eliminating the estate tax, which doesn't affect 99.8 percent of Americans and falls only on multimillionaires. Only about 20 small businesses and family farms in all of the United States owed estate taxes in 2013, according to the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute, a research group, and the Brookings Institution, a think tank.
He has said that reducing business taxes will encourage companies to keep jobs in the U.S., and opposed free trade agreements that he blamed for an exodus of manufacturing.
"Steel jobs, and all manufacturing jobs, will be returning to Pennsylvania in a very big way," Trump said Sept. 22.
Securing America
Trump has made immigration the centerpiece of his presidential campaign and rode his hard line on the issue to the GOP nomination.
He has called for deporting all 11 million unauthorized immigrants and banning Muslims from entering the U.S. He also has pledged to build a Mexican-financed along the southern U.S. border.
He has said the budget caps agreed to by President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans should be scrapped and defense spending should be increased.
Clinton, a former member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also supported eliminating the budget caps, although for domestic programs as well as military spending.
She also has backed efforts to prevent those on the terrorist watch list from buying weapons, and for background checks for purchases online and at gun shows.
Both candidates have supported efforts to take on the Islamic State.
Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.