Olivia's Blog: November 2012

Obama vs. Romney: the unbiased facts

	OBAMA	ROMNEY
National Debt	worse	better
Environment, Global Warming, and clean energy	better: the Recovery Act, Executive Order 13514₂, set vehicle mileage standards, funded energy efficiency and alternative energy projects. However, the President has not done much for the environment despite his rhetoric and claims that he is making the environment a priority. He let cap and trade die and he has not significantly “slowed the rise of the oceans” or “healed the planet”.₃	terrible: “President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family.”₁
Health Care	Pros: uninsured people get health care, insurance companies can’t withhold health care Cons: people have less control over their health care, they have to pay more if they don’t participate (in the form of a tax). This tax is $95 (or 1% of income, whichever is higher) in 2014. It increases to $325 (or 2% of income) in 2015, and $695 (or 2.5% of income) in 2016.₄	Cons: health care costs stay high, uninsured people don’t get health care Pros: people have greater freedom of choice over their doctor, some argue quality of health care will be better without a government monopoly₄
Abortion	Pro-choice (a woman has a right to choose whether to get an abortion or not).₆	Pro-life (abortion should be illegal). But, in the past he was pro-choice. Maybe he changed his position to get nominated as the Republican candidate. He did say that his past belief was wrong though, so maybe he just changed his mind _{5, 6}
Gay rights	better: he opposes the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as being between one man and one woman. He is pro-gay-rights. However, he is willing to leave the issue of gay marriage up to the states, so as President he isn’t going to aggressively push legalizing gay marriage on a federal level.₇	worse: Romney is against gay marriage and he does not approve of GLTB couples having kids. Quote: “Some (gays) are actually having children born to them. It’s not right on paper, it’s not right in fact… every child deserves a mother and father.” ₈
Economy	Obama has helped our economy over the short-term, but in the long-term he could make things worse. Also, his way of improving the economy has created massive debt. ₉	Romney is focused on improving the economy. He aims to reduce debt, spend less, cut health care spending, and reduce taxes for businesses. We don’t know if Romney will be great for the economy, but voters seem to think so! Romney’s five-part plan: #1) Cut spending to reduce debt #2) Cut taxes for business (especially small businesses) and reduce environmental regulations that restrict business #3) Slowly reduce federal gov’t involvement in health care programs (repeal Obamacare) #4) take advantage of our national oil, coal, and gas (alternative energy is not mentioned) resources to become energy independent. #5) take a strong military stance, forging trade agreements that benefit us and not being afraid to get ourselves involved militarily
Religion	Obama is a Christian, but he is not very religious.	Romney is a Mormon with a strong religious background. The Mormon church of the 70’s used to be known for discrimination and for opposing equal rights for women, but that does not necessarily reflect on the present-day Mormon church nor does it reflect on Mitt Romney₁₁. Romney supports the recognition of God during school ceremonies such as graduation and he is against the teaching of contraception in public schools (he believes in abstinence-only sex education). He does not support teaching creationism or prayer in public schools₁₀.
African-American rights	better	Romney is perfectly fine and no one could find any fault with him when it comes to African-American rights, but I think Obama wins on this one just by virtue of being himself! :)
Hispanic rights/ Hispanic issues	better. Obama unwaveringly supports the Dream Act, which would prevent deportation of children who were born in America to illegal parents. Obama has not made it easier to immigrate to the United States legally, but he has not enforced border laws against illegal immigration. ₁₂	worse—Romney supports harsh enforcement of border laws to prevent illegal immigration and he is unlikely to do anything to enable legal immigration. He supports deportment of illegal aliens. He does not support the Dream Act. ₁₂
Military	Obama is anti-war. He did help get us out of Iraq and kill Osama bin Laden. Obama did cut funding on the military during his term. ₁₃	Romney supports spending money on the military; he supports being harder on our enemies, such as Iran and Cuba; he is more pro-war. ₁₃
Taxes on poor and middle class	better—Obama is strongly against taxing the poor and he has instated tax cuts that save middle class Americans $3,600 dollars annually. Obama is definitely better when it comes to taxes on the poor, and it remains to be seen whether Romney will match or exceed him on reducing middle class taxes. ₁₄	worse—Romney’s economic plan involves cutting taxes for everyone, but it also involves closing loopholes in the tax code that save some people significant amounts of money. In addition, Romney has said he will do whatever it takes—including taxing the middle class—to reduce the federal deficit. Some have argued that Romney’s policies will result in raised taxes for the middle class, while others say that the economic benefits will counterbalance this. ₁₄
Taxes on rich (income of more than $200,000- $300,000 a year)	worse—despite his message of lowering taxes, Obama seems to think this doesn’t apply to the rich and has been heaping tax burdens on them. ₁₅	better—Romney seems to favor a more across-the-board approach. If taxes are lowered, they are lowered for everyone, including the rich. ₁₆
Education	Obama is focusing on providing student loans, which can be hard to pay off. Still, Obama is definitely focusing on education and he is much more likely to spend money on education than Romney. ₁₇	Romney does not support federal financial aid for students. He believes students should come up with the money for college tuition on their own or through their parents, and if they borrow money they should expect to have to pay it back. However, in the past, Romney presided over improved education in Michigan, which was good. The top 25% students in Michigan got free college tuition. Romney also plans to reform the No Child Left Behind policy and help students stuck in bad schools have more choices. ₁₇