Would Obama Really Move Us Forward?
Written by, Ryan Maloney Every election is important. It decides who is going to steer our country in the right direction and help overcome the country’s issues. The 2012 election is going to be the election that has the greatest effect on each one of us and our generation’s future. Right now in our country there are three main issues that will impact us all the most. They are; the economy and jobs, government spending and national debt. Even though Obama states that he is going to move this country “forward”, he is going to cause more damage with the economy/jobs, government spending/national debt and individual freedom, while Mitt Romney’s approach as president will move our country forward. Romney would work on expanding trade. Expanding trade in America is a key part in helping our economy with creating more jobs and would start to lower our nation’s deficit. Without developing enough trade, it stops the economy’s growth and would have a negative effect on creating jobs. While Obama would keep supporting sending money to other countries for oil, Romney would save money by using the natural recourses that we have in our own country for energy through energy independence. Romney developed a plan that “would make North America energy independent by 202” (The Caucus), which would be the end of his second term. We would be able to produce our own oil and “we won’t need to buy any oil from the Middle East, or anywhere else where we don’t want to”said Mitt Romney. This would give states more power of energy resource development on our federal lands. This would result in saving money by drilling for energy in our own country instead of paying money to drill in other countries. Instead of planning to fix the economy through government spending programs, Mitt Romney’s plan on fixing government spending and our national debt is to force the government to stay within its boarder to stop deficit spending. Romney would put attention in taking away government spending that is being wasted. He would fix the national tax code. By fixing the national tax code the borderline rates will be moved down to help fuel free enterprise, job creation and investment. Mitt Romney has the plan of cut, cap and balance. Meaning, while restructuring the tax code we have to cut both tax rates and spending. This could result into advancing our economic growth and could bring new income that would play a role in lowing our nation’s deficit. While Mitt Romney would fix the national tax code and cut cap and balance, Barack Obama’s plan on fixing government spending and national debt is a “balance approach”, which he means cutting spending, but raising taxes. It is a long term plan. The plan is to lower the nation’s deficit by keeping the current individual income tax system, but raise taxes to 30% of income. Obama also wants to make the cost of social security go up. You can’t lower the nation’s deficit by raising taxes, it doesn’t work that way. In order to increase the government’s revenue (income to governments through taxation), first you have to lower taxes. History is the evidence for this statement. When former President George W. Bush was in office in 2003, he decreased the tax rate for almost every taxpayer in America. After doing so the government’s income fell $140 billion dollars. After 2003 to 2008 the revenue rose from what it was, $1.782 trillion dollars, to $2.5 trillion dollars. The result from this was, for a short term, the income decreased, but afterwards it rose $718 billion dollars. Evidence shows that for almost every dollar increased in taxes, two dollars were decreased in the government’s income. This was published in a study called The Macroeconomic Effects of Tax Changes: Estimates Based on A New Measure of Fiscal Shocks. This shows the negative result in trying to increase the government’s revenue by increasing taxes, which shows Obama’s plan on taxation will only work in a negative way. President Obama’s last term is the evidence in why he should not be in office for a second term due to where he has put our country today. When Obama first took office as president, unemployment was 7.8%. Now the employment rate is 8.1%. Today we have around 46.7 million men and women on food stamps, more than it ever has been. On top of that, our poverty rate is about 15%, which is the highest percent since 1993 (CNN, William J. Bennett, pg. #1). Yes Obama did start his presidency with having a bad economy. The steps that he has taken as president with his policies have made it worse. When Obama was becoming president he promised to cut the deficit in half. When Obama first came to office, the deficit was around $10 trillion. Since Obama has been in office the deficit has become over $16 trillion. That is not half. It is the opposite. In order for our country to move forward we can’t do what we have been doing. We need to reduce taxes, increase trade. Mitt Romney’s approach as America’s president will move our country forward with his plan for our economy/jobs, government spending/national debt. We need a change and Barack Obama is not that change. |