Issues Jobs and Unemployment

ROMNEY
-Free Enterprise, hard work, innovation -Reduce government regulation of business activity -Revise the federal tax code and federal trade -Energy policies will create an environment that will lead businesses to support 12 million new jobs -Wants to expand health savings accounts to pay for premiums, increased competition and consumer choice, and lawsuit reform -Ensuring insurance coverage for people who already had insurance coverage

OBAMA
-Wants to eliminate tax breaks for companies outsourcing jobs overseas -Create more jobs in America -Signed Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to support women in cases of unequal pay. -Tax cuts for middle class -Made college more affordable= doubled Pell Grant funding -Ensuring access to free preventive care and stopping insurance companies from abusing consumers (Flu shots, diabetes screenings, mammograms) -The Affordable Care Act= holds insurance companies liable -Lifted lifetime caps on insurance coverage -Helped young adults get health insurance -Congress needs to help pass plan to expand refinancing for borrowers owing more than their propertys value. -Refinancing would help the housing market and employment -Repealed Dont Ask, Dont Tell -Declared publically that he supports marriage equality and marriage for same-sex couples -Signed Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act -Supports Respect for Marriage Act -Obama administration backed United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 to create Libyan no-fly zone -Pushed to include language allowing UN mandate control to launch air attacks on Libyan ground targets -Authorized firing of cruise missiles against targets in Libya, in response to regime actions against rebel forces

Health Care

Housing

Gay Marriage

Middle East

-Five-point housing plan -Includes selling vacant homes owned by government -Reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -Making foreclosure alternatives more available -Supports traditional marriage -Opposition to same-sex marriage and civil unions -Supports some domestic partnership benefits at the state level -Supports anti-discrimination laws to protect gays and lesbians in the workplace -US cannot be neutral about outcome of riots and attacks on American diplomatic facilities -Pursue a strategy of supporting groups and governments in the Middle East to build values of representative govt, human rights, etc. -Make available technical assistance to governments/ bodies of people to promote democracy -Great focus on ensuring Egypt remains ally of U.S. -Goal of peaceful allied Iraq with U.S. is in jeopardy- diplomatic efforts made huge gains when troops successfully provided security

Israel

China

Afghanistan

-U.S. must use force to resist the emergence of anti-Israel policies in Turkey and Egypt -Make clear to the Palestinians that unilateral attempt to finalize issues made for the Oslo Accords is unacceptable -U.S. supports Israels existence as a Jewish state -Reduce assistance to Palestinians if they continue to pursue United Nations recognition -Maintain a strong military presence overseas to discourage any aggressive actions against Chinas neighbors -Maintain and expand naval presence in Western Pacific -Coordinate with Taiwan to supply them with adequate aircraft and other military services -Supports and engage civil groups within China that promote democracy, anticorruption efforts, religious freedom, and minority rights. -Withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan will be judged on conditions assessed by the military with the goal of completing operations by end of 2014 -Favors increased legal immigration -Opposes illegal immigration -Supports the rights of states to make their own immigration laws when federal government cannot address situation -U.S. must erect a fence along entire 2,600 mile border of Mexico -Seeks to make the U.S. a much less hospitable place for undocumented immigrants -Reduce job opportunities for undocumented immigrants -Every foreign student to obtain advance degrees in math, science, or engineering at a U.S. university should have permanent residence -Retirement age should be slowly increased according to increases in longevity -Benefits should continue to grow but the growth rate should be lower for those with high incomes

-Financed Israel for building new homes in East Jerusalem with modern bunker buster bombs -Believes that the only way for Israel to achieve peace with their neighbors is to being a strong commitment to domestic security -Needs to preserve Israel as a Jewish state

-Believes that the best way to manage relationship with China is to draw it further into the international system -Wants to work with China on political, economic, environmental, and security targets -Wants to ensure that China and Taiwan maintain their peace -Does not want to cut off trade with China

-Withdrawing troops from Afghanistan by 2014 -Wants to Strengthen military and governing institutions -Aggressive campaign against Al Qaeda -Young people (who came to the US as children through no fault of their own) should be able to earn citizenship through military service or pursuit of higher education -Pushes for bipartisan immigration reform -Keeps families together by allowing undocumented spouses and children of US citizens to stay during legal immigration process

Immigration

Social Security

-Supports raising the retirement age and lowering the rate at which cost of living adjustments are made -Supports removing the payroll tax cap -Opposed to any form of privatization

Medicare

-Federal government should pay for medicines for seniors -Wants to raise the minimum age for Medicare eligibility -Opposition to cap and trade plans and to regulate carbon emissions -Supports Renewable energy as long as it would boost the economy -Energy proposal calls for expanding drilling for fossil fuels by easing federal regulations -Increase offshore drilling, give more states more control over energy development -Opposition to federal aid for renewable energy development -Supports Performance-based pay for public-school teachers, bonuses for the best teachers -Superintendents and principals should be able to fire teachers without regard to seniority -Education should be held at the local and state level -Supports stripping collective-bargaining rights from teachers and other public employees

-Made Medicare more efficient by destroying waste, fraud, abuse -Added 8 years to the current Medicare Trust

Energy Policy

-Plans to reduce dependence on foreign oil and develop more efficient energy sources -Doubling fuel efficiency standards -Promoting natural gas -Expand domestic oil production by giving land for development -Improving safety measures to prevent spills -Increasing wind and solar energy -Federal investment in clean coal technology. -Higher education should not be a luxury- every American should be able to afford -Responsible students and families can make decisions based on careers goals rather than cost of tuition- Obama stopped federal student loan interest rates from doubling and kept repayments at 10% of income -Wants highest number of college graduates in the world by 2020 -Goal to cut tuition in half and double student aid -Invested $2 billion in community colleges -Created Race to the Top initiative, which helped 46 states raise standards by rewarding reforms in local schools -Implemented post-9/11 G.I. Bill for veterans, service members, and their families to get an education -Wants to keep taxes for middle-class families low -Millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share -Budget plan has investments in education, manufacturing, and infrastructure -Plan to reduce the deficit by more than $4 trillion

Education

Tax Policy

-Plans to reduce taxes, spending, regulation, and government programs -Wants to increase trade, energy production, human capital -Relinquish power to the states -Make 20% cut in marginal rates -Maintain current tax rates on interest, dividends, and capital gain -Cut corporate rate to 25% to reduce hurting U.S. wages -Switch to a territorial tax system -Eliminate Death Tax