President

Obama vs. Mitt Romney On the Issues: Young Adults

Issue Access to Quality, Affordable Healthcare

President Obama

Mitt Romney

College Affordability

The President enacted the If I'm president, I will Affordable Care Act, making repeal Obamacare, and I'll it easier for young adults to kill it dead. Without any access quality, affordable consideration of the healthcare. Rather than benefits that the Affordable children losing access to Care Act provided for their parents healthcare young adults, Mitt Romney when they were 18 or 23, has said time and time they now can graduate, again that the first thing he work in an internship or will do if elected is repeal entry-level position, and still this important legislation. be covered by their parents insurance until they are 26. Nearly 2.5 million young adultsiincluding 75,000 in North Carolinaiihave already gained health coverage because of the Affordable Care Act, and the law will help an estimated 12.1 million young adultsiii once it is fully implemented. Access to affordable His plan for college education is a critical part affordability is for students of President Obamas plan to shop around or just for an economy thats borrow from their parents, built to last. Thats why as he suggested at a recent the President doubled event. Romney also funding for Pell Grants, supports the extreme Ryan benefiting up to 250,000 budget, which would cut iv North Carolina students ; Pell Grant funding by up to he tripled the largest 25%, eliminate the largest college tax credit, giving college tax credit, and allow North Carolina students student loan interest rates and their families a credit to double on July 1.viii of up to $10,000 over four Romneys extreme policies years of collegev; and he is would put college further fighting to keep student out of reach for millions of loan interest rates from North Carolina families. doubling for more than

Consumer Financial Protections

160,000 North Carolina students and more than 7.9 million nationwide, which will occur on July 1 unless Congress acts.vi To ensure graduates arent saddled with debt, he also signed a new law that limits the maximum monthly student loan repayment at 10% of income for certain borrowers and forgives student loan debt for those entering public service fields.vii For the President, consumer financial protection is vital to make sure that Wall Street, large corporations and banks play by the rules and avoid the reckless practices that led to the financial meltdown. Thats why President Obama signed the Credit Card Holders Bill of Rights and the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which benefitted young adults by preventing credit card companies from arbitrarily raising interest rates on existing balances and cleaning up credit card marketing practices at colleges and universities. For students who had to take private loans for school, it increased oversight to fight unfair lending practices.

Unsurprisingly, Governor Romney wants to repeal the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act without putting any new framework in place to keep Wall Street honest. Without oversight, Romneys cronies on Wall Street would be able to gamble with the investments of Main Street businesses and middle-class families once again. Credit card companies would be able to raise interest rates at will, and banks would no longer have the oversight that is badly need to protect consumers of all ages. These practices are the same practices that plunged the U.S. economy into the deepest recession since the Great Depression.


i http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/the_aca_helps_young_adults_0.pdf ii From OFA fact sheet on ACA impact in North Carolina. iii From OFA fact sheet, Young Americans and the Affordable Care Act

iv Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2/17/2011 (from Chicago fact sheet) v http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press- releases/Documents/012011Tax%20Facts%20for%20American%20Opportunity%20Tax%20Credi t%20January%202011%20final.pdf vi OFA Fact Sheet, KEEPING COLLEGE AFFORDABLE: PREVENTING STUDENT LOAN INTEREST RATES FROM DOUBLING, April 2012 vii http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/10/25/fact-sheet-help-americans-manage- student-loan-debt?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl viii http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3760