It’s an election year, a fact that’s pretty hard to miss as flyers are passed out, signs are firmly planted in front yards and doorknockers become a recurring nuisance. There seems to be a clear choice on who should win – or, should I say, regain – the presidency.
As we watch the presidency battle this year, we have to ask ourselves who is the best choice.
I want a president who is first and foremost worried about my well being. I’m only 16, but I know the struggle my parents go through as part of a hardworking middle class family trying to raise three children.
When the President took office in 2008, the U.S. was losing over 750,000 jobs per month and slowly spiraling for the worse. Although you may not like the economy’s position at present, it can’t be denied that it has improved since the President took office. With the unemployment rate below 8 percent, let’s not forget that the dragging economy is the outcome of almost a decade of bad decision-making: it will, and SHOULD, take time to fix it.
For the middle-class specifically, the president has saved families an average of $3,600 in taxes; Governor Romney’s tax plan doesn’t even come close.
It bewilders me that Mitt Romney is even considered as a possible greater candidate than the current president. Yes, I can understand the frustration with a slowly recovering economy, but giving the presidency to someone who lacks an actual basis to his tax plan doesn’t seem to be the right choice. And with Speaker of the House who has publicly declared to “reject the word” compromise, there is a clear blockade for the President to surmount.
The governor’s so-called “plan” is mathematically impossible. Romney has repeatedly stated that he will balance the budget, cut taxes for some parts of the middle class and raise spending on defense. How does he plan on accomplishing this great feat, you may ask? By simply finding loopholes and wasteful spending in our budget. It sounds great – that is, if he could bend the rules of basic math. Including cuts to funding for the Public Broadcasting Service (yes, that includes Big Bird and Sesame Street), Romney’s plan is, according to The Tax Policy Center, mathematically unmanageable.
In reality, there aren’t enough loopholes that will offset the amount needed to close the deficit and the costs of everything the governor has promised. In order to truly cut the deficit and implement his plan of reducing the tax rate by 20 percent, taxpayers who make more than an average of $200,000 would undoubtedly have to see a tax cut. Taxes currently only paid by 1 percent of the nation will no longer be considered necessary, while 95 percent will inevitably see an increase.
I want a president that understands my aspirations as a high school student and as a part of our future generation when it comes to higher education: not all of us can “borrow money from our parents.”
In the last four years, Barack Obama has stopped the student loan interest rate from doubling and suppressed the federal student loan repayment at 10 percent.
Those struggling students are apart of the so-called 47 percent, “who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them” – that is, according to the Governor.
It must be quite easy to rant about the reliance of almost half of the country on welfare when your tax rate is only 14 percent of your multi-million dollar income. But the so-called “47 percent” refers to those making less than that which can be taxable, senior citizens who have paid off their mortgage and make less than $20,150 (jointly) a year, and a majority of college students working part-time jobs.
Ironically, Romney, who at first stood behind his remarks, quickly recanted: he stated that his comments were “completely unacceptable,” which is something we seem to hear a lot of.
I want a president that’s reliable.
As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney was a pro-choice, health-reforming Republican moderate. Now, in the past year, we have observed a completely different person: a strong conservative with strict values and views that stands completely opposed to those of the president. If our president will have the country’s future in his hands or is faced with quickly enacting an executive decision, I don’t want someone who lacks conviction to decide.
I want a president that’s looking out for America’s best interests. Most importantly, I want a president that understands the role we play as a nation internationally.
Obama has one of the most successful foreign policies of any American president in recent years. His so called “apology tour” last fall was a successful initiative by the president to tell the Muslim world that America isn’t targeting their religion – a misconception shared by many. The president has pulled troops from Iraq, and, most prominently, made the call to take down Osama Bin Laden.
Meanwhile, Romney, after the third day of his world tour, infamously made foreign headlines: “Mitt the Twit” became the cover story for leading British front pages, exposing his failure abroad.
Maybe the most influential reason I believe in President Barack Obama is because of his rise to presidency. I want a president that embodies the American dream, a story a majority of Americans can relate to. Both he and his wife exemplify the outcome of hard work: they are two people who didn’t come from a wealthy background, but worked to get accepted into the nation’s top educational institutions and have left their respective marks on history.
America needs someone who understands what the majority of American people are going through.
This is not a company; it’s a country that needs to be led, not run. It is a country that needs to be led by President Barack Obama.
