Pool/Getty Images
To respond to the Do Now, you can comment below or tweet your response. Be sure to begin your tweet with @KQEDEdspace and end it with #KQEDDoNow
For more info on how to use Twitter, click here.
Do Now
The number one issue in this election is the economy, and it can greatly affect your future. Which candidate for president (President Obama or Governor Romney) offers you and the country a stronger economic policy, and thus perhaps, a brighter future? Why? Which candidate would you vote for president?
Introduction
On October 16th, a college student asked this question during the second presidential debate between President Obama and Governor Romney:
"Mr. President, Governor Romney, as a 20-year-old college student, all I hear from professors, neighbors and others is that when I graduate, I will have little chance to get employment. Can — what can you say to reassure me, but more importantly my parents, that I will be able to sufficiently support myself after I graduate?"
Governor Romney pins his strategy for job growth on his tax plan. He claims more than half of those jobs, 7 million, would be generated by this plan to cut tax rates by 20 percent for all taxpayers. Growth in the economy, the Romney campaign argues, stems from cutting taxes for high-income people and companies.How would this be paid for? The almost $5 trillion in lost tax revenue over 10 years would be paid for by ending deductions and closing loopholes. Governor Romney argues, "First, my energy independence policy means more than 3 million new jobs, many of them in manufacturing. My tax reform plan to lower rates for the middle class and for small business creates 7 million more. And expanding trade, cracking down on China, and improving job training takes us to over 12 million new jobs."
President Obama’s strategy is totally different. The focus is on investment – federal investment - and is spelled out in the American Jobs Act. This means spending on infrastructure and job training programs, a tax cut for firms that hire new workers, aid to state and local governments, and a program to rebuild schools. He would end the tax cut for wealthy Americans (enacted by President Bush) and use the money to pay for investment. The $450 billion program was enacted by Congress: a one-year extension of the payroll tax holiday and an extension of unemployment benefits. Congress refused to pass other provisions that the American Jobs Act called for. President Obama argues (at an event in Virgina)
"We need to cut our oil imports in half, create thousands more jobs in clean energy … We need to use the savings from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to help pay down our deficit and put people back to work doing some nation-building right here at home."
Which strategy makes sense to you?
