What are Obama's and Romney's plans for the next four years?

Spending/Deficit:

President Obama

President Obama says he will cut spending by $4 trillion over the next four years. In that plan, he included $1 trillion Congress already agreed to. Additional deficit reduction would come from "cutting $2.50 in spending for every $1 in additional revenue from the wealthiest families and closing corporate loopholes," according to his "Blueprint." He has been specific about closing one corporate loophole he'd end: "The oil industry gets $4 billion a year in corporate welfare," the president said at the first debate.

In addition, the president said he would "commit half of the money saved from responsibly ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to reducing the deficit."

Romney

Romney, however, says he would reduce spending from 24 percent GDP to 20 percent GDP, which he estimated would cut an average of $500 billion per year from the federal budget. His spending cuts include, "eliminating...Obamacare," end the "subsidy to PBS" and other programs he says are not worth borrowing money from China. Finally, he would "take programs that are currently good programs but I think could be run more efficiently at the state level and send them to the state," he said at the first debate.

"[W]e are finally going to get America to cap our spending, to cut our spending and get us on track to a balanced budget," he said referring to another component of his plan, which he highlighted at the Conservative Political Action Committee on Oct. 4.

Energy:

President Obama

Play Video

Second presidential debate: Energy policy and gas prices

President Obama said during the last debate on Oct. 22 that he would "develop clean energy technologies that will allow us to cut our exports in half by 2020." To do that, he would continue "tax credits that support clean energy manufacturing," open up "millions of acres for exploration and development, including undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic," and double "fuel economy of cars and light trucks to 54.5 mpg by 2025." According to his "Blueprint," the president would also set a standard for utility companies to generate 80 percent of electricity from "clean sources" by 2035. Included in his plan is an expansion of natural gas production, which, he said, would "support more than 600,000 jobs."

Romney

Romney promises "North American energy independence by 2020." It's a promise that has been made by every president - including President Obama during his 2008 campaign - and most presidential candidates since Richard Nixon in 1972. To fulfill that pledge, he would take "full advantage of oil, coal, gas, nuclear and our renewables," according to his statement during the final presidential debate Monday.

In addition, he would achieve his goal by moving forward with the Keystone XL pipeline on "day one," he said in New Hampshire on June 18. Also on "day one" he would "direct the Department of the Interior to implement a process for rapid issuance of drilling permits to developers," according to a Romney campaign memo. 

• prev
• next

2/3

[Taiyabali]

So much is being said about Jobs, Taxes,Spending/Deficit, Energy, Entitlements: Social Security and Medicare, Health Care. These are extremely important issues, no doubt about that, but I would like to believe that Americans also look beyond the USA when they choose the man to be their president for the next four years. For example, few will doubt that the world is a safer place now, with Obama as President than it was before he was elected. There is a sense of betterness, for the want of a better word, across the globe. I believe he has done a great job, considering the mess he inherited. He appears to have this ability to go about his job without too much flamboyancy. He has laid a good foundation for the next four years and I am sure he will deliver the goods. If he loses, which to me is most unlikely, Romney will definately gain from what Obama has sowed.
He is reaching out to the world in a manner which will definately hold the USA in good stead. He is the man of the hour. I would rate him in the same class as Ahramam Lincoln. I am hoping and praying he wins and contiues to make our world a better place. I am also convinced Obama will win. Good luck Obama!

[KelliALB]

Does anybody else find it suspect that he could not have released this prior to the debate? There is a reason behind this, beyond the obvious, leaving no ability for Romney to personally question him, he also clearly has the media in his pocket and they will promote this garbage as gospel. His plan for jobs is the same regurgitation that has failed us for the last 4 years. First he lies, not unusual, and states he has added 5 million new jobs, this is laughable and far from the actual 325,000, which if you take into account the tax-payer money used to create those jobs, they are running at a cost of over a $million each. We have consistently lost manufacturing jobs over the last 4 years, just do the research. He has promised to add jobs and create oil and coal production jobs, well even IF he does, which he has actually decimated these industries, but IF he does, we wont be able to use it, he has a mandate in place to use 80% of renewable energy for energy useage here, so that doesnt make sense. On taxing the wealthy, he fails to say just how much that will create. The numbers have been calculated, and the total is 80 billion a year, that falls drastically short of the trillion dollar deficit we are running now. This man has NOTHING to offer. He has created many more poor, that does not equate to caring for them, he has increased the debt by 5 trillion in less then 4 years, yet castgated Bush for increasing it by 4 trillion in 8 years, and has blamed Bush and the republicans this whole time. Nevermind that he had control of both houses for the first 2 years, and never passed a budget, and nevermind the TRUTH that the house has passed 299 bills in the last 2 years, yet the senate has stalled on all of them except 71. It not for lack of trying on the republicans end.He has lied over and over, about Libya, about Romney's ideals, about GM. He is dangerous with foreign policy, what did he mean when offering more flexibility to Russia? How could he suggest that Israel return to 67 borders? He has funded and placated our enemies and refuses to say the words, islamic terrorism. Barry Soetoro has got to go plain and simple. We can not afford it financially or security wise.

[sjc_1]

How can Mutt cut taxes, increasing the deficit $500 billion per year, increase military spending $230 billion per year and reduce the deficit? This is beginning to sound like Reagan, who tripled the national debt with such nonsense.

[William-Eggeman]

"hire 100,000 math and science teachers." Anyone actually stop to think about this comment? What 100k teachers will they replace? How will struggling schools meet budgets if no one is replaced? Why not take under performing teachers out of circulation (not fired) and have them retrained. Not hard to see what teachers are doing well and which aren't just look at the progress reports. Why only focus on Math and Science? What about English reading and writing are not important? Physical Education isn't important? Kids are not active or motivated so why would being a better math or science student create an America that can compete in the global market place or be more innovative? My thoughts would be start children one year earlier in school, better training for the teachers, stronger curriculum for the students and give incentives to teachers who excel. Let the parents and progress reports be a way to grade to teachers performance. Above all quit babying kids these kids. Too many are growing up as self entitled ******* thinking they deserve everything but won't work for anything.

You need a clear cut plan you can't just throw 100k teachers into a struggling area and think that will fix it. Much like throwing billions of dollars at undeserving companies thinking that would fix anything.

I do understand people have who they like for whatever reason but you need to look at the fine print not the catchy titles and stop taking things and blowing them out of context just because you heard some else do it. Form your own opinions. Seriously binders and bayonets? Get over it more important things that are getting worse are the economy, jobs, debt and THE FUTURE OF THIS ONE GREAT COUNTRY!!!!

[cubscout09]

280,000 teacher positions were lost in the great recession.
The American Jobs Act includes a 5% surtax on AGI above $1,000,000 to restore teaching positions as well as Police, Firefighters and other public safety positions we lost. Patriotic millionaires are all for it.

Creating 100,000 science and math teaching positions is exactly like Mitt Romney's proposal for Massachusetts Public Schools, only 100 times bigger.

[William-Eggeman]

"hire 100,000 math and science teachers." Anyone actually stop to think about this comment? What 100k teachers will they replace? How will struggling schools meet budgets if no one is replaced? Why not take under performing teachers out of circulation (not fired) and have them retrained. Not hard to see what teachers are doing well and which aren't just look at the progress reports. Why only focus on Math and Science? What about English reading and writing are not important? Physical Education isn't important? Kids are not active or motivated so why would being a better math or science student create an America that can compete in the global market place or be more innovative? My thoughts would be start children one year earlier in school, better training for the teachers, stronger curriculum for the students and give incentives to teachers who excel. Let the parents and progress reports be a way to grade to teachers performance. Above all quit babying kids these kids. Too many are growing up as self entitled ******* thinking they deserve everything but won't work for anything.

You need a clear cut plan you can't just throw 100k teachers into a struggling area and think that will fix it. Much like throwing billions of dollars at undeserving companies thinking that would fix anything.

I do understand people have who they like for whatever reason but you need to look at the fine print not the catchy titles and stop taking things and blowing them out of context just because you heard some else do it. Form your own opinions. Seriously binders and bayonets? Get over it more important things that are getting worse are the economy, jobs, debt and THE FUTURE OF THIS ONE GREAT COUNTRY!!!!

[pjsuther]

Past is Prologue. Check this out to see what a Romney presidency could look like:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governorship_of_Mitt_Romney

[infoworker]

What economists say about Romney's tax plan...

Catherine Rampell
Catherine Rampell, economics reporter at The New York Times, wrote of the Romney campaign's tax promises in a recent blog post: "Not all of those principles can coexist so long as basic arithmetic survives."

David Frum
David Frum, contributing editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast, recently wrote: "Romney's tax cut plan doesn't work. I'm a Republican, I support Romney, etc. But you can't cut that much in such a stagnant economy and expect to break even. Even with a deductions cap, it just won't happen."

Ezra Klein
Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein wrote in August that "the Tax Policy Center's analysis has removed all doubt" that Romney's tax plan is mathematically impossible.

Mark Zandi
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, recently said on CNN that when it comes to Romney's tax plan, "the arithmetic doesn't work as it is right now."

Josh Barro
Bloomberg View columnist Josh Barro wrote in a recent column that the six studies that the Romney campaign uses to claim the candidate's tax plan is mathematically possible "individually and collectively...fail the task."

The Tax Policy Center
The Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank, recently concluded that Mitt Romney's tax plan is mathematically impossible without raising taxes on the middle class

Larry Summers
Harvard economist Larry Summers, a former top adviser to President Barack Obama, recently compared Mitt Romney's tax plan to a hamburger and ice cream diet. He said: "It's easy to say that 'My plan is to eat ice cream sundaes and chocolate cake and hamburgers as much as I want, my plan is to lose 60 pounds, and my plan is to avoid painful exercise, and those are all my objectives and I'm committed to every one of them.'"

Paul Krugman
The Nobel Prize-winning economist wrote in a New York Times blog post in August: "Romney's tax plan is now a demonstrated fraud — big tax cuts for the rich that he claims would be offset by closing loopholes, but the Tax Policy Center has demonstrated that the arithmetic can't possibly work

[Rafterman11]

Yeah Smokey, when in doubt, just declare them a "left loon" and automatically in the argument.

Because we all know that the economist field is just crawling with lefties. LOL.

[timtlc2]

David Stockman on Mitt Romney (Newsweek last week):

"...Mitt Romney was not a businessman; he was a master financial speculator who bought, sold, flipped, and stripped businesses. He did not build enterprises the old-fashioned way—out of inspiration, perspiration, and a long slog in the free market fostering a new product, service, or process of production. Instead, he spent his 15 years raising debt in prodigious amounts on Wall Street so that Bain could purchase the pots and pans and castoffs of corporate America, leverage them to the hilt, gussy them up as reborn "roll-ups," and then deliver them back to Wall Street for resale—the faster the better."

Mitt's claim to the Presidency as a master businessman is a fraud according to Stockman, no Obama sympathizer. A very fiscally conservative, main street REPUBLICAN

[betterusa]

If Obama is reelected and since he cannot run for President another time (22nd amendment); he will do probably less to help this country for another 4 years. Promise, promise, promise but nothing will change. He is not committed to work with Republicans in Congress so nothing will change. He will not create more jobs, he will not create more energy independence and gas will go over $5 at the pump and the US dollar and credit rating will continue to slide. It amazes me that the Libya lie is retorted by Dems that since Bush lied, it's okay for Obama to lie. We all see the charts and statistics of his administration and how inept it has been and he can only blame Bush for so long (funny how Reagan did not blame Carter for a bigger mess of unemployment). Are the Obama supporters so blind that they did not have their eyes open the last 4 years? Possibly most are living off the government and do not care about the future of the U.S. I know I will vote for a stronger America in less than 2 weeks.

[Rafterman11]

Republicans were committed to not work with Obama from the day he was elected.

And keep the "most are living off the government" lie alive. It just confirms your level of ignorance to the world around you.

[betterusa]

Rafterman: Dems controlled Congress Obamas first two years so your statement is garbage.

[wfw3536]

I find it funny that yesterday Obama finally shared his economic plan with the American people. I guess he didn't trust us with these important details until 2 weeks before the election, or maybe it is because they are the same failed ideas Obama has tried for the last 4 years.

[Rafterman11]

Still waiting for details on ANY Romney plan.

[Rafterman11]

Obama, like all politicians, spins. Spinning is taking your positions and picking and choosing to make them sound better or more effective than they really might be. This is why 'cons get confused and say Obama lies all the time. He does not lie, he spins and, as I said, that's pretty much a trait of all politicians.

Romney, on the other hand, LIES. He literally switches his positions depending on the group he's talking to. The Romney at the debates sounded like a nice, moderate guy, not he far right winger he portrayed before and after. He derides the 47 percent to one group in private, then says he's for the 100 percent when in front of the public. He invents Romneycare, then says Obamacare, almost the same d@mn thing, is terrible and he will repeal it.

Love them or hate them, at least Obama is consistent in his positions and doesn't change them for his audience.

[Rafterman11]

Obama has been consistent on his positions and so, no, its not lying. If Romney would have had the same message the last year (he hasn't), then I could have made the same spin comment about Romney. There's nothing worse than a flip flopper. John Kerry was a flip flopper. You know how that turned out for him.