OBAMA:

• ENERGY
  • Cut oil imports in half by 2020, expand domestic production
  • Have an all-of-the-above approach to energy independence and increase production of natural gas, wind and solar energy
  • Double fuel efficiency standards
• TAXES
  • Keep taxes low for middle class families
  • Simplify the tax code
  • Households making more than $1 million should not pay a smaller share of income than the middle class
• JOBS
  • Invest in education, small businesses, infrastructure and research
  • Eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and create tax incentives for businesses bringing jobs back home
  • Double exports and create 1 million new manufacturing jobs
• GUN RIGHTS
  • Enforce current laws pertaining to weapons
  • Strengthen the National Instant Criminal Background Check System
  • Prevent criminals and mentally unbalanced individuals from purchasing firearms by checking record before gun sales
• MILITARY PRESENCE ABROAD
  • Return troops from Afghanistan and end the war by 2014
  • Secure vulnerable nuclear materials
  • Commit to Israel’s security
• VETERANS

• Prevent the VA from undergoing automatic budget cuts
• Streamline veterans’ transitions to civilian life through job training
• Create a Veterans Job Corps conservation program to put 20,000 veterans to work in America and encourage the private sector to hire veterans

• EDUCATION
  • Invest in community colleges to provide education and career-training
  • Reform federal campus-based aid programs to shift aid away from colleges that don’t keep net tuition down
  • Increase college graduates and contain cost of tuition by rewarding states willing to systematically change their higher education policies and practices
• HEALTH CARE
  • Provide quality, affordable and reliable health insurance
  • Stop insurance company abuses
  • End to health insurance discrimination
• IMMIGRATION
  • Pass comprehensive bipartisan immigration reform
  • Focus enforcement on those who endanger communities, and de-emphasize low priority cases like students, veterans, citizens and military families
  • Oppose Arizona’s S.B. 1070 that requires police to check immigration status if there is reasonable suspicion someone is undocumented
• WOMEN’S ISSUES:
  • End health insurance discrimination
  • Protect a woman’s right to choose
  • Passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

ROMNEY:

• ENERGY
  • Achieve energy independence by 2020
  • Have the private sector lead development of new energy technologies and have the states control energy production
  • Approve the Keystone XL pipeline, promote regulatory cooperation with Mexico and Canada
• TAXES
  • Make a 20 percent cut in marginal tax rates
  • Maintain current tax rates on dividends, capital gains and interest
  • Eliminate taxes for taxpayers with adjusted gross income below $200,000
• JOBS
  • Amend the National Labor Relations Act to protect the right of business owners to use money as they see fit, and guarantee a secret ballot in all union certification elections
  • Reverse executive orders that tilt the playing field towards organized labor
  • Consolidate federal retraining programs and funding and return management to the states
• GUN RIGHTS
  • No additional laws to restrict Second Amendment rights
  • Expand access and opportunities for hunting and shooting and defend the right of individuals to protect family, home and property
  • Enforce existing laws and punish criminals who misuse firearms
• MILITARY PRESENCE ABROAD
  • Commit to a multi-layered national ballistic-missile defense system and set core defense spending at 4 percent of GDP
  • Establish clear lines of authority and accountability for each weapons system to remain on time and on budget, and institute a shorter design and delivery process.
  • Work closely with Israel to maintain a strategic military edge, and work with Turkey and Egypt to fix their relationships with Israel
• VETERANS

• Modify the Post 9/11 GI Bill to give veterans in-state tuition regardless of residency
• Help veterans find skilled trade employment by creating state credentialing and licensing standards
• Allow veterans to see a TRICARE (military health insurance) provider at the VA’s expense if the VA cannot provide timely health care.

• EDUCATION
  • Reverse nationalization of student loans and return to bank-based student lending
  • Refocus Pell Grant dollars to those who need them the most
  • Stem rate of increase in grant funding to go with the rate of inflation and hold down rate of tuition/fee increases
• HEALTH CARE
  • Executive order to allow the federal government to issue Obamacare waivers to the states, and repeal Obamacare
  • Put states in charge of regulating local insurance markets and caring for poor, chronically ill, or uninsured
  • Give block grants to the states for Medicare and limit federal standards on insurance coverage
• IMMIGRATION:
  • Implement immigration strategy to bolster the economy, ensure security, keep nuclear families together and address illegal immigration
  • Grant permanent residency to foreign students who obtain advanced degrees
  • Speed up process of temporary work visas and create an effective mandatory employment verification system
• WOMEN’S ISSUES:
  • Restore the economy and get women to work
  • Overturn Roe v. Wade, return power to determine abortion laws to the states
  • End federal funding for abortion advocates like Planned Parenthood