Romney and Obama contrast

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

 

Ad

    • 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