Romney vs. Obama Essay

Submitted By macchi18
Words: 2640
Pages: 11

Today the national debt is at 16 trillion; this is the highest in history. The national debt is an accumulation of the deficit year to year. The deficit applies to one year and looks at what the government takes in compared to what they spend. If more is spent than taken in the government has to borrow money, which adds to our national debt. During the 2012 election race the national debt and deficit where greatly discussed together with the threat of the looming sequestration in 2013. Republicans sought stimulus cuts in taxes and government spending where the Democrats were in favor of a combination of reduced spending and tax increases. Specifically Romney was looking to bring the federal spending down by revoking Obama's health care reform, foreign aid and cut funding to groups such as Planned Parenthood. Romeny plans to keep the Bush-era tax cut in place while limiting tax breaks for low/middle income families. Obama was looking to do away with careless spending in government programs and ending the Bush tax cut for high-income households (which would increase revenue) while keeping tax breaks for low/middle income families, and have an overhaul of the health care system. (LA Times) He would also withdraw troops in Afghanistan and have future spending caps on oversea military missions. Generally these policies in the 2012 election are traditional tendencies of the Democratic and Republican parties considering that Republicans are in favor of tax cuts, limited government involvement and more personal responsibility whereas Democrats are supporters of social services and an active role of government in society by possibly spending more and believe that people should share economic burdens. However there are splits within the parties. Inside both parties there are conservative and liberal sides and that is revealed in regards to the sequestration. Sequestration in short is mandatory budget cuts, the reason this was such a hot topic in the 2012 election race was due to the Budget Control Act of 2011. The BCA was designed to make Congress reduce the deficit on its own by the end of 2012 and if they failed to do so then automatic cuts would be put into place. These cuts are harmful to both Republicans (by adding to defense cuts) and Democrats (by cutting critical programs like infrastructure and education) so the hope or anticipation was the threat of sequestration would generate an agreement. Unfortunately budget plans in 2012 seemed to prove even more the distinct differences in both parties. (CNN) Senate Republicans are split on sequestration budget cuts some in favor of ideas such as allowing the president flexibility to choose the cuts others very opposed saying they do not want to hand over their constitutional obligations to the president. It has also been brought up that Obamacare should be on the table with worries that the cuts to the military leave the US vulnerable while other Republicans argue that they welcome the sequestration because the cuts need to happen. In addition, the simple fact that the president is a Democrat could be causing the diversity of opinion with Republicans, therefore, Democrats are less split on issues as the debt and deficit because they trust their party leader. Until recently the national debt was not a focus for the American voter but the 2012 campaign changed that with the help of interest groups and media. Special interest groups spent millions of dollars on ad campaign and commercials in hopes to bring this issue to the forefront. (The Daily Beast) "I don't think that the average American voter, especially a few months ago, was really focused on the debt," said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "Advertising does help set the narrative." For conservative groups, the simple narrative was government is too big and President Obama is to blame. For Democrats and unions, the message was that Republicans wanted to balance the budget