Democrat President Barack Obama(REUTERS)
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Republican challenger Mitt Romney has taken the fight to Democrat President Barack Obama on the economy, specifically job creation and taxes, and has again promised to repeal the incumbent’s signature healthcare legislation.
The opponents in the race for the White House met last night in
The debate was rather a cordial, if at times, tense display of what the one did not like about the other. Governor Romney, in a red tie, repeatedly pushed back at the argument that he would lower taxes on the wealthy and raise them on the middle class.
Romney says: “ I will not under any circumstances raise taxes on middle income families, I will lower taxes on middle income families. I will not reduce the share paid by high income individuals, I know that you and your running mate keep saying that and I know it’s a popular thing to say with a lot of people, but it’s just not the case.”
However President Obama, wearing a blue tie, rejected the explanation. He says. “ For 18 months he’s been running on and now, 5 weeks before the election and now he’s saying his big bold idea is never mind. The fact is that if you are lowering the rates the way you describe governor, then it is not possible to come up with enough deductions and loopholes that only affect high income individuals to avoid either raising the deficit or burdening the middle class. It’s math, it’s arithmetic. “
Governor Romney argued that Americans were no better off than they were before President Obama took office and promised a different path.
The Republican candidate says: “My priority is putting people back to work in America, they’re suffering in this country and we talk about evidence, look at the evidence of the last four years, its absolutely extraordinary. We’ve got 23 million people out of work or stopped looking for work in this country. When the president took office, 32 million people on food stamps, 47 million on food stamps today. Economic growth this year, slower than last year.”
The reason we have been in such an enormous economic crisis, was prompted by reckless behaviour across the board
They clashed on Obamacare, disagreed on the degree of government regulation of the economy and Governor Romney promised to repeal parts of legislation that over regulates, particularly Wall Street.
The President hit back by saying: “The reason we have been in such an enormous economic crisis, was prompted by reckless behaviour across the board, it wasn’t just on wall street, you had loan officers that were giving loans and mortgages that really shouldn’t have been given because the folks didn’t qualify, people who were borrowing to buy a house that they couldn’t afford, you had credit agencies that were stamping these as A1 great investments when they weren’t, but you also had banks making money hand over fist churning out products the bankers themselves didn’t understand.”
Obama says: “ The reason I’m in this race is that people are hurting right now, this deficit could crush the future generations, what’s happening in the middle east, there are developments around the world that are of real concern and republicans and democrats both love America and we need to have leadership. Leadership in
Romney says: “Part of being principled, part of being a leader, is being able to describe exactly what it is you intend to do, not just saying I’ll sit down, but you have to have a plan. No 2, is occasionally you’ve got to say no, to folks both in your party or in the other party and yes have we had some fights between me and the republicans… because that was a fight that needed to be had.”
They shook hands, smiled, patted each other on the shoulder. They meet again for round two on October 16. The Vice Presidential debates happens in one week from today.
Social media joins the debate:
