This November 6th, the presidential debate between governor Mitt Romney and current president Barack Obama, will be decided. It is vitally important for the people voting this year to know where each of the candidates stand on prominent issues in our country. We need to know the facts before choosing the leader of our country.

Background Information
Obama
     Barack Obama, age 51,  is running under the Democratic party. His vice-president will be Joe Biden, a former senator from Delaware. Before becoming president in 2008, Obama served as a senator in Illinois. He graduated from Columbia University and has a Law degree from Harvard.
Romney
     Mitt Romney, age 65, is running under the Republican party. His vice-president will be Paul Ryan, a U.S. Representative from Wisconsin. Before running for president, he was a governor of Massachusetts.

Where do They Stand?

Education
Obama

     Obama has signed a law saying college graduates cannot pay more than 10% of their income toward their student loans. This attempts to make student loans more affordable. He has given $1 billion to community colleges to help their reform. He has also changed the No Child Behind Act with Race to the Top. Race to the Top rewarded states with about $4.35 billion to help teachers improve and help schools that are struggling. This act has also pushed for standardized test results for the evaluation of teachers, but has been fought by teachers.

Romney
     Romney’s plan for education is A Chance for Every Child. This plan supports school choice and making sure there are qualified teachers in every classroom. He supports the effort of extending low interest rates on student loans. In addition to his new plans for education, he supports school vouchers that would pay for tuition for low-income and disabled students. Romney says he would let the Pell Grant program increase with inflation and promises to “refocus the Pell Grant dollars on the students who need them most.”
Health Care
Obama

     Obama’s Affordable Care Act requires Americans to purchase health insurance, or pay a penalty, by 2014. He wants to allow young people to stay on their parents’ health insurance plan up until they are 26. This plan also won’t allow health insurance companies to deny coverage to someone because of an illness.

Romney
     Romney wants to repeal Obama’s Affordable Care Act. He would rather start market-based reforms to reduce healthcare costs. He would like to craft plans for health care that most benefits each individual state and have young people stay on their family plan.

Immigration
Obama
     Obama wants to strengthen the borders and continue the DREAM Act. DREAM stands for The Development, Relief, and Education, of Alien Minors. This act was created to help children brought to America by parents illegally, who are graduating from high school and find citizenship.
Romney
     Romney would like to stop the chain reaction of one person immigrating to the U.S. and having their whole family follow them. He opposes resident college tuition and driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants.

Unemployment
Obama
     Obama will help businesses in small rural communities and would like to broaden the rural job search. He would like to double exports to help the creation of jobs for American citizens. Obama plans on hiring 10,000 math and science teachers, create 1 million jobs in the manufacturing industry, and directly creating jobs by ending the war in Iraq and using those funds.
Romney
     Romney wants American businesses to compete with the whole world’s economy and open American businesses in other countries. He has repeatedly said he would create 12 million jobs. About 4 million jobs would be in the energy producing section. One of his plans is to create “re-employment accounts.” These accounts will be used for a person to receive training he or she feels they need for the future.

Tax Reform
Obama
     Obama wants to extend middle-class tax cuts and have tax rates of 39.6% for people who make $250,000 or more per year. He would also like to cut taxes on domestic manufacturers and companies shipping jobs overseas.  
Romney
     Romney wants to expand the tax deduction to those who buy their own health insurance and help people buy their own health insurance. He would like to lower tax rates by 20% and put a limit on deductions and exemptions, especially for the higher end people.

Government Spending
Obama
     Obama says he will cut spending by $4 trillion over the next four years. In his plan, he included the $1 trillion Congress already agreed to cut.
Romney
     Romney says he will reduce spending from 24% to 20%, estimating that he would cut about $500 billion each year. His spending cuts include stopping Obamacare and ending subsidies to PBS and other programs.