Terrance McLeod, Staff Writer
Last Wednesday, October 3, was the first of three presidential debates. It took place at the University of Denver and was mediated by Jim Lehrer, but throughout the night he hardly had any control. President Obama and Mitt Romney debated about the economy, healthcare and government control. The first topic debated was the economy and Mitt Romney was sure to criticize President Obama’s policies stating, “Under the president’s policies, middle-income Americans have been buried, they’re just being crushed. Middle income Americans have seen their income come down by $4,300. This is a tax in and of itself. I’ll call it the economy tax. It’s been crushing.” President Obama fired back by saying that although Mitt Romney wants to cut taxes by 20 percent he has never said a detailed plan on how he would accomplish that.
On the topic of healthcare, the issue was clearly the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. The president went into detail about what the act gives us. He talked about how getting insurance would no longer be an issue for those who have pre-existing conditions, which is something that has been a problem with private insurance. He also noted how children can stay on their parent’s insurance until they are 26 years old, which will get them through college. The president also made sure to let everyone know that Obamacare came from a bill from Massachusetts, which Governor Romney passed. Romney said he will repeal Obamacare but did not have a very detailed plan on how he would replace it. The president responded with: “If you’re 54 or 55, you might want to listen ’cause this — this will affect you,” referring to the voucher plan that Romney wants to use for seniors to buy their own private insurance. He said that it is estimated that the voucher would cost $6,000 a year because it would not be able to keep up with healthcare inflation. Mitt Romney declined that it would cost $6,000 but did not have a detailed plan on how it would work.
Even though Mitt Romney did not have clear cut plans on what he was going to do with the economy or healthcare, he was more assertive in the debate and many believe he won because of how aggressive he was in attacking the president’s policies. President Obama just gave numbers and seemed to be in a relaxed mood. The one thing we can take out of this debate is that this is going to be a close election and every vote will count.
Leave a Reply