Vol 21| Issue 3 (Election Special)

2012

Presidential Election

ELECTION

Barack Obama’s Platform Where the current president stands on key issues

277

Projected electoral votes as of October 25, 2012 by www.electionprojection.com Gay

Rights

Barack Obama was the first sitting president who publicly announced support for same-sex couples. In addition, he repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” backed the Respect for Marriage Act, signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and granted more medical decision-making rights to LGBT couples.

Health

Matthew Gwin//Staff Writer

Key

The closer the “X” lies to the center of the circle, the greater role that subject plays in Barack Obama’s bid for re-election.

Taxes/Spending

The president has a plan, called the Buffet Rule, in which millionaires would pay more in taxes while the middle class would pay somewhat less. His budget focuses on education, manufacturing, and infrastructure, along with lowering needless spending. If re-elected, President Obama pledges to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion, including $1 trillion in spending cuts.

Job

Care

Obama would continue instituting the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as “Obamacare,” preventing insurance companies from capping or dropping someone in the event of an illness and helping him or her save on the care needed to stay healthy.

Also, he wishes to stop allowing women to be charged more than men for the same insurance.

Education

Obama prevented student loan rates from doubling and did not allow student loan repayments to go above 10% of a person’s monthly income. States have been given the freedom to reform in whatever way they choose, not being pinned with No Child Left Behind. Incentives to keep the best teachers teaching have been suggested by the president. The Race to the Top initiative has spurred 46 states to raise standards in local schools. Lastly, he wants to ensure that all veterans can get an education after returning home.

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Symbol for the Democratic Party Courtesy of Google Images

Market

Since taking office in 2009, President Obama has helped create 5.2 million new jobs and seen 31 consecutive months of job growth. U.S. manufacturing alone has added 459,000 jobs from January 2010 up to now. However, millions of Americans remain unemployed. Hoping to reverse that trend, he plans to eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and give incentives to those businesses that bring jobs back to America.

Immigration

Barack Obama plans to allow immigrants who entered the US illegally as children to pursue their education and apply for work authorization. He would also continue to push Congress to pass an immigration reform that would work for everyone in the nation. Strongly wanting to keep families together, Obama hopes to establish a new rule letting undocumented relatives of US citizens stay here while starting the legal immigration process.

ELECTION

Vol 21 | Iss 03

Mitt Romney’s Platform How the country would change if someone new took office Matthew Gwin//Staff Writer

Education

For primary schools (education prior to college) Romney wishes to promote many choices of where a child can attend school. Additionally, he hopes to allow parents the freedom to choose from all nearby schools.

Parents would have access to as much information as needed on each of their options. His reforms would also attempt to strengthen and simplify the financial aid system and attract high quality new teachers.

Immigration

Mitt Romney plans to “grow legal immigration to grow our economy.” He would attempt to do this by attracting more highly skilled legal immigrants and making the temporary visa system quicker and more functional. Also, he wants to secure the borders--thus discouraging illegal immigration-- allow immigrants to become citizens and join the military, and do away with amnesty.

Job Market

Taxes/Spending

For individual taxes, Romney hopes to eliminate the Death Tax and all taxes for taxpayers with an Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) below $200,000. He also wants to repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax and make 20% cuts in all marginal rates. The Republican nominee hopes to cut corporate rates by 25% and switch to a territorial tax system. Originally, the challenger vowed to cut taxes for the wealthy, but has since backed off that pledge. Finally, he plans to cap spending at 20% of the GDP.

Health Care

Symbol for the Republican Party Courtesy of Google Images

There are five parts to Mitt Romney’s plan to create jobs. In part one, he hopes for America to achieve energy independence by 2020, therefore not being required to spend money on foreign oil. The goal of part two is to open new markets and prevent other nations from taking away American jobs. Part three would enhance the quality of the work force by providing better public school and easier access to higher education. Part four aims to cut the deficit and reduce the debt so businesses will want to be located in America. Finally in part five, the challenger plans to lower taxes in order to promote small business.

Key

The closer the “X” lies to the center of the circle, the greater role that subject plays in Mitt Romney’s presidential bid.

The former Massachusetts Governor plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” on his first day in office. Then, his plan calls for power to be given to each state so the state can choose the best approach for its citizens. The plan also promotes free markets and consumer choice, such as allowing the purchase of insurance across state lines, to add competition and lower the price.

Gay Rights

Romney believes it essential to preserve traditional marriage and will appoint an Attorney General who will defend the Defense of Marriage Act. A Federal Marriage Amendment will also be added to the Constitution defining marriage as something between a man and woman.

261

Projected electoral votes as of October 25, 2012 by www.electionprojection.com

OCTOBER‘12 | 03

ELECTION

pportunities with Obama

Maddy Branstetter//Staff Writer

Three reasons voters should move forward, not back, when voting in this year’s election

Obama is a good answer to our economic problems.

Under Obama, our country has seen 31 consecutive months of job growth. 5.2 millions private sector jobs have also been added, and our nation’s unemployment rate has dropped to 7.8 percent—it has not been under 9 percent since 2009. According to the Bureau of Labor and statistics, jobs in industries such as the auto industry—which was bailed out by Obama in 2009— are increasing instead of decreasing, as they were under Bush’s presidency. Obama has a goal to double exports as a nation and create one million new manufacturing jobs. When speaking on the topic of the creation of American jobs, Obama stated “that starts with changing our tax code so we stop giving tax breaks to companies that are shipping jobs overseas”. He also plans to create tax incentives for businesses that offer Americans jobs, promoting more jobs.

Economy

Obama is a smart choice for the future of students. Many high school students plan to attend college after graduation.

However, as we all know, the cost of college can be expensive and hard to handle for most families. Obama introduced the loan forgiveness program in March which caps loan payments at no more than 10% of the borrower’s income as long as the money is borrowed from a direct federal loan or a guaranteed federal loan. This law will become effective in 2014. Another benefit to the law would be that student loans would be forgiven after twenty years, if the borrower makes all previous payments on the loan.

Obama believes that education is very important for the future of American, stating, “In today’s economy, higher education can’t be a luxury. It’s an economic necessity.

Everybody should be able to afford it.”

Education

Gay Rights

Obama is pro LGBT (lesbian gay bisexual transgender) rights. In 2010, a congressional act was passed by congress and signed in by Obama to end the military policy of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, a policy that had prohibited openly gay men and women from serving in the U.S. military. officially enacted on September 20th, 2011, the president was quoted saying, “Service members will no longer be forced to hide who they are in order to serve our country”. Another milestone in the country’s quest for equality, Obama stated in May, “I’ve concluded that, for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married”. We, as a human race, are equal regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, or religious views, and we as a nation deserve a president who sees us all as equal, and is not interested in denying us of our rights.

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Vol 21 | Iss 03

easons for Romney “I am running for for president to help create a better future.”

Education

As president, Mitt will pursue education reform that puts the interests of parents and students ahead of special interests and provides a chance for every child. He will take the unprecedented step of tying federal funds directly to reforms that expand parental choice and invest in innovation. He will also ensure that students have diverse and affordable options for higher education to give them the skills they need to succeed after graduation and that, when they graduate, they can find jobs that provide a rewarding return on their educational investment. Mitt wants all children to be able to afford higher education without having to borrow from banks. His plan: set aside federal money for high school students to use to pay for college instead of using ridiculous school loans that force colllege students in debt before they’ve even graduated.

ELECTION

Aaron Yuratovich//Staff Writer

As Americans know, unemployment is a monumental issue surrounding this year’s debate. The unemployment rate has risen over 8% for 36 straight months under Obama’s reigns. Mitt Romney, with his extensive experience in both business and government, has a keen understanding of labor relations. He recognizes that unemployment is a major issue and one of his biggest plans is to get people back to work. As president, Romney’s first step in improving labor policy will be to ensure that our labor laws create a stable work place in which businesses can operate. Mitt wants business’s to be able to hire and run their businesses with very little federal government control. Mitt believes that with less governmental control, small businesses will function better and will allow our citizens to get back to work where they belong.

Jobs

The first day in office, Romney plans to offer to every state, with the option to repeal Obamacare. In place of Obamacare, Romney will pursue policies that give each state the power to craft a health care reform plan that is best for their own citizens.

Under Romney’s leadership the federal government’s role will be to help markets work by creating a level playing field for competition. Romney’s plan is to let each and every state make their own healthcare system, with little federal government control. Although he wants little control, the federal government will still assist in any way. Mitt stated, “Due to Obamacare, 20 million will lose their health insurance due to outrageous costs”. Obama’s healthcare plan was suppossed to give the 17 million Americans on poverty, a chance to afford insurance. His plan actually taxes small businesses and will raise insurance costs for the middle class. Mitt’s new healthcare plan will reduce insurance premiums and allow all American’s affordable heathcare.

Healthcare

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ELECTION

Third Party Candidates Not feeling Romney or Obama this year?

Aaron Rhodes//Publicity Manager

S

omething that many students may not know is that there are more presidential candidates besides Obama and Romney. Any US citizen over the age of 35 who was born in the United States is allowed to run. Even if someone isn’t a part of the Democratic or Republican parties, they can run for a separate party and still be on the ballot. These parties are most commonly referred to as third parties. In the 2008 election, the Federal Election Commission reported the most third party candidates in history and a surprising amount of votes for them. With 7% of voters still undecided, third party platforms may prove appealing and garner many votes. In the 1992 election Ross Perot received 19% of the national vote while running for the Independent Party. Anything is possible in the election and the third parties want to prove that to America.

Americans who thought a third party on ballots was neccessary: 40% Poll courtesy of Gallup

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Gary Johnson//Libertarian Party

First time candidate Gary Johnson is the former governor of New Mexico. His running mate Jim Gray was a judge in California. Johnson, like most of the Libertarian Party holds fiscally conservative and socially liberal views on most subjects. His views include keeping abortion and other parenting options legal and funded, making marijuana legal and taxing it, making gay marriage legal, and focusing more on homeland security than going to war in other countries. These views make him very appealing to young voters. He recieved 4% on a CNN poll asking who the president should be.

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201

2

Americans who think a third party on ballots is neccessary: 48% Poll courtesy of Gallup

Jill Stein//Green Party

Running for her first time as well is Jill Stein, a physician raised near Chicago. Stein advocates a “Green New Deal” modeled after Roosevelt’s “New Deal” from the 1930’s.

Her Green New Deal would create many renewable energy jobs for “every American willing and able to work.” Stein also wants to lower the military’s budget by 30%. Stein is also very involved with civil rights and workers’ rights. Her running mate, Cheri Honkala, from Minneapolis, is a wellknown anti-poverty activist. The latest CNN poll gave her 3% of the national vote.

ELECTION

Vol 21| Iss 03

Students’ Votes hit Hawk’s Eye’s Poll Peter Hung//Editor

ROMNEY

OBAMA Random English Classes

Random English Classes

59

50

50

54

43 43

45 62

69

68

TOTAL VOTES

279

264 49%

Out of

543 polled

students

51%

by Maddy Branstetter and Aaron Yuratovich

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ELECTION

Peter Hung//Editor

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