Debate II - the Economy

Other questions were tackled just as ferociously. The issue over the economy is probably the most important one of the presidential debate. The questions asked during the debate focused on jobs, the deficit, taxes and outsourcing. Although he performed better this time than in the last debate, I do believe Obama could have been a lot stronger on the economy. Obama criticised Romney for his “Let Detroit go Bankrupt” opinion back in 2009 (which he has since maintained). Obama also tried to tie Romney to the deficit. Obama claimed that Romney’s tax cuts would add $5 trillion to the deficit, his extra military spending $2 trillion and the extension of the bush-era tax cuts would add $1 trillion giving a whopping grand total of $8 trillion! In the hope of trying to claw back, Romney spouted his six studies prove your wrong nonsense. Obama pointed out, correctly, that these studies are both highly dubious and far from non-partisan. More Romney lies came from his “Obama doubled the deficit” line of attack, it is simply not true. The budget deficit has gone down under Obama’s leadership by about $300 billion. Although the overall deficit is still very high, nobody could seriously argue that Obama could have gotten rid of it in four years.

The biggest issue for Obama is the jobs numbers; currently unemployment is at 7.8%. This is the same figure as January 2009, the month that he was inaugurated. Romney reminded Americans that for basically all of Obama’s presidency unemployment has been above 8% and no president has gotten re-elected with unemployment that high since FDR (Obama also had to deal with the worst crash since 1929, but Romney decided to ignore that part).  Romney said that after the “Reagan Recession” unemployment was back to a good rate by the end of his first term. The major flaw here is that Reagan didn’t have to deal with the severe recession Obama did, they’re not remotely comparable.

We all know that one of Obama’s main attacks on Romney is that he will raise taxes on the middle class whilst lowering taxes for the wealthy. It’s is because this is what Romney has been running on for the past year and it’s what he did as governor of Massachusetts in the mid-2000s. Now Romney says that the tax rates for the wealthy remain the same and he will cut taxes for the middle class. It’s very difficult to know what he will actually do in office.

One of the more surprising questions to come up was the issue of outsourcing. This is naturally good ground for Obama as Romney’s company; Bain Capital has investments in companies that are “pioneers of outsourcing”. Obama said that loopholes should be closed and that there should be no tax incentives for companies to shift jobs overseas. When attacked by Romney on how weak he was in regards to China’s currency manipulation and unfair trading practices Obama claimed that he had put extraordinary pressure on China. He told the audience of how he helped to save 1,000 American jobs by refusing to allow faulty Chinese tyres on the market whereas Mitt Romney said he should do nothing, that Obama was being protectionist. 

The final post will discuss the Benghazi question.