Argumentive Research Essay

Kirsten Alcorn
Dr. Cobb
English 1010
17 November 2012
Election 2012: Two-Sided America
Election Day is coming up and this is perhaps the most important election in history, as news stations are calling it. Everyone that pays attention in America knows that the United States is in a downward slope. What will Americans choose? Will it be Governor Romney, whom proposes tax cuts and repealing of a bill? Or will it be to keep President Obama and see if he can fix the country for another four years? To begin to solve the problem America is currently in, people need to realize who they’re voting for, more than just one view on them, and most importantly, if the candidate can bring the country out of the debt it is in now. As I started to watch different news channels, read articles, as well as talked to people of different ages on what their views were, I found that this subject is either one way or the other way. There is hardly an in between in politics. However, after looking over each candidate running for President, I decided to lay down my bias views and look at each person as if they were both the same party. First and foremost, there are always two sides of every argument. As I have found out, there are also lies to both sides as well as the truth. One of those sides is how Republicans view their candidate, Mitt Romney. Ann McFeatters points out on an online blog saying, “He was an effective governor of Massachusetts. Although he vetoed hundreds of bills (most overridden by a Democratic-controlled legislature), he persuaded key Democrats to help him push through landmark legislation to give many more residents of Massachusetts health insurance.” She also made other interesting points, “He salvaged the Salt Lake City Olympics and raised enough money to keep the facilities at Park City, Utah, maintained for the training of hundreds of athletes for years to come.” Romney turned the 2002 Winter Olympics from financial corruption and drug abuse to an organization efficiently run with no touch of scandal. His credibility and record attracted sponsors who turned $380 million in debt to a $100 million surplus. Depending on what news channel you watch or what paper you read, Mitt Romney seems like a promising man to hold up our country. Romney also reports to be an ultimate example in donations and volunteering with no pay. He is by nature a results-oriented businessman and pragmatist who wants to solve problems and this country has plenty of problems. Mitt Romney is criticized for his wealth by news stations and the other party yet he earned it by building a profitable businesses. Mitt Romney at Bain Capital created tens of thousands of jobs in such diverse businesses as Staples, Sealy Mattress Company, Sports of all Sorts, Skype and Domino Pizza. He made his money by analyzing and envisioning what each company should be doing and marshaling the assets, both in money and people, to make the companies work. He had the foresight and courage to shut down those that couldn’t make it. Lastly, Romney was elected governor of Massachusetts, a heavily Democratic state, worked with a state legislature that was 85 percent Democrat, exercised the line-item veto over 800 times, reduced the state’s unemployment rate from 5.6 percent to 4.5 percent, eliminated the state’s $3 billion deficit by cutting taxes, raising “user fees,” and created a $2 billion “rainy day fund.” And, yes, he instituted a health care program which required people who could afford it buy health insurance and not get “freebies” in emergency rooms.
Why do most people see Romney as a harmful slave driver to others? The Democratic Party suggests that this Massachusetts governor would not be a better fit for America. President Barack Obama announces that Romney’s proposed tax plan does not add up. Mary Bruce interviewed President Barack Obama and he stated, “They couldn’t answer the question of how you already have deficits, you add five trillion dollars in new tax cuts, two trillion dollars in new defense spending and somehow you’re going to close the deficit without raising taxes on middle class families?” His oafish comments about not bothering about the forty-seven percent of Americans who do not have to pay federal taxes remain stunning especially for a man who pays only thirteen percent in federal taxes. To the financial elite, there is no more important financial institution in the United States than the Federal Reserve, and Mitt Romney is a huge supporter of the Federal Reserve. During one Republican debate, Romney actually tried to explain to all of us why “we need to have a Federal Reserve”. Not only that, Mitt Romney has stated that he is not really concerned about what is going on over at the Federal Reserve. Mitt Romney has publicly stated that he is “not going to take my effort and focus on the Federal Reserve”. Republicans are supposed to be against Obamacare, and yet millions upon millions of them plan to vote for someone that came up with the plan that Obamacare was based upon. Barack Obama has admitted that much of his health care plan came directly from what Mitt Romney did up in Massachusetts. In fact, a recent MSNBC article brought to light some new information about the relationship between Romneycare and Obamacare. Newly obtained White House records provide fresh details on how senior Obama administration officials used Mitt Romney’s landmark health-care law in Massachusetts as a model for the new federal law, including recruiting some of Romney’s own health care advisers and experts to help craft the act now derided by Republicans as “Obamacare.” The moderate Romney has been hidden so long that nobody truly knows what he thinks about such issues as abortion rights and gay rights and a myriad of other controversial social issues.
Now for the President that America has had for four years now. Has he made a difference or made it worse? Considering the deficit, doubling in four years and still growing at an all time high, some would believe that he needs to give the job over to Governor Romney. Barack Obama wants more of Romney’s money yet, he can’t handle it effectively. He has created little with the money and blaming George Bush, the previous President, for the debt is his excuse. Bush added a little over $2 trillion to the debt in eight years. Obama has added almost $5 trillion in less than four years. Despite the GOP playbook and his failure to get everything he promised done, Obama did have some success in his first term. He saved the auto industry, prevented another depression, oversaw the capture and death of Osama bin Laden, ended combat missions in Iraq, and got legislation passed, not yet fully in effect, to provide more Americans with health insurance. All of these things are promising things, but are they the most important right now or are they even fully to his credit? “The deception is intended to make people believe that Barack Obama is fiscally responsible because he decreased spending growth to the lowest point since Eisenhower (which is true). The deception is very sneaky because it completely disregards the Obama administration tripling the size of the deficit. Spending under President Obama has been at record levels, never before seen in U.S. history, and has damaged America’s credit rating in the process” (PolitiAC Editors). Hashing out in anger, the Republican Party could easily say that they would love nothing more than to see President Barack Obama leave the White House. Lastly, what I think is a huge problem in America, the economy. America has been struggling to not show its debt to its people, but that can only last for so long. In an unguarded moment earlier this year, the president commented that the private sector of the economy was “doing fine.” Certainly, the stock market is well up (by 74 percent) relative to the close on Inauguration Day 2009. But the total number of private-sector jobs is still 4.3 million below the January 2008 peak. Meanwhile, since 2008, a staggering 3.6 million Americans have been added to Social Security’s disability insurance program. This is one of many ways unemployment is being concealed. In his fiscal year 2010 budget—the first he presented—the president envisaged growth of 3.2 percent in 2010, 4.0 percent in 2011, 4.6 percent in 2012. The actual numbers were 2.4 percent in 2010 and 1.8 percent in 2011; few forecasters now expect it to be much above 2.3 percent this year. Unemployment was supposed to be 6 percent by now. It has averaged 8.2 percent this year so far. Meanwhile real median annual household income has dropped more than 5 percent since June 2009. Nearly 110 million individuals received a welfare benefit in 2011, mostly Medicaid or food stamps.

The Democratic Party however begs to differ. I asked says local students from Tennessee Tech University on their thoughts of the current President; they see President Barack Obama as ‘the best President ever’ or ‘a great man making the world more peaceful.’ Another thing Barack Obama has done to improve America is improve relations with Iran. Robert Creamer praises President Obama on all things he has done on hid blog: “Remember when we were worried about a potential invasion of Iran while we were already mired in Iraq and Afghanistan and John McCain? Instead, we now have one-on-one talks between Iranian and American envoys. Tehran’s decision to agree to the US’s request for a one-on-one meeting, specifically tailored to discuss Iran’s nuclear program, may come as a shock to the hawkish critics of Obama’s Iran policy. They have painted the Iranian government as rigid and inflexible.” Internationally, Obama has deftly managed the complexity of U.S. policy through the Arab Spring, killed Osama bin Laden, reset America’s relations with Russia, ended the combat mission in Iraq, banned the use of torture, restored respectability to the United Nations and the G-20, and successfully contained a nuclear Iran. Would we like to see Guantanamo closed troops out of Afghanistan, and peace in Israel-Palestine? Of course, but note the number of positives. Domestically, President Obama has passed historic health care legislation, restored the financial system so that it functions, set up a Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, expanded national service more than ever before, reformed the student loan program, passed Don 't Ask, Don 't Tell, and protected our national security. Would we have preferred higher wages and less unemployment, more movement on immigration and education, and less infringement on our civil liberties? Most certainly, but again, there have been a lot of victories. We tend to dwell on the high unemployment rate as an indication of President Obama 's failure on the economy, but keep in mind that the President 's two signature pieces of legislation, health care and financial reform, haven 't even fully taken into effect.

No matter what political party one is from, I believe a person should decide which candidate is best for the country based on their views, morals, ethics, and their plans for America. A candidate must prove that they can do well for this country and if they show they cannot, they must move on. To begin to solve this American economy problem, voters need to understand what is happening in this country, how the United States will fall, and what can be done about it.

Works Cited Page
Bruce, Mary. "Obama: Romney’s Tax Plan Is ‘Bad Math’."Political Punch. ABC News, 3 2012.
Web. Web. 11 Nov. 2012.
Creamer, Robert. "Can 't Trust Romney." The Blog. Huffington Post, 14 2012. Web. Web. 4 Nov.
2012. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-creamer/five-reasons-we-cant- trus_b_1884366.html>.
Editors, PolitiAC. "Before You Vote." 2012 Presidential Election. PolitiAC, n. d. Web. Web. 4 Nov.
2012.<http://politiac.com/HIS_5_Five_Things_You_Need_to_Know_About_Mitt_Romne
y_Before_You_Vote/>.
McFeatters, Ann. "The pros and cons of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney." Scripps Howard News Service. Newsday, 11 2012. Web. Web. 11 Nov. 2012.
Obama, Barack. Interview by Mary Bruce. "Obama: Romney’s Tax Plan Is ‘Bad Math’. Pg.4. " Abc
News. 9 2012. Print. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/09/obama-romneys-tax-plan-is-bad-math/.
Remy, John. "Eight Things Barack Obama has Done to Make the World a More Peaceful Place.." Mind on Fire. WordPress, 9 2009. Web. Web. 11 Nov. 2012.

Cited: Web. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. Creamer, Robert. "Can 't Trust Romney." The Blog. Huffington Post, 14 2012. Web. Web. 4 Nov. 2012 Editors, PolitiAC. "Before You Vote." 2012 Presidential Election. PolitiAC, n. d. Web. Web. 4 Nov. 2012.&lt;http://politiac.com/HIS_5_Five_Things_You_Need_to_Know_About_Mitt_Romne