These are the criteria I used for deciding to vote for Romney. No doubt others have a different view on these areas, or have different concerns altogether. So what are your criteria for who you plan to vote for?
1. Economy /Jobs. In my mind these things are co-existent. IMHO, Obama's stewardship has not been good enough. The fact that we're not losing as many jobs as when he took office doesn't cut much ice; The recession ended in June 2009, and our progress since then has been muted considerably, IMHO we should be further ahead than this. I think Romney's ideas and emphasis in this area exceeds Obama's. I would expect a more business friendly environment under Romney, resulting in a better economy.
2. Debt/Deficits. Studies show that when a nation's GDP is eclipsed by it's debt the economy suffers. For one thing you have to pay interest, which is quite low these days but the rates will not stay low forever. And our debt shows no signs of slowing down, I fear that Obama's policies do not indicate any abatement here. All I hear from him is fairness and raising taxes on the rich, which does not cover even one tenth of the annual deficits we're running. Nothing at all about curtailing spending. I am fairly certain that the deficits under Romney would be lower; the Tea Party influence in the GOP will I think (hope) preclude a return to the prolifigate spending of the Bush years.
3. ObamaCare. The ACA may or may not be better than the system the way it was when Obama took office, but the taxes in this legislation will blow the economy out of the water and it does nothing to curtail health care spending. There's gotta be a better way than this. Vouchers may not be the answer either, maybe it should be left to the states to develop their own programs.
4. Foreign Affairs. I'm not happy with leading from behind. No doubt there's a lot we don't know in this area, but in my estimation we look weaker and less resolute than we used to, even though we did get OBL. I was proud of my country when that went down, but one big event doesn't make Obama's foreign policy a success. Doesn't look very successful in the middle east, and the Benghazi attack really sucks in all kinds of ways. Not too thrilled with the way Israel and Netanyahu have been handled either. Will Romney do any better? Unknown. I do know I'm not satisfied with what Obama's been doing.
5. Function of Gov't. How big should it be? What functions should it be performing, and at what level of gov't? Shouldn't we be trying to make our gov't more efficient and effective with our tax dollars, rather than just pushing for more revenue? We've got too much waste and fraud going on, so I can't see raising anybody's taxes until we've answered these questions and streamlined our gov't better. Don't know that Romney will do any better at this than Obama did, but I think a change is in order.
1. Economy /Jobs. In my mind these things are co-existent. IMHO, Obama's stewardship has not been good enough. The fact that we're not losing as many jobs as when he took office doesn't cut much ice; The recession ended in June 2009, and our progress since then has been muted considerably, IMHO we should be further ahead than this. I think Romney's ideas and emphasis in this area exceeds Obama's. I would expect a more business friendly environment under Romney, resulting in a better economy.
2. Debt/Deficits. Studies show that when a nation's GDP is eclipsed by it's debt the economy suffers. For one thing you have to pay interest, which is quite low these days but the rates will not stay low forever. And our debt shows no signs of slowing down, I fear that Obama's policies do not indicate any abatement here. All I hear from him is fairness and raising taxes on the rich, which does not cover even one tenth of the annual deficits we're running. Nothing at all about curtailing spending. I am fairly certain that the deficits under Romney would be lower; the Tea Party influence in the GOP will I think (hope) preclude a return to the prolifigate spending of the Bush years.
3. ObamaCare. The ACA may or may not be better than the system the way it was when Obama took office, but the taxes in this legislation will blow the economy out of the water and it does nothing to curtail health care spending. There's gotta be a better way than this. Vouchers may not be the answer either, maybe it should be left to the states to develop their own programs.
4. Foreign Affairs. I'm not happy with leading from behind. No doubt there's a lot we don't know in this area, but in my estimation we look weaker and less resolute than we used to, even though we did get OBL. I was proud of my country when that went down, but one big event doesn't make Obama's foreign policy a success. Doesn't look very successful in the middle east, and the Benghazi attack really sucks in all kinds of ways. Not too thrilled with the way Israel and Netanyahu have been handled either. Will Romney do any better? Unknown. I do know I'm not satisfied with what Obama's been doing.
5. Function of Gov't. How big should it be? What functions should it be performing, and at what level of gov't? Shouldn't we be trying to make our gov't more efficient and effective with our tax dollars, rather than just pushing for more revenue? We've got too much waste and fraud going on, so I can't see raising anybody's taxes until we've answered these questions and streamlined our gov't better. Don't know that Romney will do any better at this than Obama did, but I think a change is in order.
