Many liberal papers have claimed Romney is a dishonest flip flopper. So how does Obama compare? Is he the moral honest leader we have been searching for all these years? Here is what my research has dug up on Obama's claims. Much of this comes from the Washington Post and CNN -my favorite reads.
Obama's Claim: He has ‘a balanced plan to reduce our deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade
Does Obama really have a budget plan to reduce deficit by 4 trillion over 10 years? No serious accounting agrees with his accounting.
Obama's plan to cut 3.8 Trillion only works if the ratio of spending cuts to tax increase is 1 to 1-according to the left leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. According to the Congressional budget office his plans would reduce the deficit by 3.5 trillion but indicates that the national debt as a percentage of gross domestic product would rise during that time from 73% to 76%. 1 Trillion of these savings are already guaranteed to go into effect no matter who takes office.
Obama is also counting on saving 848 billion in money we currently spend on foreign wars that we are borrowing money from china for. By projecting war expenses far into the future he can claim on saving money that was never intended to be spent. Saying that this will be money saved for our budget is like borrowing $50,000 dollars a year for school and then claiming that you will have an extra 500,000 to spend over the next decade once you graduate. Every fact checking group has stated that this economic plan relies heavily on budget gimmickry.
Obama's Campaign has claimed that Romney would give millionaires another tax break and raise taxes on middle-class families by up to $2,000 a year.
Did Romney really promise tax breaks for the wealthy?
Romney hasn’t specified how he’d pay for marginal tax cuts he says he’d give all Americans. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center concluded that he would have to close tax loopholes that benefit the middle class to do so he would have to raise taxes on the middle class. However Romney has claimed that any taxes increases he makes would be revenue neutral and as he has been foggy on his tax plan. This idea that he benefits millionaires and tax increases on the middle class is all subject to how math wonks try and make the math work. For a detailed analyse on Romney's statements about keeping taxes down while reducing deficit please see the link below. Hint (Romney's plan requires a lot more people getting back to work quickly in order to "Expand the Base"- more people making money means more government revenue). Lots of liberals don't see how he can get people back to work quickly so they ignore his expand the base idea altogether. In my mind this means they have already accepted that our economy cannot recover anytime soon. Perhaps this is true, but who wants to admit defeat?- Liberals I guess?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/27/wonkblogs-comprehensive-guide-to-the-debate-over-romneys-tax-plan/?print=1
On Energy:
US reliance on foreign oil is falling. This is a true statement but our dependence has been steadily dropping since 2005, so this isn't really something Obama can take credit for.
Obama also claimed to have doubled green energy. Solar and wind have doubled but the other green energy initiatives have barely increased at all. Experts say green energy has only increased by about 25%. Maybe we are getting too nit picky but ya got to keep them politicians honest.
On Medicare:
Obama claims to save 716 Billion over the next ten years by forcing health care providers to cover more of the costs. Romney correctly questions whether these cuts are sustainable and cites reviews that many hospitals will stop providing medicaid and medicare health care services. In addition these savings that he is claiming will extend the medicare program an additional 8 years does not account for the fact that he is already planning on using these savings for Obamacare. Not sure how he plans on spending every dollar twice but I would sure like to know how to double my income like that.
The Obama health care law will also increase medicare payroll tax by $318 billion over ten years which means we are all going to be paying more in taxes, however only a 3rd of the money is going to medicare, the rest goes to general revenues. The scariest part of the unified budge idea is that money collected for Social Security and Medicare can be used for whatever federal spending bill is due first even if it is not related to health care. I don't see how Obamacare will keep medicare solvent for even the near future.
During the debate Obama tried to take credit for Health care premium increases from increasing quickly, however most of his health care law has not been implemented yet although they have been saving money for it for the last 3 years. It is hard to claim that costs savings are influenced before changes to law have even occurred.
Obama said during the debate that Romney fails to do the math. That taxes are simple math. Obama's own math seems very fuzzy at times. If Romney's plans are vague consider what he said during the debate. He has several ideas but he has to "sit down with Democrats before giving a detailed plan". A Bipartisan tax code? It's about time if he can actually pull it off. Tonight is a debate between the 2 VP's. Can't wait to see what they have in store!
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