Which

is the Better Candidate for Middle-Class America Americas middle class is going through a rough time. And the effects felt from the Great Recession of the late-2000s have taken great tolls on the middle/working classes. A typical middle class family does not have a huge sum of money in reserve. Most families live paycheck-to-paycheck or maybe have enough savings to live off of for a couple months. In contrast to higher-income earners who may have enough savings to whether through economic hardships for a significantly long time. The housing market crash and the large number lay-offs in the late 2000s put working class families in tough financial situations. What the American middle- class needs right now are quick and immediate fixes and improvements so that it can get back on its feet. Key to this is government policies that are quick to provide relief to the American public. House prices have been an issue for the last couple years following the bubble burst in 2007. Middle-class families all across the country are living in homes whose current worth is much less than what they paid for the house. At the same time, those families are busy paying off mortgages valued at incredibly high rates. With mortgage payments being a fairly significant slice of an average middle class familys budget, and with the homes themselves usually being a familys main source of net worth, home prices are definitely an important issue for middle class families. In October 2011, Mitt Romney was interviewed a couple days prior to a Republican debate. He was quoted as saying: As to what to do for the housing industry specifically and are there things that you can do to encourage housing: One is, don't try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom. (Hunt, 2011) Two days later, during the Republican debates, Romney once again spoke on the subject and said, "The right course is to let markets work." (Hunt, 2011) Romney believes that the best approach to remedying the current housing problems is for the Government to step away and let the housing market work itself out. Obama has been fairly proactive in recent months with regards to pushing for Government involvement. In March 2012, The Washington Post reported that, Obama has unveiled more than half a dozen plans in recent months (Goldfarb, 2012) Obama has pushed for policies to help Americans refinance their current mortgages, policies to help reduce the debts of struggling homeowners, policies to expand the eligibility of government aid. (Goldfarb, 2012) And in recent months Obama has voiced concern of the housing market much more so than two or three years ago. (Goldfarb, 2012) Barack Obama believes that government intervention is definitely

Dmitriy Pilipenko April 29, 2012

needed in order to resolve the housing market, and help alleviate struggling homeowners in the meantime. It is unclear whether Romneys laissez-faire approach is better than Obamas government-involvement approach. But what is clear is that the problems of the housing market will worsen before they start getting better, and with the lack of government involvement, even-more-struggling homeowners will have tougher times finding aid. And if it turns out that in the long- term Obamas approach is not as good as Romneys, the policies that Obama has been proposing do provide aid and relief to struggling homeowners so that they at least can get by until the housing market is fixed. In regards to the issues of the housing markets, Barack Obama provides the better approach for American working class families now. Following the Great Recession of the late-2000s and the massive lay-off boom that followed, high unemployment rates have been a consistent problem. That is not to say that attempts to resolve this problem have not been made. Barack Obama has proposed and pushed through government-work policies whose intent was to number of public job openings and provide employment opportunities to unemployed workers. In 2009, Obama proposed and signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, whose primary objective was to make supplemental appropriations for job preservation and creation (Obey, 2009) In a joint-session of Congress on September 8th, 2011, Obama proposed the American Jobs Act whose main objectives included, [putting] workers back on the job while rebuilding and modernizing America (Obama, 2011) Romney criticized these policies, and others, because they add to the national debt. Barack Obamas policies provide immediate help for the unemployed workers and the direct intent of Barack Obamas policies is to provide jobs for those that are looking for work. Romneys approach on the other hand, has for the most part been to oppose Obamas policies. Part of Romneys vision for the future involves having a smaller-scaled government that spends and invests much less than it does now. Romney proposes to cap federal spending at 20% of GDP. He proposes to pass the House Republican Budget proposal that caps any non-security discretionary spending to below 2008 levels. (Romney, 2012) Under Romneys proposals the Federal Government will shed off jobs rather than create new jobs, which in the immediate time will make the unemployment problem even worse than it is now. In regards to unemployment, Barack Obama provides the better approach for American working class families now. Candidates policies towards taxation are always important. A tax policy can either add a heavy burden or come as great relief to an individual and families. In the 1980s Americas tax policies provide much relief to higher-earning income brackets, leaving the low-income and middle-income brackets to deal with more of the tax burden. Romney opposed the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 (TRUIRJCA) on the grounds that it did not make the Bush Tax Cuts permanent and because it would add to the national debt. (Sherman 2010) And in 2012, a Brookings Institution study of Mitt Romneys tax plan found that it would, cut taxes for millions of households but bestow most

of its benefits on those with the highest incomes (Gleckman, 2012) That same study also found that for those in the lower-middle class, would get an average tax cut of about $140, but 20 percent would get hit with an average tax increase of $1,000, mostly because Romney would bring back the less generous versions of those refundable child and earned income credits. (Gleckman, 2012) Obamas proposed TRUIRJCA helped middle class families avoid a $2,000 tax increase by temporarily extending the temporary Bush tax cuts. And as part of the Obama- proposed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 95% of working families received a tax cut, and 70% of the tax benefits went directly to the middle working class. (White House) Both Obama and Romney are in favor of overall tax-cuts. Everyone always is. The difference between the two is in their implementation. Romney is a big supporter of Reagan-era Voodoo economics that argues that by greatly decreasing the tax-burden upon the rich, the newfound wealth will trickle- down from the rich down to the poor. Obamas approach is one that is much more directly focused on the working middle-class of America. His tax-cuts provide much more focused and better relief for the working class, in contrast to Romneys plan a majority of the relief towards the middle-class will come as a consequence of the tax reliefs of the higher-earning income brackets. Obamas policies provide greater and more-immediate benefits to the working classes and the lower-end of the middle classes in America. In regards to tax policies, Barack Obama provides the better approach for American working class families now. The Great Recession of the late 2000s put great on the economy and working class families. Many gains that individuals have made in the ten years prior were wiped out. And the country hasnt faced this bad of unemployment since The Great Depression. Working class families were extra-susceptible to these problems because they did not have enough money to completely live off of their savings. Before the general public begins to focus on the long-term issues such as national debt, effort should be put in to stabilizing the financial and economic problems that are facing Americans right now. Barack Obamas policies are focused more on providing immediate help than on stabilizing the countrys finances decades in the future. For this reason, I believe that Barack Obama is the better presidential candidate for the American working and middle class.

Works Cited

Gleckman, H. (2012, January 5). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org/2012/01/05/romneys-tax-plan-big- benefits-for-the-wealthy-and-higher-deficits/ Goldfarb , Z. A. (2012, March 8). Obama unveils new foreclosure measures to resuscitate housing market. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obama-unveils-new- foreclosure-measures-to-resuscitate-housing- market/2012/03/07/gIQAJLB3zR_story.html Hunt, K. (2011, October 18). Romney says foreclosures should "hit the bottom". Boston.com. Retrieved from http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/10/18/r omney_says_foreclosures_should_hit_the_bottom/ Obama, B. H. 112th Congress, (2011). American jobs act of 2011. Retrieved from website: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c112:1:./temp/~c112jepZ9D:e0: Obey, D. 111th Congress, (2009). Public law 1115. Retrieved from website: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-111publ5/pdf/PLAW-111publ5.pdf Romney, W. M. (2012). Spending: Smaller, simpler, smarter government.. Retrieved from http://http://www.mittromney.com/issues/spending Sherman, J. (2010, December 17). Tax cut plan clears house, goes to barack obama. Politico. Retrieved from http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46531.html White House. (n.d.). Taxes. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/taxes