In Tuesday’s edition of The Jambar, columnist Jared Buker used his weekly editorial to attack the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. For whatever reason, Mr. Buker and supporters of President Obama believe they can make this election about Mitt Romney, but I beg to differ.
The campaign this summer and fall will be about President Obama and his record as president the past four years. When one examines his record, it should be of no surprise that his supporters are trying to turn the focus toward Gov. Romney and the Republican Party. With that being said, I urge all voters to take a close look at the record of our president and to ask themselves if he is truly deserving of a second term as president.
In February 2009, President Obama urged Congress to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The $787 billion stimulus package was projected by two Obama advisers to prevent unemployment from rising above 8 percent. However, the unemployment rate under President Obama reached a high of 10.2 percent in October 2009 and currently stands at 8.2 percent.
Also, in February 2009, President Obama said the following: “Today I am pledging to cut the deficit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office.” In 2008, the budget deficit under President George W. Bush stood at $459 billion. In 2012, the budget deficit stands at $1.33 trillion, nearly three times larger than the budget deficit he inherited in his first year in office.
Throughout the 2008 campaign, President Obama vowed to roll back the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans. However, in December 2010, President Obama signed a two-year extension of those very tax cuts.
Finally, in March 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. When it was signed into law, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected the bill would cost $940 billion over a decade. However, in March of this year, the CBO revised its estimates upward to a cost of $1.76 trillion over a decade. The bill remains widely unpopular with Americans, as an average of three polls out this month show Americans oppose the bill by a 54 to 39 percent margin. Finally, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule this June as to whether the bill’s individual mandate is constitutional. Many legal observers believe the law is doomed.
In conclusion, the time is now for President Obama to take responsibility for his record. There is no doubt in my mind that the president’s campaign will continue to blame the previous administration for the mess we are in, but I do not think that will fly with the American people. We need a president that is not looking in the rearview mirror and blaming others, but one that is looking to the future and can promise the American people they can still strive to achieve the American dream. In my eyes, the choice is quite clear. Mitt Romney is more than capable of getting the United States back on track economically and fiscally in the years to come.
