Why I think Romney is out of touch and lost the debate...

1. Taxes and student loans. I’ll admit, I am a resident, still training to be a specialist in my field (and by the way you don’t HAVE to do that as a veterinarian, I chose to do it to make myself a more competitive and intelligent vet). So at this point in my career I make about $30,000. I don’t think about taxes much. I am probably one of the 47% ROmney doesn't give a shit about. However, I do have $180,000 in student loans, and that is just from vet school. So student loans are important to me, and taxes will be some day. With regards to student loans, the Obama administration has done a lot to make paying back your loans easier. I personally have ZERO debt from my undergraduate education thanks to grants and scholarships (some from the government), and even though I have $180K from vet school in student loan debt, I had $32K covered by grants as well. Last night Romney said he would continue funding Pell grants and increase student loan availability, which is the OPPOSITE of what he has said on the campaign trail before tonight’s debate according to multiple fact checking websites. Additionally, when the audience member asked about student loans and jobs, it seemed to become a spin off on taxes, so the candidates talked a lot about taxes. Romney continued to say that he would make it easier for the middle class by “making it so they have no taxes on capital gains and savings”. I am sorry, but 95% of the people I know are in the middle class, and only about 5% of them have capital gains or significant savings. This to me was an example of Romney being out of touch with reality again- these statements again and again about helping the middle class seem like a way to help the top 2% of America. When I get a job next year and hopefully start making 4-6 times my resident salary, it will be weird to pay taxes for the first time since I normally get some sort of tax return, but depending on the party in office I will be happy to do it to pay for things like Obamacare that are going to help make this country’s healthcare system better; and if I do ever get capital gains or savings I will feel like I have successfully climbed the social ladder to the upper class, and will not in any way be upset about paying taxes on them. Additionally, my boyfriend is socially liberal like me, but he tends to be fiscally conservative. From time to time he will agree with republicans on various policy recommendations for the deficit, taxes, etc. However, knowing he is fiscally conservative and seeing him agree again and again with the Obama administration that the Romney campaign needs to show us some hard evidence that this 5 point plan and plan for tax cuts with lowering the deficit at the same time will happen. It just doesn’t work. There is not math that he can figure out that will make it happen, so obviously he is lying. It means if he were in office all these promises he is making, some of them will have to break, and since he is so dedicated to the super wealthy I bet it will be those of us in the middle class that have our promises broken to us. 2. Gun control- towards the end of the debate an audience member asked about the policies of the parties on assault weapons. As my boyfriend the history major likes to explain to people, the second amendment is misunderstood by people. It was originally set up as a way to have a national guard in times where people would need to take up their arms and defend the country from threats. However, in the last century the NRA has made it out to be this distorted law where people think that any civilian should be allowed to own a gun and protect themselves if needed. Guns=violence in my book, the more gun control laws, the less likely guns get in the hands of someone who doesn’t know how to properly use them, which means less accidents or stupid acts of violence fueled by road rage like instincts occur. I have three friends who were either at Virginia Tech or had a close friend/classmate killed in that mass shooting when it occurred, and ALL of them are pro-gun control, especially on assault weapons. Having weapons more readily available for quacks is just not smart. And even people who seem like reasonable civilians, when not trained, can have accidents. Just last month I read an article about a man who shot someone climbing in to the window of his living room at 3am in self protection. Turns out it was his 16 year old son who had snuck out with friends and was returned, trying not to get caught. I used to sneak in and out of the house when I was a kid to hang out with my neighbors watching movies until 3am…glad I lived in a family that didn’t think they needed guns. 3. Gas prices- At first the question from the audience was frustrating, since both candidates didn’t directly answer the question- but in general the feeling was that Romney wants to open up more drilling in this country, use the artic national wildlife refuge for drilling, and let big oil get what they want to ensure that gas prices are lowered. Here are my thoughts- the price of oil is about supply and demand, right? So if Romney has his way the oil companies in this country will get a laxity on the regulations controlling them, meaning they can produce more oil- that means supply goes up and prices go down- however…is that helpful for the big oil companies? If the oil companies have their way, it benefits them more to have high gas prices, so giving them less regulations might mean they have an easier time manipulating prices or manipulating supply in their favor- which is what they were doing according to Obama- multiple oil companies had areas available to drill but weren’t drilling on purpose, to DRIVE GAS PRICES UP. Now this is an issue where I am actually disappointed in Obama. I am very pro-environment, and in order to be bi-partisan I think Obama has been to lax with regulations on the oil and gas companies- I actually think we need MORE regulations, or our earth is going to be destroyed. We just had one of the most DEVASTATING OIL SPILLS EVER in the Gulf a couple years ago- do you think that was from too many regulations? Not only did it decimate wildlife and natural lands, it destroyed the economy of the south because their tourist industry was wiped out- again another example of helping out big business (oil and gas) and it hurting those in the middle class. I will cry on the day they open up the artic national wildlife refuge to drilling- it is one of the more precious and last large areas of natural environments in this country; when we do you can be sure it will probably only be a decade or so before polar bears are extinct, since they are already struggling against global warming. And so now I come to Obama’s argument- sure, we need more domestic oil and gas production here, but we need to regulate, and we need to spend a large chunk of energy resources looking in to alternative energy options- again to my supply and demand, if people have more energy efficient options that we invest in, demand for gas and oil goes DOWN, and the price therefore goes down as well. 4. Terrorism- I thought Obama was the better man on this discussion on the attacks in Libya that killed 4 Americans including a diplomat- he did not push blame anywhere, he said his government should be held accountable, but there are always going to be acts like this when you are president. And I was happy that the moderator called Romney out on lying about Obama- you were fact checked again Romney! And Obama had a long list of things he set out to do as president that he has accomplished on this front (Bin Laden is dead, the wars in the middle east are coming to an end).... 5. WOMEN- although I have very strong feelings about the environment, education, and gay marriage, this is what sealed Romney’s fate for me in this debate. When asked about the pay gap seen by women (which I have blogged about before http://crunchyvegan.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-womans-rights-blog.html ) he first started talking about how when he was elected governor he went and found “binders full of women” to be on his cabinet. I know this was meant to make him sound like a guy who wanted women to succeed, but what it came out like was that he wanted women around him, like women are trophies to look for, but men do the real work. And then he went on to talk about how he wants women to get equal pay, but he understands they will also need more flexible hours to get home and make dinner for the family- you backward, sexist pig. This is what did it for me. You never would have had my vote before, but now you have lost a lot of women’s votes. I will be a working professional and probably the bread winner when I get out there with a job after my residency, and my whole family as well as most of my friends come from families where women are the bread winner in the family. How dare you talk about women being the one who needs flexible hours to get home to make dinner just cause your wife is a stay at home mom. This was so morally offensive, I don’t know how any woman could listen to this and think it was ok. And by the way- Romney said 580,000 women have lost jobs with Obama as president- factcheck.org actually said the figure was 90,000. He lied, again. 6. Gay marriage- So I was actually sad that no one actually addressed this at the town hall debate. This is a major issue for me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRN9Y5Nvdqk That will show you Romney’s view. And Obama is the first president ever to come out in support of gay marriage. A lot of my friends are gay. This past weekend I went to one of the most loving, amazing, heartfelt weddings I have EVER been to. During the toast the father of one groom talked about how this couple had been through more than most married couples already and that their compassion and caring for one another makes them better people every day. This was a wedding between two gay men, two men I care about deeply. I can’t believe ANYONE could claim that they don’t have as much of a right to marriage then me or anyone else. I hope during my lifetime this changes, because it is so backwards that gay marriage is not accepted. Everyone regardless if they are homosexual or heterosexual should be given that right. So that’s my thoughts on the debate.