UT Students: Who They are Voting for and Why – Liberal View

Election Day is this coming Tuesday, Nov. 6 and for many on this campus, including myself, this will be the first opportunity for UT students to vote in a presidential election. This election presents a real choice for which direction we want the country to head in. This year I proudly voted early for Barack Obama for president because I believe that his leadership has and will continue to lead this country in the right direction.The election outcome has repercussions that will affect many on a deeply personal level. For many on this campus, the choice has yet to be made. I will layout the three main policy areas that I think will directly affect college students and give an overview of both candidates’ positions and explain how I came to my decision to vote for Barack Obama.

One of the biggest issues facing college students is the cost of attending school. President Obama doesn’t have any vague rhetoric on this issue but rather a solid record. Nestled in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was a provision for a complete overhaul of the student loan industry which cut private banks out of the lending process. The Department of Education became a direct lender which cut interest rates down to 6.8 percent. Not only were interest rates cut, but Pell Grants were increased to a maximum of $5,500.

Mitt Romney for his part has no substantive plan to lower the cost of school for college students, only vague promises to create more jobs and that federal loans are the problem. This is directly from the official Romney web site, “America’s traditional community and four-year colleges are the heart of our nation’s higher education system.  However, a flood of federal dollars is driving up tuition and burdening too many young Americans with substantial debt and too few opportunities.”

Romney would repeal healthcare reform, thus lowering the amount Pell Grants give and bringing back private loans. The Romney position is that federal government spending in education is driving the rising cost of education. His plan is to gut student loans and Pell Grants, thus not allowing poor students to attend college and decrease the cost of college for everyone else.

Healthcare is an extremely important issue to many on this campus as our healthcare system is based on obtaining employment that many students do not have. This is another area President Obama has a solid record in.

Obama passed healthcare reform which allows students, including myself, to stay on their parents’ plan until they are 26. This allows students to attend school without the worry of being uninsured. For many of the women on this campus, the mandated coverage of birth control by insurance companies has been a huge issue. Obama has proudly stood for a woman’s right to make her own reproductive choices.

Romney’s record in terms of healthcare was stellar in Massachusetts, so much so that he himself stated in an interview in 2009 on CNN that his plan was “a model for the nation.” Romney, however, in accepting his party’s nomination has disavowed his signature healthcare plan and has promised to repeal “Obamacare.” Romney’s official website states, “On his first day in office, Romney will issue an executive order that paves the way for the federal government to issue Obamacare waivers to all fifty states. He will then work with Congress to repeal the full legislation as quickly as possible.”

Romney would repeal healthcare reform and that would leave many uninsured, including myself. Many on this campus would also lose their health insurance in a Romney administration. This would lead to students being unable to afford seeing their doctor or receiving medication that could be crucial.

The final critical issue to be discussed is the economy. This is an issue that every student will face as it will affect all of our job prospects when we graduate.

The month that President Obama was sworn into office, the nation was losing 779,000 jobs a month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This past month, the economy added 114,000 jobs. To go from losing almost a million jobs a month to a constant growing rate of jobs has been a huge feat by President Obama. We are nowhere near where we need to be in terms of job growth, but when considering the task the president faced, it has been a herculean effort to get this economy back on its feet.

President Obama has put the economy back on stable footing by passing the stimulus bill, which according to the Congressional Budget Office, created or saved 3.6 million jobs. The president also passed the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation that reigned in Wall Street excess and has the laid the foundation for solid consistent economic growth.

Romney’s approach to the economy is to go back to many of the same policies of George W. Bush. His plan is to give $5 trillion more in tax cuts for the wealthy while gutting popular exemptions used by the middle class such as the Higher Education Tax Credit.

Here is a portion of the plan taken from the Romney website site, “A Romney administration will act swiftly to tear down the vast edifice of regulations the Obama administration has imposed on the economy.” Romney wants to get rid of Wall Street reform and allow the finance industry to go back to the days of unregulated excess that crashed the economy in the first place.

There are stark differences in the plans of both the candidates which will leave a stark choice to be made by voters. As a student at the University of Tampa, I have personally benefitted from the policies of President Obama. A Romney administration threatens to remove many of the progressive reforms that have helped students over the past four years. This is the reason why I proudly filled the oval this year for President Obama.

Alex Caraballo can be reached at alex.caraballo@spartans.ut.edu