Now
that it has been a week since the first presidential debate of the 2012
election season (or year, or years) and all reputable news sources have gotten their stories
out, I thought I would share mine. Debate
notes from October 3, 2012:
- Obama keeps using the phrase “those of us who have done very well.” It sounds like he wants to identify with wealthy people like Romney, as if he feels like he missing out on all the bad rap rich people get.
- Obama refers to his own healthcare plan as Obamacare. I can’t decide it is a bit unprofessional to adopt the colloquial term, or just hilarious that he is employing a name for his law that, in many circles, is not a nice word.
- Obama mentions a kind of corporate welfare that oil companies receive. Interesting. Obama also mentions Exxon Mobile as a recipient of said “welfare,” but Romney points out that most of these tax breaks go to small companies, and are but a tiny fraction of the tax cuts Obama gave to his failed green energy initiatives.
- Obama speaks of reforms he wants to make, reforms he claims are easy to make. If they are so easy, Mr. President, why the heck have you not implemented them already?
- Obama thinks that he and Romney would agree that Social Security is structurally sound. By sound, do you mean bankrupt? Although if those who walked before us had not prevented the birth of half of our current generation, then there wouldn’t be a diminished workforce and fewer people paying into Social Security compared to the number of retirees and soon to be retirees. Social security worked in the past. But with current demographic changes, it no longer does. I have accepted the fact that I will never get a red cent back from of the money I pour into Social Security with every paycheck. But I wouldn’t call that a sound program.
- Romney likes coal.
- Romney likes Big Bird. Who doesn’t?
- Romney slams Solyndra and the other green initiatives that Obama poured billions of taxpayer dollars into. They all failed. Thanks Mr. President.
- Obama says “budgets matter.” I agree. May I ask why you haven’t passed one in three years?
- Obama mentions that many college students do not have the option of borrowing money from their parents. True. But it is government loans for college education that has caused the extremely disproportionate inflation of tuition prices. If government would butt out and let the free market determine prices, maybe it would still be possible to work, and pay your own way through college, as it was a generation ago.
- Romney likes States’ rights. Glad someone here has respect for the principles our Founding Fathers enshrined in our Constitution. Cue the Principle of Subsidiarity, which rightly states that problems are best solved by those closest to them. If an issue can be settled at the state level by the people living in that state, that is usually the best way to go
- A friend of mine had a good point, why does tort reform hardly ever get mentioned in politics? The amount of money spent on frivolous lawsuits in the country is disgraceful. High healthcare price tags are also due to medical malpractice suits. We could help ourselves out with tort reform.
- Best quote of the night—Romney: “In my opinion, the government is not effective in bringing down the cost of anything.” Right on. Private market and individual responsibility are much better at keeping prices down.
- Best moderator quote—Lehrer: “That is a terrific segue…”
- I hope your debate drinking games were not focused around the words “middle class/middle-income” or “small business.” If they were, I weep for your liver.
