FOREIGN POLICY

• Romney
  • National Defense
    • Navy to increase ship building rate
    • Modernize and replace the aging inventories of the Air Force, Army and Marines
    • Devote four percent of our GDP to national defense
• Bring Afghanistan troops home immediately
• Will use military force if Iran does not dismantle its nuclear program
• For independent Palestinian state

• Obama
  • National Defense
    • Rebalance defense capabilities for the 21st century
• Strengthen military partnerships and alliances
• Bring troops home from Afghanistan in the next two years
• Will use military force if Iran does not dismantle its nuclear program
• Believes the war in Iraq has made America safer
• Supports an independent Palestinian state

HEALTHCARE

• Romney
  • Repeal Obama’s healthcare plan
  • Restore state leadership and flexibility
    • Remove healthcare from a national level and give power to the states
• Promote free markets and fair competition
• Empower consumer choice
  • Health coverage will be purchased individually from private insurance companies.
  • May allow university students to benefit from flexible insurance plans which would allow students to choose where they receive healthcare
• One type of coverage can take the form of insurance plans added to tuition, which will let students continue to use their college’s health services, while other students may wish to obtain private student insurance and choose their own doctors.

• Obama
  • Continue Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare)
  • Strengthening Medicare
    • Expand coverage and increase numbers of people insured
• Putting women in control of their health
  • End health insurance company practice of charging women more than men for the same coverage.
• Students permitted to remain on parent’s insurance policies until their 26^th birthday.
• If a student is not a dependent, then they can gain health insurance from their employers or qualify for Medicaid.
• Students and college-aged young citizens who receive less than $15,000 a year can qualify for Medicaid on Jan. 1, 2014.
• The Affordable Care Act includes a 10 year timeline plan, starting when the law was placed in 2009 and the last piece to be implemented by 2018

ECONOMY

• Romney
  • Follow a clear roadmap: build a simpler, smaller, smarter government
    • Discard power to the states instead of claiming to have the solution to every problem
• Reduce taxes, spending, regulation and government programs
  • Maintain current tax rates on interest, dividends and capital gains
  • Eliminate taxes for taxpayers with AGI below $200,000 on interest, dividends and capital gains
  • Eliminate the Death Tax
  • Repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax
  • Make permanent, across-the-board 20 percent cut in marginal rates
• Increase trade, energy production, human capital and labor flexibility
• Bring federal spending below 20 percent of GDP by the end of his first term

• Obama
  • Reform Wall Street to make sure Americans will not bail out big banks
  • Revive the manufacturing industry
    • Rescue the U.S. auto industry by adding jobs and pay back government loans on time
    • Add more jobs to U.S. manufacturing
    • Bring jobs back to the U.S. by eliminating tax breaks for companies that ship overseas and creating incentives for businesses to bring jobs back to America

STUDENT OPINIONS

• “I was going to vote for Obama, but I recently began pulling for Romney. Obama is more of dreamer. Romney is realistic,” Ryan Henderson, junior multi-media communications major, said.

• “I’m just sorta against Obama,” J.T. Adkins, freshman mechanical engineering major, said.

• “I’m undecided. I haven’t been paying attention,” Rachel Whitworth, freshman early childhood education major, said.

• “I like Romney’s tax policies,” Robert Angstadt, freshman undeclared major, said.

• “I favor Romney because of his stance on the military budget. I believe a president would be better with a strong business and political background rather than just a senator from Illinois,” Jordan Gunter, junior marketing major said.

• “Giving states control will empower customers to choose not only their own doctors, but the best doctors,” Vice-chairwoman for GSU College Republicans and senior pre-law and public relations major Virginia Steighan, said.

• “I am not sure Romney’s plan will work in the healthcare industry because he’s basing it on a marketplace,” Renee Hotchkiss, assistant professor of health policy and management, said.

• “The purpose of the Affordable Care Act has been to expand coverage and increase the number of people insured,” Dr. Ashley Walker, assistant professor of Health Education and Promotion, said.

• If Obama remains president he will continue making major provisions of plans, one of those being insurance reform, Renee Hotchkiss, assistant professor of health policy and management, said.

Nick Benton contributed to this article.