President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney presented starkly contrasting economic visions for the country at the first of three debates Wednesday night.
The debate, held at the University of Denver in Colorado and focusing chiefly on domestic policy, featured the candidates jousting back and forth about taxes, the federal deficit, health care programs and education.
Obama opened the debate by citing his efforts to help the country recover from its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
He said that during the last 30 months, 5 million jobs have been created in the private sector, the auto industry has recovered and the housing market has begun to improve.
“We all know that we’ve still got a lot of work to do. And so the question here tonight is not where we’ve been, but where we’re going,” Obama said.
The president proposed investing more in education and job training programs, as well as paying down the $16 trillion national debt in a “balanced” way with spending cuts and higher taxes on top earners.
But Romney said the nation’s economic recovery has been too tepid under Obama’s administration. Despite 5 million jobs being added, 8.7 million jobs were lost between the start of the recession in December 2007 and early 2010, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Romney advocated reforming the tax code by lowering rates to boost economic growth and cutting out loopholes and deductions. He also said he would curtail federal spending by eliminating ineffective and inefficient programs in all sectors, including education.
“I think it’s, frankly, not moral for my generation to keep spending massively more than we take in, knowing those burdens are going to be passed on to the next generation and they’re going to be paying the interest and the principal all their lives.
