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The Obama re-election campaign is in full gear and one of the newest things to show up is a feature on their website called “Life of Julia.” The Life of Julia feature is meant to show the kinds of change that Barack Obama’s policys have helped. Republican Paul Ryan thinks otherwise. He thinks it is degrading to women.
“It suggests that this woman can’t go anywhere in life without Barack Obama’s government-centered society. It’s kind of demeaning to her,” Ryan said during a constituent meeting in Wisconsin, the National Review reports. “She must have him and his big government to depend on to go anywhere in life. It doesn’t say much about his faith in Julia.”
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This is in turn the main issue that conservatives will push this election cycle. The feeling that the Romney campaign, and other conservatives running for reelection, is that the past 4 years has been about the government trying to gain complete control of the lives of it’s citizens. “It really shows the philosophical premise they operate from, which is — I think Romney coined it well — it’s a ‘government-centered society.’ You have to have government at every stage of your life to be there for you, otherwise, you’re going to fail. It’s promoting a cradle-to-grave welfare society,” said Ryan.
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Things like the “Race To The Top” program, which is funded by the $1 trillion stimulus package are st the top of what the Republicans are trying to fight. The issue isn’t necessarily that the government wants to help education get better. The issue is why does the federal government need to get involved in education? Why can’t the states do it? According to Charles Murray, author of the book, Real Education, “American education had been improving since World War II. Then, when the federal government began to get involved, it got worse…The overall data on the performance of American K-12 students give no reason to think that federal involvement, which took the form of the Department of Education after 1979, has been an engine of improvement…the long, intrusive, expensive role of the federal government in K-12 education does not have any credible evidence for a positive effect on American education.”
Liberals have a different side to the story on the Race To The Top program and other education bills. The “Race To The Top” program will see the Department of Education “designing and implementing rigorous standards and high-quality assessments, by encouraging states to work jointly toward a system of common academic standards that builds toward college and career readiness, and that includes improved assessments designed to measure critical knowledge and higher-order thinking skills.” They feel it is their duty to make sure that the Federal government ensures that every child gets the necessary education that they feel is necessary.
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When Julia is 18, she will now be in college and ready for her parents and the government to help her out even more. With things like the American Opportunity Tax Credit, her parents can get up to $10,000 credit for 4 years school. The Feds also back Pell Grants to give individual students the chance to go to college when they otherwise wouldn’t have the ability to due to the enormous cost of books and housing. Obama’s argument is that if you vote for Romney then The American Opportunity Tax Credit would be allowed to expire, and Pell Grant funding would be slashed for 10 million students.
The Republicans say that if change is going to be made, then we are going to have to make difficult cuts across the board from education to defense to healthcare.
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Obamacare is both the president’s biggest achievement and biggest bane. It is currently under review in the United States Supreme Court and most political commentators and politicians are expecting it to be at least partially repealed. The Largest thing in the bill is the individual mandate that forces every citizen to have healthcare. The Republicans argue that if you can force an American to buy health insurance, then where does it stop?
The Democrats say that it is a humans right to healthcare, not just the wealthy, but everyone. By forcing people to buy healthcare, they protect the poor and they will eliminate the monopoly that the hospitals have on the cost of healthcare.
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Now Julia is 23 and entering the workforce. Any job she gets will guarantee that she will make as much as a man in the same position as her. The Democrats continue to feel that it is their job to stick up for the little guy. To make sure that the government does its part to maintain the “fairness” as described by the Constitution.
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Julia is now 25 and she needs to start worrying about paying off the student loans she accrued during college. The Obama administration, if reelected, would cap the interest rate growth so Julia could make her payments on time and not have to worry about defaulting.
Conservatives believe that the interest rates go up as the market dictates, otherwise the federal government starts to lose money. In this economy, it is every individuals duty to know their responsibilities and make sure they take care of themselves.
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These 2 are very closely related, birth control and health benefits for expecting mothers. What I find interesting in this whole thing is that no where does it mention that Julia got married. Not to another man or another woman. It’s like under the Obama administration, Julia will be single for ever. besides that. These two scenarios in Julia’s life fall under the Obamacare umbrella. If Obamacare passes, all of a woman’s care would be taken care of, free of charge.
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Julia’s child is now ready for school, and because of Obama’s Race to the Top initiative, the school that little johnny is going to go to is much better than it was. The Obama administration says that if Romney is reelected, they will cut spending so much that schools will not be able to catch up.
Once again, the Republican contention is that deep cuts are needed across the board to combat the years of reckless spending of past congresses and Presidents.
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Julia is now in her 40’s and wants to get a small business loan. Under Obama’s plan, his taxes he is cutting to small businesses will allow her to get a loan and hire employees, creating new jobs in her town and helping to grow the local economy. The Democrats want to make it easier for individuals to start a business
This one is the tough one, because one of the Democrats biggest contentions is that they want to raise taxes on people making more than $250,000 a year to raise revenues to help us get out of debt. A vast majority of people in this country who make more than $250,000 a year are small business owners. You take money out of their hands, then the money disappears from the business regardless of the tax cuts.
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Now Julia has reached old age and she is ready for Medicare. Under the Obama plan she will be safe in knowing that the medicare program she paid into for years is now there to help her out with affordable prescriptions and preventative care. The Democrats want to keep medicare like it is and hope that through Obamacare, the cost of health care will go down which will make medicare more affordable.
The Republicans for years now have tried to argue that the only real way to change medicare and make it affordable is to privatize it. The elderly will still get covered, and the cost would not be projected to individuals that are 40+ years away from the coverage themselves. Also the Republicans want to have an opt out for wealthy seniors so they arent forced into the program if they can afford healthcare for themselves.
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Now that Julia is eligible to retire and receive SSI benefits, she will be able to feel comfortable knowing that her benefits are safe. Democrats want to keep this program going because they feel that it is very important for the elderly to feel safe and secure, also they want them to benefit from a system they paid into for years.
Just like Medicare, the only way Republicans see SSI surviving is to privatise it. There are not enough people paying into the program any more for it continuing to be viable.
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“Every one of those slides, I could go after their manipulation of statistics, and disentangle and unpack each of those talking points,” said Ryan. “It’s just the narrative that they’re trying to tell, that for this woman to succeed, she has to have a really big government.”
Each party has a great reason why they think their vision is the best one and you as a voter have the duty to decide what vision you agree with.
WebProNews tried to reach the Obama and Ryan camps for a quote but there was no reply.
