Portrait, Robert Reich, 08/16/09. (photo: Perian Flaherty)
03 October 12
overnor
Romney: You've said that you have used every legal method to reduce
your tax liability. You've also said that as president you would close
tax loopholes in order to help finance a major across-the-board tax cut.
What specific tax loopholes have you used that you would close? A
followup: Would you close the loophole that allows private-equity
managers to treat their income as capital gains, subject to a 15 percent
tax, even when they risk no capital of their own?
President Obama: You have spoken eloquently of the
need to reduce the influence of big money in politics. What specific
measures will you advance if you are reelected to accomplish this goal?
Governor Romney: You have promised to repeal the
Dodd-Frank bill if you're elected. Yet our largest Wall Street banks are
significantly larger than they were before the near meltdown of 2008.
How would you prevent another bank from being too big to fail?
President Obama: The Dallas Federal Reserve Board, one
of the most conservative in the nation, has called for a limit to the
size of Wall Street banks. Sanford Weill, the creator of Citigroup - one
of the largest Wall Street banks - says Wall Street banks should be
broken up. If you are reelected, will you support capping the size of
Wall Street banks?
Governor Romney: You have said you'd repeal the
Affordable Care Act if you're elected. That would leave 30 million
Americans without health insurance. You championed a small version of
the Affordable Care Act in Massachusetts. Does that mean you believe
it's more efficient for each state to have its own system for insuring
the uninsured?
President Obama: Last December, in a speech you gave
in Osawatomie, Kansas, you noted that in the last few decades the
average income of the top 1 percent has gone up by more than 250
percent, to $1.2 million per year. For the top one hundredth of 1
percent, the average income is now $27 million per year. And yet, over
the last decade the incomes of most Americans have actually fallen by 6
percent. If you're reelected president, what do you propose to do about
this trend?
Governor Romney: Your mathematics has been attacked
by those who say it's impossible to provide the tax cut you propose;
expand the military, as you want to do; preserve Medicare and Social
Security, as you promise to do; and at the same time balance the federal
budget, as you say you'll do. Can you take us through the math, please,
with specific numbers?
President Obama: You have called for equal marriage
rights for gay Americans. If you're reelected, will you support repeal
of the Defense of Marriage Act?
Governor Romney: You support states' rights, and don't
support wealth redistribution. Yet as you know, the citizens of most
so-called "blue" states - notably California, New York, and
Massachusetts - send more federal tax revenue to Washington than they
receive back from Washington, while most of the citizens of "red" states
send less tax revenue to Washington than their citizens receive back.
Would you, as president, seek to end this subsidy of red states by blue
states?
President Obama: In the 2008 campaign you and your
opponent, Senator McCain, both supported some version of a "cap and
trade" system for limiting emissions of carbon into the atmosphere.
During the last four years, evidence has mounted that climate change may
be doing irreversible damage to the planet. If you are reelected, will
you push for a "cap and trade" system, or a carbon tax, or both?
Governor Romney: America has had some very wealthy men
elected president. Your wealth is estimated to be more than a quarter
of a billion dollars. The wealthy men elected president - a Republican,
Teddy Roosevelt; Franklin D. Roosevelt; and John F. Kennedy - all fought
for equal opportunity, reduced the power of large corporations and Wall
Street, and gave average working Americans more economic security. Do
you share these objectives, and, if you're elected president, what will
you do to achieve them? Please be specific.
President Obama: TARP authorized not only a bailout
of Wall Street banks but help to distressed homeowners. You chose not to
condition the bailout of Wall Street on the banks reducing the amount
people owed on their mortgages. In hindsight, do you think that was a
mistake? A follow up question, if I may: It is estimated that one in
five American families is still underwater - owing more on their home
mortgages than their homes are worth. So far your efforts to help them
have fallen far short of the goals you set. If you are reelected, what
specific measures will you initiate do more for these families?
Governor Romney: You have campaigned as a
"businessman" who has the managerial experience to turn the economy
around. Yet some say you've run one of the worst campaigns in recent
memory - filled with gaffes, misstatements, poor timing, Clint Eastwood,
and much else. Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan, for example, calls
your campaign a "calamity." Should Americans be concerned about your
management abilities?
President Obama: You faced a particularly truculent
Republican congress. But some say you didn't fight Republicans hard
enough during your first term, that you often began negotiations with
compromises, and you didn't use the full powers of your office to get
more of what you wanted. Do you think there's any validity to this
criticism and, if so, what will you do differently in your second term?
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