For months the American people have been subject to presidential campaign commercials, emails, and phone calls all looking for their attention, and ultimately their vote. At the head of the race are two different men, with two different visions of what direction our country should be taking in the upcoming four years. Either President Barack Obama will continue to lead the United States forward for another term, or Governor Mitt Romney will be the next leader of the free world.

While some decisions made in Washington may not seem like they affect student life at Los Medanos College, both men have taken stands on education, jobs, and healthcare that will directly affect the life of young people across the country. The information provided below has come from the official websites for each candidate, www.mittromney.com and www.barackobama.com, as well as www.2012.candidate-comparison.org.

EDUCATION
Obama and Romney both agree that education is a key to success, but they have different plans on keeping college costs down, and investing in the strengths of the community colleges.

President Obama has proposed reforms to federal campus based aid programs, such as the Pell-Grant, to shift aid away from colleges that fail to keep tuition costs down to colleges and universities that keep tuition costs affordable for everyone. These changes in financial aid will leverage $10 billion annually to help keep tuition costs down.

If elected president, Romney will pursue education reform that puts the interests of the student, as well as the interests of the parent, ahead of special interests. He will take a step toward tying federal funds directly to reforms that will expand the parental choice, invest in new innovations, and reward teachers with higher salaries based on their performances in the classrooms, rather than their tenure status. Romney also states that he will ensure that students will have a variety of affordable options for higher education.

JOBS
Many students hold down jobs while in college, and have heard horror stories of not being able to find jobs in their fields after graduation. The state of the economy and the current job market are both issues that will directly affect all students who graduate from LMC or transfer and graduate from another institution, and both presidential candidates have shaped their campaigns around these hot button issues.

President Obama’s driving platform on the economy has been saving the auto industry and reviving U.S. manufacturing jobs. Since Obama took office, 459,000 manufacturing jobs have been created since January 2010. Obama has a plan to bring more jobs back, by eliminating tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs overseas, and by creating incentives for companies that bring businesses back to America.

Romney plans on creating 12 million new jobs through an energy independence policy which will create jobs in manufacturing, tax reform designed to lower taxes for the middle class and small business owners, and by expanding trade while cracking down on our global competitor, China.

HEALTHCARE
Health care is one of the most ideologically diverse issues on the ballot with wide implications for the health care industry, small business owners, and to college students.

In 2010, Obama passed the Affordable Care Act, which provides affordable and accessible health care for all Americans, and gives the patients the power to make health care decisions with their doctors instead of being blocked by insurance companies.

Obama’s health care act also gives women full coverage on birth control without co-pays or deductibles while expanding access to health care providers such as Planned Parenthood, which provides women with life-saving breast and cervical cancer screenings.

Romney states that on his first day in office, he will issue an executive order that will issue waivers to the Affordable Care Act to all 50 states. Instead, Romney will pursue policies to give states the power to create their own health care reform plan that will best fit its citizens, who will be able to make their own decisions about their own healthcare. The federal government will be able to help free markets work by creating a level playing field for competition.

If elected Romney also states that he will end all federal funding to Planned Parenthood, and any other pro-choice organization.

On Tuesday, Nov 6. the people of America will come together and exercise their constitutional right to vote for the next leader of the United States. Both candidates have overcome resistance and criticism, and believe that they can best carry the country out of economic hardship while provide educational support and health care reform that will catapult the people back into the competitive global market.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Since the 1920’s, women have been taking more and more action toward becoming equal to men in politics, the work force, and health care. Since the Sandra Fluke incident in which Fluke publically stated that she believed that her health care provider should cover contraception, gender equality has been a major issue during the 2012 presidential campaign.

Since elected, Obama has signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that helps women in the work force fight for equal pay for equal work. In addition to fighting against gender discrimination, Obama has made efforts to protect women’s rights in healthcare by ensuring that insurance companies cannot charge women more than men for the same coverage, and by letting the women and their doctors be in charge of personal health decisions rather than politicians.

Romney’s website does not include a section on women’s rights issues, and does not address equality in the work place. It does address issues related to women’s health care in the values section where his plan would eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood and restrict women’s options by allowing health care providers the to opt out of providing services that go against their conscience in their work.