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CANDY CROWLEY, MODERATOR: Good evening from Hofstra University in Hempstead,
New York. I'm Candy Crowley from CNN's "State of the Union." We are here for
the second presidential debate, a town hall, sponsored by the Commission on Presidential
Debates.\ CROWLEY: The Gallup organization chose 82
uncommitted voters from the New York area. Their questions will drive the night. My goal
is to give the conversation direction and to ensure questions get answered.\
The questions are known to me and my team only. Neither the commission, nor the candidates
have seen them. I hope to get to as many questions as possible.\
CROWLEY: And because I am the optimistic sort, I\'92m sure the candidates will oblige by
keeping their answers concise and on point.\ Each candidate has as much as two minutes
to respond to a common question, and there will be a two-minute follow-up. The audience
here in the hall has agreed to be polite and attentive -- no cheering or booing or outbursts
of any sort.\ We will set aside that agreement just this
once to welcome President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney.\
(APPLAUSE)\ Gentlemen, thank you both for joining us here
tonight. We have a lot of folks who\'92ve been waiting all day to talk to you, so I
want to get right to it.\ Governor Romney, as you know, you won the
coin toss, so the first question will go to you. And I want to turn to a first-time voter,
Jeremy Epstein, who has a question for you.\ QUESTION: Mr. President, Governor Romney,
as a 20-year-old college student, all I hear from professors, neighbors and others is that
when I graduate, I will have little chance to get employment. What can you say to reassure
me, but more importantly my parents, that I will be able to sufficiently support myself
after I graduate?\ ROMNEY: Thank you, Jeremy. I appreciate your
-- your question, and thank you for being here this evening and to all of those from
Nassau County that have come, thank you for your time. Thank you to Hofstra University
and to Candy Crowley for organizing and leading this -- this event.\
Thank you, Mr. President, also for being part of this -- this debate.\
Your question -- your question is one that\'92s being asked by college kids all over this
country. I was in Pennsylvania with someone who had just graduated -- this was in Philadelphia
-- and she said, \'93I\'92ve got my degree. I can\'92t find a job. I\'92ve got three part-
time jobs. They\'92re just barely enough to pay for my food and pay for an apartment.
I can\'92t begin to pay back my student loans.\'94\ So what we have to do is two things. We have
to make sure that we make it easier for kids to afford college.\
ROMNEY: And also make sure that when they get out of college, there\'92s a job. When
I was governor of Massachusetts, to get a high school degree, you had to pass an exam.
If you graduated in the top quarter of your airlines, we gave you a John and Abigail Adams
scholarship, four years tuition free in the college of your choice in Massachusetts, it\'92s
a public institution.\ I want to make sure we keep our Pell grant
program growing. We\'92re also going to have our loan program, so that people are able
to afford school. But the key thing is to make sure you can get a job when you get out
of school. And what\'92s happened over the last four years has been very, very hard for
America\'92s young people. I want you to be able to get a job.\
I know what it takes to get this economy going. With half of college kids graduating this
year without a college -- excuse me, without a job. And without a college level job, that\'92s
just unacceptable.\ And likewise you\'92ve got more and more debt
on your back. So more debt and less jobs. I\'92m going to change that. I know what it
takes to create good jobs again. I know what it takes to make sure that you have the kind
of opportunity you deserve. And kids across this country are going to recognize, we\'92re
bringing back an economy.\ It\'92s not going to be like the last four
years. The middle-class has been crushed over the last four years, and jobs have been too
scarce. I know what it takes to bring them back, and I\'92m going to do that, and make
sure that when you graduate -- when do you graduate?\
QUESTION: 2014.\ ROMNEY: 2014. When you come out in 2014, I
presume I\'92m going to be president. I\'92m going to make sure you get a job. Thanks Jeremy.
Yeah, you bet.\ CROWLEY: Mr. President?\
OBAMA: Jeremy, first of all, your future is bright. And the fact that you\'92re making
an investment in higher education is critical. Not just to you, but to the entire nation.
Now, the most important thing we can do is to make sure that we are creating jobs in
this country. But not just jobs, good paying jobs. Ones that can support a family.\
OBAMA: And what I want to do, is build on the five million jobs that we\'92ve created
over the last 30 months in the private sector alone. And there are a bunch of things we
can do to make sure your future is bright.\ Number one, I want to build manufacturing
jobs in this country again. Now when Governor Romney said we should let Detroit go bankrupt.
I said we\'92re going to bet on American workers and the American auto industry and it\'92s
come surging back.\ I want to do that in industries, not just
in Detroit, but all across the country and that means we change our tax code so we\'92re
giving incentives to companies that are investing here in the United States and creating jobs
here.\ It also means we\'92re helping them and small
businesses to export all around the world to new markets.\
Number two, we\'92ve got to make sure that we have the best education system in the world.
And the fact that you\'92re going to college is great, but I want everybody to get a great
education and we\'92ve worked hard to make sure that student loans are available for
folks like you, but I also want to make sure that community colleges are offering slots
for workers to get retrained for the jobs that are out there right now and the jobs
of the future.\ Number three, we\'92ve got to control our
own energy. Now, not only oil and natural gas, which we\'92ve been investing in; but
also, we\'92ve got to make sure we\'92re building the energy source of the future, not just
thinking about next year, but ten years from now, 20 years from now. That\'92s why we\'92ve
invested in solar and wind and biofuels, energy efficient cars.\
We\'92ve got to reduce our deficit, but we\'92ve got to do it in a balanced way. Asking the
wealthy to pay a little bit more along with cuts so that we can invest in education like
yours.\ And let\'92s take the money that we\'92ve
been spending on war over the last decade to rebuild America, roads, bridges schools.
We do those things, not only is your future going to be bright but America\'92s future
is going to bright as well.\ CROWLEY: Let me ask you for more immediate
answer and begin with Mr. Romney just quickly what -- what can you do? We\'92re looking
at a situation where 40 percent of the unemployed have been unemployed have been unemployed
for six months or more. They don\'92t have the two years that Jeremy has.\
What about those long term unemployed who need a job right now?\
ROMNEY: Well what you\'92re seeing in this country is 23 million people struggling to
find a job. And a lot of them, as you say, Candy, have been out of work for a long, long,
long time. The president\'92s policies have been exercised over the last four years and
they haven\'92t put Americans back to work.\ We have fewer people working today than we
had when the president took office. If the -- the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent when
he took office, it\'92s 7.8 percent now. But if you calculated that unemployment rate,
taking back the people who dropped out of the workforce, it would be 10.7 percent.\
We have not made the progress we need to make to put people back to work. That\'92s why
I put out a five-point plan that gets America 12 million new jobs in four years and rising
take-home pay. It\'92s going to help Jeremy get a job when he comes out of school. It\'92s
going to help people across the country that are unemployed right now.\
And one thing that the president said, which I want to make sure that we understand, he
said that I said we should take Detroit bankrupt. And that\'92s right. My plan was to have the
company go through bankruptcy like 7-Eleven did and Macy\'92s and Condell (ph) Airlines
and come out stronger.\ And I know he keeps saying, you want to take
Detroit bankrupt. Well, the president took Detroit bankrupt. You took General Motors
bankrupt. You took Chrysler bankrupt. So when you say that I wanted to take the auto industry
bankrupt, you actually did.\ And I think it\'92s important to know that
that was a process that was necessary to get those companies back on their feet, so they
could start hiring more people. That was precisely what I recommended and ultimately what happened.\
CROWLEY: Let me give the president a chance.\ Go ahead. OBAMA: Candy, what Governor Romney
said just isn\'92t true. He wanted to take them into bankruptcy without providing them
any way to stay open. And we would have lost a million jobs. And that -- don\'92t take
my word for it, take the executives at GM and Chrysler, some of whom are Republicans,
may even support Governor Romney. But they\'92ll tell you his prescription wasn\'92t going
to work.\ And Governor Romney\'92s says he\'92s got
a five-point plan? Governor Romney doesn\'92t have a five-point plan. He has a one-point
plan. And that plan is to make sure that folks at the top play by a different set of rules.
That\'92s been his philosophy in the private sector, that\'92s been his philosophy as governor,
that\'92s been his philosophy as a presidential candidate.\
You can make a lot of money and pay lower tax rates than somebody who makes a lot less.
You can ship jobs overseas and get tax breaks for it. You can invest in a company, bankrupt
it, lay off the workers, strip away their pensions, and you still make money.\
That\'92s exactly the philosophy that we\'92ve seen in place for the last decade. That\'92s
what\'92s been squeezing middle class families.\ And we have fought back for four years to
get out of that mess. The last thing we need to do is to go back to the very same policies
that got us there.\ CROWLEY: Mr. President, the next question
is going to be for you here.\ And, Mr. Romney -- Governor Romney -- there\'92ll
be plenty of chances here to go on, but I want to...\
ROMNEY: That -- that Detroit -- that Detroit answer...\
CROWLEY: We have all these folks.\ ROMNEY: ... that Detroit answer...\
CROWLEY: I will let you absolutely...\ ROMNEY: ... and the rest of the answer, way
off the mark.\ CROWLEY: OK. Will -- will -- you certainly
will have lots of time here coming up.\ Because I want to move you on to something
that\'92s sort of connected to cars here, and -- and go over. And we want to get a question
from Phillip Tricolla.\ QUESTION: Your energy secretary, Steven Chu,
has now been on record three times stating it\'92s not policy of his department to help
lower gas prices. Do you agree with Secretary Chu that this is not the job of the Energy
Department?\ OBAMA: The most important thing we can do
is to make sure we control our own energy. So here\'92s what I\'92ve done since I\'92ve
been president. We have increased oil production to the highest levels in 16 years.\
Natural gas production is the highest it\'92s been in decades. We have seen increases in
coal production and coal employment. But what I\'92ve also said is we can\'92t just produce
traditional source of energy. We\'92ve also got to look to the future. That\'92s why we
doubled fuel efficiency standards on cars. That means that in the middle of the next
decade, any car you buy, you\'92re going to end up going twice as far on a gallon of gas.
That\'92s why we doubled clean -- clean energy production like wind and solar and biofuels.\
And all these things have contributed to us lowering our oil imports to the lowest levels
in 16 years. Now, I want to build on that. And that means, yes, we still continue to
open up new areas for drilling. We continue to make it a priority for us to go after natural
gas. We\'92ve got potentially 600,000 jobs and 100 years worth of energy right beneath
our feet with natural gas.\ And we can do it in an environmentally sound
way. But we\'92ve also got to continue to figure out how we have efficiency energy,
because ultimately that\'92s how we\'92re going to reduce demand and that\'92s what\'92s
going to keep gas prices lower.\ Now, Governor Romney will say he\'92s got
an all-of-the-above plan, but basically his plan is to let the oil companies write the
energy policies. So he\'92s got the oil and gas part, but he doesn\'92t have the clean
energy part. And if we are only thinking about tomorrow or the next day and not thinking
about 10 years from now, we\'92re not going to control our own economic future. Because
China, Germany, they\'92re making these investments. And I\'92m not going to cede those jobs of
the future to those countries. I expect those new energy sources to be built right here
in the United States.\ That\'92s going to help Jeremy get a job.
It\'92s also going to make sure that you\'92re not paying as much for gas.\
CROWLEY: Governor, on the subject of gas prices?\ ROMNEY: Well, let\'92s look at the president\'92s
policies, all right, as opposed to the rhetoric, because we\'92ve had four years of policies
being played out. And the president\'92s right in terms of the additional oil production,
but none of it came on federal land. As a matter of fact, oil production is down 14
percent this year on federal land, and gas production was down 9 percent. Why? Because
the president cut in half the number of licenses and permits for drilling on federal lands,
and in federal waters.\ So where\'92d the increase come from? Well
a lot of it came from the Bakken Range in North Dakota. What was his participation there?
The administration brought a criminal action against the people drilling up there for oil,
this massive new resource we have. And what was the cost? 20 or 25 birds were killed and
brought out a migratory bird act to go after them on a criminal basis.\
Look, I want to make sure we use our oil, our coal, our gas, our nuclear, our renewables.
I believe very much in our renewable capabilities; ethanol, wind, solar will be an important
part of our energy mix.\ But what we don\'92t need is to have the president
keeping us from taking advantage of oil, coal and gas. This has not been Mr. Oil, or Mr.
Gas, or Mr. Coal. Talk to the people that are working in those industries. I was in
coal country. People grabbed my arms and said, \'93Please save my job.\'94 The head of the
EPA said, \'93You can\'92t build a coal plant. You\'92ll virtually -- it\'92s virtually impossible
given our regulations.\'94 When the president ran for office, he said if you build a coal
plant, you can go ahead, but you\'92ll go bankrupt. That\'92s not the right course for
America.\ Let\'92s take advantage of the energy resources
we have, as well as the energy sources for the future. And if we do that, if we do what
I\'92m planning on doing, which is getting us energy independent, North America energy
independence within eight years, you\'92re going to see manufacturing jobs come back.
Because our energy is low cost, that are already beginning to come back because of our abundant
energy. I\'92ll get America and North America energy independent. I\'92ll do it by more
drilling, more permits and licenses.\ We\'92re going to bring that pipeline in from
Canada. How in the world the president said no to that pipeline? I will never know.\
This is about bringing good jobs back for the middle class of America, and that\'92s
what I\'92m going to do. CROWLEY: Mr. President, let me just see if I can move you to the gist
of this question, which is, are we looking at the new normal? I can tell you that tomorrow
morning, a lot of people in Hempstead will wake up and fill up and they will find that
the price of gas is over $4 a gallon.\ Is it within the purview of the government
to bring those prices down, or are we looking at the new normal?\
OBAMA: Candy, there\'92s no doubt that world demand\'92s gone up, but our production is
going up, and we\'92re using oil more efficiently. And very little of what Governor Romney just
said is true. We\'92ve opened up public lands. We\'92re actually drilling more on public
lands than in the previous administration and my -- the previous president was an oil
man.\ And natural gas isn\'92t just appearing magically.
We\'92re encouraging it and working with the industry.\
And when I hear Governor Romney say he\'92s a big coal guy, I mean, keep in mind, when
-- Governor, when you were governor of Massachusetts, you stood in front of a coal plant and pointed
at it and said, \'93This plant kills,\'94 and took great pride in shutting it down.
And now suddenly you\'92re a big champion of coal.\
So what I\'92ve tried to do is be consistent. With respect to something like coal, we made
the largest investment in clean coal technology, to make sure that even as we\'92re producing
more coal, we\'92re producing it cleaner and smarter. Same thing with oil, same thing with
natural gas.\ And the proof is our oil imports are down
to the lowest levels in 20 years. Oil production is up, natural gas production is up, and,
most importantly, we\'92re also starting to build cars that are more efficient.\
And that\'92s creating jobs. That means those cars can be exported, \'91cause that\'92s
the demand around the world, and it also means that it\'92ll save money in your pocketbook.\
OBAMA: That\'92s the strategy you need, an all-of-the-above strategy, and that\'92s what
we\'92re going to do in the next four years.\ ROMNEY: But that\'92s not what you\'92ve done
in the last four years. That\'92s the problem. In the last four years, you cut permits and
licenses on federal land and federal waters in half.\
OBAMA: Not true, Governor Romney.\ ROMNEY: So how much did you cut (inaudible)?\
OBAMA: Not true.\ ROMNEY: How much did you cut them by, then?\
OBAMA: Governor, we have actually produced more oil --\
ROMNEY: No, no. How much did you cut licenses and permits on federal land and federal waters?\
OBAMA: Governor Romney, here\'92s what we did. There were a whole bunch of oil companies.\
(CROSSTALK)\ ROMNEY: No, no, I had a question and the question
was how much did you cut them by?\ OBAMA: You want me to answer a question --\
ROMNEY: How much did you cut them by?\ OBAMA: I\'92m happy to answer the question.\
ROMNEY: All right. And it is --\ OBAMA: Here\'92s what happened. You had a
whole bunch of oil companies who had leases on public lands that they weren\'92t using.
So what we said was you can\'92t just sit on this for 10, 20, 30 years, decide when
you want to drill, when you want to produce, when it\'92s most profitable for you. These
are public lands. So if you want to drill on public lands, you use it or you lose it.\
ROMNEY: OK, (inaudible) --\ OBAMA: And so what we did was take away those
leases. And we are now reletting them so that we can actually make a profit.\
ROMNEY: And production on private -- on government land --\
OBAMA: Production is up.\ ROMNEY: -- is down.\
OBAMA: No, it isn\'92t.\ ROMNEY: Production on government land of oil
is down 14 percent.\ OBAMA: Governor --\
ROMNEY: And production on gas --\ (CROSSTALK)\
OBAMA: It\'92s just not true.\ ROMNEY: It\'92s absolutely true. Look, there\'92s
no question but the people recognize that we have not produced more (inaudible) on federal
lands and in federal waters. And coal, coal production is not up; coal jobs are not up.\
I was just at a coal facility, where some 1,200 people lost their jobs. The right course
for America is to have a true all-of-the-above policy. I don\'92t think anyone really believes
that you\'92re a person who\'92s going to be pushing for oil and gas and coal. You\'92ll
get your chance in a moment. I\'92m still speaking.\
OBAMA: Well --\ ROMNEY: And the answer is I don\'92t believe
people think that\'92s the case --\ OBAMA: -- (inaudible).\
ROMNEY: That wasn\'92t the question.\ OBAMA: OK.\
ROMNEY: That was a statement. I don\'92t think the American people believe that. I will fight
for oil, coal and natural gas. And the proof, the proof of whether a strategy is working
or not is what the price is that you\'92re paying at the pump. If you\'92re paying less
than you paid a year or two ago, why, then, the strategy is working. But you\'92re paying
more. When the president took office, the price of gasoline here in Nassau County was
about $1.86 a gallon. Now, it\'92s $4.00 a gallon. The price of electricity is up.\
If the president\'92s energy policies are working, you\'92re going to see the cost of
energy come down. I will fight to create more energy in this country, to get America energy
secure. And part of that is bringing in a pipeline of oil from Canada, taking advantage
of the oil and coal we have here, drilling offshore in Alaska, drilling offshore in Virginia
where the people want it. Those things will get us the energy we need.\
CROWLEY: Mr. President, could you address, because we did finally get to gas prices here,
could you address what the governor said, which is if your energy policy was working,
the price of gasoline would not be $4 a gallon here. Is that true?\
OBAMA: Well, think about what the governor -- think about what the governor just said.
He said when I took office, the price of gasoline was $1.80, $1.86. Why is that? Because the
economy was on the verge of collapse, because we were about to go through the worst recession
since the Great Depression, as a consequence of some of the same policies that Governor
Romney\'92s now promoting.\ So, it\'92s conceivable that Governor Romney
could bring down gas prices because with his policies, we might be back in that same mess.\
What I want to do is to create an economy that is strong, and at the same time produce
energy. And with respect to this pipeline that Governor Romney keeps on talking about,
we\'92ve -- we\'92ve built enough pipeline to wrap around the entire earth once.\
So, I\'92m all for pipelines. I\'92m all for oil production. What I\'92m not for is us
ignoring the other half of the equation. So, for example, on wind energy, when Governor
Romney says \'93these are imaginary jobs.\'94 When you\'92ve got thousands of people right
now in Iowa, right now in Colorado, who are working, creating wind power with good-paying
manufacturing jobs, and the Republican senator in that -- in Iowa is all for it, providing
tax breaks (ph) to help this work and Governor Romney says I\'92m opposed. I\'92d get rid
of it.\ That\'92s not an energy strategy for the future.
And we need to win that future. And I intend to win it as President of the United States.\
CROWLEY: I got to -- I got to move you on --\
ROMNEY: He gets the first --\ CROWLEY: -- and the next question --\
ROMNEY: He actually got --\ CROWLEY: -- for you --\
ROMNEY: He actually got the first question. So I get the last question -- last answer
--\ CROWLEY: (Inaudible) in the follow up, it
doesn\'92t quite work like that. But I\'92m going to give you a chance here. I promise
you, I\'92m going to.\ And the next question is for you. So if you
want to, you know, continue on -- but I don\'92t want to leave all --\
ROMNEY: Candy, Candy --\ CROWLEY: -- sitting here --\
ROMNEY: Candy, I don\'92t have a policy of stopping wind jobs in Iowa and that -- they\'92re
not phantom jobs. They\'92re real jobs.\ CROWLEY: OK.\
ROMNEY: I appreciate wind jobs in Iowa and across our country. I appreciate the jobs
in coal and oil and gas. I\'92m going to make sure --\
CROWLEY: OK.\ ROMNEY: -- we\'92re taking advantage of our
energy resources. We\'92ll bring back manufacturing to America. We\'92re going to get through
a very aggressive energy policy, 31/2 million more jobs in this country. It\'92s critical
to our future.\ OBAMA: Candy, it\'92s not going to --\
CROWLEY: We\'92re going to move you along --\
OBAMA: Used to being interrupted.\ CROWLEY: We\'92re going to move you both along
to taxes over here and all these folks that have been waiting.\
Governor, this question is for you. It comes from Mary Follano -- Follano, sorry.\
ROMNEY: Hi, Mary.\ QUESTION: Governor Romney, you have stated
that if you\'92re elected president, you would plan to reduce the tax rates for all the tax
brackets and that you would work with the Congress to eliminate some deductions in order
to make up for the loss in revenue.\ Concerning the -- these various deductions,
the mortgage deductions, the charitable deductions, the child tax credit and also the -- oh, what\'92s
that other credit? I forgot.\ OBAMA: You\'92re doing great.\
QUESTION: Oh, I remember.\ The education credits, which are important
to me, because I have children in college. What would be your position on those things,
which are important to the middle class?\ ROMNEY: Thank you very much. And let me tell
you, you\'92re absolutely right about part of that, which is I want to bring the rates
down, I want to simplify the tax code, and I want to get middle- income taxpayers to
have lower taxes.\ And the reason I want middle-income taxpayers
to have lower taxes is because middle-income taxpayers have been buried over the past four
years. You\'92ve seen, as middle-income people in this country, incomes go down $4,300 a
family, even as gasoline prices have gone up $2,000. Health insurance premiums, up $2,500.
Food prices up. Utility prices up.\ The middle-income families in America have
been crushed over the last four years. So I want to get some relief to middle-income
families. That\'92s part -- that\'92s part one.\
Now, how about deductions? \'91Cause I\'92m going to bring rates down across the board
for everybody, but I\'92m going to limit deductions and exemptions and credits, particularly for
people at the high end, because I am not going to have people at the high end pay less than
they\'92re paying now.\ The top 5 percent of taxpayers will continue
to pay 60 percent of the income tax the nation collects. So that\'92ll stay the same.\
Middle-income people are going to get a tax break.\
And so, in terms of bringing down deductions, one way of doing that would be say everybody
gets -- I\'92ll pick a number -- $25,000 of deductions and credits, and you can decide
which ones to use. Your home mortgage interest deduction, charity, child tax credit, and
so forth, you can use those as part of filling that bucket, if you will, of deductions.\
But your rate comes down and the burden also comes down on you for one more reason, and
that is every middle-income taxpayer no longer will pay any tax on interest, dividends or
capital gains. No tax on your savings. That makes life a lot easier.\
If you\'92re getting interest from a bank, if you\'92re getting a statement from a mutual
fund or any other kind of investment you have, you don\'92t have to worry about filing taxes
on that, because there\'92ll be no taxes for anybody making $200,000.00 per year and less,
on your interest, dividends and capital gains. Why am I lowering taxes on the middle-class?
Because under the last four years, they\'92ve been buried. And I want to help people in
the middle-class.\ And I will not -- I will not under any circumstances,
reduce the share that\'92s being paid by the highest income taxpayers. And I will not,
under any circumstances increase taxes on the middle-class. The president\'92s spending,
the president\'92s borrowing will cost this nation to have to raise taxes on the American
people. Not just at the high end. A recent study has shown the people in the middle-class
will see $4,000.00 per year in higher taxes as a result of the spending and borrowing
of this administration.\ I will not let that happen. I want to get
us on track to a balanced budget, and I\'92m going to reduce the tax burden on middle income
families. And what\'92s that going to do? It\'92s going to help those families, and
it\'92s going to create incentives to start growing jobs again in this country.\
CROWLEY: Thanks, Governor.\ OBAMA: My philosophy on taxes has been simple.
And that is, I want to give middle-class families and folks who are striving to get into the
middle-class some relief. Because they have been hit hard over the last decade. Over the
last 15, over the last 20 years.\ So four years ago I stood on a stage just
like this one. Actually it was a town hall, and I said I would cut taxes for middle- class
families, and that\'92s what I\'92ve done, by $3,600.00. I said I would cut taxes for
small businesses, who are the drivers and engines of growth. And we\'92ve cut them 18
times. And I want to continue those tax cuts for middle-class families, and for small business.\
But what I\'92ve also said is, if we\'92re serious about reducing the deficit, if this
is genuinely a moral obligation to the next generation, then in addition to some tough
spending cuts, we\'92ve also got to make sure that the wealthy do a little bit more.\
So what I\'92ve said is, your first $250,000.00 worth of income, no change. And that means
98 percent of American families, 97 percent of small businesses, they will not see a tax
increase. I\'92m ready to sign that bill right now. The only reason it\'92s not happening
is because Governor Romney\'92s allies in Congress have held the 98 percent hostage
because they want tax breaks for the top 2 percent.\
But what I\'92ve also says is for above $250,000, we can go back to the tax rates we had when
Bill Clinton was president. We created 23 million new jobs. That\'92s part of what took
us from deficits to surplus. It will be good for our economy and it will be good for job
creation.\ Now, Governor Romney has a different philosophy.
He was on 60 Minutes just two weeks ago and he was asked: Is it fair for somebody like
you, making $20 million a year, to pay a lower tax rate than a nurse or a bus driver, somebody
making $50,000 year? And he said, \'93Yes, I think that\'92s fair.\'94 Not only that,
he said, \'93I think that\'92s what grows the economy.\'94\
Well, I fundamentally disagree with that. I think what grows the economy is when you
get that tax credit that we put in place for your kids going to college. I think that grows
the economy. I think what grows the economy is when we make sure small businesses are
getting a tax credit for hiring veterans who fought for our country. That grows our economy.\
So we just have a different theory. And when Governor Romney stands here, after a year
of campaigning, when during a Republican primary he stood on stage and said \'93I\'92m going
to give tax cuts\'94 -- he didn\'92t say tax rate cuts, he said \'93tax cuts to everybody,\'94
including the top 1 percent, you should believe him because that\'92s been his history.\
And that\'92s exactly the kind of top-down economics that is not going to work if we
want a strong middle class and an economy that\'92s striving for everybody.\
CROWLEY: Governor Romney, I\'92m sure you\'92ve got a reply there.\
(LAUGHTER) ROMNEY: You\'92re absolutely right.\ You heard what I said about my tax plan. The
top 5 percent will continue to pay 60 percent, as they do today. I\'92m not looking to cut
taxes for wealthy people. I am looking to cut taxes for middle-income people.\
And why do I want to bring rates down, and at the same time lower exemptions and deductions,
particularly for people at the high end? Because if you bring rates down, it makes it easier
for small business to keep more of their capital and hire people.\
And for me, this is about jobs. I want to get America\'92s economy going again. Fifty-four
percent of America\'92s workers work in businesses that are taxed as individuals. So when you
bring those rates down, those small businesses are able to keep more money and hire more
people.\ For me, I look at what\'92s happened in the
last four years and say this has been a disappointment. We can do better than this. We don\'92t have
to settle for, how many months, 43 months with unemployment above 8 percent, 23 million
Americans struggling to find a good job right now.\
There are 3.5 million more women living in poverty today than when the president took
office.\ We don\'92t have to live like this. We can
get this economy going again. My five-point plan does it. Energy independence for North
America in five years. Opening up more trade, particularly in Latin America. Cracking down
on China when they cheat. Getting us to a balanced budget. Fixing our training programs
for our workers. And finally, championing small business.\
I want to make small businesses grow and thrive. I know how to make that happen. I spent my
life in the private sector. I know why jobs come and why they go. And they\'92re going
now because of the policies of this administration.\ CROWLEY: Governor, let me ask the president
something about what you just said.\ The governor says that he is not going to
allow the top 5 percent, believe is what he said, to have a tax cut, that it will all
even out, that what he wants to do is give that tax cut to the middle class. Settled?\
OBAMA: No, it\'92s not settled.\ Look, the cost of lowering rates for everybody
across the board, 20 percent. Along with what he also wants to do in terms of eliminating
the estate tax, along what he wants to do in terms of corporates, changes in the tax
code, it costs about $5 trillion.\ Governor Romney then also wants to spend $2
trillion on additional military programs even though the military\'92s not asking for them.
That\'92s $7 trillion.\ He also wants to continue the Bush tax cuts
for the wealthiest Americans. That\'92s another trillion dollars -- that\'92s $8 trillion.\
Now, what he says is he\'92s going to make sure that this doesn\'92t add to the deficit
and he\'92s going to cut middleclass taxes.\ But when he\'92s asked, how are you going
to do it, which deductions, which loopholes are you going to close? He can\'92t tell you.\
The -- the fact that he only has to pay 14 percent on his taxes when a lot of you are
paying much higher. He\'92s already taken that off the board, capital gains are going
to continue to be at a low rate so we -- we\'92re not going to get money that way.\
We haven\'92t heard from the governor any specifics beyond Big Bird and eliminating
funding for Planned Parenthood in terms of how he pays for that.\
Now, Governor Romney was a very successful investor. If somebody came to you, Governor,
with a plan that said, here, I want to spend $7 or $8 trillion, and then we\'92re going
to pay for it, but we can\'92t tell you until maybe after the election how we\'92re going
to do it, you wouldn\'92t take such a sketchy deal and neither should you, the American
people, because the math doesn\'92t add up.\ And -- and what\'92s at stake here is one
of two things, either Candy -- this blows up the deficit because keep in mind, this
is just to pay for the additional spending that he\'92s talking about, $7 trillion - $8
trillion before we even get to the deficit we already have. Or, alternatively, it\'92s
got to be paid for, not only by closing deductions for wealthy individuals, that -- that will
pay for about 4 percent reduction in tax rates.\ You\'92re going to be paying for it. You\'92re
going to lose some deductions, and you can\'92t buy the sales pitch. Nobody who\'92s looked
at it that\'92s serious, actually believes it adds up.\
CROWLEY: Mr. President, let me get -- let me get the governor in on this. And Governor,
let\'92s -- before we get into a...\ ROMNEY: I -- I...\
CROWLEY: ...vast array of who says -- what study says what, if it shouldn\'92t add up.
If somehow when you get in there, there isn\'92t enough tax revenue coming in. If somehow the
numbers don\'92t add up, would you be willing to look again at a 20 percent...\
ROMNEY: Well of course they add up. I -- I was -- I was someone who ran businesses for
25 years, and balanced the budget. I ran the Olympics and balanced the budget. I ran the
-- the state of Massachusetts as a governor, to the extent any governor does, and balanced
the budget all four years. When we\'92re talking about math that doesn\'92t add up, how about
$4 trillion of deficits over the last four years, $5 trillion? That\'92s math that doesn\'92t
add up. We have -- we have a president talking about someone\'92s plan in a way that\'92s
completely foreign to what my real plan is.\ ROMNEY: And then we have his own record, which
is we have four consecutive years where he said when he was running for office, he would
cut the deficit in half. Instead he\'92s doubled it. We\'92ve gone from $10 trillion of national
debt, to $16 trillion of national debt. If the president were reelected, we\'92d go to
almost $20 trillion of national debt. This puts us on a road to Greece. I know what it
takes to balance budgets. I\'92ve done it my entire life. So for instance when he says,
\'93Yours is a $5 trillion cut.\'94 Well, no it\'92s not. Because I\'92m offsetting
some of the reductions with holding down some of the deductions.\
And...\ CROWLEY: Governor, I\'92ve gotta -- gotta
-- actually, I need to have you both (inaudible).\ (CROSSTALK)\
CROWLEY: I understand the stakes here. I understand both of you. But I -- I will get run out of
town if I don\'92t...\ (CROSSTALK)\
ROMNEY: And I just described -- I just described to you, Mr. President -- I just described
to you precisely how I\'92d do it which is with a single number that people can put -- and
they can put they\'92re -- they\'92re deductions and credits...\
(CROSSTALK)\ CROWLEY: Mr. President, we\'92re keeping track,
I promise you. And Mr. President, the next question is for you, so stay standing.\
OBAMA: Great. Looking forward to it.\ And it\'92s Katherine Fenton, who has a question
for you.\ QUESTION: In what new ways to you intend to
rectify the inequalities in the workplace, specifically regarding females making only
72 percent of what their male counterparts earn?\
OBAMA: Well, Katherine, that\'92s a great question. And, you know, I was raised by a
single mom who had to put herself through school while looking after two kids. And she
worked hard every day and made a lot of sacrifices to make sure we got everything we needed.
My grandmother, she started off as a secretary in a bank. She never got a college education,
even though she was smart as a whip. And she worked her way up to become a vice president
of a local bank, but she hit the glass ceiling. She trained people who would end up becoming
her bosses during the course of her career.\ She didn\'92t complain. That\'92s not what
you did in that generation. And this is one of the reasons why one of the first -- the
first bill I signed was something called the Lily Ledbetter bill. And it\'92s named after
this amazing woman who had been doing the same job as a man for years, found out that
she was getting paid less, and the Supreme Court said that she couldn\'92t bring suit
because she should have found about it earlier, whereas she had no way of finding out about
it. So we fixed that. And that\'92s an example of the kind of advocacy that we need, because
women are increasingly the breadwinners in the family. This is not just a women\'92s
issue, this is a family issue, this is a middle-class issue, and that\'92s why we\'92ve got to fight
for it.\ It also means that we\'92ve got to make sure
that young people like yourself are able to afford a college education. Earlier, Governor
Romney talked about he wants to make Pell Grants and other education accessible for
young people.\ Well, the truth of the matter is, is that
that\'92s exactly what we\'92ve done. We\'92ve expanded Pell Grants for millions of people,
including millions of young women, all across the country.\
We did it by taking $60 billion that was going to banks and lenders as middlemen for the
student loan program, and we said, let\'92s just cut out the middleman. Let\'92s give
the money directly to students.\ And as a consequence, we\'92ve seen millions
of young people be able to afford college, and that\'92s going to make sure that young
women are going to be able to compete in that marketplace.\
But we\'92ve got to enforce the laws, which is what we are doing, and we\'92ve also got
to make sure that in every walk of life we do not tolerate discrimination.\
That\'92s been one of the hallmarks of my administration. I\'92m going to continue to
push on this issue for the next four years.\ CROWLEY: Governor Romney, pay equity for women?\
ROMNEY: Thank you. And important topic, and one which I learned a great deal about, particularly
as I was serving as governor of my state, because I had the chance to pull together
a cabinet and all the applicants seemed to be men.\
And I -- and I went to my staff, and I said, \'93How come all the people for these jobs
are -- are all men.\'94 They said, \'93Well, these are the people that have the qualifications.\'94
And I said, \'93Well, gosh, can\'92t we -- can\'92t we find some -- some women that are also qualified?\'94\
ROMNEY: And -- and so we -- we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds
that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet.\
I went to a number of women\'92s groups and said, \'93Can you help us find folks,\'94
and they brought us whole binders full of women.\
I was proud of the fact that after I staffed my Cabinet and my senior staff, that the University
of New York in Albany did a survey of all 50 states, and concluded that mine had more
women in senior leadership positions than any other state in America.\
Now one of the reasons I was able to get so many good women to be part of that team was
because of our recruiting effort. But number two, because I recognized that if you\'92re
going to have women in the workforce that sometimes you need to be more flexible. My
chief of staff, for instance, had two kids that were still in school.\
She said, I can\'92t be here until 7 or 8 o\'92clock at night. I need to be able to
get home at 5 o\'92clock so I can be there for making dinner for my kids and being with
them when they get home from school. So we said fine. Let\'92s have a flexible schedule
so you can have hours that work for you.\ We\'92re going to have to have employers in
the new economy, in the economy I\'92m going to bring to play, that are going to be so
anxious to get good workers they\'92re going to be anxious to hire women. In the -- in
the last women have lost 580,000 jobs. That\'92s the net of what\'92s happened in the last
four years. We\'92re still down 580,000 jobs. I mentioned 31/2 million women, more now in
poverty than four years ago.\ What we can do to help young women and women
of all ages is to have a strong economy, so strong that employers that are looking to
find good employees and bringing them into their workforce and adapting to a flexible
work schedule that gives women opportunities that they would otherwise not be able to afford.\
This is what I have done. It\'92s what I look forward to doing and I know what it takes
to make an economy work, and I know what a working economy looks like. And an economy
with 7.8 percent unemployment is not a real strong economy. An economy that has 23 million
people looking for work is not a strong economy.\ An economy with 50 percent of kids graduating
from college that can\'92t finds a job, or a college level job, that\'92s not what we
have to have. CROWLEY: Governor?\ ROMNEY: I\'92m going to help women in America
get good work by getting a stronger economy and by supporting women in the workforce.\
CROWLEY: Mr. President why don\'92t you get in on this quickly, please?\
OBAMA: Katherine, I just want to point out that when Governor Romney\'92s campaign was
asked about the Lilly Ledbetter bill, whether he supported it? He said, \'93I\'92ll get
back to you.\'94 And that\'92s not the kind of advocacy that women need in any economy.
Now, there are some other issues that have a bearing on how women succeed in the workplace.
For example, their healthcare. You know a major difference in this campaign is that
Governor Romney feels comfortable having politicians in Washington decide the health care choices
that women are making.\ I think that\'92s a mistake. In my health
care bill, I said insurance companies need to provide contraceptive coverage to everybody
who is insured. Because this is not just a -- a health issue, it\'92s an economic issue
for women. It makes a difference. This is money out of that family\'92s pocket. Governor
Romney not only opposed it, he suggested that in fact employers should be able to make the
decision as to whether or not a woman gets contraception through her insurance coverage.\
That\'92s not the kind of advocacy that women need. When Governor Romney says that we should
eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood, there are millions of women all across the
country, who rely on Planned Parenthood for, not just contraceptive care, they rely on
it for mammograms, for cervical cancer screenings. That\'92s a pocketbook issue for women and
families all across the country. And it makes a difference in terms of how well and effectively
women are able to work. When we talk about child care, and the credits that we\'92re
providing. That makes a difference in whether they can go out there and -- and earn a living
for their family.\ These are not just women\'92s issues. These
are family issues. These are economic issues.\ And one of the things that makes us grow as
an economy is when everybody participates and women are getting the same fair deal as
men are.\ CROWLEY: Mr. President...\
OBAMA: And I\'92ve got two daughters and I want to make sure that they have the same
opportunities that anybody\'92s sons have. That\'92s part of what I\'92m fighting for
as president of the United States.\ CROWLEY: I want to move us along here to Susan
Katz, who has a question.\ And, Governor, it\'92s for you. QUESTION:
Governor Romney, I am an undecided voter, because I\'92m disappointed with the lack
of progress I\'92ve seen in the last four years. However, I do attribute much of America\'92s
economic and international problems to the failings and missteps of the Bush administration.\
Since both you and President Bush are Republicans, I fear a return to the policies of those years
should you win this election. What is the biggest difference between you and George
W. Bush, and how do you differentiate yourself from George W. Bush?\
ROMNEY: Thank you. And I appreciate that question.\ I just want to make sure that, I think I was
supposed to get that last answer, but I want to point out that that I don\'92t believe...\
OBAMA: I don\'92t think so, Candy.\ ROMNEY: ... I don\'92t believe...\
OBAMA: I want to make sure our timekeepers are working here.\
ROMNEY: The time -- the time...\ CROWLEY: OK. The timekeepers are all working.
And let me tell you that the last part, it\'92s for the two of you to talk to one another,
and it isn\'92t quite as (inaudible) you think.\ But go ahead and use this two minutes any
way you\'92d like to, the question is on the floor.\
ROMNEY: I\'92d just note that I don\'92t believe that bureaucrats in Washington should tell
someone whether they can use contraceptives or not. And I don\'92t believe employers should
tell someone whether they could have contraceptive care of not. Every woman in America should
have access to contraceptives. And -- and the -- and the president\'92s statement of
my policy is completely and totally wrong.\ OBAMA: Governor...\
ROMNEY: Let me come back and -- and answer your question.\
President Bush and I are -- are different people and these are different times and that\'92s
why my five point plan is so different than what he would have done.\
I mean for instance, we can now, by virtue of new technology actually get all the energy
we need in North America without having to go to the -- the Arabs or the Venezuelans
or anyone else. That wasn\'92t true in his time, that\'92s why my policy starts with
a very robust policy to get all that energy in North America -- become energy secure.\
Number two, trade -- I\'92ll crack down on China, President Bush didn\'92t. I\'92m also
going to dramatically expand trade in Latin America. It\'92s been growing about 12 percent
per year over a long period of time. I want to add more free trade agreements so we\'92ll
have more trade.\ Number three, I\'92m going to get us to a
balanced budget. President Bush didn\'92t. President Obama was right, he said that that
was outrageous to have deficits as high as half a trillion dollars under the Bush years.
He was right, but then he put in place deficits twice that size for every one of his four
years. And his forecast for the next four years is more deficits, almost that large.
So that\'92s the next area I\'92m different than President Bush.\
And then let\'92s take the last one, championing small business. Our party has been focused
too long. I came through small business. I understand how hard it is to start a small
business. That\'92s why everything I\'92ll do is designed to help small businesses grow
and add jobs. I want to keep their taxes down on small business. I want regulators to see
their job as encouraging small enterprise, not crushing it.\
And the thing I find the most troubling about Obama Care, well it\'92s a long list, but
one of the things I find most troubling is that when you go out and talk to small businesses
and ask them what they think about it, they tell you it keeps them from hiring more people.\
My priority is jobs. I know how to make that happen. And President Bush has a very different
path for a very different time. My path is designed in getting small businesses to grow
and hire people.\ CROWLEY: Thanks, Governor.\
Mr. President?\ OBAMA: Well, first of all, I think it\'92s
important to tell you that we did come in during some tough times. We were losing 800,000
jobs a month when I started. But we had been digging our way out of policies that were
misplaced and focused on the top doing very well and middle class folks not doing well.\
Now, we\'92ve seen 30 consecutive -- 31 consecutive months of job growth; 5.2 million new jobs
created. And the plans that I talked about will create even more. But when Governor Romney
says that he has a very different economic plan, the centerpiece of his economic plan
are tax cuts. That\'92s what took us from surplus to deficit. When he talks about getting
tough on China, keep in mind that Governor Romney invested in companies that were pioneers
of outsourcing to China, and is currently investing in countries -- in companies that
are building surveillance equipment for China to spy on its own folks.\
That\'92s -- Governor, you\'92re the last person who\'92s going to get tough on China.
And what we\'92ve done when it comes to trade is not only sign three trade deals to open
up new markets, but we\'92ve also set up a task force for trade that goes after anybody
who is taking advantage of American workers or businesses and not creating a level playing
field. We\'92ve brought twice as many cases against unfair trading practices than the
previous administration and we\'92ve won every single one that\'92s been decided.\
When I said that we had to make sure that China was not flooding our domestic market
with cheap tires, Governor Romney said I was being protectionist; that it wouldn\'92t be
helpful to American workers. Well, in fact we saved 1,000 jobs. And that\'92s the kind
of tough trade actions that are required.\ But the last point I want to make is this.
You know, there are some things where Governor Romney is different from George Bush. George
Bush didn\'92t propose turning Medicare into a voucher. George Bush embraced comprehensive
immigration reform. He didn\'92t call for self-deportation.\
George Bush never suggested that we eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood, so there are
differences between Governor Romney and George Bush, but they\'92re not on economic policy.
In some ways, he\'92s gone to a more extreme place when it comes to social policy. And
I think that\'92s a mistake. That\'92s not how we\'92re going to move our economy forward.\
CROWLEY: I want to move you both along to the next question, because it\'92s in the
same wheelhouse, so you will be able to respond. But the president does get this question.
I want to call on Michael Jones.\ QUESTION: Mr. President, I voted for you in
2008. What have you done or accomplished to earn my vote in 2012? I\'92m not that optimistic
as I was in 2012. Most things I need for everyday living are very expensive.\
OBAMA: Well, we\'92ve gone through a tough four years. There\'92s no doubt about it.
But four years ago, I told the American people and I told you I would cut taxes for middle
class families. And I did. I told you I\'92d cut taxes for small businesses, and I have.\
I said that I\'92d end the war in Iraq, and I did. I said we\'92d refocus attention on
those who actually attacked us on 9/11, and we have gone after Al Qaeda\'92s leadership
like never before and Osama bin Laden is dead.\ OBAMA: I said that we would put in place health
care reform to make sure that insurance companies can\'92t jerk you around and if you don\'92t
have health insurance, that you\'92d have a chance to get affordable insurance, and
I have.\ I committed that I would rein in the excesses
of Wall Street, and we passed the toughest Wall Street reforms since the 1930s. We\'92ve
created five million jobs, and gone from 800 jobs a month being lost, and we are making
progress. We saved an auto industry that was on the brink of collapse.\
Now, does that mean you\'92re not struggling? Absolutely not. A lot of us are. And that\'92s
why the plan that I\'92ve put forward for manufacturing and education, and reducing
our deficit in a sensible way, using the savings from ending wars, to rebuild America and putting
people back to work. Making sure that we are controlling our own energy, but not only the
energy of today, but also the energy of the future. All of those things will make a difference,
so the point is the commitments I\'92ve made, I\'92ve kept.\
And those that I haven\'92t been able to keep, it\'92s not for lack of trying and we\'92re
going to get it done in a second term. But, you should pay attention to this campaign,
because Governor Romney has made some commitments as well. And I suspect he\'92ll keep those
too. You know when members of the Republican Congress say, \'93We\'92re going to sign a
no tax pledge, so that we don\'92t ask a dime for millionaires and billionaires to reduce
our deficit so we can still invest in education, and helping kids go to college. He said, \'93Me
too.\'94\ When they said, \'93We\'92re going to cut
Planned Parenthood funding.\'94 He said, \'93Me too.\'94 When he said, \'93We\'92re going
to repeal Obamacare. First thing I\'92m going to do,\'94 despite the fact that it\'92s the
same health care plan that he passed in Massachusetts and is working well. He said, \'93Me too.\'94
That is not the kind of leadership that you need, but you should expect that those are
promises he\'92s going to keep.\ (CROSSTALK)\
CROWLEY: Mr. President, let me let...\ (CROSSTALK)\
OBAMA: ...the choice in this election is going to be whose promises are going to be more
likely to help you in your life? Make sure your kids can go to college. Make sure that
you are getting a good paying job, making sure that Medicare and Social Security...
(CROSSTALK)\ CROWLEY: Mr. President. Thank you.\
(CROSSTALK)\ OBAMA: ...will be there for you.\
CROWLEY: Thank you. Governor?\ ROMNEY: I think you know better. I think you
know that these last four years haven\'92t been so good as the president just described
and that you don\'92t feel like your confident that the next four years are going to be much
better either.\ I can tell you that if you were to elect President
Obama, you know what you\'92re going to get. You\'92re going to get a repeat of the last
four years. We just can\'92t afford four more years like the last four years.\
He said that by now we\'92d have unemployment at 5.4 percent. The difference between where
it is and 5.4 percent is 9 million Americans without work.\
I wasn\'92t the one that said 5.4 percent. This was the president\'92s plan. Didn\'92t
get there.\ He said he would have by now put forward a
plan to reform Medicare and Social Security, because he pointed out they\'92re on the road
to bankruptcy. He would reform them. He\'92d get that done. He hasn\'92t even made a proposal
on either one.\ He said in his first year he\'92d put out
an immigration plan that would deal with our immigration challenges. Didn\'92t even file
it.\ This is a president who has not been able
to do what he said he\'92d do. He said that he\'92d cut in half the deficit. He hasn\'92t
done that either. In fact, he doubled it. He said that by now middle-income families
would have a reduction in their health insurance premiums by $2,500 a year. It\'92s gone up
by $2,500 a year. And if Obamacare is passed, or implemented -- it\'92s already been passed
-- if it\'92s implemented fully, it\'92ll be another $2,500 on top.\
ROMNEY: The middle class is getting crushed under the policies of a president who has
not understood what it takes to get the economy working again. He keeps saying, \'93Look,
I\'92ve created 5 million jobs.\'94 That\'92s after losing 5 million jobs. The entire record
is such that the unemployment has not been reduced in this country. The unemployment,
the number of people who are still looking for work, is still 23 million Americans.\
There are more people in poverty, one out of six people in poverty.\
How about food stamps? When he took office, 32 million people were on food stamps. Today,
47 million people are on food stamps. How about the growth of the economy? It\'92s growing
more slowly this year than last year, and more slowly last year than the year before.\
The president wants to do well. I understand. But the policies he\'92s put in place from
Obamacare to Dodd-Frank to his tax policies to his regulatory policies, these policies
combined have not let this economy take off and grow like it could have.\
You might say, \'93Well, you got an example of one that worked better?\'94 Yeah, in the
Reagan recession where unemployment hit 10.8 percent, between that period -- the end of
that recession and the equivalent of time to today, Ronald Reagan\'92s recovery created
twice as many jobs as this president\'92s recovery. Five million jobs doesn\'92t even
keep up with our population growth. And the only reason the unemployment rate seems a
little lower today is because of all the people that have dropped out of the workforce.\
The president has tried, but his policies haven\'92t worked. He\'92s great as a -- as
a -- as a speaker and describing his plans and his vision. That\'92s wonderful, except
we have a record to look at. And that record shows he just hasn\'92t been able to cut the
deficit, to put in place reforms for Medicare and Social Security to preserve them, to get
us the rising incomes we need. Median income is down $4,300 a family and 23 million Americans
out of work. That\'92s what this election is about. It\'92s about who can get the middle
class in this country a bright and prosperous future and assure our kids the kind of hope
and optimism they deserve.\ CROWLEY: Governor, I want to move you along.
Don\'92t -- don\'92t go away, and we\'92ll have plenty of time to respond. We are quite
aware of the clock for both of you. But I want to bring in a different subject here.\
Mr. President, I\'92ll be right back with you.\
Lorraine Osorio has a question for you about a topic we have not...\
OBAMA: This is for Governor Romney?\ CROWLEY: It\'92s for Governor Romney, and
we\'92ll be right with you, Mr. President. Thanks.\
ROMNEY: Is it Loraina?\ QUESTION: Lorraine.\
ROMNEY: Lorraine?\ QUESTION: Yes, Lorraine.\
ROMNEY: Lorraine.\ QUESTION: How you doing?\
ROMNEY: Good, thanks.\ QUESTION: Mr. Romney, what do you plan on
doing with immigrants without their green cards that are currently living here as productive
members of society?\ ROMNEY: Thank you. Lorraine? Did I get that
right? Good. Thank you for your question. And let me step back and tell you what I would
like to do with our immigration policy broadly and include an answer to your question.\
But first of all, this is a nation of immigrants. We welcome people coming to this country as
immigrants. My dad was born in Mexico of American parents; Ann\'92s dad was born in Wales and
is a first-generation American. We welcome legal immigrants into this country.\
I want our legal system to work better. I want it to be streamlined. I want it to be
clearer. I don\'92t think you have to -- shouldn\'92t have to hire a lawyer to figure out how to
get into this country legally. I also think that we should give visas to people -- green
cards, rather, to people who graduate with skills that we need. People around the world
with accredited degrees in science and math get a green card stapled to their diploma,
come to the U.S. of A. We should make sure our legal system works.\
Number two, we\'92re going to have to stop illegal immigration. There are 4 million people
who are waiting in line to get here legally. Those who\'92ve come here illegally take their
place. So I will not grant amnesty to those who have come here illegally.\
What I will do is I\'92ll put in place an employment verification system and make sure
that employers that hire people who have come here illegally are sanctioned for doing so.
I won\'92t put in place magnets for people coming here illegally. So for instance, I
would not give driver\'92s licenses to those that have come here illegally as the president
would.\ The kids of those that came here illegally,
those kids, I think, should have a pathway to become a permanent resident of the United
States and military service, for instance, is one way they would have that kind of pathway
to become a permanent resident.\ ROMNEY: Now when the president ran for office,
he said that he\'92d put in place, in his first year, a piece of legislation -- he\'92d
file a bill in his first year that would reform our -- our immigration system, protect legal
immigration, stop illegal immigration. He didn\'92t do it.\
He had a Democrat House, a Democrat Senate, super majority in both Houses. Why did he
fail to even promote legislation that would have provided an answer for those that want
to come legally and for those that are here illegally today? What\'92s a question I think
the -- the president will have a chance to answer right now.\
OBAMA: Good, I look forward to it.\ Was -- Lorranna -- Lorraine -- we are a nation
of immigrants. I mean we\'92re just a few miles away from Ellis Island. We all understand
what this country has become because talent from all around the world wants to come here.
People are willing to take risks. People who want to build on their dreams and make sure
their kids have an even bigger dreams than they have.\
But we\'92re also a nation of laws. So what I\'92ve said is we need to fix a broken immigration
system and I\'92ve done everything that I can on my own and sought cooperation from
Congress to make sure that we fix the system.\ The first thing we did was to streamline the
legal immigration system, to reduce the backlog, make it easier, simpler and cheaper for people
who are waiting in line, obeying the law to make sure that they can come here and contribute
to our country and that\'92s good for our economic growth.\
They\'92ll start new businesses. They\'92ll make things happen to create jobs here in
the United States.\ Number two, we do have to deal with our border
so we put more border patrol on the -- any time in history and the flow of undocumented
works across the border is actually lower than it\'92s been in 40 years.\
What I\'92ve also said is if we\'92re going to go after folks who are here illegally,
we should do it smartly and go after folks who are criminals, gang bangers, people who
are hurting the community, not after students, not after folks who are here just because
they\'92re trying to figure out how to feed their families. And that\'92s what we\'92ve
done. And what I\'92ve also said is for young people who come here, brought here often times
by their parents. Had gone to school here, pledged allegiance to the flag. Think of this
as their country. Understand themselves as Americans in every way except having papers.
And we should make sure that we give them a pathway to citizenship.\
And that\'92s what I\'92ve done administratively. Now, Governor Romney just said, you know he
wants to help those young people too, but during the Republican primary, he said, \'93I
will veto the DREAM Act\'94, that would allow these young people to have access.\'94 His
main strategy during the Republican primary was to say, \'93We\'92re going to encourage
self-deportation.\'94 Making life so miserable on folks that they\'92ll leave. He called
the Arizona law a model for the nation. Part of the Arizona law said that law enforcement
officers could stop folks because they suspected maybe they looked like they might be undocumented
workers and check their papers.\ You know what? If my daughter or yours looks
to somebody like they\'92re not a citizen, I don\'92t want -- I don\'92t want to empower
somebody like that. So, we can fix this system in a comprehensive way. And when Governor
Romney says, the challenge is, \'93Well Obama didn\'92t try.\'94 That\'92s not true. I have
sat down with Democrats and Republicans at the beginning of my term. And I said, let\'92s
fix this system. Including Senators previously who had supported it on the Republican side.
But it\'92s very hard for Republican\'92s in Congress to support comprehensive immigration
reform, if their standard bearer has said that, this is not something I\'92m interested
in supporting.\ CROWLEY: Let me get the governor in here,
Mr. President. Let\'92s speak to, if you could...\ ROMNEY: Yes.\
CROWLEY: ...the idea of self-deportation?\ ROMNEY: No, let -- let -- let me go back and
speak to the points that the president made and -- and -- and let\'92s get them correct.\
I did not say that the Arizona law was a model for the nation in that aspect. I said that
the E-Verify portion of the Arizona law, which is -- which is the portion of the law which
says that employers could be able to determine whether someone is here illegally or not illegally,
that that was a model for the nation. That\'92s number one.\
Number two, I asked the president a question I think Hispanics and immigrants all over
the nation have asked. He was asked this on Univision the other day. Why, when you said
you\'92d filed legislation in your first year didn\'92t you do it? And he didn\'92t answer.
He -- he doesn\'92t answer that question. He said the standard bearer wasn\'92t for
it.\ I\'92m glad you thought I was a standard bearer
four years ago, but I wasn\'92t.\ Four years ago you said in your first year
you would file legislation.\ In his first year, I was just getting -- licking
my wounds from having been beaten by John McCain, all right. I was not the standard
bearer.\ My -- my view is that this president should
have honored his promise to do as he said.\ Now, let me mention one other thing, and that
is self-deportation says let people make their own choice. What I was saying is, we\'92re
not going to round up 12 million people, undocumented illegals, and take them out of the nation.
Instead let people make their own choice. And if they -- if they find that -- that they
can\'92t get the benefits here that they want and they can\'92t -- and they can\'92t find
the job they want, then they\'92ll make a decision to go a place where -- where they
have better opportunities.\ But I\'92m not in favor of rounding up people
and -- and -- and taking them out of this country. I am in favor, as the president has
said, and I agree with him, which is that if people have committed crimes we got to
get them out of this country.\ ROMNEY: Let me mention something else the
president said. It was a moment ago and I didn\'92t get a chance to, when he was describing
Chinese investments and so forth.\ OBAMA: Candy?\
Hold on a second. The...\ ROMNEY: Mr. President, I\'92m still speaking.\
(CROSSTALK)\ ROMNEY: Mr. President, let me finish.\
(CROSSTALK)\ ROMNEY: I\'92ve gotta continue.\
(CROSSTALK)\ CROWLEY: Governor Romney, you can make it
short. See all these people? They\'92ve been waiting for you. (inaudible) make it short
(inaudible).\ ROMNEY: Just going to make a point. Any investments
I have over the last eight years have been managed by a blind trust. And I understand
they do include investments outside the United States, including in -- in Chinese companies.\
Mr. President, have you looked at your pension? Have you looked at your pension?\
OBAMA: I\'92ve got to say...\ ROMNEY: Mr. President, have you looked at
your pension?\ OBAMA: You know, I -- I don\'92t look at my
pension. It\'92s not as big as yours so it doesn\'92t take as long.\
ROMNEY: Well, let me give you some advice.\ OBAMA: I don\'92t check it that often.\
ROMNEY: Let me give you some advice. Look at your pension. You also have investments
in Chinese companies. You also have investments outside the United States. You also have investments
through a Cayman\'92s trust.\ (CROSSTALK)\
CROWLEY: We\'92re way off topic here, Governor Romney.\
(CROSSTALK)\ OBAMA: I thought we were talking about immigration.\
(CROSSTALK)\ OBAMA: I do want to make sure that...\
CROWLEY: If I could have you sit down, Governor Romney. Thank you.\
OBAMA: I do want to make sure that -- I do want to make sure that we just understand
something. Governor Romney says he wasn\'92t referring to Arizona as a model for the nation.
His top adviser on immigration is the guy who designed the Arizona law, the entirety
of it; not E-Verify, the whole thing. That\'92s his policy. And it\'92s a bad policy. And
it won\'92t help us grow.\ Look, when we think about immigration, we
have to understand there are folks all around the world who still see America as the land
of promise. And they provide us energy and they provide us innovation and they start
companies like Intel and Google. And we want to encourage that.\
Now, we\'92ve got to make sure that we do it in a smart way and a comprehensive way,
and we make the legal system better. But when we make this into a divisive political issue,
and when we don\'92t have bipartisan support -- I can deliver, Governor, a whole bunch
of Democrats to get comprehensive immigration reform done, and we can\'92t...\
ROMNEY: I\'92ll get it done. I\'92ll get it done. First year...\
OBAMA: ... we can\'92t -- we have not seen Republicans serious about this issue at all.
And it\'92s time for them to get serious on it.\
CROWLEY: Mr. President, let me move you on here please. Mr. President, (inaudible).\
OBAMA: This used to be a bipartisan issue.\ (CROSSTALK)\
CROWLEY: Don\'92t go away, though -- right. Don\'92t go away because I -- I want you to
talk to Kerry Ladka who wants to switch the topic for us.\
OBAMA: OK.\ Hi, Kerry.\
QUESTION: Good evening, Mr. President.\ OBAMA: I\'92m sorry. What\'92s your name?\
QUESTION: It\'92s Kerry, Kerry Ladka.\ OBAMA: Great to see you.\
QUESTION: This question actually comes from a brain trust of my friends at Global Telecom
Supply (ph) in Minneola yesterday.\ OBAMA: Ah.\
QUESTION: We were sitting around, talking about Libya, and we were reading and became
aware of reports that the State Department refused extra security for our embassy in
Benghazi, Libya, prior to the attacks that killed four Americans.\
Who was it that denied enhanced security and why?\
OBAMA: Well, let me first of all talk about our diplomats, because they serve all around
the world and do an incredible job in a very dangerous situation. And these aren\'92t just
representatives of the United States, they are my representatives. I send them there,
oftentimes into harm\'92s way. I know these folks and I know their families. So nobody
is more concerned about their safety and security than I am.\
So as soon as we found out that the Benghazi consulate was being overrun, I was on the
phone with my national security team and I gave them three instructions.\
Number one, beef up our security and procedures, not just in Libya, but at every embassy and
consulate in the region.\ Number two, investigate exactly what happened,
regardless of where the facts lead us, to make sure folks are held accountable and it
doesn\'92t happen again.\ And number three, we are going to find out
who did this and we\'92re going to hunt them down, because one of the things that I\'92ve
said throughout my presidency is when folks mess with Americans, we go after them.\
OBAMA: Now Governor Romney had a very different response. While we were still dealing with
our diplomats being threatened, Governor Romney put out a press release, trying to make political
points, and that\'92s not how a commander in chief operates. You don\'92t turn national
security into a political issue. Certainly not right when it\'92s happening. And people
-- not everybody agrees with some of the decisions I\'92ve made. But when it comes to our national
security, I mean what I say. I said I\'92d end the war in Libya -- in -- in Iraq, and
I did.\ I said that we\'92d go after al-Qaeda and
bin Laden, we have. I said we\'92d transition out of Afghanistan, and start making sure
that Afghans are responsible for their own security, that\'92s what I\'92m doing. And
when it comes to this issue, when I say that we are going to find out exactly what happened,
everybody will be held accountable. And I am ultimately responsible for what\'92s taking
place there because these are my folks, and I\'92m the one who has to greet those coffins
when they come home. You know that I mean what I say.\
CROWLEY: Mr. President, I\'92m going to move us along. Governor?\
ROMNEY: Thank you Kerry for your question, it\'92s an important one. And -- and I -- I
think the president just said correctly that the buck does stop at his desk and -- and
he takes responsibility for -- for that -- for the failure in providing those security resources,
and -- and those terrible things may well happen from time to time. I -- I\'92m -- I
feel very deeply sympathetic for the families of those who lost loved ones. And today there\'92s
a memorial service for one of those that was lost in this tragedy. We -- we think of their
families and care for them deeply. There were other issues associated with this -- with
this tragedy. There were many days that passed before we knew whether this was a spontaneous
demonstration, or actually whether it was a terrorist attack.\
ROMNEY: And there was no demonstration involved. It was a terrorist attack and it took a long
time for that to be told to the American people. Whether there was some misleading, or instead
whether we just didn\'92t know what happened, you have to ask yourself why didn\'92t we
know five days later when the ambassador to the United Nations went on TV to say that
this was a demonstration. How could we have not known?\
But I find more troubling than this, that on -- on the day following the assassination
of the United States ambassador, the first time that\'92s happened since 1979, when -- when
we have four Americans killed there, when apparently we didn\'92t know what happened,
that the president, the day after that happened, flies to Las Vegas for a political fund-raiser,
then the next day to Colorado for another event, other political event.\
I think these -- these actions taken by a president and a leader have symbolic significance
and perhaps even material significance in that you\'92d hope that during that time we
could call in the people who were actually eyewitnesses. We\'92ve read their accounts
now about what happened. It was very clear this was not a demonstration. This was an
attack by terrorists.\ And this calls into question the president\'92s
whole policy in the Middle East. Look what\'92s happening in Syria, in Egypt, now in Libya.
Consider the distance between ourselves and -- and Israel, the president said that -- that
he was going to put daylight between us and Israel.\
We have Iran four years closer to a nuclear bomb. Syria -- Syria\'92s not just a tragedy
of 30,000 civilians being killed by a military, but also a strategic -- strategically significant
player for America.\ The president\'92s policies throughout the
Middle East began with an apology tour and -- and -- and pursue a strategy of leading
from behind, and this strategy is unraveling before our very eyes.\
CROWLEY: Because we\'92re -- we\'92re closing in, I want to still get a lot of people in.
I want to ask you something, Mr. President, and then have the governor just quickly.\
Your secretary of state, as I\'92m sure you know, has said that she takes full responsibility
for the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi. Does the buck stop with your secretary
of state as far as what went on here?\ OBAMA: Secretary Clinton has done an extraordinary
job. But she works for me. I\'92m the president and I\'92m always responsible, and that\'92s
why nobody\'92s more interested in finding out exactly what happened than I do.\
The day after the attack, governor, I stood in the Rose Garden and I told the American
people in the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened. That this was an
act of terror and I also said that we\'92re going to hunt down those who committed this
crime.\ And then a few days later, I was there greeting
the caskets coming into Andrews Air Force Base and grieving with the families.\
And the suggestion that anybody in my team, whether the Secretary of State, our U.N. Ambassador,
anybody on my team would play politics or mislead when we\'92ve lost four of our own,
governor, is offensive. That\'92s not what we do. That\'92s not what I do as president,
that\'92s not what I do as Commander in Chief.\ CROWLEY: Governor, if you want to...\
ROMNEY: Yes, I -- I...\ CROWLEY: ... quickly to this please.\
ROMNEY: I -- I think interesting the president just said something which -- which is that
on the day after the attack he went into the Rose Garden and said that this was an act
of terror.\ OBAMA: That\'92s what I said.\
ROMNEY: You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attack, it was an act of terror.\
It was not a spontaneous demonstration, is that what you\'92re saying?\
OBAMA: Please proceed governor.\ ROMNEY: I want to make sure we get that for
the record because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi
an act of terror.\ OBAMA: Get the transcript.\
CROWLEY: It -- it -- it -- he did in fact, sir. So let me -- let me call it an act of
terror...\ OBAMA: Can you say that a little louder, Candy?\
CROWLEY: He -- he did call it an act of terror. It did as well take -- it did as well take
two weeks or so for the whole idea there being a riot out there about this tape to come out.
You are correct about that.\ ROMNEY: This -- the administration -- the
administration indicated this was a reaction to a video and was a spontaneous reaction.\
CROWLEY: It did.\ ROMNEY: It took them a long time to say this
was a terrorist act by a terrorist group. And to suggest -- am I incorrect in that regard,
on Sunday, the -- your secretary --\ OBAMA: Candy?\
ROMNEY: Excuse me. The ambassador of the United Nations went on the Sunday television shows
and spoke about how --\ OBAMA: Candy, I\'92m --\
ROMNEY: -- this was a spontaneous --\ CROWLEY: Mr. President, let me --\
OBAMA: I\'92m happy to have a longer conversation --\
CROWLEY: I know you --\ OBAMA: -- about foreign policy.\
CROWLEY: Absolutely. But I want to -- I want to move you on and also --\
OBAMA: OK. I\'92m happy to do that, too.\ CROWLEY: -- the transcripts and --\
OBAMA: I just want to make sure that --\ CROWLEY: -- figure out what we --\
OBAMA: -- all of these wonderful folks are going to have a chance to get some of their
questions answered.\ CROWLEY: Because what I -- what I want to
do, Mr. President, stand there a second, because I want to introduce you to Nina Gonzalez,
who brought up a question that we hear a lot, both over the Internet and from this crowd.\
QUESTION: President Obama, during the Democratic National Convention in 2008, you stated you
wanted to keep AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. What has your administration done
or planned to do to limit the availability of assault weapons?\
OBAMA: We\'92re a nation that believes in the Second Amendment, and I believe in the
Second Amendment. We\'92ve got a long tradition of hunting and sportsmen and people who want
to make sure they can protect themselves.\ But there have been too many instances during
the course of my presidency, where I\'92ve had to comfort families who have lost somebody.
Most recently out in Aurora. You know, just a couple of weeks ago, actually, probably
about a month, I saw a mother, who I had met at the bedside of her son, who had been shot
in that theater.\ And her son had been shot through the head.
And we spent some time, and we said a prayer and, remarkably, about two months later, this
young man and his mom showed up, and he looked unbelievable, good as new.\
But there were a lot of families who didn\'92t have that good fortune and whose sons or daughters
or husbands didn\'92t survive.\ So my belief is that, (A), we have to enforce
the laws we\'92ve already got, make sure that we\'92re keeping guns out of the hands of
criminals, those who are mentally ill. We\'92ve done a much better job in terms of background
checks, but we\'92ve got more to do when it comes to enforcement.\
But I also share your belief that weapons that were designed for soldiers in war theaters
don\'92t belong on our streets. And so what I\'92m trying to do is to get a broader conversation
about how do we reduce the violence generally. Part of it is seeing if we can get an assault
weapons ban reintroduced. But part of it is also looking at other sources of the violence.
Because frankly, in my home town of Chicago, there\'92s an awful lot of violence and they\'92re
not using AK-47s. They\'92re using cheap hand guns.\
And so what can we do to intervene, to make sure that young people have opportunity; that
our schools are working; that if there\'92s violence on the streets, that working with
faith groups and law enforcement, we can catch it before it gets out of control.\
And so what I want is a -- is a comprehensive strategy. Part of it is seeing if we can get
automatic weapons that kill folks in amazing numbers out of the hands of criminals and
the mentally ill. But part of it is also going deeper and seeing if we can get into these
communities and making sure we catch violent impulses before they occur.\
CROWLEY: Governor Romney, the question is about assault weapons, AK-47s.\
ROMNEY: Yeah, I\'92m not in favor of new pieces of legislation on -- on guns and taking guns
away or making certain guns illegal. We, of course, don\'92t want to have automatic weapons,
and that\'92s already illegal in this country to have automatic weapons. What I believe
is we have to do, as the president mentioned towards the end of his remarks there, which
is to make enormous efforts to enforce the gun laws that we have, and to change the culture
of violence that we have.\ And you ask how -- how are we going to do
that? And there are a number of things. He mentioned good schools. I totally agree. We
were able to drive our schools to be number one in the nation in my state. And I believe
if we do a better job in education, we\'92ll -- we\'92ll give people the -- the hope and
opportunity they deserve and perhaps less violence from that. But let me mention another
thing. And that is parents. We need moms and dads, helping to raise kids. Wherever possible
the -- the benefit of having two parents in the home, and that\'92s not always possible.
A lot of great single moms, single dads. But gosh to tell our kids that before they have
babies, they ought to think about getting married to someone, that\'92s a great idea.\
Because if there\'92s a two parent family, the prospect of living in poverty goes down
dramatically. The opportunities that the child will -- will be able to achieve increase dramatically.
So we can make changes in the way our culture works to help bring people away from violence
and give them opportunity, and bring them in the American system. The -- the greatest
failure we\'92ve had with regards to -- to gun violence in some respects is what -- what
is known as Fast and Furious. Which was a program under this administration, and how
it worked exactly I think we don\'92t know precisely, where thousands of automatic, and
AK-47 type weapons were -- were given to people that ultimately gave them to -- to drug lords.\
They used those weapons against -- against their own citizens and killed Americans with
them. And this was a -- this was a program of the government. For what purpose it was
put in place, I can\'92t imagine. But it\'92s one of the great tragedies related to violence
in our society which has occurred during this administration. Which I think the American
people would like to understand fully, it\'92s been investigated to a degree, but -- but
the administration has carried out executive privilege to prevent all of the information
from coming out.\ I\'92d like to understand who it was that
did this, what the idea was behind it, why it led to the violence, thousands of guns
going to Mexican drug lords. OBAMA: Candy?\ CROWLEY: Governor, Governor, if I could, the
question was about these assault weapons that once were once banned and are no longer banned.\
I know that you signed an assault weapons ban when you were in Massachusetts, obviously,
with this question, you no longer do support that. Why is that, given the kind of violence
that we see sometimes with these mass killings? Why is it that you have changed your mind?\
ROMNEY: Well, Candy, actually, in my state, the pro-gun folks and the anti-gun folks came
together and put together a piece of legislation. And it\'92s referred to as an assault weapon
ban, but it had, at the signing of the bill, both the pro-gun and the anti-gun people came
together, because it provided opportunities for both that both wanted.\
There were hunting opportunities, for instance, that haven\'92t previously been available
and so forth, so it was a mutually agreed- upon piece of legislation. That\'92s what
we need more of, Candy. What we have right now in Washington is a place that\'92s gridlocked.\
CROWLEY: So I could -- if you could get people to agree to it, you would be for it?\
ROMNEY: We have --\ OBAMA: Candy?\
ROMNEY: -- we haven\'92t had the leadership in Washington to work on a bipartisan basis.
I was able to do that in my state and bring these two together.\
CROWLEY: Quickly, Mr. President.\ OBAMA: The -- first of all, I think Governor
Romney was for an assault weapons ban before he was against it. And he said that the reason
he changed his mind was, in part, because he was seeking the endorsement of the National
Rifle Association. So that\'92s on the record.\ But I think that one area we agree on is the
important of parents and the importance of schools, because I do believe that if our
young people have opportunity, then they are less likely to engage in these kinds of violent
acts. We\'92re not going to eliminate everybody who is mentally disturbed and we have got
to make sure they don\'92t get weapons.\ (AUDIO GAP)\
OBAMA: because I do believe that if our young people have opportunity, then they\'92re less
likely to engage in these kind of violent acts.\
We\'92re not going to eliminate everybody who is mentally disturbed, and we\'92ve got
to make sure they don\'92t get weapons. But we can make a difference in terms ensuring
that every young person in America, regardless of where they come from, what they look like,
have a chance to succeed.\ And, Candy, we haven\'92t had a chance to
talk about education much, but I think it is very important to understand that the reforms
we\'92ve put in place, working with 46 governors around the country, are seeing schools that
are some of the ones that are the toughest for kids starting to succeed. We\'92re starting
to see gains in math and science.\ When it comes to community colleges, we are
setting up programs, including with Nassau Community College, to retrain workers, including
young people who may have dropped out of school but now are getting another chance, training
them for the jobs that exist right now.\ And in fact, employers are looking for skilled
workers. And so we\'92re matching them up. Giving them access to higher education. As
I said, we have made sure that millions of young people are able to get an education
that they weren\'92t able to get before.\ Now...\
CROWLEY: Mr. President, I have to -- I have to move you along here. You said you wanted
to...\ (CROSSTALK)\
CROWLEY: We need to do it here.\ OBAMA: But -- but it\'92ll -- it\'92ll -- it\'92ll
be...\ (CROSSTALK)\
OBAMA: ... just one second.\ CROWLEY: One...\
OBAMA: Because -- because this is important. This is part of the choice in this election.\
When Governor Romney was asked whether teachers, hiring more teachers was important to growing
our economy, Governor Romney said that doesn\'92t grow our economy.\
When -- when he was asked would class size...\ (CROSSTALK)\
CROWLEY: The question, Mr. President, was guns here, so I need to move us along.\
OBAMA: I understand.\ CROWLEY: You know, the question was guns.
So let me -- let me bring in another...\ OBAMA: But this will make a difference in
terms of whether or not we can move this economy forward for these young people...\
CROWLEY: I understand.\ OBAMA: ... and reduce our violence.\
CROWLEY: OK. Thank you so much.\ I want to ask Carol Goldberg to stand up,
because she gets to a question that both these men have been passionate about. It\'92s for
Governor Romney.\ QUESTION: The outsourcing of American jobs
overseas has taken a toll on our economy. What plans do you have to put back and keep
jobs here in the United States?\ ROMNEY: Boy, great question and important
question, because you\'92re absolutely right. The place where we\'92ve seen manufacturing
go has been China. China is now the largest manufacturer in the world. It used to be the
United States of America. A lot of good people have lost jobs. A half a million manufacturing
jobs have been lost in the last four years. That\'92s total over the last four years.\
One of the reasons for that is that people think it\'92s more attractive in some cases
to go offshore than to stay here. We have made it less attractive for enterprises to
stay here than to go offshore from time to time. What I will do as president is make
sure it\'92s more attractive to come to America again.\
This is the way we\'92re going to create jobs in this country. It\'92s not by trickle-down
government, saying we\'92re going to take more money from people and hire more government
workers, raise more taxes, put in place more regulations. Trickle-down government has never
worked here, has never worked anywhere.\ I want to make America the most attractive
place in the world for entrepreneurs, for small business, for big business, to invest
and grow in America.\ Now, we\'92re going to have to make sure that
as we trade with other nations that they play by the rules. And China hasn\'92t. One of
the reasons -- or one of the ways they don\'92t play by the rules is artificially holding
down the value of their currency. Because if they put their currency down low, that
means their prices on their goods are low. And that makes them advantageous in the marketplace.\
We lose sales. And manufacturers here in the U.S. making the same products can\'92t compete.
China has been a currency manipulator for years and years and years. And the president
has a regular opportunity to label them as a currency manipulator, but refuses to do
so.\ On day one, I will label China a currency
manipulator, which will allow me as president to be able to put in place, if necessary,
tariffs where I believe that they are taking unfair advantage of our manufacturers.\
So we\'92re going to make sure that people we trade with around the world play by the
rules. But let me -- let me not just stop there. Don\'92t forget, what\'92s key to bringing
back jobs here is not just finding someone else to punish, and I\'92m going to be strict
with people who we trade with to make sure they -- they follow the law and play by the
rules, but it\'92s also to make America the most attractive place in the world for businesses
of all kinds.\ That\'92s why I want to down the tax rates
on small employers, big employers, so they want to be here. Canada\'92s tax rate on companies
is now 15 percent. Ours is 35 percent. So if you\'92re starting a business, where would
you rather start it? We have to be competitive if we\'92re going to create more jobs here.\
Regulations have quadrupled. The rate of regulations quadrupled under this president. I talk to
small businesses across the country. They say, \'93We feel like we\'92re under attack
from our own government.\'94 I want to make sure that regulators see their job as encouraging
small business, not crushing it. And there\'92s no question but that Obamacare has been an
extraordinary deterrent to enterprises of all kinds hiring people.\
My priority is making sure that we get more people hired. If we have more people hired,
if we get back manufacturing jobs, if we get back all kinds of jobs into this country,
then you\'92re going to see rising incomes again. The reason incomes are down is because
unemployment is so high. I know what it takes to get this to happen, and my plan will do
that, and one part of it is to make sure that we keep China playing by the rules.\
CROWLEY: Mr. President, two minutes here, because we are then going to go to our last
question.\ OBAMA: OK. We need to create jobs here. And
both Governor Romney and I agree actually that we should lower our corporate tax rate.
It\'92s too high. But there\'92s a difference in terms of how we would do it. I want to
close loopholes that allow companies to deduct expenses when they move to China; that allow
them to profit offshore and not have to get taxed, so they have tax advantages offshore.\
All those changes in our tax code would make a difference.\
Now, Governor Romney actually wants to expand those tax breaks. One of his big ideas when
it comes to corporate tax reform would be to say, if you invest overseas, you make profits
overseas, you don\'92t have to pay U.S. taxes.\ But, of course, if you\'92re a small business
or a mom-and-pop business or a big business starting up here, you\'92ve got to pay even
the reduced rate that Governor Romney\'92s talking about.\
And it\'92s estimated that that will create 800,000 new jobs. The problem is they\'92ll
be in china. Or India. Or Germany.\ That\'92s not the way we\'92re going to create
jobs here. The way we\'92re going to create jobs here is not just to change our tax code,
but also to double our exports. And we are on pace to double our exports, one of the
commitments I made when I was president. That\'92s creating tens of thousands of jobs all across
the country. That\'92s why we\'92ve kept on pushing trade deals, but trade deals that
make sure that American workers and American businesses are getting a good deal.\
Now, Governor Romney talked about China, as I already indicated. In the private sector,
Governor Romney\'92s company invested in what were called pioneers of outsourcing. That\'92s
not my phrase. That\'92s what reporters called it.\
And as far as currency manipulation, the currency has actually gone up 11 percent since I\'92ve
been president because we have pushed them hard. And we\'92ve put unprecedented trade
pressure on China. That\'92s why exports have significantly increased under my presidency.
That\'92s going to help to create jobs here.\ CROWLEY: Mr. President, we have a really short
time for a quick discussion here.\ iPad, the Macs, the iPhones, they are all
manufactured in China. One of the major reasons is labor is so much cheaper here. How do you
convince a great American company to bring that manufacturing back here?\
ROMNEY: The answer is very straightforward. We can compete with anyone in the world as
long as the playing field is level. China\'92s been cheating over the years. One by holding
down the value of their currency. Number two, by stealing our intellectual property; our
designs, our patents, our technology. There\'92s even an Apple store in China that\'92s a counterfeit
Apple store, selling counterfeit goods. They hack into our computers. We will have to have
people play on a fair basis, that\'92s number one.\
Number two, we have to make America the most attractive place for entrepreneurs, for people
who want to expand their business. That\'92s what brings jobs in. The president\'92s characterization
of my tax plan...\ (CROSSTALK)\
ROMNEY: ...is completely...is completely...\ (CROSSTALK)\
ROMNEY: ...is completely false. Let me tell you...\
CROWLEY: Let me to go the president here because we really are running out of time. And the
question is can we ever get -- we can\'92t get wages like that. It can\'92t be sustained.\
OBAMA: Candy, there are some jobs that are not going to come back. Because they are low
wage, low skill jobs. I want high wage, high skill jobs. That\'92s why we have to emphasize
manufacturing. That\'92s why we have to invest in advanced manufacturing. That\'92s why we\'92ve
got to make sure that we\'92ve got the best science and research in the world. And when
we talk about deficits, if we\'92re adding to our deficit for tax cuts for folks who
don\'92t need them, and we\'92re cutting investments in research and science that will create the
next Apple, create the next new innovation that will sell products around the world,
we will lose that race.\ If we\'92re not training engineers to make
sure that they are equipped here in this country. Then companies won\'92t come here. Those investments
are what\'92s going to help to make sure that we continue to lead this world economy, not
just next year, but 10 years from now, 50 years from now, 100 years from now.\
CROWLEY: Thanks Mr. President.\ (CROSSTALK)\
CROWLEY: Governor Romney?\ ROMNEY: Government does not create jobs. Government
does not create jobs.\ CROWLEY: Governor Romney, I want to introduce
you to Barry Green, because he\'92s going to have the last question to you first?\
ROMNEY: Barry? Where is Barry?\ QUESTION: Hi, Governor. I think this is a
tough question. To each of you. What do you believe is the biggest misperception that
the American people have about you as a man and a candidate? Using specific examples,
can you take this opportunity to debunk that misperception and set us straight?\
ROMNEY: Thank you, and that\'92s an opportunity for me, and I appreciate it.\
In the nature of a campaign, it seems that some campaigns are focused on attacking a
person rather than prescribing their own future and the things they\'92d like to do. In the
course of that, I think the president\'92s campaign has tried to characterize me as -- as
someone who\'92s very different than who I am.\
I care about 100 percent of the American people. I want 100 percent of the American people
to have a bright and prosperous future. I care about our kids. I understand what it
takes to make a bright and prosperous future for America again. I spent my life in the
private sector, not in government. I\'92m a guy who wants to help with the experience
I have, the American people.\ My -- my passion probably flows from the fact
that I believe in God. And I believe we\'92re all children of the same God. I believe we
have a responsibility to care for one another. I -- I served as a missionary for my church.
I served as a pastor in my congregation for about 10 years. I\'92ve sat across the table
from people who were out of work and worked with them to try and find new work or to help
them through tough times.\ I went to the Olympics when they were in trouble
to try and get them on track. And as governor of my state, I was able to get 100 percent
of my people insured, all my kids, about 98 percent of the adults. I was able also to
get our schools ranked number one in the nation, so 100 percent of our kids would have a bright
opportunity for a future.\ ROMNEY: I understand that I can get this country
on track again. We don\'92t have to settle for what we\'92re going through. We don\'92t
have to settle for gasoline at four bucks. We don\'92t have to settle for unemployment
at a chronically high level. We don\'92t have to settle for 47 million people on food stamps.
We don\'92t have to settle for 50 percent of kids coming out of college not able to
get work. We don\'92t have to settle for 23 million people struggling to find a good job.\
If I become president, I\'92ll get America working again. I will get us on track to a
balanced budget. The president hasn\'92t. I will. I\'92ll make sure we can reform Medicare
and Social Security to preserve them for coming -- coming generations. The president said
he would. He didn\'92t.\ CROWLEY: Governor...\
ROMNEY: I\'92ll get our incomes up. And by the way, I\'92ve done these things. I served
as governor and showed I could get them done.\ CROWLEY: Mr. President, last two minutes belong
to you.\ OBAMA: Barry, I think a lot of this campaign,
maybe over the last four years, has been devoted to this nation that I think government creates
jobs, that that somehow is the answer.\ That\'92s not what I believe. I believe that
the free enterprise system is the greatest engine of prosperity the world\'92s ever known.\
I believe in self-reliance and individual initiative and risk takers being rewarded.
But I also believe that everybody should have a fair shot and everybody should do their
fair share and everybody should play by the same rules, because that\'92s how our economy\'92s
grown. That\'92s how we built the world\'92s greatest middle class.\
And -- and that is part of what\'92s at stake in this election. There\'92s a fundamentally
different vision about how we move our country forward.\
I believe Governor Romney is a good man. Loves his family, cares about his faith. But I also
believe that when he said behind closed doors that 47 percent of the country considered
themselves victims who refuse personal responsibility, think about who he was talking about.\
Folks on Social Security who\'92ve worked all their lives. Veterans who\'92ve sacrificed
for this country. Students who are out there trying to hopefully advance their own dreams,
but also this country\'92s dreams. Soldiers who are overseas fighting for us right now.
People who are working hard every day, paying payroll tax, gas taxes, but don\'92t make
enough income.\ And I want to fight for them. That\'92s what
I\'92ve been doing for the last four years. Because if they succeed, I believe the country
succeeds.\ When my grandfather fought in World War II
and he came back and he got a G.I. Bill and that allowed him to go to college, that wasn\'92t
a handout. That was something that advanced the entire country. And I want to make sure
that the next generation has those same opportunities. That\'92s why I\'92m asking for your vote
and that\'92s why I\'92m asking for another four years.\
CROWLEY: President Obama, Governor Romney, thank you for being here tonight.\
On that note we have come to an end of this town hall debate. Our thanks to the participants
for their time and to the people of Hofstra University for their hospitality.\
The next and final debate takes place Monday night at Lynn (ph) University in Boca Raton,
Florida. Don\'92t forget to watch. Election Day is three weeks from today. Don\'92t forget
to vote.\ Good night.\
(APPLAUSE)}