The Link

10/24/2012
IOWA NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION

FUTURE OF IOWA AT STAKE IN THIS ELECTION

By Tom Miller, Iowa Attorney General

I was proud to be among President Obama's first supporters in 2007 and have served as one of the national co-chairs for the President's re-election campaign. Over the last four years, President Obama has brought our economy back from the brink of collapse, our auto industry back to life, our heroes back from war, and our enemies to justice. But this election is not just about how far we've come - it's also about where we're going.

It's not just about whether we're better off than you were four years ago - though we are - but whether we'll be better off four years from now.

This election is about which candidate understands the challenges and choices your family faces. It's about which candidate you can trust to stand up for you, for the middle class and for everyone working hard to get into the middle class. It's about which candidate believes your hard work should pay off, your responsibility should be rewarded and that everyone should do their fair share, get a fair shot and play by the same rules.

President Obama has led with those values from day one. He put in place the Recovery Act to help make sure that Iowa's working families received an average of $3,600 in tax cuts and that Iowa's wind industry could continue to expand and thrive. Iowa's farmers have seen record incomes in recent years. Obamacare means thousands of families no longer have to worry about being denied health insurance and more seniors are getting help with their prescription drug costs. Unemployment is now at its lowest point since the President took office.

The President has a concrete, specific and achievable second-term plan to continue creating jobs and restoring economic security to the middle class. He's been talking about it every day with Americans across the country, and millions have visited barackobama.com/plans to read about it.

And unlike Governor Romney, the President has been consistent and clear about his vision and values because he knows his plan will actually create jobs and strengthen the middle class - and that recent history teaches us the right way to grow the economy is from the middle out, not the top down.

First, he'll help create a million new manufacturing jobs and double our exports so manufacturers can stamp "Made in America" on more products and sell them around the world.
Second, he'll cut our oil imports in half and produce more American-made energy - like oil, clean coal, natural gas, and new resources like wind, solar and biofuels - creating 600,000 jobs in natural gas alone, all while doubling the fuel efficiency of our cars and trucks.

Third, we have to train the best workforce in the world if we're going to compete in the global economy. We'll recruit and prepare 100,000 math and science teachers so Americans graduate prepared to compete for the jobs of the future, train 2 million Americans at our community colleges with the job skills they need, and cut the growth of tuition in half over the next decade and expand student aid so more students can afford college.

Fourth, we must reduce our deficit in a balanced way. The President put a plan on the table to cut the deficit by more than $4 trillion in the next decade. On top of the $1 trillion in spending we've already cut, we'll ask the wealthy to pay a little more and cut spending we don't need throughout the budget.

Fifth, the President believes that after a decade of war, it's time to do some nation-building here at home. We'll use half the savings from ending the war in Afghanistan to help pay down our debt and invest the rest in fixing our roads, runways, bridges and schools.

This election offers a clear choice. President Obama is fighting for all of us, not just some of us, and will move us forward with a new economic patriotism. Governor Romney promises to take us back to the same top-down ideas that crashed the economy and crushed the middle class. We can't afford to go back - and we can't afford to stay home on Election Day.

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(CONTACT: Tom Miller, Iowa Attorney General, 515-281-5164, webteam@ag.state.ia.us)