jerin+austin

Romney: Mitt Romney is former Governor of Massachusetts and his political party is the Republican Party. his home state is new Hampshire he was born on march 12 1947 in Detroit Michigan and is son of former Michigan governor George Romney. he founded the company bain capital and later ran for the Massachusetts senate in 1994, but was defeated by incumbent ted Kennedy. Romney took over salt lake organization committee and helped make a successful 2002 Olympic games. he became governor of Massachusetts in 2003 and made a run for president in the 2008 but was beaten out by John MC Cain. In 2011 Romney made his bid for the 2012 republican presidential nomination, and by may he had become the republican party's presumptive nominee in august 2012 Romney announced us Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate later that month Romney was officially named the republican party's nominee

economy:

Mitt Romney will rebuild the foundations of the American economy on the principles of free enterprise, hard work, and innovation. His plan seeks to reduce taxes, spending, regulation, and government programs. It seeks to increase trade, energy production, human capital, and labor flexibility. It relinquishes power to the states instead of claiming to have the solution to every problem.

foreign policy:

national defense:

 As Commander-in-Chief, Mitt Romney will keep faith with the men and women who defend us just as he will ensure that our military capabilities are matched to the interests we need to protect. He will put our Navy on the path to increase its shipbuilding rate from nine per year to approximately fifteen per year, which will include three submarines per year. He will also modernize and replace the aging inventories of the Air Force, Army, and Marines, and selectively strengthen our force structure. And he will fully commit to a robust, multi layered national ballistic-missile defense system to deter and defend against nuclear attacks on our homeland and our allies.

 Iran and there path for nuclear dominance:

U.S. policy toward Iran must begin with an understanding on Iran’s part that a military option to deal with their nuclear weapons program is very real and very credible. This message should not only be delivered through words, but through actions. The United States should restore the regular presence of aircraft carrier task forces in both the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf region simultaneously. The United States should repair relations with Israel, increase military coordination and assistance, and enhance intelligence sharing to ensure that our allied capabilities are robust and ready to deal with Iran. The United States should also increase military coordination with our Arab allies in the region and conduct more naval exercises as a demonstration of strength and resolve. Only if Iran understands that the United States is utterly determined when we say that their nuclear-weapons program is unacceptable is there a possibility that they will give up their nuclear aspirations peacefully.

spending:

After three years of President Obama, many now question whether we can ever return to fiscal sanity, let alone fiscal strength. A point of no return may well be approaching — a decade of huge deficits could drive our principal payments and interest rates beyond our reach while starving the economy of the capital it needs to grow.Fortunately, the American economy’s tremendous capacity for growth gives the country one more chance to correct course. Mitt Romney has spent his career executing turnarounds in the private sector, the Olympics, and state government. He will bring to Washington the turnaround philosophy it so badly needs.

taxes

Reducing and stabilizing federal spending is essential, but breathing life into the present anemic recovery will also require fixing the nation’s tax code to focus on jobs and growth. To repair the nation’s tax code, marginal rates must be brought down to stimulate entrepreneurship, job creation, and investment, while still raising the revenue needed to fund a smaller, smarter, simpler government. The principle of fairness must be preserved in federal tax and spending policy.

[]

 Obama :

barrack Hussein Obama is currently our president. his political party he follows is the democratic party and his home state is Hawaii.

Born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii, Barack Obama is the 44th and current president of the United States. He was a civil-rights lawyer and teacher before pursuing a political career. He was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996, serving from 1997 to 2004. He was elected to the U.S. presidency in 2008. President Obama continues to enact policy changes in response to the issues of health care and economic crisis.  Barack Hussein Obama was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His mother,  [|Ann Dunham] , grew up in Wichita, Kansas, where her father worked on oil rigs during the Great Depression. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dunham's father, Stanley, enlisted in the service and marched across Europe in Patton's army. Dunham's mother, Madelyn, went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, the couple studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program and, after several moves, landed in Hawaii.Barack Obama's father, Barack Obama Sr., was born of Luo ethnicity in Nyanza Province, Kenya. Obama Sr. grew up herding goats in Africa, eventually earning a scholarship that allowed him to leave Kenya and pursue his dreams of college in Hawaii. While studying at the University of Hawaii in Manoa, Obama Sr. met fellow student  [|Ann Dunham] , and they married on February 2, 1961. Barack was born six months later.Obama did not have a relationship with his father as a child. When his son was still an infant, Obama Sr. relocated to Massachusetts to attend Harvard University, pursuing a PhD Barack's parents officially separated several months later and ultimately divorced in March 1964, when their son was 2. In 1965, Obama Sr. returned to Kenya.In 1965, Dunham married Lolo Soetoro, an East–West Center student from Indonesia. A year later, the family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, where Barack's half-sister, Maya Soetoro Ng, was born. Several incidents in Indonesia left Dunham afraid for her son's safety and education so, at the age of 10, Barack was sent back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents. His mother and sister later joined them.While living with his grandparents, Obama enrolled in the esteemed Punahou Academy, excelling in basketball and graduating with academic honors in 1979. As one of only three black students at the school, Obama became conscious of racism and what it meant to be African-American. He later described how he struggled to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage with his own sense of self: "I began to notice there was nobody like me in the Sears, Roebuck Christmas catalog ... and that Santa was a white man," he said. "I went to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror with all my senses and limbs seemingly intact, looking the way I had always looked, and wondered if something was wrong with me."Obama also struggled with the absence of his father, who he saw only once more after his parents divorced, when Obama Sr. visited Hawaii for a short time in 1971. "[My father] had left paradise, and nothing that my mother or grandparents told me could obviate that single, unassailable fact," he later reflected. "They couldn't describe what it might have been like had he stayed." Ten years later, in 1981, tragedy struck Obama Sr. He was involved in a serious car accident, losing both of his legs as a result. Confined to a wheelchair, he also lost his job. In 1982, Obama Sr. was involved in yet another car accident while traveling in Nairobi. This time, however, the crash was fatal. Obama Sr. died on November 24, 1982, when Barack was 21 years old. "At the time of his death, my father remained a myth to me," Obama later said, "both more and less than a man."Obama studied at Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York, graduating in 1983 with a degree in political science. After working in the business sector for two years, Obama moved to Chicago in 1985. There, he worked on the South Side as a community organizer for low-income residents in the Roseland and the Altgeld Gardens communities.

Law Career
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">It was during this time that Barack Obama, who said he "was not raised in a religious household," joined the Trinity United Church of Christ. He also visited relatives in Kenya, which included an emotional visit to the graves of his biological father and paternal grandfather. "For a long time I sat between the two graves and wept," Obama said. "I saw that my life in America—the black life, the white life, the sense of abandonment I felt as a boy, the frustration and hope I'd witnessed in Chicago—all of it was connected with this small plot of earth an ocean away." <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">Obama returned from Kenya with a sense of renewal, entering Harvard Law School in 1988. The next year, he met [|Michelle Robinson], an associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin. She was assigned to be Obama's adviser during a summer internship at the firm, and not long after, the couple began dating. Their first kiss took place outside of a Chicago shopping center—where a plaque featuring a photo of the couple kissing was installed more than two decades later, in August 2012. In February 1990, Obama was elected the first African-American editor of the //Harvard Law Review//. He graduated from Harvard, magna cum laude, in 1991. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">After law school, Obama returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer, joining the firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland. He also taught part time at the University of Chicago Law School (1992-2004)—first as a lecturer and then as a professor—and helped organize voter registration drives during [|Bill Clinton] 's 1992 presidential campaign. On October 3, 1992, he and Michelle were married. They moved to Kenwood, on Chicago's South Side, and welcomed two daughters several years later: Malia (born 1998) and Sasha (born 2001).

Entry into Illinois Politics
<span style="font-family: times,serif;"> Obama published an autobiography,  //<span style="color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance // <span style="font-family: times,serif;">, in 1995. The work received high praise from literary figures like Toni Morrison and has since been printed in 10 languages, including Chinese, Swedish and Hebrew. The book had a second printing in 2004, and was adapted for a children's version. The 2006 audio book version of  //<span style="color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">Dreams // <span style="font-family: times,serif;">, narrated by Obama, received a Grammy Award (best spoken word album).Obama's advocacy work led him to run for a seat in the Illinois State Senate. He ran as a Democrat, and won election in 1996. During these years, Obama worked with both Democrats and Republicans to draft legislation on ethics, and expand health care services and early childhood education programs for the poor. He also created a state earned-income tax credit for the working poor. Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee as well, and after a number of inmates on death row were found innocent, he worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.In 2000, Obama made an unsuccessful Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives seat held by four-term incumbent candidate Bobby Rush. Undeterred, he created a campaign committee in 2002, and began raising funds to run for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2004. With the help of political consultant  <span style="color: #009edd; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">[|David Axelrod] <span style="font-family: times,serif;">, Obama began assessing his prospects of a Senate win. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">Obama was an early opponent of President <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #009edd; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">[|George W. Bush] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">'s push to go to war with Iraq. Obama was still a state senator when he spoke against a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq during a rally at Chicago's Federal Plaza in October 2002. "I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars," he said. "What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #009edd; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[|Paul Wolfowitz] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;"> and other arm-chair, weekend warriors in this Administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne." Despite his protests, the Iraq War began in 2003.

U.S. Senate Career
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">Obama, encouraged by poll numbers, decided to run for the U.S. Senate open seat vacated by Republican Peter Fitzgerald. In the 2004 Democratic primary, he won 52 percent of the vote, defeating multimillionaire businessman Blair Hull and Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes. That summer, he was invited to deliver the keynote speech in support of [|John Kerry] at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Obama emphasized the importance of unity, and made veiled jabs at the Bush Administration and the diversionary use of wedge issues.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">After the convention, Obama returned to his U.S. Senate bid in Illinois. His opponent in the general election was supposed to be Republican primary winner Jack Ryan, a wealthy former investment banker. However, Ryan withdrew from the race in June 2004, following public disclosure of unsubstantiated sexual deviancy allegations by Ryan's ex-wife, actress Jeri Ryan.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">In August 2004, diplomat and former presidential candidate [|Alan Keyes] accepted the Republican nomination to replace Ryan. In three televised debates, Obama and [|Keyes] expressed opposing views on stem cell research, abortion, gun control, school vouchers and tax cuts. In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70 percent of the vote to Keyes' 27 percent, the largest electoral victory in Illinois history. With his win, Barack Obama became only the third African-American elected to the U.S. Senate since the Reconstruction.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">Sworn into office January 4, 2005, Obama partnered with Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana on a bill that expanded efforts to destroy weapons of mass destruction in Eastern Europe and Russia. Then, with Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, he created a website to track all federal spending <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">Obama also spoke out for victims of Hurricane Katrina, pushed for alternative energy development, and championed improved veterans' benefits. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">His second book, //The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream//, was published in October 2006. The work discussed Obama's visions for the future of America, many of which became talking points for his eventual presidential campaign. Shortly after its release, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">it hit No. 1 on both the //New York Times// and Amazon.com best-seller lists.

2008 Presidential Election
<span style="font-family: times,serif;"> In February 2007, Obama made headlines when he announced his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. He was locked in a tight battle with former first lady and then-U.S. senator from New York  [|Hillary Rodham Clinton] <span style="font-family: times,serif;">. On June 3, 2008, however, Obama became the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party, and Senator Clinton delivered her full support to Obama for the duration of his campaign. On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama defeated Republican presidential nominee  <span style="color: #009edd; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[|John McCain] <span style="font-family: times,serif;">, 52.9 percent to 45.7 percent, winning election as the 44th president of the United States—and the first African-American to hold this office. His running mate, Delaware Senator  <span style="color: #009edd; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[|Joe Biden] <span style="font-family: times,serif;">, became vice president. Obama's inauguration took place on January 20, 2009. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">When Obama took office, he inherited a global economic recession, two ongoing foreign wars and the lowest international favorability rating for the United States ever. He campaigned on an ambitious agenda of financial reform, alternative energy, and reinventing education and health care—all while bringing down the national debt. Because these issues were intertwined with the economic well-being of the nation, he believed all would have to be undertaken simultaneously. During his inauguration speech, Obama summarized the situation by saying, "Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met."

First 100 Days
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">Between Inauguration Day and April 29, 2009, the Obama Administration took to the field on many fronts. Obama coaxed Congress to expand health care insurance for children and provide legal protection for women seeking equal pay. A $787 billion stimulus bill was passed to promote short-term economic growth. Housing and credit markets were put on life support, with a market-based plan to buy U.S. banks' toxic assets. Loans were made to the auto industry, and new regulations were proposed for Wall Street. He also cut taxes for working families, small businesses and first-time home buyers. The president also loosened the ban on embryonic stem cell research and moved ahead with a $3.5 trillion budget plan. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">Over his first 100 days in office, President Obama also undertook a complete overhaul of America's foreign policy. He reached out to improve relations with Europe, China and Russia and to open dialogue with Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. He lobbied allies to support a global economic stimulus package. He committed an additional 21,000 troops to Afghanistan and set an August 2010 date for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. In more dramatic incidents, he took on pirates off the coast of Somalia and prepared the nation for a swine flu attack. For his efforts, he was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize by the Nobel Committee in Norway. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">On January 27, 2010, President Obama delivered his first State of the Union speech. During his oration, Obama addressed the challenges of the economy, proposing a fee for larger banks, announcing a possible freeze on government spending in 2010 and speaking against the Supreme Court's reversal of a law capping campaign finance spending. He also challenged politicians to stop thinking of re-election and start making positive changes, criticizing Republicans for their refusal to support any legislation, <span style="font-family: times,serif;"> and chastising Democrats for not pushing hard enough to get legislation passed. He also insisted that, despite obstacles, he was determined to help American citizens through the nation's current domestic difficulties. "We don't quit. I don't quit," he said. "Let's seize this moment to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and strengthen our union once more."

Challenges and Successes
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">In the second part of his term as president, Obama has faced a number of obstacles and scored some victories as well. He signed his health-care reform plan, known as the Affordable Care Act, into law in March 2010. Obama's plan is intended to strengthen consumers' rights and to provide affordable insurance coverage and greater access to medical care. His opponents, however, claim that "Obamacare," as they have called it, added new costs to the country's overblown budget and may violate the Constitution with its requirement for individuals to obtain insurance. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">On the economic front, Obama has worked hard to steer the country through difficult financial times. He signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 in effort to rein in government spending and prevent the government from defaulting on its financial obligations. The act also called for the creation of a bipartisan committee to seek solutions to the country's fiscal issues, but the group failed to reach any agreement on how to solve these problems. <span style="font-family: times,serif;"> Obama has also handled a number of military and security issues. In 2011, Obama helped repeal the military policy, known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," that prevented openly gay troops from serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. He also gave the green light to a 2011 covert operation in Pakistan, in which a team of U.S. Navy Seals killed infamous AL -Qaeda leader  <span style="color: #009edd; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[|Osama bin Laden] <span style="font-family: times,serif;">. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">Obama made headlines again in June 2012, when a mandate included in his Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (initiated in 2010) was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, thus allowing other important pieces of the law to stay intact. The law includes free health screenings for certain citizens, restrictions to stringent insurance company policies and permission for citizens under age 26 to be insured under parental plans, among several other provisions. In a 5-4 decision, the Court voted to uphold the mandate under which citizens are required to purchase health insurance or pay a tax—a main provision of Obama's health-care law—stating that while the mandate is unconstitutional, according to the Constitution's commerce clause, it falls within Congress' constitutional power to tax. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">The Supreme Court ruling has been deemed a victory for Obama, who is nearing the end of his first presidental term.

2012 Campaign
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">As he did in his 2008 run, during his campaign for a second presidential term, Obama has focused much of his effort on grassroots initiatives. Celebrities such as [|Anna Wintour] and [|Sarah Jessica Parker] aided the president's campaign by hosting fund-raising events. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">Some political polls have shown that Obama has a tough fight ahead of him, against Republican opponent [|Mitt Romney] and Romney's vice-presidential running mate, U.S. Representative Paul Ryan; other polls have show quite the opposite. At a campaign event in Maryland in June 2012, Obama asked for the crowd's support and pledged to continue the work he began in his first term, saying, "So if you're willing to stick with me and fight with me ... I guarantee you we will move this country forward. We will finish what we started. And we’ll remind the world just why it is the United States of America is the greatest nation on Earth." <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">Obama made headlines after the first presidential debate with [|Mitt Romney] in early October 2012. Romney gave a strong performance, receiving praise for his speaking skills from citizens and critics alike; Obama's performance received lukewarm reviews. Most critics agreed that Romney won the first debate.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #343b40; font-family: times,serif; font-size: 14px;">economy:

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serf; font-size: 14px;">The economy, unemployment, taxes and how to manage the federal government's $14 trillion debt will be leading issues in the 2012 campaign. With the near-collapse of the U.S. banking and financial system hitting late in the 2008 race, and the nosedive in employment levels, President Obama's tenure in the Oval Office has been defined, in many ways, by the economy and the worst recession in a lifetime. Republicans, led by the tea party movement -- the conservative wing of the Republican party -- have been hammering Obama's economic and fiscal policy since 2009, pushing GOP candidates to hold firm on pledges not to raise taxes and to cut spending. But headed toward the so-called fiscal cliff –when several rounds of tax cuts expire at the end of 2012, resulting in a half trillion dollars in budget cuts and tax hikes that could push the U.S. into another recession – Congress and the president are poised for another fight. Obama is seeking to extend the Bush tax cuts for those making under $250,000, but has said repeatedly he is committed to ending the tax cuts for the wealthy. Congressional Republicans may be forced to compromise on a number of the measures up for vote headed into the election if they want to extend any of the cuts. These fights are about to come in front of a Congress that has yet to pass a budget for 2012.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serf; font-size: 14px;">taxes:

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serf; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">How much Americans should pay in taxes – along with what the government should spend those tax revenues to do -- is at the heart of the economic debate as the country heads toward what has been called a [|“fiscal cliff”] – the automatic and devastating tax increases and spending cuts due to kick in at the end of the year unless Congress and the president take action.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serf; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Up for vote are the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, middle class protection from the Alternative Minimum Tax, and more than 50 "temporary" tax breaks for individuals and businesses that have been on the books for years.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serf; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">President Obama says he will extend the Bush tax cuts for those making under $250,000 per year. Romney says that wealthier Americans should not be punished for their success and wants to extend the cuts for all income levels, including those above $250,000. And while much attention has been paid to the Bush tax cuts, if the payroll tax extension is allowed to expire, it will be the same as a tax hike for the middle class – something President Obama has said he wants to avoid.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serf; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Congressional Republicans, often in favor of lower taxes, may have their political hands tied going into negotiations this fall since many have signed pledges not to raise taxes. A recent vote in the Senate put many on the record – and subject to voter scrutiny come election day -- about where they stand on the tax cuts.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serf;"> foreign policy: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serf;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serf;"> Internationally, President Obama has had a full plate for much of his term: completing an occupation in Iraq; working toward a troop withdrawal in Afghanistan; adapting U.S. foreign policy to changing dynamics in North Africa and the Middle East where the Arab Spring has led to violent uprisings in Libya and Syria; coaxing along a stalled peace plan while Israelis and Palestinians remain fierce adversaries and Iran remains a nuclear threat in the region; addressing a tense relationship with China with which the United States has deeply interwoven economic ties and working through a largely peaceful shift in dictators in North Korea from Kim Jong-il to his son Kim Jong-un. Republicans have accused Obama of “leading from behind” in much of the Middle East, and more recently for handling Syria poorly. Obama did have a major success, however, with the death of Osama bin Laden, the face of AL Qaeda. The handling of a 2014 scheduled troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and the United States’ relationship with China will be at the forefront of foreign policy campaign issues. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serf;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serf;"> same sex marriage: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serf;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serf;"> <span style="background-color: #f2f2f2; font-family: Arial,sans-serf; font-size: 12px;">Reversing an earlier stance, President Obama is now in favor of same-sex marriage. In May, he explained his change in thought during an ABC interview. “At a certain point, I've just concluded that for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.”

<span style="background-color: #f2f2f2; font-family: Arial,sans-serf; font-size: 12px;">medicare:

<span style="background-color: #f2f2f2; font-family: Arial,sans-serf; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline;">President Obama has remained constant on his pledge not to privatize Social Security, saying, "That agenda is wrong for seniors, it's wrong for America, and I won’t let it happen," in an April 2010 weekly address.

<span style="background-color: #f2f2f2; font-family: Arial,sans-serf; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline;">Despite calling for a bipartisan solution to Social Security reform, the president has yet to address Social Security reform during his presidency. Recently, he came under fire in February 2012 for extending the payroll tax cuts. The cuts, up again for a vote as a part of the [|"fiscal cliff" negotiations] at the end of the year, amount to approximately $83 more for a person making $50,000 and $183.50 for a person making $110,100 a year. The money, which ends up back in the pockets of Americans was designed to add to the Social Security pot. Critics said they were worried Americans would become "addicted" to the [|tax break]. The deal, The Hill reported, deprives Social Security of approximately $100 billion by the end of the 2012.

<span style="background-color: #f2f2f2; font-family: Arial,sans-serf; font-size: 12px;">spending: <span style="background-color: #f2f2f2; font-family: Arial,sans-serf; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline;">In unveiling his budget for 2013, President Obama's plan would create [|$6.4 trillion annual deficits] between 2013 and 2022, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Under the so-called alternative fiscal scenario, where Congress simply extends a number of favored policies, cumulative deficits would reach nearly [|$11 trillion].