IMPROVE EDUCATION FOR
MIDDLE-CLASS JOBS
Over the next ten years, more than half of all new jobs
will require a college degree. Yet, as many as half of
our students aren’t even finishing high school. Today,
the United States is just 14th in the world in the share
of adults, age 25 to 34, holding college degrees and
certificates. More than ever before, education is the surest
path to the middle class and a competitive economy.
That’s why the President made major investments and
reforms to our education system:
Education begins at home, with parents who read to
their kids, set limits on the TV, and instill a lifelong love
of learning. But there’s no substitute for a good school,
or the teacher who stands at the front of the classroom.
That’s why, even as we faced one of the worst economic
crises in history, President Obama worked with states to
help save the jobs of 400,000 educators.
The President demanded reform in return for more
resources, and for less than one percent of what our
country spends on education each year, nearly every
state is raising standards for teaching and learning.
President Obama cut the big banks out of the student
loan business, and passed the savings directly to students
earning their education. He gave nearly 10 million
young people Pell Grants and created the American
Opportunity Tax Credit to give students up to $10,000
over four years of college.
President Obama’s plan for America’s future: Highest
proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020 so
we can compete and win in the 21st Century economy:
1. Cutting tuition growth in half over the next ten years.
We can make college more affordable by continuing
tax credits to help middle-class families afford college
tuition, doubling the number of work-study jobs and
creating incentives for schools to keep tuition down.
2. Recruiting and preparing 100,000 math and science
teachers. We can out-compete China and Germany by
out-educating them. The STEM Master Teacher Corps
and investments in research and innovation into the
best ways to teach math and science will help improve
math and science education nationwide.
3. Strengthen public schools in every community.
Because we can’t compete for jobs of the future
without educating our children, we must prevent
teacher layoffs. We also must expand Race to the Top
to additional school districts willing to take on bold
reform. The President will offer states committed to
reform relief from the worst mandates of No Child Left
Behind, like incentives to teach to the test, so they can
craft local solutions.
4. Train 2 million workers for good jobs that actually
exist through partnerships between businesses and
community colleges.
President Obama believes investing in our children is
the best way to invest in America’s future and create
opportunity for everyone.
A TAX PLAN THAT CUTS THE
DEFICIT AND CREATES JOBS
Upon taking office, President Obama inherited the largest deficit in history,
largely caused by putting the costs of two wars on a credit card, giving
massive tax cuts for the wealthy that were not paid for, and suffering a
historic recession made worse by the financial crisis.
If we’re going to restore the security the middle class has lost, we’ve got
to return to the principles that made America great. That means making
sure that hard work and responsibility pay. It means rewarding work over
wealth. It means eliminating special loopholes and tax breaks that benefit big
business and the wealthiest, and asking them to pay a little more.
The Obama Record: Cutting taxes for the Middle Class. Cutting
$1 trillion in spending.
To strengthen the middle class, President Obama passed wide-ranging tax
relief for working families, including a payroll tax cut for every American
worker, and tax cuts for small businesses to help them weather the recession
and spur new private-sector hiring. And the President has provided new tax
cuts to help the middle class afford higher education and health care.
Under President Obama, the typical American family saved $3,600 in taxes
over the past four years.
The President has already signed $1 trillion in spending cuts into law and has
put annual domestic spending on track toward its lowest level as a share of
the economy since Eisenhower was President.
A balanced approach to reducing the deficit:
Asking the wealthiest to do their fair share while creating an economy
which out-educates, out-innovates, and out-builds the world.
1. President Obama’s plan reduces the deficit by more than $4 trillion over
the next decade, including $1 trillion in spending cuts he signed into law
last summer, and cutting $2.50 in spending for every $1 in additional
revenue from the wealthiest families and closing corporate loopholes.
2. The plan makes sure millionaires aren’t paying lower tax rates than many
middle-class families.
3. President Obama would commit half of the money saved from responsibly
ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to reducing the deficit and the other
half to putting Americans back to work rebuilding roads, bridges, runways,
and schools here in the United States.
President Obama’s plan keeps middle-class tax cuts in place and reduces
the deficit by finally asking millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair
share.
It’s a plan that grows the economy and puts people back to work, without
piling debt on the shoulders of our children and grandchildren.
Protecting Retirement Security
With each paycheck, American workers contribute some of their hard-earned
wages for the promise of a secure and healthy retirement. There’s a good
reason for that.
Prior to Medicare’s inception, one-half of American seniors did not have
hospital insurance. And 14 million Americans aged 65 and older would fall
into poverty now if they did not receive their Social Security payments.
Medicare is a critical safety net for America’s seniors and people with
disabilities. Before President Obama took office, mismanagement of Medicare
drove the plan 20 years closer to default.
President Obama strengthened Medicare by cutting overpayments to
insurance companies and cracking down on billions in health care waste,
fraud and abuse. The President added eight years to the Medicare Trust Fund.
And President Obama saved nearly 4 million seniors an average of $600 last
year on their prescription drugs and provided free coverage for recommended
preventive care, saving Medicare beneficiaries money and keeping them
healthy with regular check-ups and screenings.
President Obama’s plan protects American workers’ path to a secure
retirement and keeps the promises we’ve made to current and future
generations:
1. Oppose efforts to gamble Social Security on the stock market. President
Obama will fight for balanced deficit reduction, and extend the life of
Medicare and Social Security, without ending guaranteed benefits or slashing
benefits.
2. Stop proposals to turn Medicare into a voucher system. For decades,
American workers have contributed some of their hard-earned wages in
exchange for guaranteed medical coverage in their retirement.
3. Save 60,000 lives and $10 billion for Medicare’s future by partnering with
hospitals to reduce inpatient infections and needless readmissions.
Working Americans paid into Social Security and Medicare with every
paycheck. President Obama’s plan will make sure middle-class families get
the secure retirement they have earned.
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