U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney met on Tuesday (Wdenesday IST) at New York’s Hofstra University for the second of three presidential debates ahead of the Nov. 6 election.
Below are some highlights of what the two candidates said.
FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY
On taxes:
“I will not under any circumstances reduce the share that’s being paid by the highest-income paying taxpayers and I will not under any circumstance increase taxes on the middle class. The president’s spending, the president’s borrowing will cause this nation to have to raise taxes on the American people, and not just at the high end.”
On unemployment:
“We have fewer people working today than we had when the president took office… We have not made the progress we need to make to put people back to work.”
On employment after college:
“The key thing is to make sure you’ve got a job when you get out of school. And what’s happened over the last four years has been very, very hard for America’s young people… Half of college kids graduating this year without a job, without a college level job, that’s just unacceptable…. When you come out in 2014, I presume I’m going to be president. I’m going to make sure you get a job.”
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
On lower gas prices when he took office:
“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 now promotes. So it’s conceivable that Governor Romney could bring down the gas prices, because with his policies we might be back in that same mess.”
On Romney’s energy plan:
“He’s got the oil and gas part, but he doesn’t have the clean energy part. And if we’re only thinking about tomorrow and the next day and not thinking about ten years from now, we’re not going to control our economic future. Because China, Germany, they’re making these investments, and I’m not going to cede those jobs in the future to those counties.”
On Romney’s economic plan:
“Governor Romney says he’s got a five-point plan. Governor Romney doesn’t 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’s been his philosophy in the private sector, that’s been his philosophy as a governor and that’s been his philosophy as a presidential candidate.”
The battle continues. Mitt looking good, Obama catching up