The Managing Board, in its editorial “Searching for Mr. Right,” has issued its endorsement of Barack Obama, so it is only natural that I endorse, for what it is worth, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan for president and vice president. After November 6th, we as a country are going to be headed in one of two directions — essentially, we are looking at either a government that believes its right, and duty, is to tax success and provide for all, or a government that champions success and individual responsibility. The Managing Board editorial states that if “students examine the issues that will impact them most immediately,” Obama is the best choice. And I can see how the Managing Board, and college students in general, reached that conclusion.
College students are generally notorious for being irresponsible, at least from the viewpoint of older generations. Call me a geezer, but I see where they are coming from. Rampant underage drinking, some of it facilitated by illegal IDs; a decided lack of current events knowledge; and an environment in which we have a taste of independence without the burden of actual responsibility. While this description does not fit every college student, it is worth asking if college students are really the ones who have the best understanding of who the best candidate is and what policies work best out in the real world.
The Managing Board cites Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA), which allows us, as young people, to stay on our parents’ health care coverage until we are 26 years old. Sounds fantastic! But the money to provide for this does not just appear — it comes in the form of greater cost for coverage, which is being made more uniform, and therefore unnecessarily broad for many people. This is a concern when this added cost is passed onto families and, specifically, businesses. Businesses are also forced to provide coverage to new employees within 90 days, which also sounds great. But if we look past the shiny surface of these new rules, we can recognize that businesses are less likely to hire if they are unable to afford to pay for all of these nice perks the Left is all excited about. Before the ACA, new employees had to rely on making themselves invaluable to employers by excelling at their job, so that they would move up and get the coverage they desired. Now, there is no reason to work for it — just avoid being fired for 90 days and you have your coverage.
The government is playing a larger role in our lives, and its new rules and mandates in the private sector are making businesses less likely to hire. But on the plus side, after Obama’s policies prevent our being hired, we can at least just head back home and chill for a few years on our parents’ insurance.
The other argument the Managing Board made was to say that Obama offers college students more advantages when it comes to student loans. But in truth, Obama and Romney are not all that different when it comes to the issues around higher education. Both candidates aim to keep colleges from raising tuition rates and conducting “for profit” procedures. “I’m not going to cut education funding,” Romney said during the first presidential debate, “I don’t have any plan to cut education funding and grants that go to people going to college.”
A President Romney would offer a chance to move away from this approach. If elected, Romney has promised to do his utmost to repeal Obamacare, or at least to reduce its influence by offering waivers to states, which would remove the state’s obligation to comply with the ACA. What is more, Romney has demonstrated many skills in his role as businessman and governor that will aid him in his role as president. His state was at the cream of the crop in the realm of education and boasted a balanced budget all four years under Gov. Romney.
There is a lot of doubt on the Left about Romney’s ability to balance the budget, but he has done it before. He is running a platform of a balanced budget and as a champion of small business. This is the man we need in charge when we hit the work force, someone who wants us to compete and succeed on our own merit, and who will take away those regulations and infringements the Obama administration has imposed on people and businesses.
When I read the Managing Board’s editorial, I was hardly surprised. Theirs is the short-sighted, self-serving stance taken by many college students. But the real candidate that is going to serve our interests, and those of the country as a whole, is Mitt Romney. If you think earning success and championing individual responsibility is the right path, then Romney is the real Mr. Right.
Sam Novack’s column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at
s.novack@cavalierdaily.com.
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