1、The first presidential debate(APPLAUSE) JIM LEHRER: Thirty seconds, folks. Lets have a terrific evening, for all of you and for our country. Good evening from the Magness Arena at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado. Im Jim Lehrer of the “PBS NewsHour,“ and I welcome you to the first of the
2、 2012 presidential debates between President Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee.This debate and the next three - two presidential, one vice presidential - are sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Tonights 90 min
3、utes will be about domestic issues and will follow a format designed by the commission. There will be six roughly 15-minute segments with two-minute answers for the first question, then open discussion for the remainder of each segment. Thousands of people offered suggestions on segment subjects or
4、questions via the Internet and other means, but I made the final selections. And for the record, they were not submitted for approval to the commission or the candidates. The segments as I announced in advance will be three on the economy and one each on health care, the role of government and gover
5、ning, with an emphasis throughout on differences, specifics and choices. Both candidates will also have two-minute closing statements. The audience here in the hall has promised to remain silent - no cheers, applause, boos, hisses, among other noisy distracting things, so we may all concentrate on w
6、hat the candidates have to say. There is a noise exception right now, though, as we welcome President Obama and Governor Romney. (APPLAUSE) Gentlemen, welcome to you both. Lets start the economy, segment one, and lets begin with jobs. What are the major differences between the two of you about how y
7、ou would go about creating new jobs?You have two minutes. Each of you have two minutes to start. A coin toss has determined, Mr. President, you go first.PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, thank you very much, Jim, for this opportunity. I want to thank Governor Romney and the University of Denver for your hospit
8、ality. There are a lot of points I want to make tonight, but the most important one is that 20 years ago I became the luckiest man on Earth because Michelle Obama agreed to marry me. And so I just want to wish, Sweetie, you happy anniversary and let you know that a year from now we will not be celeb
9、rating it in front of 40 million people. (LAUGHTER) You know, four years ago we went through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Millions of jobs were lost, the auto industry was on the brink of collapse. The financial system had frozen up. And because of the resilience and the de
10、termination of the American people, weve begun to fight our way back. Over the last 30 months, weve seen 5 million jobs in the private sector created. The auto industry has come roaring back. And housing has begun to rise. But we all know that weve still got a lot of work to do. And so the question
11、here tonight is not where weve been, but where were going. Governor Romney has a perspective that says if we cut taxes, skewed towards the wealthy, and roll back regulations, that well be better off. Ive got a different view. I think weve got to invest in education and training. I think its importan
12、t for us to develop new sources of energy here in America, that we change our tax code to make sure that were helping small businesses and companies that are investing here in the United States, that we take some of the money that were saving as we wind down two wars to rebuild America and that we r
13、educe our deficit in a balanced way that allows us to make these critical investments. Now, it ultimately is going to be up to the voters, to you, which path we should take. Are we going to double-down on the top-down economic policies that helped to get us into this mess? Or do we embrace a new eco
14、nomic patriotism that says America does best when the middle class does best? And Im looking forward to having that debate.LEHRER: Governor Romney, two minutes.GOV. MITT ROMNEY: Thank you, Jim. Its an honor to be here with you, and I appreciate the chance to be with the president. Im pleased to be a
15、t the University of Denver, appreciate their welcome, and also the presidential commission on these debates. And congratulations to you, Mr. President, on your anniversary. Im sure this was the most romantic place you could imagine here - here with me. So I. (LAUGHTER) Congratulations. This is obvio
16、usly a very tender topic. Ive had the occasion over the last couple of years of meeting people across the country. I was in Dayton, Ohio, and a woman grabbed my arm, and she said, “Ive been out of work since May. Can you help me?“ Ann yesterday was at a rally in Denver, and a woman came up to her wi
17、th a baby in her arms, and said, “Ann, my husband has had four jobs in three years, part-time jobs. Hes lost his most recent job. And weve now just lost our home. Can you help us?“ And the answer is, yes, we can help, but its going to take a different path, not the one weve been on, not the one the
18、president describes as a top-down, cut taxes for the rich. Thats not what Im going to do. My plan has five basic parts. One, get us energy independent, North American energy independent. That creates about 4 million jobs. Number two, open up more trade, particularly in Latin America, crack down on C
19、hina, if and when they cheat. Number three, make sure our people have the skills they need to succeed and the best schools in the world. Were a far way from that now. Number four, get us to a balanced budget. Number five, champion small business. Its small business that creates the jobs in America.
20、And over the last four years, small- business people have decided that America may not be the place to open a new business, because new business startups are down to a 30-year low. I know what it takes to get small business growing again, to hire people.ROMNEY: Now, Im concerned that the path that w
21、ere on has just been unsuccessful. The president has a view very similar to the view he had when he ran four years, that a bigger government, spending more, taxing more, regulating more - if you will, trickle-down government - would work. Thats not the right answer for America. Ill restore the vital
22、ity that gets America working again. Thank you. LEHRER: Mr. President, please respond directly to what the governor just said about trickle-down - his trick-down approach, as he said yours is. OBAMA: Well, let me talk specifically about what I think we need to do. First, weve got to improve our educ
23、ation system and weve made enormous progress drawing on ideas both from Democrats and Republicans that are already starting to show gains in some of the toughest to deal with schools. Weve got a program called Race to the Top that has prompted reforms in 46 states around the country, raising standar
24、ds, improving how we train teachers. So now I want to hire another 100,000 new math and science teachers, and create 2 million more slots in our community colleges so that people can get trained for the jobs that are out there right now. And I want to make sure that we keep tuition low for our young
25、 people. When it comes to our tax code, Governor Romney and I both agree that our corporate tax rate is too high, so I want to lower it, particularly for manufacturing, taking it down to 25 percent. But I also want to close those loopholes that are giving incentives for companies that are shipping j
26、obs overseas. I want to provide tax breaks for companies that are investing here in the United States. On energy, Governor Romney and I, we both agree that weve got to boost American energy production, and oil and natural gas production are higher than theyve been in years. But I also believe that w
27、eve got to look at the energy sources of the future, like wind and solar and biofuels, and make those investments. So all of this is possible. Now, in order for us to do it, we do have to close our deficit, and one of the things Im sure well be discussing tonight is, how do we deal with our tax code
28、? And how do we make sure that we are reducing spending in a responsible way, but also, how do we have enough revenue to make those investments? And this is where theres a difference, because Governor Romneys central economic plan calls for a $5 trillion tax cut - on top of the extension of the Bush
29、 tax cuts - thats another trillion dollars - and $2 trillion in additional military spending that the military the deficit, and make the investments that we need to make, without dumping those costs onto middle-class Americans, I think is one of the central questions of this campaign. LEHRER: Both o
30、f you have spoken about a lot of different things, and were going to try to get through them in as specific a way as we possibly can. But, first, Governor Romney, do you have a question that youd like to ask the president directly about something he just said? ROMNEY: Well, sure. Id like to clear up
31、 the record and go through it piece by piece. First of all, I dont have a $5 trillion tax cut. I dont have a tax cut of a scale that youre talking about. My view is that we ought to provide tax relief to people in the middle class. But Im not going to reduce the share of taxes paid by high-income pe
32、ople. High-income people are doing just fine in this economy. Theyll do fine whether youre president or I am. The people who are having the hard time right now are middle- income Americans. Under the presidents policies, middle-income Americans have been buried. Theyre just being crushed. Middle- in
33、come Americans have seen their income come down by $4,300. This is a - this is a tax in and of itself. Ill call it the economy tax. Its been crushing. At the same time, gasoline prices have doubled under the president. Electric rates are up. Food prices are up. Health care costs have gone up by $2,5
34、00 a family. Middle-income families are being crushed.ROMNEY: And so the question is how to get them going again. And Ive described it. Its energy and trade, the right kind of training programs, balancing our budget and helping small business. Those are the - the cornerstones of my plan. But the pre
35、sident mentioned a couple of other ideas Ill just note. First, education. I agree: Education is key, particularly the future of our economy. But our training programs right now, weve got 47 of them, housed in the federal government, reporting to eight different agencies. Overhead is overwhelming. We
36、ve got to get those dollars back to the states and go to the workers so they can create their own pathways to get in the training they need for jobs that will really help them. The second area, taxation, we agree, we ought to bring the tax rates down. And I do, both for corporations and for individu
37、als. But in order for us not to lose revenue, have the government run out of money, I also lower deductions and credits and exemptions, so that we keep taking in the same money when you also account for growth. The third area, energy. Energy is critical, and the president pointed out correctly that
38、production of oil and gas in the U.S. is up. But not due to his policies. In spite of his policies. Mr. President, all of the increase in natural gas and oil has happened on private land, not on government land. On government land, your administration has cut the number of permits and licenses in ha
39、lf. If Im president, Ill double them, and also get the - the oil from offshore and Alaska. And Ill bring that pipeline in from Canada. And, by the way, I like coal. Im going to make sure we can continue to burn clean coal. People in the coal industry feel like its getting crushed by your policies. I
40、 want to get America and North America energy independent so we can create those jobs. And finally, with regards to that tax cut, look, Im not looking to cut massive taxes and to reduce the - the revenues going to the government. My - my number-one principal is, there will be no tax cut that adds to
41、 the deficit. I want to underline that: no tax cut that adds to the deficit. But I do want to reduce the burden being paid by middle-income Americans. And I - and to do that, that also means I cannot reduce the burden paid by high-income Americans. So any - any language to the contrary is simply not
42、 accurate. LEHRER: Mr. President? OBAMA: Well, I think - lets talk about taxes, because I think its instructive. Now, four years ago, when I stood on this stage, I said that I would cut taxes for middle-class families. And thats exactly what I did. We cut taxes for middle-class families by about $3,
43、600. And the reason is, because I believe that we do best when the middle class is doing well. And by giving them those tax cuts, they had a little more money in their pocket, and so maybe they can buy a new car. They are certainly in a better position to weather the extraordinary recession that we
44、went through. They can buy a computer for their kid whos going off to college, which means theyre spending more money, businesses have more customers, businesses make more profits, and then hire more workers. Now, Governor Romneys proposal that he has been promoting for 18 months calls for a $5 tril
45、lion tax cut, on top of $2 trillion of additional spending for our military. And he is saying that he is going to pay for it by closing loopholes and deductions. The problem deductions and loopholes, and he hasnt been able to identify them. But Im going to make an important point here, Jim. LEHRER:
46、All right. OBAMA: When you add up all the loopholes and deductions that upper-income individuals can - are currently taking advantage of, you take those all away, you dont come close to paying for $5 trillion in tax cuts and $2 trillion in additional military spending.OBAMA: And thats why independen
47、t studies looking at this said the only way to meet Governor Romneys pledge of not reducing the deficit or - or - or not adding to the deficit is by burdening middle-class families. The average middle-class family with children would pay about $2,000 more. Now, thats not my analysis. Thats the analy
48、sis of economists who have looked at this. And - and that kind of top - top-down economics, where folks at the top are doing well, so the average person making $3 million is getting a $250,000 tax break, while middle-class families are burdened further, thats not what I believe is a recipe for econo
49、mic growth. LEHRER: All right. What is the difference? Lets just stay on taxes. (CROSSTALK)LEHRER: Just - lets just stay on taxes for (inaudible). (CROSSTALK)LEHRER: What is the difference.ROMNEY: Well, but - but virtually - virtually everything he just said about my tax plan is inaccurate.LEHRER: All right.ROMNEY: So if the tax plan he described were a tax plan I was trillion tax cut. What Ive said is I wont put in place a tax cut that adds to the deficit. Thats part one. So t
