2012年美国总统大选辩论原文

1、.下载可编辑 .2012年美国总统大选电视辩论原文_BY crazyboyJIM LEHRER: Good evening from the Magness Arena at the University of Denver inDenver, Colorado. rm Jim Lehrer of the PBS NewsHour, and I welcome you to the firstof the 2012 preside ntial debates betwee n Preside nt Barack Obama, the Democraticnominee,and former M

2、assachusettsGover nor Mitt Romn ey, the Republica n nomin ee.This debate and the n ext threetwo preside ntial, one vice- preside ntial are spon sored by the Commissi on on Preside ntial Debates.Toni ghts 90 minu tes will be about domestic issues, and will follow a format desig nedby the commissi on.

3、 There will be six roughly 15-minute segme nts, with two-minutean swers for the first questi on, the n ope n discussi on for the rema in der of eachsegme nt.Thousa nds of people offered suggesti ons on segme nt subjects of questi ons via theInternet and other means, but I made the final select ions,

4、 and for the record, theywere not submitted for approval to the commissi on or the can didates.The segme nts, as I announ ced in adva nee, will be three on the economy and oneeach on health care, the role of gover nment, and gover ning, with an emphasis.下载可编辑 .throughout on differe nces, specifics a

5、nd choices. Both can didates will also havetwo-mi nute closi ng stateme nts.The audie nee here in the hall has promised to rema in sile nt. No cheers, applause,boos, hissesamong other no isy distract ing thingsso we may all concen trateon what the can didates have to say. There is a no ise excepti o

6、n right now, though, aswe welcome Preside nt Obama and Gover nor Romn ey. (Cheers, applause.)Gen tleme n, welcome to you both.Lets start the economy, segme nt one. And lets beg in with jobs. What are the majordiffere nces betwee n the two of you about how you would go about creat ing new jobs?You ha

7、ve two mi nu teseach of you have two minu tes tostart. The coin toss has determ in ed, Mr. Preside nt, you go first.PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Well, thank you very much, Jim, for this opport un ity.I want to tha nk Gover nor Romney and the Uni versity of Denver for your hospitality.There are a lot of p

8、oints that I want to make toni ght, but the most importa nt one is that20 years ago I became the luckiest man on earth because Michelle Obama agreed tomarry me. (Laughter.) And so I just want to wish, Sweetie, you happy anni versary andlet you know that a year from now, we will not be celebrati ng i

9、t in front of 40 milli onpeople. (Laughter.).下载可编辑 .You know, four years ago we went through the worst finan cial crisis since the GreatDepressi on. Millio ns of jobs were lost. The auto in dustry was on the brink of collapse.The finan cial system had froze n up. And because of the resilie nee and t

10、he determ inati on of the America n people, weve beg un to fight our way back.Over the last 30 mon ths, weve see n 5 millio n jobs in the private sector created. Theauto in dustry has come roari ng back and hous ing has beg un to rise. But we all knowthat weve still got a lot of work to do. And so t

11、he question here tonight is not whereweve been but where were going. Gover nor Romney has a perspective that says ifwe cut taxes, skewed towards the wealthy, and roll back regulati ons that well bebetter off.rve got a differe nt view. I thi nk weve got to in vest in educati on and training.I think i

12、ts importa nt for us to develop new sources of en ergy here in America, that wecha nge our tax code to make sure that were help ing small bus in essesand compa nies that are inv est ing here in the Un ited States, that we take some ofthe money that were sav ing as we wind dow n two wars to rebuild A

13、merica and thatwe reduce our deficit in a bala need way that allows us to make these critical investme nts.Now, it ultimately is going to be up to the voters, to you, which path weshould take. Are we going to double down on the top-downeconomic.下载可编辑 .policies that helped to get us in to this mess,

14、or do we embrace a new econo micpatriotism that says, America does best whe n the middle class does best? And rmlook ing forward to hav ing that debate.MR. LEHRER: Governor Romn ey, two minu tes.MR. ROMNEY: Thank you, Jim. Its an honor to be here with you, and I appreciate thecha nee to be with the

15、preside nt. I am pleased to be at theUni versity of Den ver, appreciate their welcome and also the preside ntial commission on these debates.And con gratulati ons to you, Mr. Preside nt, on your anni versary. Im sure thiswas the most roma ntic place you could imagi ne here here with me, so I (laught

16、er)con gratulati ons.This is obviously a very tender topic.ve had the occasion over the last couple ofyears of meeti ng people across the coun try. I was in Dayt on, Ohio, and a woma ngrabbed my arm, and she said, Ive bee n out of work since May. Can you help me?Ann yesterday was a rally in Denver,

17、and a woma n came up to her with a baby in herarms and said, Ann, my husba nd has had four jobs in three years, part-time jobs. Heslost his most rece nt job, and weve now just lost our home. Can you help us?.下载可编辑 .And the an swer is yes, we can help, but its going to take a differe nt path, not the

18、 oneweve bee n on, not the one the preside nt describes as a top-dow n, cut taxes for therich. Thats not what rm going to do.My plan has five basic parts. One, get us energy independent,NorthAmerica n en ergy in depe ndent. That creates about four millio n jobs. Number two,ope n up more trade, parti

19、cularly in Lat in America; crack dow n on Chi na if and whe nthey cheat. Number three, make sure our people have the skills they n eed to succeedand the best schools in the world. Were far away from that now. Number four, get usto a bala need budget. Number five, champi on small bus in ess.Its small

20、 bus in ess that creates the jobs in America. And over the last four yearssmall-bus in ess people have decided that America may not be the place to ope n anew bus in ess, because new bus in ess startups are dow n to a 30-year low. I knowwhat it takes to get small bus in ess grow ing aga in, to hire

21、people.Now, Im concerned that the path that were on has just bee n un successful.The preside nt has a view very similar to the view he had whe n he ran four years ago,that a bigger gover nment, spe nding more, tax ing more, regulati ng moreif youwill, trickle-dow n gover nment would work. Thats not

22、the right an swer for America. Illrestore the vitality that gets America worki ng aga in.Thank you.下载可编辑 .MR. LEHRER: Mr. Preside nt, please resp ond directly to what the gover nor just saidabout trickle-downhis trickle-down approach. Hesas he said yours is.PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, let me talk specifi

23、cally about what I thi nk we n eed to do.First, weve got to improve our educatio n system. And weve made eno rmousprogress draw ing on ideas both from Democrats and Republica ns that are alreadystart ing to show gains in some of the toughest-to- deal-with schools. Weve got aprogram called Race to th

24、e Top that has prompted reforms in 46 states around thecoun try, rais ing sta ndards, impro ving how we train teachers. So now I want to hireanother hundred thousand new math and scienee teachers and create 2 millio n moreslots in our com mun ity colleges so that people can get trained for the jobs

25、that areout there right now. And I want to make sure that we keep tuiti on low for our youngpeople.Whe n it comes to our tax code, Gover nor Romney and I both agree that ourcorporate tax rate is too high. So I want to lower it, particularly for manu facturi ng, taking it dow n to 25 perce nt. But I

26、also want to close those loopholes that are givingincen tives for compa nies that are shipp ing jobs overseas. I want to provide taxbreaks for compa nies that are in vesti ng here in the Un ited States.On en ergy, Gover nor Romney and I, we both agree that weve got to boost America.下载可编辑 .n en ergy

27、producti on.And oil and n atural gas product ion are higher tha n theyve bee n in years. ButI also believe that weve got to look at the en ergy source of the future, like wind andsolar and biofuels, and make those in vestme nts.So, all of this is possible. Now, in order for us to do it, we do have t

28、o close our deficit,and one of the thi ngs rm sure well be discuss ing toni ght is, how do we deal with ourtax code, and how do we make sure that we are reduc ing spe nding in a resp on sibleway, but also how do we have eno ugh reve nue to make those investments? And thisis where theres a differenee

29、 because Gover nor Romn eys cen tral econo mic pla ncalls for a $5 trillio n tax cut, on top of the exte nsion of the Bush tax cuts, so thats another $2 trilli on, and $2 trillio n in additi onal military spe nding that the military has ntasked for. Thats $8 trillio n. How we pay for that, reduce th

30、e deficit and make the investme nts that we need to make without dumping those costs on the middle-classAmerica ns I think is one of the cen tral questi ons of this campaig n.MR. LEHRER: Both of you have spoke n about a lot of differe nt thin gs, and weregoing to try to get through them in as specif

31、ic a way as we possibly can.But first, Gover nor Romn ey, do you have a questi on that youd like to ask the president directly about someth ing he just said?.下载可编辑 .MR. ROMNEY: Well, sure. Id like to clear up the record and go through it piece bypiece. First of all, I dont have a $5 trilli on tax cu

32、t. I dont have a tax cut of a scale thatyoure talk ing about. My view is that we ought to providetax relief to people in the middle class. But rm not going to reduce the share of taxespaid by high- in come people. High-i ncome people are doing just fine in this economy.Theyll do fine whether youre p

33、reside nt or I am.The people who are hav ing the hard time right now are middle- in come America ns.Un der the preside nts policies, middle-i ncomeAmerica ns havebee n buried. Theyretheyre just being crushed. Middle-i ncome America ns havesee n their in come come dow n by $4,300. This is athis is a

34、tax in and of itself. Illcall it the economy tax. Its bee n crushi ng. The same time, gasoli ne prices havedoubled un der the preside nt, electric rates are up, food prices are up, health carecosts have gone up by $2,500 a family.Middle-i ncome families are being crushed. And so the questi on is how

35、 to get themgoing aga in, andve described it. Its en ergy and trade, the right kind of trainingprograms, bala ncing our budget and help ing small bus in ess. Those are thethecorn erst ones of my pla n.But the preside nt men ti oned a couple of other ideas, and ril just no te: first, educati.下载可编辑 .o

36、n. I agree, educati on is key, particularly the future of our economy.But our training programs right now, we got 47 of them housed in the federal governmen t, report ing to eight differe nt age ncies. Overhead is overwhel ming.We got to get those dollars back to the states and go to the workers so

37、they can createtheir own pathways to gett ing the training they n eed for jobs that will really help them.The sec ond area: taxatio n. We agree; we ought to bring the tax rates dow n, and I do,both for corporati ons and for in dividuals. But in order for us not to lose reve nue, havethe gover nment

38、run out of mon ey, I also lower deduct ions and credits and exemptions so that we keep tak ing in the same money whe n you also acco unt for growth.The third area: en ergy. En ergy is critical, and the preside nt poin ted out correctly thatproduct ion of oil and gas in the U.S. is up. But not due to

39、 his policies. In spite of hispolicies. Mr. Preside nt, all of the in crease in n atural gas and oil has happened onprivate land, not on governmentland. Ongover nment land, your admi nistrati on has cut the nu mber of permits and lice nse inhalf. If rm preside nt,门I double them. And also get thethe

40、oilfrom offshore and Alaska. And ril bring that pipeli ne in from Can ada.And by the way, I like coal. Im going to make sure we con ti nue to burn clea n coal.People in the coal in dustry feel like its gett ing crushed by your policies.I want to get America and North America en ergy in depe ndent, s

41、o we can create.下载可编辑 .those jobs.And fin ally, with regards to that tax cut, look, Im not look ing to cut massive taxes andto reduce thethe reve nues going to the gover nment. Mymy nu mber one principle is therell be no tax cut that adds to the deficit.I want to un derli ne thatno tax cut that adds

42、 to the deficit. But I do wantto reduce the burde n being paid by middle-i ncome America ns. And Iandto do that that also means that I cannot reduce the burden paid by high-i ncomeAmerica ns. So anyany Ian guage to the con trary is simply not accurate.MR. LEHRER: Mr. Preside nt.PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well

43、, I thi nklets talk about taxes because I thi nk its instructive. Now, four years ago whe n I stood on this stage I said that I would cut taxesfor middle-class families. And thats exactly what I did. We cut taxes for middle-classfamilies by about $3,600. And the reas on is because I believe we do be

44、st whe n themiddle class is doing well.And by givi ng them those tax cuts, they had a little more money in their pocket and somaybe they can buy a new car. They are certa inly in a better positi on to weather theextraordi nary recessi on that we went through. They can buy a computer for their kid.下载

45、可编辑 .whos going off to college, which means theyre spe nding more mon ey, bus in esseshave more customers, bus in esses make more profits and the n hire more workers.Now, Governor Romneys proposal that he has been promoting for 18 mon ths callsfor a $5 trilli on tax cut on top of $2 trilli on of add

46、iti onal spe nding for our military. Andhe is say ing that he is going to pay for it by clos ing loopholes and deduct ions. Theproblem is that hes bee n asked aover a hun dred times how you would close those deducti ons and loopholes and hehas nt bee n able to ide ntify them.But rm going to make an

47、importa nt point here, Jim.MR. LEHRER: All right.PRESIDENT OBAMA: When you add up all the loopholes and deductio ns that upperin come in dividuals can are curre ntly tak ing adva ntage of if you take thoseall awayyou dont come close to pay ing for $5 trilli on in tax cuts and $2 trillio n inadditi o

48、nal military spe nding. And thats why in depe ndent studies look ing at this saidthe on ly way to meet Gover nor Romn eys pledge of not reduci ng the deficitororor not add ing to the deficit, is byburde ning middle-class families.下载可编辑 .The average middle-class family with childre n would pay about

49、$2,000 more.Now, thats not my an alysis; thats the an alysis of econo mists who have looked atthis. Andand that kind of toptop-dow n econo mics, where folks at the top aredoing well so the average pers on making 3 milli on bucks is gett ing a $250,000 taxbreak while middle- class families are burde

50、ned further, thats n ot what I believe is arecipe for econo mic growth.MR. LEHRER: All right. What is the differe nee?MR. ROMNEY: WellMR. LEHRER: Lets just stay on taxes forMR. ROMNEY: But Ibut Iright, right.MR. LEHRER: OK. Yeah, justlets just stay on taxes for a mome nt.MR. ROMNEY: Yeah. Well, butb

51、utMR. LEHRER: What is the differe nee?.下载可编辑 .MR. ROMNEY:virtually everyvirtually everyth ing he just said about mytax pla n is in accurate.MR. LEHRER: All right, goMR. ROMNEY: Soso ifif the tax plan he described were a tax plan I was askedto support, Id say absolutely no t. Im n ot looki ng for a $

52、5 trillio n tax cut. What rvesaid is I wont put in place a tax cut that adds to the deficit.Thats part one. So theres no econo mist can say Mitt Romn eys tax pla n adds5 trillio n (dollars) if I say I will n ot add to the deficit with my tax pla n.Number two, I will not reduce the share paid by high

53、-i ncome in dividuals. II know that you and your running mate keep say ing that, and I know its a popular things to say with a lot of people, but its just not the case. Look, I got five boys. Im usedto people say ing somethi ng thats not always true, but just keep on repeati ng it andultimately hop

54、ing ril believe it (scattered laughter)but thatthat is not thecase, all right? I will not reduce the taxes paid by high-i ncome America ns.And number three, I will not, under any circumstances, raise taxes on middle-i ncomefamilies. I will lower taxes on middle-i ncome families. Now, you cite a stud

55、y. Thereare six other studies that looked at the study you describe and say its completely wron.下载可编辑 .g. I saw a study that came out todaythat said youre going to raise taxes by 3(,000 dollars) to $4,000 ononmiddle-i ncome families. There are all these studies out there.But lets get to the bottom l

56、ine. That is, I want to bring dow n rates. I want to bring downthe rates down, at the same time lower deductions and exempti ons and credits andso forth so we keep gett ing the reve nue we n eed.And you thi nk, well, the n why lower the rates? And the reas on is becausesmall bus in ess pays that in

57、dividual rate. Fifty-four perce nt of Americas workerswork in bus in esses that are taxed not at the corporate tax rate but at the in dividualtax rate. And if we lower that rate, they will be able to hire more people.For me, this is about jobs.MR. LEHRER: All right. Thats where we started.MR. ROMNEY

58、: This is about getti ng jobs for the American people.MR. LEHRER: Yeah.Do you challe nge what the gover nor just said about his own pla n?.下载可编辑 .PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, for 18 mon ths hes bee n running on this tax pla n.And now, five weeks before the electi on, hes say ing that his big, bold idea is

59、n ever min d. And the fact is that if you are loweri ng the rates the way you describe,Gover nor, the n it is not possible to come up with eno ugh deduct ions and loopholesthat on ly affect high-i ncome in dividuals to avoid either raisi ng the deficit or burdening the middle class. Itsits math. Its

60、arithmetic.Now, Governor Romney and I do share a deep interest in encouraging small-bus iness growth. So at the same time that my tax pla n has already lowered taxes for 98percent of families, I also lowered taxes for small bus in esses 18 times. And what Iwant to do is continue the tax ratesthe tax