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October 17, 2012 at 07:26 AM
Between the jabs about Big Bird and Mr. Obama’s pension, when the candidates were not talking over each other they did touch on some topics germane to the life and health industry. Here, our top eight quotes from Tuesday’s Town Hall Debate.
“He said that by now he would have put forth a plan to reform Medicare and Social Security, because he pointed out that they are on the road to bankruptcy; he would reform them. He said he would get that done. He hasn’t even made a proposal on either one.
… he said that by now middle income families would have a reduction in their health insurance premiums by $2,500 a year; it has gone up by $2,500 a year and if Obamacare is implemented fully there will be another $2,500 on top of that.”
— Republican candidate Mitt Romney on Obama’s record as president
“Look, the cost of lowering rates for everybody across the board by 20 percent, along with what he also wants with eliminating the estate tax, along with what he wants to do with corporate changes in the tax code, it costs about $5 trillion. Governor Romney then also wants to spend about $2 trillion on additional military programs even though the military is not asking for them. That is $7 trillion. He also wants to continue the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthiest Americans; that’s another trillion dollars. That’s $8 trillion. Now, what he says is that he is going to make sure this doesn’t add to the deficit and he’s going to cut middle class taxes but when he is asked, ‘How are you going to do it? Which deductions, which loopholes are you going to close?’ He can’t tell you.”
— President Barack Obama on Romney’s economic policy
“I just note that I don’t believe bureaucrats in Washington should tell someone whether they can use contraceptives or not and I don’t believe employers should tell someone whether they can use contraceptive care or not. Every woman in America should have access to contraceptives and the President’s statement of my policy is completely and totally wrong.”
— Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s defense of his views on access to contraceptives
“I think that’s a mistake. In my health care bill, I said insurance companies need to provide contraceptive coverage to everybody who is insured. Because this is not just a — a health issue, it’s an economic issue for women. It makes a difference. This is money out of that family’s pocket. Governor Romney not only opposed it, he suggested that in fact employers should be able to make the decision as to whether or not a woman gets contraception through her insurance coverage.”
— President Barack Obama on Romney’s stance on contraceptive care
“And so, in terms of bringing down deductions, one way of doing that would be say everybody gets — I’ll pick a number — $25,000 of deductions and credits, and you can decide which ones to use. Your home mortgage interest deduction, charity, child tax credit, and so forth, you can use those as part of filling that bucket, if you will, of deductions.”
