The first presidential debate of the election season took place on Wednesday night at the University of Denver. According to multiple reporters and politicians, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney won the debate.
This debate focused mainly on domestic policy and tax cuts were a major topic of the night. Romney said that he would cut taxes but not to the point where the country’s deficit increases.
“If the tax plan he described were a tax plan I was asked to support, I’d say, ‘Absolutely not,'” Romney said. “I’m not asking for a $5 trillion tax cut. What I’ve said is I won’t put in place a tax cut that adds to the deficit. … I’ve got five boys. I’m used to people saying something that’s not always true, but just keep on repeating it and ultimately hoping I’ll believe it.”
Obama’s response was the following: “Now … he is saying that his big bold idea is ‘never mind.’ The fact is, if you are lowering the rates the way you describe, governor, it is not possible to come up with enough deductions or loopholes. It is math. It is arithmetic.”
Romney said that he is not planning to cut funding for education and he agreed with Obama that more teachers are needed. The two agreed with each other that Social Security should not change for current senior citizens but the two went head to head on the Medicare issue.
Both men appeared to be frustrated at times with the debate moderator, Jim Lehrer from PBS. At one point, Lehrer told Obama that his allotted time came to an end. Obama responded with, “I had five seconds before you interrupted me.” Romney refused to stop speaking multiple times when asked, going over his allotted time. He also made it a point to promise that funding to PBS would be cut while also apologizing to Lehrer.
The debate came to an end when Obama issued another attack against Romney and running mate Paul Ryan’s ideas for running the country’s government. Romney has said that he will work with both Republican and Democratic leaders from ‘day one,’ the first day following the election, so they can collaborate on ideas. Obama mocked the idea from Romney, saying, “I think Governor Romney is going to have a busy first day because he’s also going to repeal Obamacare,” Obama said. “Which will not be very popular with Democrats as you’re sitting down with them.”