If you have five minutes to spend with me on any given day, you will know I have a strong opinion about the upcoming presidential election and the direction I want this country to move. I refuse to be careful in my words or delicate in my approach when I explain my intense disapproval of Barack Obama and his failings to improve our economy. With four years behind us, it’s time to make a change and elect Mitt Romney as the 45th President of the United States of America.

While I agree that Barack Obama came into the presidency under poor economic conditions, his economic policies of spending and taxation have not worked. In fact, he has made matters worse. His first act as President was the passing of the Stimulus Package in response to rising unemployment. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), this piece of legislature cost a whopping $831 billion and assured Americans that by now, unemployment would be under six percent. With the Labor Department declaring that unemployment has shrunk to 7.8 percent a few weeks ago, following an unprecedented 43 straight months of unemployment over eight percent, the CBO declared the Stimulus Package as a failure earlier this year. And yet, Democrats and the White House declare this is as a success and even venture to say that they have created over five million jobs. This is factual untrue. There are 23 million people out of work and less people are working under Obama. The economy is in poor shape and no one can deny that.

While he campaigned for the presidency, Obama criticized President Bush for raising the national debt from $5 trillion to $9 trillion in his two-term presidency. He then promised and vowed to the American people that he would lower the national debt and cut the deficit. With just under four years into his presidency, we are over $16 trillion in debt. President Obama has spent nearly $3 trillion more than Bush did in his two terms than he has in less than one. He has created nearly more debt than all of his predecessor’s debt combined. Essentially, Obama has been on a shopping spree on the taxpayer’s expense, giving a deficit of over a trillion dollars each fiscal year. Under Obama’s economic leadership, we are quickly on our way to becoming bankrupt and losing our economic power for good.

Americans are simply not better off than they were four years ago. According to Sentier Research, median household income has dropped 8.2 percent since Obama took office in January of 2009. Under his administration, the Census Bureau has declared that 15 percent of Americans are now in poverty. To make matters worse, Obama would increase taxes on middle class by $4,000  according to American Interprise Institute. How does that sound to you? That scares me. I am afraid that with another Obama presidency, America will never be the same. According to the US Treasury, four years ago today, essentially nearing the beginning of Obama’s presidency, every citizen owed $33,984 to the government to pay off our debt. Today, however, you and I and every American citizen would have to pay $51, 374 to our government in order to pay for the debt. And that number is climbing fast. We cannot continue down this road. But that’s what elections are for.

This November, we can correct our course with the election of Mitt Romney. An experienced businessman who was responsible for turning around companies such as Staples and Sports Authority and who saved the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah from bankruptcy will bring America back to greatness. And according to his jobs plan, which puts emphasis on energy independence, cutting the deficit, improving trade, and keeping small businesses strong, Mitt Romney will help create 12 million new jobs. We have seen the Obama economy and it is on the road to becoming like Spain or Greece where our debt and unemployment seem irreparable. I want America to be great again, and with the election of Mitt Romney, we will be.

 Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Parkway School District.