So, I took the debate transcript, highlighted the words jobs, taxes, and growth, and discarded the
remainder of sentences that didn't includes these words. Since this was an economic debate,
these three words tended to show up often. Not sure why the global economy was
ignored, nor any mention of quantitative easements, but anyway, they did talk
about jobs, taxes, and growth. Here are the results:
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| Wordle Results |
OBAMA:
Four years ago we
went through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Millions of
jobs were lost.
Over the last 30 months, we’ve seen 5 million jobs in the private sector created. Romney has a
perspective that says if we cut taxes,
skewed towards the wealthy, and roll back regulations that we’ll be better off.
I think it’s important that we change our tax code to make sure that we’re helping small
businesses and companies that are investing here in the United States.
ROMNEY:
Ann yesterday was a
rally in Denver, and a woman came up to her with a baby in her arms and said,
Ann, my husband has had four jobs
in three years, part-time jobs.
He’s lost his most recent job,
and we’ve now just lost our home. We can help, but it’s going to take a
different path, not the one we’ve been on, not the one the president describes
as a top-down, cut taxes
for the rich. That’s not what I’m going to do.
My plan creates about
four million jobs.
It’s small business that creates the jobs in America. I know what it takes to get small business growing again, to hire
people. The president has a view that a bigger government, spending more, taxing more, regulating more --
if you will, trickle-down government would work.
OBAMA:
I want to hire
another hundred thousand 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.
When it comes to our tax code, Romney and I both
agree that our corporate tax
rate is too high. I also want to close those loopholes that are giving
incentives for companies that are shipping jobs overseas. I want to provide tax breaks for companies that
are investing here in the United States.
How do we deal with
our tax code, 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? Romney’s central economic
plan calls for a $5 trillion tax
cut, on top of the extension of the Bush tax cuts, so that’s another $2 trillion, and $2
trillion in additional military spending that the military hasn’t asked for.
ROMNEY:
First of all, I don’t
have a $5 trillion tax
cut. I don’t have a tax
cut of a scale that you’re talking about. My view is that we ought to provide tax relief to people in the
middle class. But I’m not going to reduce the share of taxes paid by high- income people. High-income
people are doing just fine in this economy. They’ll do fine whether you’re
president or I am.
Middle-income
Americans have seen their income come down by $4,300. This is a tax in and of itself. I’ll call
it the economy tax.
We got to get those
dollars back to the states and go to the workers so they can create their own
pathways to getting 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 individuals. I also lower deductions
and credits and exemptions so that we keep taking in the same money when you
also account for growth.
I want to get America
and North America energy independent, so we can create those jobs.
And finally, with
regards to that tax cut,
look, I’m not looking to cut massive taxes and to reduce the -- the revenues going to the government. My
-- my number one principle is there’ll be no tax cut that adds to the deficit. I want to underline
that -- no tax cut that
adds to the deficit.
OBAMA:
Let’s talk about taxes because I think it’s
instructive. Now, four years ago when I stood on this stage I said that I would
cut taxes for
middle-class families. We cut taxes
for middle-class families by about $3,600. 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.
Now, Romney’s
proposal that he has been promoting for 18 months calls for a $5 trillion tax cut on top of $2 trillion
of additional spending for our military. When you add up all the loopholes and
deductions that upper income individuals are currently taking advantage of --
if you take those all away -- you don’t come close to paying for $5 trillion in
tax cuts and $2 trillion
in additional military spending.
That kind of top-down
economics, where folks at the top are doing well so the average person making 3
million bucks is getting a $250,000 tax break while middle- class families are burdened further, that’s
not what I believe is a recipe for economic growth.
ROMNEY:
Virtually everything
he just said about my tax
plan is inaccurate. So if the tax
plan he described were a tax
plan I was asked to support, I’d say absolutely not. I’m not looking 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. So there’s no economist can say
Mitt Romney’s tax plan
adds 5 trillion dollars if I say I will not add to the deficit with my tax plan.
I will not reduce the
taxes paid by high-income
Americans. I will not, under any circumstances, raise taxes on middle-income families. I will lower taxes on middle-income
families. I saw a study that came out today that said you’re going to raise taxes by 3,000 dollars to
$4,000 on middle-income families.
Fifty-four percent of
America’s workers work in businesses that are taxed not at the corporate tax rate but at the individual tax rate.
For me, this is about
jobs.
OBAMA:
Well, for 18 months
he’s been running on this tax
plan.
Now, Romney and I do
share a deep interest in encouraging small-business growth. So at the same time that my tax plan has already lowered taxes for 98 percent of
families, I also lowered taxes
for small businesses 18 times. And what I want to do is continue the tax rates -- the tax cuts that we put into place
for small businesses and families.
But I have said that
for incomes over $250,000 a year that we should go back to the rates that we
had when Bill Clinton was president, when we created 23 million new jobs.
We can not only
reduce the deficit, we can not only encourage job growth through small businesses, but we’re also able to make the
investments that are necessary in education or in energy.
Now, under my plan,
97 percent of small businesses would not see their income taxes go up. Romney says, well,
those top 3 percent, they’re the job creators.
And that kind of
approach, I believe, will not grow
our economy because the only way to pay for it without either burdening the
middle class or blowing up our deficit is to make drastic cuts in things like
education, making sure that we are continuing to invest in basic science and
research, all the things that are helping America grow.
ROMNEY:
Mr. President, you’re
absolutely right, which is that with regards to 97 percent of the businesses
are not taxed at the 35
percent tax rate, they’re
taxed at a lower rate.
And your plan is take their tax
rate from 35 percent to 40 percent.
Now, I talked to a
guy who has a very small business, he said he and his son calculated how much
they pay in taxes.
Federal income tax,
federal payroll tax,
state income tax, state
sales tax, state property
tax, gasoline tax -- it added up to well over
50 percent of what they earned.
And your plan is to
take the tax rate on
successful small businesses from 35 percent to 40 percent. The National
Federation of Independent Businesses has said that will cost 700,000 jobs. I don’t want to
cost jobs. My
priority is jobs.
And so what I do is I bring down the tax rates, lower deductions and exemptions. Get the rates down,
lower deductions and exemptions to create more jobs, because there’s nothing better for getting
us to a balanced budget than having more people working, earning more money,
paying more taxes.
OBAMA:
If you believe that
we can cut taxes by $5
trillion and add $2 trillion in additional spending that the military is not
asking for -- $7 trillion, and you think that by closing loopholes and
deductions for the well-to-do, somehow you will not end up picking up the tab,
then Romney’s plan may work for you.
But I think math,
common sense and our history shows us that’s not a recipe for job growth. The approach that Romney’s
talking about is the same sales pitch that was made in 2001 and 2003. And we
ended up with the slowest job
growth in 50 years.
Bill Clinton tried the approach that I’m talking about. We created 23 million
new jobs.
So in some ways,
we’ve got some data on which approach is more likely to create jobs and opportunity for
Americans, and I believe that the economy works best when middle-class families
are getting tax breaks.
ROMNEY:
I’m not in favor of a
$5 trillion tax cut. My
plan is not to put in place any tax
cut that will add to the deficit. So you may keep referring to it as a $5
trillion tax cut, but
that’s not my plan.
Economic growth this year slower than
last year, and last year slower than the year before.
Well, mathematically
there are three ways that you can cut a deficit. One, of course, is to raise taxes. Number two is to cut
spending. And number three is to grow the economy because if more people work in a growing economy they’re
paying taxes and you can
get the job done
that way.
The president would
prefer raising taxes. The
problem with raising taxes
is that it slows down the rate of growth and you could never quite get the job done. I want to lower spending and
encourage economic growth
at the same time.
OBAMA:
When I walked in the
Oval Office, I had more than a trillion dollar deficit greeting me, two wars
that were paid for on a credit card, two tax cuts that were not paid for, and a whole bunch of
programs that were not paid for. Let’s make sure that we are cutting out those
things that are not helping us grow.
ROMNEY:
Why is that I don’t
want to raise taxes? Why
don’t I want to raise taxes
on people? You said, look, I’m going to extend the tax policies that we have. Now, I’m not going to
raise taxes on anyone
because when the economy’s growing
slow like this, when we’re in recession you shouldn’t raise taxes on anyone.
Well, the economy is
still growing slow. As
a matter of fact, it’s growing
much more slowly now than when you made that statement. And so if you believe
the same thing, you just don’t want to raise taxes on people. And the reality is it’s not just
wealthy people it’s not just Donald Trump you’re taxing; it’s all those businesses that employ
one-quarter of the workers in America. These small businesses that are taxed as individuals. You raise
taxes and you kill jobs. That’s why the
National Federation of Independent Businesses said your plan will kill 700,000 jobs. I don’t want to
kill jobs in this
environment.
The revenue I get is
by more people working, getting higher pay, paying more taxes. That’s how we get growth and how we balance the budget. But the
idea of taxing people
more, putting more people out of work -- you’ll never get there. You never
balance the budget by raising taxes.
I want to go down the
path of growth that
puts Americans to work, with more money coming in because they’re working.
OBAMA:
Let’s talk about
corporate taxes. Why
wouldn’t we eliminate tax
breaks for corporate jets? When it comes to corporate taxes, Romney has said he wants to, in a
revenue-neutral way, close loopholes, deductions -- he hasn’t identified which
ones they are -- but thereby bring down the corporate rate.
And part of the way
to do it is to not give tax
breaks to companies that are shipping jobs overseas.
That is not a recipe
for growth; that’s not
how America was built.
And if we’re asking
for no revenue, then that means that we’ve got to get rid of a whole bunch of
stuff, and the magnitude of the tax
cuts that you’re talking about, Governor, would end up resulting in severe
hardship for people, but more importantly, would not help us grow.
ROMNEY:
The Department of
Energy has said the tax
break for oil companies is $2.8 billion a year.
But you know, if we
get that tax rate from 35
percent down to 25 percent, why, that $2.8 billion is on the table.
The idea that you get
a break for shipping jobs
overseas is simply not the case.
OBAMA:
We’re going to make
sure that you’ve got to have a living will, so we can know how you’re going to
wind things down if you make a bad bet so we don’t have other taxpayer bailouts.
ROMNEY:
I will make sure we
don’t hurt the functioning of our marketplace and our businesses, because I
want to bring back housing and get good jobs.
I just don’t know how
the president could have come into office, facing 23 million people out of
work, rising unemployment, an economic crisis at the kitchen table and spent
his energy and passion for two years fighting for “Obamacare” instead of
fighting for jobs
for the American people. It has killed jobs.
OBAMA:
So we did work on
this alongside working on jobs,
because this is part of making sure that middle-class families are secure in
this country. It hasn’t destroyed jobs.
ROMNEY:
We didn’t raise taxes. You’ve raised them by a
trillion dollars under “Obamacare.” So for those reasons, for the tax, for Medicare, for this
board and for people losing their insurance, this is why the American people
don’t want “Obamacare.”
These are small --
these are enterprises competing with each other, learning how to do better and
better jobs.
We instead need to
put insurance plans, providers, hospitals, doctors on targets such that they
have an incentive, as you say, performance pay, for doing an excellent job, for keeping costs
down, and that’s happening.
OBAMA:
He says that he’s
going to close deductions and loopholes for his tax plan.
ROMNEY:
When Ronald Reagan
ran for office, he said he was going to lower tax rates. You’ve said the same thing: You’re going
to simplify the tax code,
broaden the base.
I want to bring down
the tax burden on
middle-income families.
There are
alternatives to accomplish the objective I have, which is to bring down rates,
broaden the base, simplify the code and create incentives for growth.
OBAMA:
The federal
government can’t do it all, but it can make a difference, and as a consequence,
we’ll have a better-trained workforce, and that will create jobs, because companies
want to locate in places where we’ve got a skilled workforce.
ROMNEY:
And what we’re seeing
right now is, in my view, a trickle-down government approach which has
government thinking it can do a better job than free people pursuing their dreams. The
federal government can get local and state schools to do a better job.
OBAMA:
When Romney indicates
that he wants to cut taxes
and potentially benefit folks like me and him, and to pay for it, we’re having
to initiate significant cuts in federal support for education, that makes a
difference.
When it comes to
community colleges, we are seeing great work done out there all over the
country because we have the opportunity to train people for jobs that exist right
now. They’re designing training programs, and people who are going through them
know that there’s a job
waiting for them if they complete them.
It’s how we’re going
to grow this economy
over the long term.
ROMNEY:
I don’t have any plan
to cut education funding and grants that go to people going to college. I’m
planning on continuing to grow,
so I’m not planning on making changes there.
You put $90 billion
into green jobs.
OBAMA:
Because of the woman
I met in North Carolina who decided at 55 to go back to school because she
wanted to inspire her daughter, and now has a new job from that new training that she’s gotten.
…Making sure that
we’re closing loopholes for companies that are shipping jobs overseas and focusing on small
businesses and companies that are creating jobs here in the United States.
ROMNEY:
If I’m president, I
will create -- help create 12 million new jobs in this country with rising incomes.
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