Speaker Boehner,

As an ardent Obama follower for many years, yesterday at George Washington University, I saw the President fail—with finger-pointing and blame game tactics, I saw a President trying to protect himself from criticism. A President I had supported so long had shown that, at this moment, he did not know what to do. Then, all eyes turned to you—the leader of the House and a person who stood after the 2010 election and said the “winners were the American people.”

It has been 101 days since you were sworn in, but, you still haven’t come out completely against the Democrats. By taking government shutdown off the table, you were the one who appeared to be making a concession—something that we all could not get behind. The spending cuts, claimed at $38.5 Billion, turned out to only save close to $352 million from non-war accounts—far less than what your own party expected[1]. Most of your cuts were found in ‘spending authority’ and accounts that would have never been touched at all. Conservatives everywhere are clamoring to watch your response and effectively you are choosing to not help those freshmen senators promised their constituents a fundamental change in Washington. You are on the verge of cutting those Tea Partiers loose and fracturing your party—effectively splitting the votes and making it very difficult for election in 2012.

I am not a fan of backing down, that is not what my country was founded upon—and I assure you my vote will not be cast for those who will not stand for what is right at the most dire of situations. I expect to see more spirited fight when trying to help pass Rep. Ryan’s plan [2] as we move forward to actually trim the deficit so it does not fall on the shoulders of my generation. Speaker Boehner, we, the people are waiting for your next move…

-America

Sources:

[1] http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/04/14/congress-ready-close-budget-books-2011/#comment

[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwv5EbxXSmE

Mitt Romney didn’t deliver his ‘exploratory committee’ speech from his office. The speech wasn’t delivered in ‘small town America.’ The speech wasn’t recorded in front of 100,000 screaming fans in a major U.S. city. It was recorded…at a college. And that, meant a lot to me. It meant a lot to me that in the first ten seconds of his video he says, “[college students] wonder if they will find good jobs when they graduate.” To know that there is a candidate that sees that jobs for college students are an issue—and is working hard to find a solution to that issue. But, what does his record show in job creation?

Mitt Romney was Governor of the State of Massachusetts from 2003-2007, and it was a period of huge expansion for the state. How successful was it? During that time period, it was #1 per capita in patents, NIH funding, R&D funding, AND college-degree holding adults in the nation [1]. Additionally, exports, sales, and median household income grew during his time as Governor. All of these great economic indicators…but this blog isn’t about economics—it’s about the number one election issue: jobs.

And…Romney’s job record is absolutely stellar. In December 2003, 3.18 Million Technology-related jobs were in the state, after he left—his policies, based on growth in Technology sector and jobs, were anticipated to grow to 3.30 Million jobs. And unemployment in the state? In January 2003, it was at 6.3% and after his term was over, the unemployment rate fell to 4.4%. If you are still not  a believer on how valuable he is to job creation—the current unemployment rate (in a post-Romney Massachusetts) is 8.7%[2].

That—is a change I can believe in.

Sources:

[1] http://www.masstech.org/institute2009/the_index/index2008-21909.pdf

[2] http://bit.ly/f4wFpD

I am far from an economist, in fact, I got a B in that class. But, I read articles on a pretty frequent basis saying that the recession is over (1). Yet, I look around and see college graduates struggling for jobs. I am a strong believer in higher education and the benefits that it provides. So, what are the facts? I did some research on my own to try and track down the statistics.

Let’s look at overall employment, in March 2009 (somewhere in the middle of the recession, according to ‘experts’) unemployment hovered at a little below 9%, currently—that figure is at…8.8%(2). This unemployment level is the highest it has been in almost 30 years (3) College graduate unemployment is at 5% (4), though much lower than the national average, is still a troubling statistic. One in every twenty students, who could have paid up to $35,000 per year in fees and tuition costs, will be without work once they enter the ‘real world’ (as a note, college tuition fees are going up an average of 5.9% a year). And the final straw? Starting salary for college graduates fell by almost $400 in the last year(5).

 This is a crucial turning point in the fact that very little has gotten better since the housing crisis occurred (some experts even trace back the issue to December 2007). But the issue is not what started the crisis, but rather what has been done to fix it. Unfortunately, the numbers paint a bleak picture for degree-holding students. This begs the question—what has been done to help jobs in the last 3 years? Apparently very little, and still they want to tell us that the ‘recession is over.’

(1) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/20/the-recession-is-over-say_n_731450.html

(2)http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

(3) ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/lf/aat1.txt

(4) http://www.bls.gov/news.release/hsgec.nr0.htm

(5) http://www.ehow.com/facts_7298687_average-starting-salary-college-graduate.html

On January 20th, 2009, I was on the National Mall with my girlfriend as Barack Obama was sworn in as the 42nd President of the United States. As a staunch liberal supporter (as many college students are), I felt a ray of hope after the election and had packed up and made the trek to Washington D.C. to see the election.  It was a moving moment to many people of color, like myself, who saw it as a defining point in our national history. Promises were abound aboutchange and hope. But, as I am on the cusp of graduation, I see that the change that I was promised has not arrived, and I personally worry about my future.

I am a business administration student at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, and the job market is difficult at best. I am looking for a candidate in 2012 who can create jobs and opportunities for young people like me. I have watched so many of my friends try and fail in the job market, even when they graduated with full resumes and strong degrees. They are the reason that I started this blog. I started this blog so that young people can have an objective voice when it comes to the upcoming election. I want students like me to know that we all have an opportunity to create our own change. In this blog, I will:

-Talk about Presidential Candidate’s Policies
-Talk about current issues in the college job market
-Talk about the current political climate in the university sphere

I want this blog to be an outlet for myself and other young people to find analysis of candidates in the upcoming election. I can’t think of a more vital time in our country’s history to make sure that soon-to-be graduates and future graduates will have the job of their dreams and not have to settle for second-best because of political parties that cannot create jobs within their economy.