By Maria Aguilar |Staff Writer|
President Barack Obama’s re-election paves the way to execute his plan for America. Before Election Day, the president released a 20-page magazine explaining his plan for America.
The magazine, The New Economic Patriotism, states his plan for jobs and middle-class security, informing citizens how he intends to improve jobs, health care, growing small businesses, reducing the deficit by more than $4 trillion, reducing foreign oil dependency, creating clean energy jobs in America and focusing on education programs.
“You can choose a future where more Americans have the chance to gain the skills they need to compete, no matter how old they are or how much money they have. Education was the gateway to opportunity for me. It was the gateway for Michelle. And now more than ever, it is the gateway to a middle-class life,” said President Obama in his recently printed plan for America.
With the recent voter approval of Proposition 30, students throughout the CSU system will not see an increase in tuition for next year and some students will receive a credit for the 2011-2012 school year, according to e-mails sent to student’s CSUSB inbox.
President Obama’s plan is to have the “highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.” He plans to achieve this goal by cutting tuition growth in half over the next ten years, recruit 100,000 math and science teachers, prevent teacher layoffs and “train 2 million workers for good jobs that actually exist through partnerships between businesses and community colleges,” according to his magazine.
During the president’s first term, he created the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which provides students with an additional financial assistance of $10,000 over a four year span during college, as opposed to the two year tax credit, known as the Hope Scholarship Credit, according to irs.gov.
Post the president’s re-election, Congress has opened negotiations about the Bush era tax cuts, which affects the American Opportunity Tax Credit and goal to help students financially. As part of President Obama’s plan, he is proposing to let part of the tax cuts expire for the top two percent of the wealthiest citizens and maintaining current tax cuts in place for middle class families.
Congress may interfere with the president’s plan to “make college more affordable by continuing tax credits to help middle-class families afford college tuition,” as stated in his magazine.
As Dec. 31 quickly approaches, time is a pressing matter. Congress will retreat for the Thanksgiving holiday and have approximately one month to make a decision on this fiscal matter.
Congress can either remain in gridlock or reach a compromise.
“If the Republicans will not agree with that, we will reach a point at the end of this year where all the tax cuts expire, and we will start over next year and whatever we do will be a tax cut for whatever package we put together. That may be a way past this,” said Sen. Patty Murray to politico.com.
President Obama’s magazine is filled with plans for America and charts showing how to achieve his goals. However, the president needs Congress to implement this plan for America.