Zac Byer: Gen Y He Said — Closing Argument for Mitt Romney

Our resident Gen Y “He Said; She Said” team — Jordan Stivers and Zac Byer (who also happen to be dating) offer their closing arguments for the presidential candidates.  Click here to read Jordan’s piece.  And Gen Y’s unofficial Hollywood spokeswoman, actor, writer and director Lena Dunham, weighs in here.

Here’s Zac:

Can America really afford to continue down the path we are on?

Can we afford to continue with the same policies that have left 23 million Americans unemployed?  That have resulted in the smallest labor force in over thirty years?  That have ballooned our national debt over $16 trillion – $5 trillion of which has been added in the last four years alone?

Forget about whether or not you’re satisfied with those numbers – I can’t believe you are.  So, the better question is whether you accept those numbers?  I sure hope you don’t.

We must bring real accountability to Washington.  Politicians don’t deserve free passes, especially when they pile even more debt on an already burdened public.  The cost of living is too high, and our national morale is too low.  Short-sighted, quick-fix economic policies and Washington solutions do not have to become the new normal.  Neither does the excuse-me-blame-him strategy.  We shouldn’t – and we won’t – accept that.

That’s why we shouldn’t accept four more years of poor prioritization, insincere excuses, and half-baked leadership.  It’s why we shouldn’t accept four more years of Barack Obama.

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I won’t argue that the economy was in a good place on January 20, 2009.  The Bush Administration gave us a lot to pay for:  two wars, a new prescription drug subsidy, TARP, lower tax rates.  While his conservatism may have been compassionate, it certainly wasn’t cash-conscious.

And President Obama means well.  While I didn’t vote for him four years ago, I wanted him to succeed as much as his most loyal supporter.  When we wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night, we are still Americans…and we are all in this together.

But in the last four years, Obama’s hope has changed to disappointment.

Take the 2012 fiscal year.  The government taxed us to the tune of $2.5 trillion to operate the country.  Whether you think the 16^th Amendment is the best or worst component of the Constitution, I hope you’ll agree that $2.5 trillion is a lot of money.  And yet, $2.5 trillion wasn’t enough for Obama’s government.  They spent $3.5 trillion – 44% more than they brought in!  Not only is that unsustainable, but in Mitt Romney’s words, that’s immoral.

Americans all across the country work hard to stick to a budget.  We live within our means, and we don’t spend more than we can afford.  If we can do it, why can’t Washington?  Why shouldn’t Washington?

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I’m perplexed by the Obama supporters who say the country had unfair expectations of the President after he was elected.  Should we not have believed him when he said he’d cut the deficit in half?  What about when he promised comprehensive immigration reform during the first year of his presidency?  Or that in 10 years, America will end her dependence on Middle East oil?  And how about those health care premiums that were supposed to decrease?

If you want to take credit for your successes, you have to take responsibility for your shortcomings.

Too many Americans are struggling to find work and feed their families for us to give the President a lifeline notwithstanding his empty rhetoric, broken promises, and failed policies.

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It’s time to send a new man into the White House, one who understands that the role of Washington is NOT to facilitate dependency, but to CREATE OPPORTUNITY.

Mitt Romney understands what is holding this great nation back, and he understands what must be done to turn it around.  He understands the basic principle that you can’t spend more than you take in.  He refuses to accept that for every American problem there is a Washington solution.  He actually has worked, successfully, with politicians of the other party – his record of bipartisanship in Massachusetts overwhelms then-Senator Obama’s empty promise in 2008 to bridge the partisan divide in Washington.  And he gets the values that our parents and grandparents instilled in us – persistence, hard work, selflessness.

It’s not too late to turn things around.  But we can’t wait any longer.