Zac Byer: Gen Y He Said — Romney for President

Read about our new feature Gen Y “He Said; She Said”

Read Jordan Stivers’ “She Said”: Obama for President

Imagine you’re signing up for college classes.  You find one that sounds too good to be true – something like “The History of Rock and Roll.”  The professor sends you the syllabus in advance, and it’s everything you wanted.  With excitement you show up on the first day of class ready to, well, rock.

The first class is great, but as the weeks go on, you’re thrown for a loop.  First, your professor ditches Elvis and the Rolling Stones for Mozart and Bach.  “It’s not my fault,” he says with his hands thrown up.  “The department made me do it!”  He continues to veer sharply away from the syllabus, requiring extra essays on top of the previously scheduled exams.  This time he announces to the whole class:  “The Dean isn’t cooperating with me!”

Finally, your professor changes the class’s meeting times only weeks before the end of the semester.  Yet again he cries innocence, e-mailing all of you with this message: “I’ve been stone-walled by the registrar’s office.  Don’t blame me.”

Would you sign up for another class with him?  If your boss gave similar excuses for unexpected changes to your contract or workplace, would you want to continue working for him?

This piece is supposed to be about why “my” generation should vote for Mitt Romney.  I could write about Romney’s simpler, smarter tax plan.  It disregards President Obama’s gimmicks like the “Buffet Rule,” and focuses on long-term solutions like a corporate tax rate that will allow American companies to compete globally and hire more workers in their twenties and thirties.

I could write about Romney’s common-sense, comprehensive debt-reduction plan.  President Obama has added $6.5 trillion to the national debt in one term.  The first forty-three presidents COMBINED accumulated $6.3 trillion.  Romney will cap spending at 20% of the GDP, reduce the Washington waste, fraud, and abuse, and consolidate federal agencies to create a more efficient and effective government.   Or I could write about Romney’s level-headed health care plan.  President Obama’s Affordable Care Act isn’t affordable at all.  Just consider the President’s plan to tax medical device companies to help fund his individual mandate – it shifts the costs to job creators and small business owners, who consequently have to lay-off more employees and hire fewer college graduates.  Romney’s plan promotes industry competition and innovation as the best means to lower costs.  He believes Americans should be able to purchase health insurance from any state.  And he will put an end to lawsuit abuse that raises medical costs for all of us.

I think any one of those plans is a good enough reason to vote for Romney in November.

But none of them are the foremost reason why I think my generation should vote for him.

Let’s face it.  Our parents’ generation is doing nothing to maintain America’s economic stability.  They are passing the buck, kicking the can down the road, leaving us hanging…pick your analogy.  And President Obama is leading the way.

I’m tired of his excuses.  Excuses are for the tentative, for the meek.  Excuses are for those not confident enough in themselves and their ideas.  Excuses are for followers, not leaders.

Frankly, I don’t want my generation to become one so accustomed to excuses that we start to think that’s the new normal.  Today, our President can’t look us in the eye and honestly tell us he’s committed to solving the country’s most difficult challenges.  Just because he, and Congress, can’t, doesn’t mean our kids should have to hear the same hollow excuses from us.

Since 2009, when we have tried to hold President Obama accountable for his failed policies, he has consistently blamed somebody – anybody – else.  First he blamed George W. Bush for the bad economy.  It’s not my fault, Obama said.  He simply inherited it.  Then he pointed his finger at Europe, saying the problems of Italy and Greece “wash over into our shores.”  And don’t forget all the times he has faulted the Republicans in Congress (even though the Democrats passed his $800 billion stimulus, 2400 page health care bill, 99-week jobless benefits, and myriad others).

After he was elected, President Obama promised us that if he can’t turn things around in three years, “there’s gonna be a one-term proposition.”  Three years have come and gone, and all we have to show for it are broken promises and empty excuses.

You wouldn’t take another class with that history professor.  You wouldn’t feel confident in that employer.  And you shouldn’t feel any different when you vote for the next president.

We need to send a message to Washington before it’s too late: No more excuses.  A vote for Mitt Romney sends that message loud and clear.