Issues & AdvocacyFederal

Obama, Romney Make Their Pitches to the Country
By Andrew Goldberg, Assoc. AIA, Managing Director, Government Relations & Outreach

The 2012 presidential election has shifted into high gear the last two weeks as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney made their cases to the public in convention speeches that displayed the stark choices voters face this November.

Not surprisingly, the economy was the main topic for both candidates. Romney accepted his party’s nomination in Tampa, asking the country to “join [him] to walk together to a better future.” Romney criticized Obama, whose promises, he said, “gave way to disappointment and division.”

Proclaiming that “what America needs is jobs, lots of jobs,” Romney outlined a five-point plan he said would create 12 million new jobs:

• Energy independence by 2020 by “taking full advantage of our oil and coal and gas and nuclear and renewables”

• Providing workers with “the skills they need for the jobs of today and the careers of tomorrow”

• “[M]aking trade work for America” through new trade agreements

• Cutting the budget deficit and “put[ting] America on track to a balanced budget”

• Championing small businesses through tax reductions, simplifying and modernizing regulations and “repealing and replacing” the 2010 health reform law

A week later, President Obama accepted his party’s nomination for a second term in Charlotte, telling the public that the “path we offer may be harder, but it leads to a better place.” Obama said he offered the voters a choice, between “a strategy that reverses [our] progress or one that builds on it.”

Calling his campaign “a fight to restore the values that built the largest middle class and the strongest economy the world has ever known,” Obama offered several policy proposals:

• A “future where we keep investing in wind and solar and clean coal…[and] where construction workers build homes and factories that waste less energy”

• Plans to “help big factories and small businesses double their exports”

• Policies to “recruit 100,000 math and science teachers within ten years” and to “cut in half the growth of tuition costs over the next ten years”

• A plan to cut federal deficits by $4 trillion and “reform the tax code so that’s it’s simple, fair, and asks the wealthiest households to pay higher taxes on incomes over $250,000”

Just as notable for architects as what the candidates said was what they did not mention. Neither candidate directly addressed how they would provide funding for the country’s infrastructure, and neither discussed making access to financing more available for small businesses, particularly in the hard-hit design and construction sector.

Romney and Obama also did not confront the reality that no matter who wins in November, they will have to work with a Congress where it is almost certain that neither party will have a commanding majority. This means that many of their plans for the next four years may have difficulty advancing on Capitol Hill.

Over the coming weeks, the AIA Government and Community Relations team will explore in more detail where the two candidates stand on key issues that affect architects and the built environment. Stay tuned to the Issues & Advocacy page for additional updates, and you can also find more information on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

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