Research Overview
Behind dramatically different economic visions and a deluge of attack ads, this election comes down to numbers. Many Ohioans—and many families across the United States—are asking what this will mean at the kitchen table. What will be the cost of a second term of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden or a first term led by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)? The answer is that, in concrete and quantifiable ways, a Romney-Ryan presidency would mean higher taxes for the middle class, out-of-pocket health expenses for current seniors, fewer college loans and fewer health care options for young people, and the re-introduction of corporate outsourcing tax loopholes that have sent so many manufacturing jobs overseas.
The nonprofit organizations Innovation Ohio and the Center for American Progress Action Fund examined the economic and tax agenda of Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan, taking a close look at how their policies would affect the way Ohioans live and work. The price tag includes:
- Middle-class Ohioans would pay more in taxes while millionaires pay less. Millionaires in the state would receive an additional $87,000 in tax breaks under the tax plans of Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan while middle-class families would pay $1,900 more in health care taxes and $1,066 more in taxes on their mortgages.
- Jobs would decline across Ohio. Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan plan to provide extra tax incentives for corporations to outsource jobs and are pushing policy proposals to cripple the clean energy industry, jeopardizing 125,000 jobs across the state.
- Drastic cuts to federal spending would shrink Ohio’s middle class. The state stands to lose more than $106 billion in federal funding from 2013 through 2022, an average of more than $10 billion a year, from cuts to schools, law enforcement, highway repairs, job-training programs and more. These cuts would fall predominantly on middle-class and low-income families, especially cuts to education programs that would result in nearly $100 million in reduced federal support for education in the state in 2013 and 2014 alone.
- Seniors in Ohio would lose health care benefits and pay more. Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan would force seniors in the state to pay at least $660 more for their prescription drugs each year.