President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney offered their jobs agenda at the start of the second presidential debate, responding to a college student concerned about finding a job after graduation.
Romney told the student that his question was one that's being asked by college student across the nation. He said his administration would try to make it easier for students to afford college and promote economic growth to help students.
Romney says the nation faces more debt and fewer jobs. He says, quote, "I'm going to change that."
Obama says he would build upon the 5 million private sector jobs created during his first term, pushing for more manufacturing jobs. The president said his policies aimed to improve the education system and promote a variety of energy sources.
Romney then criticized Obama's energies policies and said his rival "has not been Mr. Oil or Mr. Gas or Mr. Coal."
Obama says he wants U.S. energy policy to look ahead 20 or 30 years, and not just look at what lowers the cost right away. The president says he's all for oil and natural gas, but he says he will not focus on them exclusively at the peril of renewable energy sources that could create thousands of jobs.
Romney says Obama has fought new energy exploration on federal lands and that Americans have faced higher energy costs as a result.
Responding to a question about pay equity for women, Obama notes that the first piece of legislation he signed made it easier for women to seek the same pay as men for doing the same work.
Romney says that as governor of Massachusetts, his administration had a number of women in senior leadership positions. He says many women have suffered job losses and moved into poverty during Obama's tenure and that creating more jobs would help women.
The president questioned Romney's commitment to women's health care, pointing to the Republican's vow to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood. He calls health care a "pocket book issue" for women and families.
Moving on to taxes, Romney and Obama both say their tax plans would benefit the middle class and spur job creation, and both are suggesting their opponent's plan would do the opposite.
Romney says cutting tax rates across the board would spur job growth. He says bringing rates down makes it easy for small businesses to keep more of their capital and hire more workers.
But Obama, who supports raising tax rates on upper incomes, says Romney's proposed tax cuts and his calls for increased military spending would add trillions to the federal debt.
Obama said to Romney, a former businessman, quote, "You wouldn't have taken such a sketchy deal."
Romney told the audience they shouldn't either, referring to Obama's plan.
A voter during Tuesday's town hall-style debate asked Romney how he was different than Bush, who left office deeply unpopular.
Romney says he differs from fellow Republican George W. Bush on energy policy, China and deficits. Obama says the biggest difference is that his GOP rival is more extreme on social issues than Bush.
Romney says that he would govern under different conditions that would allow him to make North America energy independent from Arab and Venezuelan oil. He also says he would crack down on China's currency manipulation and cut the deficit by increasing trade.
Obama was ready with a quick retort. He says Romney, unlike Bush, would cut funding to Planned Parenthood and that Romney would pursue a more stringent immigration policy than Bush did.
When discussion of the last four years began, Obama ticked through promises kept as having halted the economic slide but is pledging to go hard after those campaign pledges from 2008 that he has not met.
Romney says Obama's unmet commitments have slowed the nation's economic recovery.
Obama listed small-business tax cuts, health care legislation and financial regulation as measures that helped stabilize the faltering economy.
Romney says Obama chiefly has failed to meet employment targets.
Obama and Romney clash over immigration, with Romney accusing Obama of failing to reform the immigration system during his first term.
Romney says during the second presidential debate that the nation needs to stop illegal immigration, noting that 4 million people are trying to gain American citizenship legally. He says he won't grant amnesty to people who come to the U.S. illegally.
Obama says Romney has opposed the DREAM Act, a failed bill that would have provided a path to legal status for many young illegal immigrants.
He says Republicans in Congress have been unwilling to support comprehensive immigration reform and won't in the future with Romney as the "standard-bearer" of his party.
The topic of Libya came up and Obama says the responsibility for what happened at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, falls to him and to no one else. Romney says the president's team either didn't know all the details - or didn't tell the truth - about the death of four Americans there immediately after the attacks.
Obama says he wants to find out exactly what made possible those four deaths and calls Romney's response offensive and designed to score political points.
Romney says the attacks represent the unraveling of Obama's foreign policy.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
