Paul Ryan makes campaign stop at UCF

By Vanessa Hornedo

Paul Ryan makes campaign stop at UCF

Republican vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan discussed the space program, the economy and what students should be focused on this election year during a campaign stop at U. Central Florida on Saturday.

The rally brought together more than 2,000 students, community members and campaign supporters who lined up hours before the event began at 3 p.m. to hear the Wisconsin congressman speak.

Following an introduction by former NASA astronaut and retired Air Force Col. Sidney Gutierrez, Ryan opened with remarks about the future of American spaceflight. He accused President Barack Obama of “presiding over a dismantling” of the space program, referring to Obama’s decision to discontinue former President George Bush’s Constellation program, which set a goal of sending astronauts back to the moon by 2020.

“Today, if we want to send an astronaut to the space station, we have to pay the Russians to take him there,” Ryan said. “The space program strengthens the entrepreneurial spirit and commercial competitiveness. It launches new industries and new technologies.”

Ryan stressed the importance of setting a clear mission for NASA’s future to ensure the nation remains a leader in space travel and research, but he offered few specifics as to how the space program might change under a Romney administration.

Equipped with a backdrop of an ever-changing digital national debt clock and a PowerPoint presentation of charts and graphs, Ryan illustrated the enormity of the $16 trillion national debt and said that it is not all at the fault of Obama or the Democratic Party.

“Both political parties got us in this mess,” Ryan said. “We can’t afford four more years of the last four years. We have a moral obligation to save the American dream for our children and grandchildren.”

Forty-eight percent of our debt today is owned by foreign governments, Ryan said.

“When you rely on other countries to lend you their money to run your country you lose your sovereignty; you lose control; you lose your independence. We have to get this under control,” Ryan said. “The Obama economic agenda didn’t fail because it was stopped, it’s failing because it was passed.”

Jack Weiss, a sophomore majoring in international and global studies, said he believes in Romney’s proposed economic policies but believes that in order to win the youth vote, Romney must prove that he has the youth in mind and not just the big businesses.

“His [Romney’s] economic [and] fiscal policies are ideally what everyone needs. The last four years have been up in the air and things have gone crazy. Let’s give someone else a try that has some other ideas,” Weiss said. “He and Paul Ryan [have] proven that they know how to run budgets and that’s what needs to happen.”

Ryan continued his speech by referencing a recent presidential candidate forum on the Spanish-speaking channel, Univision, during which Obama was pressed on the issue of immigration and his unfulfilled 2008 promises of reform.

“The president said he admitted that he can’t change Washington from the inside. Why do we send presidents to Washington in the first place? Don’t you send presidents to Washington to change Washington, to fix the mess in Washington? If President Obama admits that he can’t change Washington, then we need to change presidents,” Ryan said.

According to a June Gallup poll, 20 percent of U.S. Hispanics believe immigration is among the most important issues this election year and are equally as concerned about health care and unemployment rates.

Health care seemed to be a major concern for many of the students who attended the rally. Erin Wagstaff, a senior majoring in health sciences, is a registered Republican prepared to vote for Romney on Election Day. As a person with diabetes, Wagstaff said health care is a deciding factor for her.

“Right now, with Obamacare, if my insurance coverage drops, no one can pick me and so that means I can’t get insurance from anyone because I have a pre-existing condition, and that’s a huge thing,” Wagstaff said. “Mitt Romney’s taking that away.”

Besides health care, student loan debt has been a major topic of discussion during the presidential speeches by both candidates.

“If he wants to energize the youth he needs to focus on youth issues like getting jobs after they graduate; he needs to hammer that, whenever he comes to a UCF campus that’s what he needs to be talking about,” said Matthew Hoban, a freshman Aerospace Engineering major. “Pell grants, student loans, jobs after graduation [and] college issues is what they need to be talking about on a college campus.”

Although Ryan did not discuss this in great detail, Romney’s campaign website describes plans to ensure that Pell Grants grow at the rate of inflation, so that all Americans have the opportunity to get a good education. He also plans to create 12 million jobs by the end of his first term in office.

If elected, Ryan, 40, will be the second-youngest vice president in American history, following in the footsteps of Richard Nixon, who was 39 years old at the start of his vice presidency.

Current polls conducted by NBC News and Fox News both show Obama maintaining the lead with 49 percent of voters, while Romney is following closely behind at 44 percent.

Ryan spent the weekend campaigning throughout Florida, stopping in Miami to speak in Little Havana before his UCF appearance. He also made stops at the University of Miami and in Sarasota, working to gain a hold on Florida’s 29 electoral votes.

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