ON OIL AND ENERGY
Obama: "The most important thing we can do is to make sure we control our own energy. ... We have increased oil production to the highest levels in 16 years. Natural gas production is the highest it's been in decades. We have seen increases in coal production and coal employment."
Romney: "Look, I want to make sure we use our oil, our coal, our gas, our nuclear, our renewables. I believe very much in our renewable capabilities; ethanol, wind, solar will be an important part of our energy mix. But what we don't need is to have the president keeping us from taking advantage of oil, coal and gas."
ON MIDDLE CLASS AND TAXES
Obama: "I want to give middle-class families, and folks who are striving to get in the middle class, some relief. ... What I've said is your first $250,000 worth of income, no change. And that means 98 percent of American families, 97 percent of small businesses, they will not see a tax increase.
Romney: "I want to simplify the tax code, and I want to get middle-income taxpayers to have lower taxes. ... Now, how about deductions? Because I'm going to bring rates down across the board for everybody, but I'm going to limit deductions and exemptions and credits, particularly for people at the high end.
ON THE DEFICIT
Obama: "If somebody came to you, Governor, with a plan that said, here; I want to spend 7 (trillion dollars) or $8 trillion, and then we're going to pay for it, but we can't tell you until maybe after the election how we're going to do it, you wouldn't have taken such a sketchy deal. And neither should you, the American people, because the math doesn't add up."
Romney: "Of course they add up. ... I was someone who ran businesses for 25 years and balanced the budget. ... When we're talking about math that doesn't add up, how about $4 trillion of deficits over the last four years, 5 trillion (dollars). That's math that doesn't add up."
ON WOMEN AND PAY EQUITY
Obama: "The first bill I signed was something called the Lilly Ledbetter [Fair Pay] bill. ... And that's an example of the kind of advocacy that we need because women are increasingly the breadwinners in the family. This is not just a women's issue. This is a family issue. This is a middle-class issue."
Romney: "Now, one of the reasons I was able to get so many good women to be part of that team [while Massachusetts governor] was because of our recruiting effort, but number two, because I recognized that if you're going to have women in the workforce, that sometimes they need to be more flexible."
