Election 2012: Economy, Immigration and the Role of Government

October 05, 2012

A voter checks her ballot during early voting in Miami, Florida

From VOA Learning English, welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

And I'm Christopher Cruise. This week our program is all about elections Tuesday in the United States.

The Republican Party is expected to keep its majority in the House of Representatives in the next Congress. Republicans would need to gain four seats to take the Senate from the Democrats.

The presidential race is very close right now. Barack Obama says he needs a second and final term to rebuild an economy that was broken when he came to office. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney says his business experience has given him the skills to get the job done.

Whoever wins will govern the world's largest economy for the next four years. The value of all goods and services produced in the United States -- the gross domestic product -- is about one-fourth of the world total. Desmond Lachman is an economist at the American Enterprise Institute.

"We saw that clearly in the two thousand eight-two thousand nine great economic recession, events that occurred in the United States banking system reverberated right through the globe."

Republican Mitt Romney says his economic plan includes taking a stronger position toward China.