I’m voting for Barack Obama because our economy is improving, gaining an average of 170,000 jobs per month, according to an October Washington Post article. I see no reason to gamble this on former governor Mitt Romney’s mysterious tax plan: a plan that promises a 20 percent tax cut for everyone and fails to explain where that money will come from.

As if that isn’t enough, I support President Obama because of his vision for immigration and health care.

First, we have an incredible number of young people who, despite living in America their entire lives, lack basic American rights because they were brought here as children. According to the Immigration Policy Center, 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school every year without the prospect of higher education, work or military service. It’s reprehensible that you can grow up in America and live under the threat of deportation.

That’s why Obama supported the DREAM Act, which would make up to 223,000 of those 2.1 million young people who have lived in American their entire lives eligible to become citizens through going to college or serving in the military, according to USA Today.

And although the act hasn’t made it through congress, in June, the Obama administration introduced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows those who qualify for the DREAM Act to work and go to school without the fear of being deported, according to the Huffington Post.

On the other hand, Romney’s immigration plan consists of building a high-tech fence along the border to keep people out, an idea that would be funny if it wasn’t so post-apocalyptic. He opposes the DREAM Act because he thinks it will encourage illegal immigration. However, he ignores the fact that the DREAM Act only applies to young people currently in the U.S., not future generations.

Second, I support the Affordable Care Act because I believe everyone has the right to health care. The act, major provisions of which won’t go into effect until 2014, lowers the cost of health insurance for most Americans, keeps companies from denying people for pre-existing conditions, and, according to the most 2010 findings of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan federal agency, the act will decrease the federal deficit by $124 billion over the next 10 years, according to politifact.com.

Romney has promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act. When Republicans offered a bill to repeal the act in February, the CBO said that would increase the budget by $210 billion in ten years. And although Romney claims his health care plan would stop insurance companies from denying those with pre-existing conditions, his plan only covers pre-existing conditions for those who have maintained coverage with another insurance company. That’s a fancy way of saying it doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions.

So, I’m voting for Obama because not only is it the safe choice for the economy, but also because it’s the compassionate one.