Santorum Struggles During Ariz. Debate (Video), Michelle Obama Continues to Campaign, Romney and Obama Offer Tax Plans

The four Republican presidential hopefuls debate the issues Wednesday night in Arizona. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)Here's a look at what's happened recently in the world of politics.

Santorum struggles during Arizona debate

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney opened Wednesday night's debate in Arizona by criticizing former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum about his record in Congress.

Romney pointed out that Santorum had voted to fund Planned Parenthood and the Department of Education and voted to raise the debt ceiling five times, among other things. Santorum later accused Romney of being the inspiration behind President Barack Obama's Affordable Health Act, and pointed out that Romney supported the Wall Street bailout but not the TARP auto industry bailout.



While discussing the recent contraception coverage controversy, Santorum reiterated his belief that birth control is "dangerous" for women, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich accused President Obama of "legalizing infanticide" before warning that government-mandated coverage for contraception was a step toward totalitarianism. "When you have the government as a central provider of services you inevitably move towards tyranny because the government has the power of force," Gingrich said. All four candidates are against abortion and support a federal "personhood" amendment that would give legal rights to unborn children, even if they're not viable outside of the womb.

Texas Representative Ron Paul attacked Santorum repeatedly, saying that the federal government "shouldn't be spending money on abstinence" and calling the former senator "a fake."



After the debate, Santorum wondered if the Romney and Paul camps had teamed up against him. "You'll have to ask Congressman Paul and Governor Romney what they've got going together," Santorum told reporters. "Their commercials look a lot alike and so do their attacks." It's worth noting that Santorum soundly endorsed Romney for President in 2008, but now says that he was motivated by politics rather than personal conviction at the time.

Michelle Obama Campaigns for the President

She's more popular than the President, so it only makes sense that she'd hit the campaign trail on his behalf. A public opinion poll by the Pew Research Center found that 66 percent of Americans have a favorable view of first lady Michelle Obama, but only 44 percent feel that way about her husband. Since October 2011, she has headlined 11 fundraisers for him, and has more coming up.

Major Romney backer switches to Santorum

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, one of Mitt Romneys biggest and earliest supporters, announced last week that he's switching his support to Rick Santorum. "You have to give people a reason to believe that under your leadership, America will be better. Rick Santorum has done that. Sadly, Governor Romney has not," DeWine said in a statement.

Romney, Obama release tax plans

President Barack Obama and GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney both released tax plans on Wednesday.

"Our current corporate tax system is outdated, unfair, and inefficient," the president said in a statement sent to Yahoo! Shine. "It provides tax breaks for moving jobs and profits overseas and hits companies that choose to stay in America with one of the highest tax rates in the world. It is unnecessarily complicated and forces America's small businesses to spend countless hours and dollars filing their taxes. It's not right, and it needs to change. "

The president's plan would would eliminate dozens of tax breaks for oil and gas companies and other industries, lowering the overall corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent. His plan also creates a new minimum tax on foreign earnings, drop the effective rate on manufacturing from 32 percent to 25 percent or less, and reduce the tax burden for small businesses. His plan would pay for itself, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said, calling the tax breaks and corporate loopholes a "subsidy" that the government pays to those industries.

Romney's plan would slash and restructure individual and corporate taxes and, he says, shrink the size of government as well. He's calling for an across-the-board 20 percent cut in marginal income taxes, with a new top rate of 28 percent rather than the current 35 percent rate. He proposes repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax and eliminating capital gains taxes on households making $200,000 or less, and would cut the corporate tax rate to 25 percent. To pay for the tax cuts, Romney said that he would shrink the size of government to 20 percent of GDP by 2016, but did not release specifics on how those cuts would be made.

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