Millennials play a crucial role in 2016 election

On Nov. 8, Americans across the country head to the polls for Election Day. The heavyweight prize on Election Day will be the presidency of the United States.

Either Democratic Nominee Hillary Clinton or Republican Nominee Donald Trump will be voted to become the 45th president of the United States. For the first voting cycle ever, the millennial generation will be tied with the Baby Boomer generation with a percentage of the electorate.

According to the Pew Research Center, the Baby Boomer and Millennial generation will take up a whopping 62 percent of the electorate.  Even though the millennial electorate is tied for the largest percentage, both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have failed to connect with this generation, according to polls.

Recent polls conducted by USA Today show millennial support for Hillary Clinton to be 3 to 1 over Donald Trump. However, her campaign is not so sound about these people actually going out to the polls and casting a vote for her let alone Donald Trump. The 18 to 34-year-old age group is a block of voters that butchered Clinton during the primary season in favor of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Mainly because his policies of free college, healthcare and several other things were tabbed to get this group to vote for him.

Since Clinton clinched the nomination, she has thrown Sanders out to campaign for her and has tried to take most of his policies in order to garner his old supporters. Donald Trump has taken a different approach his policies to the 18 to 34-year-old age group with a not as flashy and giving policy plan. Trump has promised some of the highest tax cuts in modern history according to his campaign. While also slashing personal taxes, Trump plans to cut business taxes and some regulations so these companies will be able to hire more employees and grow the economy.

Luzerne County GOP Chairman Ron Ferrance believes that Trump’s plans for the country are better than and specifically for the millennial age group over Clinton’s plan.

“Donald Trump has directly addressed the issues facing this segment of the voting public through frank talk about jobs, education and security,” he explains. “All of these issues affect the 18 to 34-year-old voters. He has not tried to win their votes through promises of free college, recycled failed policies or turning a blind eye to issues that make us all less safe.”

Clinton’s plans do attract the millennial vote more than Trump’s plans because of the entitlements she has offered this group of voters. However, she does not mention that these policies of making things free do not really make them free and this is something that the GOP as a whole has mentioned repeatedly. She also is not loved by this group of voters due to the scandals that have followed her throughout her public service life and their love for Bernie Sanders.

Also, these plans would add drastically to our national debt while has more than doubled under the Obama Administration. According to the Congressional Budget Office has projected that under Clinton’s economic plans which she has quoted as “not adding a penny to the debt” would really add $9 trillion to the debt, something the current president has done himself.

But the CBO has also placed Trump on the boat of the debt risers as well. The CBO projects under his plan of tax cuts and not cutting entitlements, specifically Social Security. Trump’s plan would add more to $9.5 trillion to the debt, however these numbers are somewhat skewed because they are projected off the current GDP which Trump’s tax plan runs a simulation of the country having a GDP of at least 4 percent, something that hasn’t happened since 2004.

As the millennial generation goes out of the polls on Nov. 8, they must decide on what they want for the future of the United States because they are making a decision that will be affecting them for years to come. Clinton’s policies will give more people the opportunities to go to college, however their children might not be able to do this under these spending plans.