Why am I voting for Barack Obama?

I think the largest issue facing our country is unemployment and the second largest issue is the debt. This is what I see when I look at my two (realistic) options for President:

In terms of jobs... I have watched Obama (and some of the less spineless Democrats in Congress) put forward legislation to create jobs and stimulate the economy. They put forward the American Jobs Act which would provide tax credits for small businesses if they hire new workers, fund needed infrastructure repairs and improvements which would directly create jobs and get people back to work, helped protect the jobs of teachers, police and firefighters, set up an Infrastructure Bank funded by both public and private capital, etc, etc, etc. 

This bill was filibustered by Republicans in Congress.

Then I watched Obama and the Democrats in Congress split up the different aspects of that Bill into smaller bills and try to get each of the smaller bits passed (in an effort to separate the mutually supported ideas from the the non-mutually supported ideas and get those parts working for Americans). 

So they put together the Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act which had the aspects of protecting teachers, police and firefighters.

This bill was filibustered by Republicans in Congress.

Then Obama and the Democrats in Congress put forward the Rebuild America Jobs Act which had the aspects of the bill for directly creating jobs by funding the desperately needed infrastructure improvements across the country.

This bill was filibustered by Republicans in Congress.

So, what I see is one party trying desperately to fix the situation and even going out of their way to make it more palatable to the other party... and I see the other party just refusing to help in any way. I believe that's because they want Obama to lose more than they want America to recover. I'm not a cynical guy. I usually attribute this kind of thing to simple policy differences, but the evidence is there. The GOP's primary goal is to make Obama a one term President and they are willing to keep people unemployed for years to do it.

In terms of the debt... Obama and the Democrats have a plan to reduce the deficit and pay down the debt, but it's not good enough in my opinion. Romney, Ryan and the Republicans have a plan to reduce the deficit and pay down the debt, but it's even worse than the Democrat's plan. The Paul Ryan budget plan doesn't balance the budget until the late 2030s and still gets us over $20 Trillion in debt by 2020. 

So, if neither of them have a good plan to fix the problem, why would I support Obama? I support Obama on this topic as well because even if his policies aren't strong enough on the issue, he's TRYING. He's willing to compromise with the Republicans and included their ideas. He was willing to offer about $2.50 in spending cuts for every $1.00 in tax revenues but Republicans weren't interested.. the Republican candidates for President during one of their debates said they wouldn't even accept $10.00 in spending cuts for $1.00 in tax increases.

I'll choose a willingness to compromise and get things done over a hard-headed refusal to govern.