Right Change: Dems Want Debt Question Barred From Debates

Right before the Tea Party tidal wave hit in 2010, President Obama’s campaign knew Americans were sick of the massive deficits coming out of Washington. In response, Obama formed the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction commission in hopes of helping Democrats in the midterm elections. Once the Tea Party practically cleaned out every Democrat from the House of Representatives, Obama ignored every recommendation from the Simpson-Bowles commission (GOP VP nominee Paul Ryan sat on that very commission), proving once again that he is not serious about reducing our deficit. Naturally, Democrats want any questions regarding that commission to be barred from the 2012 debates.

A bipartisan group of Senators requested Mitt Romney and Barack Obama be asked which of the commission’s proposals they liked the most when it came to deficit reduction. This request was rejected from Democrats because it would force “candidates to choose solutions from one menu of options.”

From Politico:

But that caused Reps. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) to cry foul, writing in their own letter to the debate commission on Tuesday that although the Simpson-Bowles commission’s plan “may contain proposals helpful to our recovery…to hold it out as the only pathway to fiscal responsibility and economic success is foolish and wrong.”

“We urge the [Debate] Commission to fight any effort to unnecessarily narrow such an important debate by placing disproportionate attention on one set of proposals over another,” they wrote, adding that such a question would “cheapen the debate” and “thwart the candidates’ ability to explain alternative proposals.”

The Democrats also criticized the Simpson-Bowles commission in their letter, saying that while it seeks to address the debt, it doesn’t address priorities in infrastructure, education, research and other investments, and that the plan “asks seniors, the middle class, and military personnel to sacrifice more, while those with the most are asked to do even less to help in our recovery.”

“Voters deserve to know where the candidates stand on these issues, the solutions to which are simply absent from the Simpson-Bowles plan,” they wrote.

The candidates are free to elaborate on other debt reduction options if they so please and banning a question on a commission the President set up himself seems more like “cheapening the debate” to us. Democrats may want to hide Obama’s record because they know it hurts their reelection chances, but this is a legitimate debate question. Maybe the Senators should propose the moderator ask Obama why his budget got ZERO votes in Congress two years in a row, instead. Thoughts, anyone?

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