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The Republicans had their debate in Ames, Iowa last night.
Recall that the Simpson-Bowles commission recommended closing the deficit gap by cutting spending and raising taxes in a ratio of three (3) to 1.
The 8 candidates were asked to imagine a proposal to deal with the debt problem by a combination of spending cuts and tax increases in which the ratio of spending cuts to tax increases was ten (10) to 1. They were asked to raise their hand if they would refuse to support such a plan.
Each and every one of them raised their hand.
I thought it was sad.
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Medal of Honor Tuesday: Army Sgt. Joe Hayashi
8 hours ago
The incident in last night's debate that YA mentions in this post was the exact moment I turned off the TV. It was sad for me as well.
ReplyDeleteIn the past year or so, there's been a lot of talk on both sides about having an "adult conversation" about the national debt. I suppose it's hard to have an adult conversation if there aren't any adults in the room.
Perhaps that's being too harsh on the candidates. Those "raise your hand" questions can be informative but are a lot like pledges, which I'm not terribly fond of. My guess is that several of those on stage didn't like the question. I suppose none of them could afford to be the only one not raising his hand. (I say "his" because I strongly suspect Michelle Bachman had no such internal conflict.)
Maybe I'm reading too much into it, or don't have a square enough view of the debt problem, but last night's raise your hand moment seems to me to perfectly encapsulate how party politics is so often dictated by ideologically inflexible minorities.
Sad? Very!
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