A bipartisan group of former politicians is throwing its weight
behind a quartet of senators that has asked the Commission on
Presidential Debates to dedicate one of the three 2012 debates to
questions about the national debt.
In a letter to the commission on Wednesday, Republican Sens. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas and independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut urged moderators to ask the candidates which parts of the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan they would adopt.
The senators also pushed for a “detailed discussion” of tax and entitlement reform.
Former President Bill Clinton special counsel Lanny Davis, former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, former Sen. Judd Gregg and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell followed up with a letter of their own to the commission.
“This is about both Democrats and Republicans telling Mitt Romney and Barack Obama: no pablum, please,” Davis told The Daily Caller. “We want specifics, and we want your ideas to be scored before you debate. Take your ideas to the Congressional Budget Office before the debate and prove it to the American people that there’s no BS here.”
Obama and Romney are scheduled to debate three times — Oct. 3, 16 and 22. The moderators and the networks that will broadcast the debates will be announced later this month. Davis and company want either the first or second debate to be devoted to discussing the national debt and the Obama-commissioned Simpson-Bowles report.
Davis said he called the debate commission’s co-chair, Michael McCurry — “one of the best people I know” — before sending the letter.
In a letter to the commission on Wednesday, Republican Sens. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas and independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut urged moderators to ask the candidates which parts of the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan they would adopt.
The senators also pushed for a “detailed discussion” of tax and entitlement reform.
Former President Bill Clinton special counsel Lanny Davis, former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, former Sen. Judd Gregg and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell followed up with a letter of their own to the commission.
“This is about both Democrats and Republicans telling Mitt Romney and Barack Obama: no pablum, please,” Davis told The Daily Caller. “We want specifics, and we want your ideas to be scored before you debate. Take your ideas to the Congressional Budget Office before the debate and prove it to the American people that there’s no BS here.”
Obama and Romney are scheduled to debate three times — Oct. 3, 16 and 22. The moderators and the networks that will broadcast the debates will be announced later this month. Davis and company want either the first or second debate to be devoted to discussing the national debt and the Obama-commissioned Simpson-Bowles report.
Davis said he called the debate commission’s co-chair, Michael McCurry — “one of the best people I know” — before sending the letter.
No comments:
Post a Comment