The top 10 questions left out of the presidential debate
By Harry Browne
Tuesday's presidential debate contained a lot of words, a lot of
repetition, and a lot of disputes over the candidates' proposals. But
many important questions were never raised.
Here are the top 10 questions that were never brought up:
10. Mr. Gore, you said you believe fully in a woman's right to choose.
Does this mean a woman has a right to choose to get out of the Social
Security system -- or to choose to smoke marijuana to relieve the pain
of glaucoma or chemotherapy? Or is abortion the only area in which a
woman has the right to choose what she wants?
9. Mr. Bush, you said you believe in the strict construction of the
Constitution. Where in the Constitution does it give you the authority
to spend my money on federal education programs, to take my money and
give it to charities of your choice, or to set up a prescription-drug
program for seniors?
8. Mr. Gore, you said you believe the Constitution contains a right to
privacy. Does that mean you'll stop Treasury agents from searching our
bank accounts, looking for suspicious transactions? Will you end all
federal asset forfeiture, stop monitoring e-mails, and take that
ridiculous V-chip out of our TV sets?
7. Mr. Bush, you said you want to give taxpayer money to children to
attend private schools. Won't that mean federal regulation of private
schools -- turning them into clones of the government schools? Or are
you planning to issue the vouchers without any rules whatsoever?
6. Mr. Gore, when asked about the fund-raising scandals, you said you
won't answer such questions because they are "personal attacks." Does
this mean you should never be held personally accountable for anything
you do in office?
5. Mr. Bush, you said you believe in local control of education. Why
then are you pushing for mandatory testing and other policies to be
imposed by the federal government?
4. Mr. Gore, since the introduction of Medicare, the cost of health care
to seniors has more than doubled, even after allowing for inflation. Why
do you want to extend this failed program to prescription drugs -- which
would probably cause their prices to rise and their availability to
shrink, and discourage the development of new drugs that might cure
cancer or Alzheimer's Disease?
3. Mr. Bush, you haven't proposed the elimination or reduction of a
single government program, regulation, or law. So why do you refer to
yourself as the candidate of smaller government?
2. Mr. Gore and Mr. Bush, you each keep referring to budget surpluses.
But the official federal debt continues to grow month by month, year by
year. This is because the "surplus" exists only by borrowing the excess
Social Security receipts and using them to paper over the deficit in the
general fund. So how can you promise to "save" Social Security when
you're spending all its receipts and leaving nothing in the trust fund?
And how can you promise to use the "surplus" for tax cuts, debt
reduction, and new spending programs when there is no surplus?
And the #1 question that wasn't asked in the presidential debate is ...
1. Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore, would either of you be a better person today
if, for your youthful drug use, you had served 10 years in prison? If
not, why don't you propose to release the hundreds of thousands of
non-violent drug offenders in federal prisons?
By Harry Browne
Tuesday's presidential debate contained a lot of words, a lot of
repetition, and a lot of disputes over the candidates' proposals. But
many important questions were never raised.
Here are the top 10 questions that were never brought up:
10. Mr. Gore, you said you believe fully in a woman's right to choose.
Does this mean a woman has a right to choose to get out of the Social
Security system -- or to choose to smoke marijuana to relieve the pain
of glaucoma or chemotherapy? Or is abortion the only area in which a
woman has the right to choose what she wants?
9. Mr. Bush, you said you believe in the strict construction of the
Constitution. Where in the Constitution does it give you the authority
to spend my money on federal education programs, to take my money and
give it to charities of your choice, or to set up a prescription-drug
program for seniors?
8. Mr. Gore, you said you believe the Constitution contains a right to
privacy. Does that mean you'll stop Treasury agents from searching our
bank accounts, looking for suspicious transactions? Will you end all
federal asset forfeiture, stop monitoring e-mails, and take that
ridiculous V-chip out of our TV sets?
7. Mr. Bush, you said you want to give taxpayer money to children to
attend private schools. Won't that mean federal regulation of private
schools -- turning them into clones of the government schools? Or are
you planning to issue the vouchers without any rules whatsoever?
6. Mr. Gore, when asked about the fund-raising scandals, you said you
won't answer such questions because they are "personal attacks." Does
this mean you should never be held personally accountable for anything
you do in office?
5. Mr. Bush, you said you believe in local control of education. Why
then are you pushing for mandatory testing and other policies to be
imposed by the federal government?
4. Mr. Gore, since the introduction of Medicare, the cost of health care
to seniors has more than doubled, even after allowing for inflation. Why
do you want to extend this failed program to prescription drugs -- which
would probably cause their prices to rise and their availability to
shrink, and discourage the development of new drugs that might cure
cancer or Alzheimer's Disease?
3. Mr. Bush, you haven't proposed the elimination or reduction of a
single government program, regulation, or law. So why do you refer to
yourself as the candidate of smaller government?
2. Mr. Gore and Mr. Bush, you each keep referring to budget surpluses.
But the official federal debt continues to grow month by month, year by
year. This is because the "surplus" exists only by borrowing the excess
Social Security receipts and using them to paper over the deficit in the
general fund. So how can you promise to "save" Social Security when
you're spending all its receipts and leaving nothing in the trust fund?
And how can you promise to use the "surplus" for tax cuts, debt
reduction, and new spending programs when there is no surplus?
And the #1 question that wasn't asked in the presidential debate is ...
1. Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore, would either of you be a better person today
if, for your youthful drug use, you had served 10 years in prison? If
not, why don't you propose to release the hundreds of thousands of
non-violent drug offenders in federal prisons?
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