And here are the reprised questions (from an August posting on this blog) that I would like the moderator, Martha Raddatz (or some open-minded Centre College student) to ask of Paul Ryan in tonight's Vice Presidential debate in Danville, Kentucky:
1) You were a member of the Simpson-Bowles commission and voted against its final recommendations which President Obama ignored anyway ... costing us two additional years of huge budget deficits. If you could do it all over, would you have voted for these reforms?
2) You have been widely castigated for putting forward two federal budgets that, although they passed the House, died in the Senate. You have been around Washington for a number of years and, assumedly knew what Harry Reid would do, so why did you allow yourself to be subject to such political ridicule for no real national economic benefit?
3) The Democrats are continuing to repeat the mantra that your tax reform proposals will cut taxes for the rich while increasing taxes on middle-class Americans. Without getting too deep into the weeds, how can you simply explain exactly how your and Romney’s current tax proposals will affect the various classes of our citizens?
4) Your suggested reforms to Medicare are being used by your opposition to frighten our senior citizens. How can you here assure our seniors that they will NOT be pushed off a cliff in their wheelchairs?
5) For American citizens, below age 55, you have proposed a Medicare voucher program whereby they can shop around for health insurance that suits their needs better. Democrats retort that these premium supports will fall further and further behind their actual medical care costs … and the deficiency will come out of their pockets. How do you respond to such charges?
6) Your solution to our Medicaid problems involves block-granting states federal money so that they can solve the escalating costs in these programs each in their own way. How can you be sure that this process will not be equally inflationary and, instead of one large national medical care cost problem for indigent citizens, we will not end up with fifty separate state problems.
7) You voted for Medicare, Part B under President Bush. If you had a Mulligan on this vote, would you do it again?
8) In order to move toward a balanced federal budget, I assume you also would pare back spending in the discretionary portion of the federal budget. Please specify what your top three priorities would be ... and how far would you go with Defense Department cuts?
9) You have virtually no foreign policy experience and, since you are only a heartbeat away from becoming the leader of the Western World, what are your foreign policy concerns and priorities?
10) You are widely respected by your House colleagues for your camaraderie and working relations. What role do you see yourself playing, if you are elected, in helping Romney push his legislative agenda though what might be a hostile Congress.
