Senators Seek Presidential Debate on Bowles-Simpson Recommendations
August 1, 2012
WASHINGTON – August 1, 2012 – U.S. Senators Joe Lieberman(I-Connecticut), Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia), Lindsey Graham (R-SouthCarolina) and Mark Pryor (D-Arkansas) sent a letter to the Co-Chairs ofthe nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates requesting that thefirst of the three officially-sponsored debates, which will addressdomestic policy, devote specific attention on how the candidates wouldget our fiscal house in order.
“We request that you ask thepresidential candidates which of the recommendations of the NationalCommission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform they would adopt as partof their plan to reduce the deficit,” wrote the senators. “We hope thatsuch a debate would begin a national discussion that results in aconsensus that both of our major national parties can endorse to reducethe deficit and place our nation’s economy on a path to futuregrowth.” Text of the letter is below and a signed PDF is attached.
Dear Mr. Farenkopf and Mr. McCurry:
We write as Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, who all agree onone thing: the nearly $16 trillion national debt, which is growing byalmost $2 trillion per year, is one of the great moral issues andthreats facing our nation.
In light of the gravity of this issue, we believe that the DebateCommission should ask each presidential candidate to devote specific andextensive attention to the question of how the candidates would get ournation’s fiscal house back in order during the first debate dedicatedto domestic policy.
Specifically, we request that you ask the presidential candidates whichof the recommendations of the National Commission on FiscalResponsibility and Reform they would adopt as part of their plan toreduce the deficit. As part of this discussion, we believe that it wouldbe essential to engage the candidates in a detailed discussion of theirpriorities for tax and entitlement reform.
We hope that such a debate would begin a national discussion thatresults in a consensus that both of our major national parties canendorse to reduce the deficit and place our nation’s economy on a pathto future growth.
