Gen. Wesley Clark, now a Barack Obama supporter, says McCain is “untested and untried.” The McCain camp fires back (and rightly so, since it’s actually Obama who sports the feather-light resume). Obama “distances” himself from Clark by holding a rally in front of several American flags. “I will never question the patriotism of others in this campaign,” he declares, “And I will not stand idly by when I hear others question mine.” Sigh.
McCain, for his part, hasn’t ever questioned Obama’s patriotism. Even certain conservative columnists have defended it. As I wrote last October, “Sen. Obama is as patriotic as I am.” Difficult to be clearer than that. Still, Obama would apparently rather tilt at straw men than have an actual debate about issues.
And what issues ought to be under discussion? Entitlements, for starters.
Today, Social Security and Medicare represent a third of the federal budget. They’re on autopilot, set to grow and grow as more people retire in the decades ahead. Our federal government already owes $41 trillion to those who will retire over the next 75 years. It’s as if every person in the country already has a mortgage of $135,000, but won’t be allowed to live in the house that money’s being spent on. This staggering debt hasn’t been discussed, let alone voted on, by any president or congress.
A few years back, President Bush proposed reforming Social Security. “President Bush should forget about privatizing Social Security. It will not happen,” then Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid said at the time.
Fair enough, but what, then, should we do to make the program solvent? A presidential campaign would be the perfect place to discuss that. Sadly, though, the issue’s unlikely to come up this year, especially since there really isn’t a liberal idea to preserve Social Security. Sigh. Another opportunity wasted.
It’s obviously important to get elected. But voters deserve to know exactly what the candidates intend to do once they’re in office. If this election was truly about “change,” that’s what we’d be learning this summer. Instead, it’s business as usual on the campaign trail. The more things change …