Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel are not participating in today’s debate because they didn’t maintain offices in the state. I’d feel sorry for them otherwise, but the rules for inclusion were pretty straightforward and a Democrat who skips Iowa… well, they aren’t serious in Iowa.
Iowans surveyed most often asked the candidates to talk about the economy. So the candidates were asked to talk about whether they’d favor a balanced budget. This is a fair and important question. Barack Obama’s not answering it. He clearly doesn’t want to make a binding statement about a balanced budget, and when asked to clarify said outright that a balanced budget would not be possible for at least two years, in no small part because of the war. But Barack Obama has gotten specific about corporate tax loopholes, being the first to mention the loophole for corporations that move their headquarters nominally to Caribbean islands but keep them really practically here in the U.S.
Bill Richardson calls balancing the budget a priority and said he’d work on getting a balanced budget by getting the line item veto and by growing the economy (by waving his wand?). Richardson would raise taxes on the rich and advocate a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution with four exceptions that would be in place most of the time while cutting taxes on alternative energy providers. Like Dodd (see below) Richardson says that ending the war is key to balancing the budget, while spending more on growing the military too and spending more on veterans, which would wipe out at least some of the savings from ending the Iraq War.
Joseph Biden is doublespeaking a bit, telling us we don’t have to make choices but then by telling us it’s about “priorities.” This is autopilot-speak. But then Biden has the courage to say that there are defense projects that are huge in their costs and that should be cut.
Christopher Dodd mentions the magic wand “grow the economy” solution like Richardson (yeah, because nobody wants to do that). But he says we need to end the war in Iraq first, which is undisputably busting the budget.
John Edwards mentions “protecting American jobs” (fair trade, not free trade) and will change the tax structure to stop favoring corporations. Edwards like Richardson suggests taking away the tax cut for the wealthiest 1-2% of Americans that was instituted at the beginning of the Bush administration. My, Mr. Edwards has big eyes.
Hillary Clinton is like the other candidates unwilling to commit to a balanced budget right away. Getting rid of private contractors is one way Clinton says she’d tighten the budget. Clinton would keep middle-class tax cuts but raise taxes on the very wealthy and on corporations. This is a common theme.
