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A Few Questions
So, with the second presidential debate scheduled for the ninth of this month in St. Petersburg, I got in touch with a number of well-informed Floridians to learn what questions they would like to ask the candidates. I found there wasn't much partisanship reflected in their questions.
All of them, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, voiced deep concern that the two major candidate have assiduously avoided dealing with the most serious issues facing our state and country. There's not much levity in the questions, and in many ways they reflect a frustration with the dumbing down of the political process these days.
Q. Welfare reform relies on the private sector offering jobs. Yet a large percentage of people on welfare are uneducated, unskilled or addicted to one substance or another. What happens to them? And to their children?
Q. Still on welfare reform: Florida, especially South Florida, has a huge legal alien population. How can you justify cutting off non-emergency welfare benefits to this segment of the population, many of whom are long-time taxpayers who are now old and infirm?
Q. President Clinton's own Entitlements Commission warned that unless appropriate policy changes are made, "outlays for entitlements and interest on the national debt will consume all tax revenues collected by the federal government within 17 years." One estimate says that to pay for Medicare and Social Security for aging babyboomers will require huge tax increases, perhaps 50% higher than today. Every politician will say, off the record, that the country faces bankruptcy unless taxes are massively increased or benefits sharply reduced. Yet the president has discounted the need to reduce those entitlements, and Mr. Dole has not addressed the subject. How can an issue, which virtually everyone agrees is real and immediate, be totally ignored by the two major candidates?
Q. Florida and other fast-growing states pay more to the federal government than they get back. That's because of the power of the non-growth states in Congress. Florida will be seriously shortchanged in block-grant money in welfare reform. What will you do to get this imbalance of fast-growth and slow-growth states corrected?
Q. The U.S. now has four living generations - the fourth being people 75 years and older. How can the U.S. afford to meet the health care needs of this extra generation? And how can it balance this enormous cost against other needs of the society?
Q. Both major candidates favor a get-tough policy toward juvenile criminals. Mr. Dole wants to try 13-year-olds as adults for certain violent crimes and narcotic offenses. But criminologists agree that children transferred to adult courts typically graduate from committing misdemeanors to felonies. It may be politically effective to advocate treating bad kids as you'd treat adult criminals, but isn't that simply playing on public emotions and ignoring the facts?
Q. When one speaks of Medicaid, in most states it means federal subsidization of medical care to the indigent. But in Florida, Medicaid is the treatment of last resort to a vast - and growing - elderly population. Medicaid is often targeted as an entitlement that needs to be cut. But if you don't offer Medicaid to the elderly, what do you offer?
Q. Both major candidates have promised tax cuts and both have promised to reduce government spending without cutting such entitlements as Medicare and veterans benefits, and yet spend more on defense. That seems to leave education and infrastructure spending as candidates to be cut. Is that true? If not, what programs do you intend to cut?
Q. Both major candidates have endorsed a policy that lets a small but vocal minority in South Florida dictate the foreign policy of the United States. How do you explain our extraordinarily harsh approach to Cuba and to foreign companies doing business with that tiny, insignificant country versus our dealings with China with its long record of human rights abuses, trade infractions and international belligerence?
Q. Florida, along with Texas and California, among other states, is extremely vulnerable to natural disasters. Since Hurricane Andrew devastated parts of South Florida, many insurers have abandoned the state and the state has taken over insuring property in the most disaster-prone areas. A monster hurricane in a major metropolitan area could cost $50 billion and cripple Florida's economy. Many other states face similar potential economic devastation from earthquakes, hurricanes or other natural disasters. Do you favor a national disaster insurance plan?
Q. Most commentators agree, and the polls reflect it, that there is a general uneasiness among Americans, even though the economy is performing well, unemployment is down in most places and there's no threat of war. Please avoid the usual partisan responses and tell us why you think there's a feeling of insecurity about the future and a lack of trust in our institutions. How much of it can be attributed to quality of leadership of the country? What can be done about it?
Q. Mr. Dole, President Clinton has been extremely generous to the state of Florida in recent months. If you're elected, what can Florida expect from you?
Business Beat - Week of May 3rd
