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Open Letter to the Presidential Candidates: You Missed It
By Rebecca Powell, 10-08-08
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Brokaw: Sen. McCain, for you, we have our first question from the Internet tonight. A child of the Depression, 78-year-old Fiorra from Chicago.
Since World War II, we have never been asked to sacrifice anything to help our country, except the blood of our heroic men and women. As president, what sacrifices—sacrifices will you ask every American to make to help restore the American dream and to get out of the economic morass that we’re now in?
McCain: Well, Fiorra, I’m going to ask the American people to understand that there are some programs that we may have to eliminate. I first proposed a long time ago that we would have to examine every agency and every bureaucracy of government. And we’re going to have to eliminate those that aren’t working. I know a lot of them that aren’t working. One of them is in defense spending, because I’ve taken on some of the defense contractors. I saved the taxpayers $6.8 billion in a deal for an Air Force tanker that was done in a corrupt fashion. I believe that we have to eliminate the earmarks. And sometimes those projects, not—not the overhead projector that Sen. Obama asked for, but some of them that are really good projects, will have—will have to be eliminated, as well.
And they’ll have to undergo the same scrutiny that all projects should in competition with others. So we’re going to have to tell the American people that spending is going to have to be cut in America. And I recommend a spending freeze that—except for defense, Veterans Affairs, and some other vital programs, we’ll just have to have across-the-board freeze. And some of those programs may not grow as much as we would like for them to, but we can establish priorities with full transparency, with full knowledge of the American people, and full consultation, not done behind closed doors and shoving earmarks in the middle of the night into programs that we don’t even—sometimes we don’t even know about until months later.
Brokaw: Sen. McCain, thank you very much. Sen. Obama?
Obama: You know, a lot of you remember the tragedy of 9/11 and where you were on that day and, you know, how all of the country was ready to come together and make enormous changes to make us not only safer, but to make us a better country and a more unified country.And President Bush did some smart things at the outset, but one of the opportunities that was missed was, when he spoke to the American people, he said, “Go out and shop.” That wasn’t the kind of call to service that I think the American people were looking for. And so it’s important to understand that the—I think the American people are hungry for the kind of leadership that is going to tackle these problems not just in government, but outside of government. And let’s take the example of energy, which we already spoke about. There is going to be the need for each and every one of us to start thinking about how we use energy. I believe in the need for increased oil production. We’re going to have to explore new ways to get more oil, and that includes offshore drilling. It includes telling the oil companies, that currently have 68 million acres that they’re not using, that either you use them or you lose them. We’re going to have to develop clean coal technology and safe ways to store nuclear energy. But each and every one of us can start thinking about how can we save energy in our homes, in our buildings. And one of the things I want to do is make sure that we’re providing incentives so that you can buy a fuel efficient car that’s made right here in the United States of America, not in Japan or South Korea, making sure that you are able to weatherize your home or make your business more fuel efficient. And that’s going to require effort from each and every one of us. And the last point I just want to make. I think the young people of America are especially interested in how they can serve, and that’s one of the reasons why I’m interested in doubling the Peace Corps, making sure that we are creating a volunteer corps all across this country that can be involved in their community, involved in military service, so that military families and our troops are not the only ones bearing the burden of renewing America. That’s something that all of us have to be involved with and that requires some leadership from Washington. Transcript from CNN
Dear Presidential Candidates:
You were asked a serious question—what sacrifice individuals could make to restore the American dream and one of you answered we need to cut earmarks and the other that we need to switch off the lights and drive less. You missed it. You missed a defining moment.
See, we think the times are pretty serious, that the problems are pretty big, bigger than slashing a few budgets and skipping a trip or two for ice cream. We think the problems will require the effort and sacrifice of the individual, not just the maneuverings of government. When you had a chance to cast a grand vision, a vision that strikes at what it means to be in a democracy, of what it means to value the contributions of the individual, you both balked, as if you are not sure our individual actions matter in the face of large problems.
The current financial crisis is a little beyond my economic knowledge, but if I am interpreting it right, two things happened: banks took advantage of changed rules that allowed them to take on more risk with less insurance, while individuals took on ill-advised of debt without always considering the future. Thus, there are two sides to this crisis, and if individual actions led to the crisis, then does it not follow that individuals should be part of the solution?
Senator Obama, you are right. We are looking for leadership from Washington, but we want substantial leadership, substantial calls to action, not just a call to conserve gas and weatherize our homes.
Senator McCain, you say you have lived a life of service. Do you not have some recommendations on how to serve a country in need?
Do not tell us government will take care of us. Do not tell us our actions our inconsequential. Ask us for something substantial, something beyond our tax dollars. Do not be scared to ask us to sacrifice. We do it every day. We sacrifice for our families, our marriages, our careers, our communities. We know something worth having is worth a sacrifice and we think the future of the country might be worth quite a bit. Do not underestimate us, nor our own love and belief in this country.
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