The Norman Transcript

Opinion

October 2, 2012

Questions for debate

NORMAN — In less than a week, the first of three presidential debates will be hosted. Here are some questions that we would like to hear asked and then answered by both President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Their answers are important to anyone voting in less than six weeks.

On the last day of September 2016, what will be the national debt if you are elected? Our current national debt is about $16 trillion.

What will be the rate of economic growth (percentage of increase in gross domestic product) each year during your term of office?

If you are elected, what will be the total deficit spending each year in your four-year term as president?

What do you consider to be the normal unemployment rate in America, and when will you achieve that goal?

The total cost of health care in America is about $2.5 trillion each year. What will that total cost be — minus inflation — each year for your four years in office?

We are reportedly facing a fiscal cliff on Jan. 1, 2013. If there was no election, what actions would you take right now as president to avoid that reported calamity? ...

Those are some of the questions that, in our view, Americans want answered.

— The Joplin (Mo.) Globe

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