In person early voting started on September 18 in Minnesota, South Dakota, Virginia, & Wyoming followed by in person early voting in five other states (New Jersey, Vermont, Missouri, Illinois, & Michigan) - all before the first presidential debate on Tuesday night.
Another seventeen states have in person early voting starting before the second presidential debate (eight of these starting before the VP debate) & another fourteen states starting before the third presidential debate.
Makes me wonder if early voters in these states have already made up their minds & don't need additional information like will their preferred candidate still be alive on November 3?
But the trend in early voting has increased as shown on the graphic below & can only be expected to increase further in 2020 due to concerns about the Wuhan coronavirus & Democrats preference for voting by mail - estimates are that over 50% of voting will be early voting including mail-ins.
I have prepared the following list of questions that I hope will be asked during the debates. They certainly are not meant to be trick or gotcha questions but rather questions that every voter should know the answers to themselves - if you don't know the answers make it your business to find out. This can only make you better informed & America stronger.
Whether you are an early voter or plan to vote on November 3 you should also know how each candidate answers these questions. We'd be in a lot better place if our elected representatives knew the answers to these questions & better yet if they knew we knew.
As for me, I'd settle for us even knowing what to ask.
1. What is the significance of the national debt now that the federal government owes more to the public than the economy produces in a year?
2. Scott Hodge, President of the Tax Foundation, calculated that to bring every family in America to average would require the people in the top two quintiles to pay higher taxes than they currently do with people in the top quintile paying the vast majority of an additional $2.4 trillion per year in federal taxes or 74% of their income. What is the maximum amount of a person's income anyone should ever have to pay to the federal government in income taxes?
3. The Social Security Administration clearly tells people in bold print on page 2 of the document entitled "Your Social Security Statement" (available to everyone online & mailed yearly to people over 60 who do not have an online account) that "by 2035, the payroll taxes collected will be enough to pay only about 79 percent of scheduled benefits." Shouldn't we be taking steps now to head off this 21% reduction in Social Security benefits & if so what are these steps? If not, why not?
4. It has been shown that a premium support system, unindexed to inflation designed for people younger than 55 years old, will bend the Medicare cost curve down, softening the 12% reductions in hospital benefits projected for 2024 (two years earlier than projections done before the pandemic). In addition the cost of Parts B & D are 81% funded by general revenue & growing too fast to be sustained. Do you support a premium support system unindexed to inflation to replace traditional Medicare?
5. Ken Blackwell & others have proposed a "cut, cap, & balance" plan in which federal spending would be controlled so that projected borrowing is cut in half next year (not 10 years from now), spending would be capped @ 18% of GDP (it was 21% before the pandemic), & under a balanced-budget amendment the president would be required to submit a balanced budget within the foregoing guidelines that call for super congressional majorities to raise future debt limits or tax rates. Do you support such a plan?
6. Do you approve of the Federal Reserve's program of inducing 2% inflation that will reduce the purchasing power of the median-income American household by $1,370 each year? In addition the Fed's policy of near zero interest rates coupled with 2% inflation is my definition of negative real interest rates. How do you justify this policy to savers, especially senior citizen savers, many of whom live below the median income level, & are losing their meager purchasing power every day on their life's savings?
7. Explain the importance of the connection between economic freedom & overall freedom.
8. Ayn Rand wrote in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal that "A system of pure, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism has never existed anywhere." In 1996 Professor Friedman said "America has been more than fifty percent socialist for many years & we are not getting our money's worth." Explain the importance of capitalism to America's future. How do you see socialism fitting in with your vision of America?
9. Explain the difference between extinguishing civil liberties & allowing violent protests like we have had in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Kenosha, & NYC. Was it a hate crime for people to block the emergency entrance to a hospital so that the two police officers who were ambushed & shot in the face @ point blank range in Compton, California could not receive prompt medical attention? The people blocking the hospital chanted "we hope they die."
10. Do state & local stay @ home lockdown orders that have shut down or severely limited commerce & forced many businesses to close across the country violate the Constitution?
11. What is the significance of the phrase "& subject to the jurisdiction thereof" in Section 1 of Amendment IV of the Constitution regarding so called birthright citizenship? Didn't Ohio Senator Jacob Howard, author of the Citizenship Clause, intend the amendment to apply to freed slaves & not illegal aliens who snuck into the country to give birth thereby taking advantage of America's generosity?
12. How important is the presidential oath that you take per Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution to you? Please point out any responses from your opponent tonight that do not comply with the presidential oath or the Constitution.
13. More & more the legislative & executive branches both run to the courts to provide cover for themselves by having five unelected judges provide the answer to unpopular questions. Doesn't this just seem wrong? What is your idea of the proper role of the courts?
14. What are the consequences that China should pay for manufacturing & intentionally releasing the Wuhan coronavirus to the world causing over 200,000 deaths in the U.S. so far?
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I thank everyone who sent in their own list of questions they would like to have asked during the debates. I have posted the questions received on RTE - just click on comments @ the bottom of this post online to read them. Please let me know if you think of any other questions & I will post them also.
