April 22, 2008
People don’t like it when their saints are criticized. Barack Obama has been a saint to the democratic left and during last week’s debate with Hillary Clinton he got the tough questions the media have mostly not been asking him. The media have also been afraid to appear to be attacking a saint.
ABC’s Charles Gibson was particularly good. He noted Obama’s promise to raise capital gains taxes substantially if he’s elected. Gibson pointed out that when capital gains have been cut, even in the Clinton administration, revenues increase. Obama tried to give an irrelevant answer and then change the subject by talking about housing and John McCain. But Gibson pressed on until he revealed that Obama didn’t know what he was talking about and was playing in the big leagues, not the minors.
We need to see more of this kind of questioning, especially because Obama has been given a free ride until recently. Raising taxes is not the answer. Cutting spending is the answer. We can start by reforming Social Security and Medicare and then establishing a commission that would make every government agency and program periodically justify its existence
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.
