The Republicans Pretend to Debate Economic Policy
As a public service to my fellow TPM’ers, I watched the Tuesday night’s Republican debate—the one focusing on the economy.
It’s too easy to make fun of the process and lack of substance of these debates. I can’t imagine we learn much from, for example, the “lightening round:” thirty second answers to pressing policy questions.
To the extent that these seemingly endless primary debates are useful, perhaps they’re answering amorphous questions like: was X presidential enough? Did Y seem likeable? Did X stand up to Y? Who got trapped in a gotcha moment?
I’m neither interested in nor qualified to answer these questions. Instead, allow me to plumb this theme: where are these guys really at on the role of government?
