The Republican Debates

I am an adult independent voter who watched the whole show last night, both the minor four and the major seven, two hours of each group. Several senators, several ex-governors, and several professionals from other fields. Each one obviously an achiever in his/her selected field, and each able to think rapidly enough to reply to challenges, even if not always relevant to the question asked. (They did, after all, have their own agenda to emphasize.)

I personally liked the Ohio ex-governor; he seems to have paid attention to the needs of his state. I respect the neurosurgeon for his manner and speech, but his background in medicine does not prepare him in foreign policy or government finance. Mr. Trump is entertaining, in a manner of speaking, but that does not prepare him to be a diplomatic world leader.

Recent terrorist activity was a major topic (carefully avoiding discussion of gun control.) The proposed solutions emphasized forbidding terrorists' entry into America, military destruction of the jihadist Caliphate in Syria, updating the size and armament of USA's military, building walls along our borders, and filtering out the persons and their communications who have evil on their mind. There was passing mention of the need for updating America's physical infrastructure and the education of the next generation, but no mention of what existing government programs to cut or taxes to raise, or any other way to finance the very ambitious projects they envisioned. No mention of working with others in Congress to even finance the government budget for next week, let alone next year.

So who's going to pay for all this? Donald Trump's personal billions are chicken-feed compared with the trillion dollar cost of modernizing the military, or rebuilding America's bridges and highways, let alone erecting walls hundreds of miles long (which a tunnel or a helicopter can penetrate.

And while you're at it, candidates, let's hear at least a little well-deserved praise for some of the things the Obama government HAS done. Saving the economy from going bankrupt when the banks collapsed, for example. Or providing medical care to millions who were going broke paying their medical costs?