Courtesy of Pam Martens.
Mitt Romney and President Obama in Their First Presidential Debate, October 3, 2012
(1) Mr. President, both Ron Ruskind and Sheila Bair have written books that suggest that your Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, is a tool of Wall Street and, specifically, Citigroup. Mr. Suskind indicated that you had instructed Mr. Geithner to unwind Citigroup and he ignored your order. Will you tell Americans once and for all if that is true, and if it is, why the President of the United States would tolerate insubordination from his Treasury Secretary.
(2) Governor Romney, you and your running mate, Paul Ryan, believe we have too much government: too many governmental controls in business, too many government entitlement programs. But when it comes to women’s bodies and abortion, you advocate letting the government control. Can you explain the seeming dichotomy of your logic and, also, why it would be humane to bring unwanted children into a country where one in every five children live below the poverty level.
(3) Mr. President, many of your loyal 2008 base of supporters felt sold out when you populated your administration with Wall Street sycophants. Some of us understand that the President must walk a tight rope between proper regulation of rapacious capitalism and going so far as to drive Wall Street out of the United States – to London’s Canary Wharf, for example, where our country becomes the target rather than the home with no ability at all to regulate the serial misdeeds. What can you sincerely say you have learned in this regard from the last four years and what steps will you take in the next four to prevent another 2008 financial crisis.
(4) Governor Romney, many Americans believe that the President of the United States should be above reproach and his background completely transparent. There is more than just the public’s peace of mind at issue. A political leader with skeletons in his closet is someone who could be compromised through blackmail or become a national security risk. In that vein, can you explain why the American people should trust someone who has tens of millions of dollars in offshore accounts and will not disclose more than two years of tax returns.
(5) President Obama, can you explain in simple, clear terms to the American people why too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks that brought the county to the financial brink in 2008 were allowed to grow even larger and more systemically dangerous by acquiring other large banks during the tumultuous days of 2008.
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