MILWAUKEE – Incumbent U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold and his Republican challenger Ron Johnson pulled out all the stops in the third and final Senate debate Friday night, fiercely attacking each other’s specific policy plans – or lack thereof.
Hosted at Marquette University’s Law School, the debate featured Internet and teleconference questions from select citizen groups around the state, in an attempt to create an interactive, town-hall setting.
The key topic of the night was the economy, as it has been the entire race, with both candidates arguing different causes for the downfall and different solutions for recovery.
“We don’t have a tax problem in this country, we have a spending problem,” Johnson said, who criticized the stimulus package and the health care bills as exacerbating the national debt, which is currently just under $14 trillion.
Feingold scoffed at Johnson’s negative views of the stimulus and health care bills, citing in particular how experts have said the stimulus helped keep the U.S. economy from falling out completely.
Feingold also criticized Johnson’s claim that there are no people with good business sense in the U.S. Senate. As an example, he said Democratic Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl made his fortune from his very successful chains of grocery and department stores.
“Herb Kohl took a look at the health care bill, and he said ‘you bet. It’s the right thing to do,'” Feingold said. “He looked at the recovery act, with his business experience and his business background, and he said ‘it’s the right thing to do. What’s wrong with his business sense”?
The candidates also sparred over how best to handle the failing social security system, which is projected to be bankrupt by 2037.
Johnson blamed legislators like Feingold for raiding the funds to pay for other programs, and said he would be open to numerous options to fix the system, with the exception of raising payroll taxes.
“When the federal government writes an IOU to itself, that’s simply a claim on taxpayers,” Johnson said. “The federal government already taxed us once… in order to make good on their promises, they’re going to have to tax us a second time.”
Feingold criticized Johnson’s response as being too vague, which Feingold said is not uncommon for Johnson on many topics. Feingold did voice support for increasing the payroll tax as a specific solution to help fund the Social Security system.
Johnson did elaborate to say he would support optional privatization through a personal account for people who did not want to risk having the government spend their money.
The candidates did find common ground in answering a question from the Milwaukee citizen group about education, agreeing the federal government should play a very limited role in regulating K-12 education systems.
After the debate, Feingold again said Johnson failed to provide his specific plans to address the nation’s economic and social issues.
“There was only one candidate out there who was giving any specifics about anything, there was one candidate who was just using slogans,” Feingold said.
When pressed after the debate, Johnson refused to comment directly on his opinion of Kohl and his business sense.
“I’m running against Sen. Feingold, so I’ll…leave my comments to Sen. Feingold’s performance,” Johnson said.
