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Former New York Gov. George Pataki says that he’ll be watching Monday night’s debate in New Hampshire very closely.
In an op-ed piece in Friday’s New Hampshire Union Leader, the former three-term governor of New York said that he’ll be watching to see which candidates — if any — have the courage of his or her convictions to “go beyond focus group-tested sound bites” and “politically safe rhetoric” in addressing the nation’s debt crisis.
I’ll be listening for specifics,” said Pataki, who’s reportedly considering a launching a presidential bid of his own.
“No other issue today is more consequential — both for us and for future generations — than our collective $14.3 trillion national debt,” wrote Pataki, who said that his organization will be comparing the debt reduction plans of the various GOP presidential candidates to determine who has the most serious plan to deal with the country’s ballooning national debt.
Pataki, who will turn 66 later this month, served as governor of New York from 1995-2006. He currently heads No American Debt, a group focusing on fiscal issues that has been running ads in New Hampshire and other early primary and caucus states.
Tomorrow night’s debate at Saint Anselm College, which will air on CNN from 8-10 p.m. ET, will feature putative frontrunner Mitt Romney; Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann; businessman Herman Cain; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; Texas Rep. Ron Paul; former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty; and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
Excluded from the debate, ironically, is the one candidate who — as the two-term governor of New Mexico — amassed a fiscal record the other Republican candidates for president can only envy.
When the fiscally conservative but socially progressive Gary Johnson left office in 2003, he left his state with a billion dollar surplus. Johnson, 58, has stated repeatedly that balancing the federal budget is his top priority.
While broadly hinting at a possible presidential candidacy in recent weeks, Pataki plans to headline a policy breakfast with House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan in Washington on Thursday.
I am afraid of anyone that things we cannot have debt. Our country was founded on debt. Without it we couldn’t have financed the Revolution. However, what I am interested in is someone that can control it and bring it back to a manageable level. That person must have a plan to return manufacturing jobs to America. And I don’t mean cars. We used to make the best furniture, appliances, etc until we priced ourselves out of the market and sought cheaper products to buy. Darcy G Richardson should run for President. We need a third party to balance the control in Congress and other government agencies.