What the Dems Didn’t Say

The Democrats went on and on during Tuesday night’s presidential debate about the topics they love — bankrupting the banks, eliminating any corporation with more than 50 employees, figuring out what free stuff people aren’t yet getting, and using windmills to cool the planet.

But in their enthusiasm to take down anyone who ever made a success of themselves, they forgot to discuss many topics critical to the future of the nation. Here are a few.

National debt
From the way they talked onstage, you’d think someone owed the United States $18 trillion, rather than the reverse. Not only was there nothing in their statements about trying to rein in the debt bomb that one day will explode over the United States, they contrived several innovative ways to make it worse.

Bernie Sanders offered to expand Medicare and Social Security, even though both are well along the road to bankruptcy. Hillary Clinton wants to give more Medicare benefits to “the poorest recipients” and seeks low interest rates for student loans. Everyone seemed to favor making public colleges free, though Clinton made the agonizing choice to have students work 10 hours a week for the privilege. Sanders, presumably, would have the rich pay for it — or the Chinese.

Muslim extremism
Sure, there was some mention of the disorder in the Middle East. But everyone was too polite — or too ill-informed — to remark on what’s driving it. Muslim extremism, a term Democrats won’t even use, is spreading like a cancer throughout the region, with its acolytes establishing a caliphate, gaining a substantial beachhead in Europe, and preparing to come over to U.S. shores.

Terrorists may strike in America at any moment. But Democrats seem oblivious to the threat. Maybe they can defuse the problem by offering Islamists free in-state tuition. Or food stamps.

Tax cuts
The share of federal revenue as a percentage of GDP is exploding and soon to rise to near historic highs. Yet Sanders said he wants to tax “Wall Street” to help pay for free college and raise the taxable income limit on Social Security to help expand the program. Clinton din’t bother offering any promise of a reduced tax burden on the over-burdened middle class.

Illegal immigration
Stop illegal immigration? Forget it. All the talk was about providing illegal aliens the same or similar benefits to those of actual citizens. Clinton even wants illegals to get “in-state” tuition. She’s clearly trying to give socialist Sanders a run for his money on free stuff for everyone.

Crime
Even as the murder rate in some cities explodes, the Democrats were talking about stopping arrests and emptying jails.

“We have to do something about mass incarceration,” said Clinton.

“We can’t keep imprisoning more people” than anywhere else in the world, she said.

Martin O’Malley bragged about how he had reduced arrests in Baltimore, one of those cities where murder is up.

Guns
Well, of course there was no defending the Second Amendment on the Dem stage. Rather, there was a mass me-too effort to show support for gun control measures. Sanders acknowledged some support for the Second Amendment, but he admitted that the only reason he did so was to meet his political needs in his “rural” state of Vermont. All that would change were he president, he suggested. For her part, Clinton didn’t voice her support for gun owners — as she did in 2008.

Trade
Many Democrats are opposed to trade deals that harm manufacturing jobs. But despite all the rhetoric about the middle class and helping the downtrodden, there was not much said about trade. That’s because Democrats tend to oppose trade agreements until they win the presidency, when they begin to make trade deals. For now, it’s all deflect and distract.