Editorial: What we would ask Obama at the debate

• 12.5 million Americans are unemployed.
• 46.7 million are on food stamps.
• You ignored your deficit-reduction commission.

President Obama, you said soon after taking office in 2009 that if you didn't turn around the economy within three years, your presidency would be a "one-term proposition." Well, here we are in 2012. Economic growth is extremely sluggish, 12.5 million Americans are unemployed and a record 46.7 million are on food stamps. When is it time to stop blaming Republicans for this problem, and why would four more years of your policies make it better?

• Shortly before you took office, your economic advisers projected that if Congress passed a major stimulus bill, the unemployment rate would stay below 8%. The bill passed, but the jobless rate quickly topped 8% and peaked at 10%. In fact, it hasn't been below 8% during your presidency. Did you underestimate the problem, or did you oversell the stimulus?
• You've repeatedly proposed to raise taxes on those making more than $250,000 a year while leaving the Bush tax cuts in place for everyone else. Soaking the rich might be good politics, but non-partisan tax and budget experts agree it won't come close to producing the revenue the nation needs. That will require far more people to share the burden, including some of the nearly half of Americans who pay no federal income tax. Where do you plan to get the rest of the money? And how will you convince the public that sacrifice is necessary?
• You promised early in your presidency to cut the federal deficit in half, but your latest budget, the one for fiscal 2013, misses by about $200 billion. The deficit for the fiscal year that ended on Sunday topped $1 trillion for the fourth year in a row. You also gave the cold shoulder to your own deficit-reduction commission, the Simpson-Bowles panel. What evidence can you offer that you take deficit reduction seriously?
• You have said that Social Security doesn't contribute to the deficit now. But Congressional Budget Office numbers show the program has been in the red since 2010 and is on track to borrow half a trillion dollars over the next decade. According to the Social Security Administration statement being sent to workers across America, the system "is facing serious financial problems, and action is needed soon to make sure the system will be sound." Why do you deny there's a problem, and what specific changes will you support to fix Social Security for the long term?
• Ballooning health care costs are threatening to bankrupt the nation. Medicare spending alone is forecast to rise from $560 billion this year to $987 billion in 2021. Though the Affordable Care Act sets up numerous cost-saving measures, health experts say it's unclear any of that will be enough. The independent board that's supposed to limit Medicare growth doesn't have the tools to do it. You don't like the Republicans' voucher proposal for Medicare, but how will you contain costs if your experiments don't work out as planned?