With Announcement of Debate Moderators Comes a Renewed Call to Debate the Debt!

Today, the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates announced the moderators for the 2012 presidential and vice presidential debates. Over the past several weeks and months, CRFB and the Fix the Debt Campaign have been pushing the Debate the Debt initiative to encourage the candidates to debate their ideas to fix our nation’s mounting debt.

Now that these moderators have been selected, we urge them to ask the candidates how they plan to substantively address the national debt and make it a central part of at least one of the debates. Candidates should share with voters how they put in place at least $4 trillion in savings over the next decade to truly stabilize the national debt as a share of the economy and then put it on a downward path.

The importance of this effort is underscored by the substantial support it has generated in a short period of time. Over 18,000 concerned citizens have joined the cause by adding their names to the Debate the Debt petition.  You can add your name to this effort by signing up at www.DebateTheDebt.org.

Here is the schedule and list of moderators for this fall’s presidential and vice presidential debates:

First Presidential Debate
Moderator: Jim Lehrer, Executive Editor of the PBS NewsHour Wednesday
October 3, University of Denver, Denver, CO

Vice Presidential Debate
Moderator: Martha Raddatz, Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent, ABC News
October 11, Centre College, Danville, KY

Second Presidential Debate (town meeting)
Moderator: Candy Crowley, Chief Political Correspondent, CNN and Anchor, CNN's State of the Union
October 16, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

Third Presidential Debate
Moderator: Bob Schieffer, Chief Washington Correspondent, CBS News and Moderator, Face the Nation Monday
October 22, Lynn University, Boca Raton, FL

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Recent Student Loan Actions Forgo $5 Billion in Repayments

The Department of Education announced last week a six-month extension of automatic forbearance to all borrowers enrolled in the SAVE income-driven repayment plan while it is being challenged in courts, adding that they will forgive any unpaid accrued interest during that time. We estimate that the Department of Education is forgoing roughly $500 million of repayments per month, meaning that this extension would result in $3 billion in forgone payments, bringing the total amount up to $5 billion. Importantly, much of those payments will instead be paid later, and so the net cost would be some fraction of that $5 billion.

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