When’s the Right Time to “Study the Issue?”

The full weight of election season is upon us. The misleading ads, the commercials full of the faces of senior citizens (even more-so this year, since seniors make up a larger chunk of voters in mid-term elections), and the mailings emblazoned with the same old slogans and clichés are rolling back into our lives.

And once again, something is terribly, painfully, missing – solutions.

One phrase we’ll hear again and again from all candidates is “we have to look into that,” or “I look forward to studying this issue once I’m elected.”

The phrase confounds me. It drives me nuts that a person can be a candidate for a year or more (or already in office), and tout the importance of an issue in every speech and mailer, but when he is asked what he would do to address the problem, the response is something along the lines of “we’ll need to study this issue.”

Excuse me Mr. or Mrs. Candidate, but shouldn’t you have done that already? Take Social Security. It’s been one of the top issues in every Senate and Congressional campaign for at least the last 16 years. Every candidate says we “have to do something to secure it’s long-term solvency.” But when I asked Congressional candidate Reid Ribble (a man who seems otherwise well-versed on many issues) what he proposes we do about it, he replied honestly, “I don’t know. We really have to look at it.”

Um, really? It’s as if candidates are coached that if they can say “really” with enough earnestness, it will stand in place of an actual answer or solution. It’s a technique I’ve heard used by every candidate, from both parties, in federal and Wisconsin Legislature races.

I heard it from Monk Elmer when asked about the state budget. I heard it from Frank Lasee when he talked about our school funding formula. It’s tiresome, especially when it comes from those who’ve spent many years in office (Gubernatorial candidates Tom Barrett and Scott Walker have spent years in Milwaukee politics. Steve Kagen has been in office for four years, Frank Lasee spent 14 years in the state assembly, and Garey Bies has been in the assembly for a decade. If these representatives haven’t “looked at [issue x]” already, when will they?).

In a district where nearly every school is going to referendum regularly to fund education due to declining enrollment and state mandates, how can a state assembly or senate candidate not have a vision or a plan he or she strongly believes in?

In a nation where Social Security has been a prominent issue for longer than this 31-year-old has been allowed to vote, how can a candidate not have some strong convictions in how they would change it? Yes, I realize it’s tough to step out on the issue when you’re trying to get elected, but it’s also cowardly, no matter how many times you print “Leadership” on your flyer.

Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan gained a lot of attention this year when he brought forward his Roadmap for America’s Future, his plan for re-making the federal budget. Though his plan has many holes, you have to respect him for putting it on the table. He admits that he’s not the top mind in Congress, that everything he proposes isn’t the right fix, but he says he wants to start the debate. Part of that is challenging others to come up with their own solutions to dissect, or getting them to tweak his own.

Agree with Ryan or not, it’s a heck of a lot better than saying “we’ll have to study the issue.”