Randy Krehbiel
Tulsa World
U.S. Senate candidates T.W. Shannon and James Lankford sharpened their selling points — and their bullet points — for a nearly statewide audience Wednesday night during a head-to-head debate televised in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.
The two leading candidates to succeed U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn did their best to polish the images they have projected over the past six months.
Shannon hammered away at what he portrayed as a weak-kneed Congress that is unable to control spending or a president run amok.
“There are differences between Rep. Lankford and I,” said Shannon. “That particularly pertains to the most important issue facing our country, and that’s the debt.
“We continue to have politicians in Congress — Republican and Democrat — who continue to increase our debt,” said Shannon, by implication including Lankford, Oklahoma’s 5th District Congressman. “It has to stop.”
Lankford continued to present himself as the more experienced and savvy of the two. He said his 3½ years in the House of Representatives, all of it as a member of the Budget Committee, has taught him that balancing the budget is not as easy as some people think.
“This is a difficult, complicated issue,” Lankford said. “It requires real thought. It requires the ability to take a long look and say, ‘How do we work ourselves out of this hole? Take it a step at a time, but actually do something that works.’ “
For those who have followed the campaigns, the debate — which originated at Griffin Communications Media Center in Tulsa and was broadcast by KOTV, Channel 6 and KWTV, Channel 9 in Oklahoma City — revealed little new about Lankford and Shannon.
Shannon, finishing his fourth term in the Oklahoma House of Representatives representing a Lawton district, played up his experience as speaker during the 2013 session.
He repeated his call for repealing the federal minimum wage, eliminating or phasing out most federal medical care programs, and doing away with the Environmental Protection Agency and all federal involvement in education.
He and Lankford both seemed vaguely amenable to the idea of doing away with most federal employment laws, in fact.
Attacks, while indirect, were sometimes quite pointed.
“Ultimately,” Shannon said, “the greatest (internal) threat are politicians who continue to go to Washington and vote for more debt and vote for more spending.”
With him as speaker, Shannon said the state had balanced its budget and Congress should do the same.
Lankford, after hearing substantially the same thing several times, said, “Every — every — speaker of the (Oklahoma) House has balanced the state budget. It’s constitutionally required.”
Five other candidates are in the GOP primary, but Lankford and Shannon seem to be far clear of the field heading into Tuesday’s primary.
Shannon and Lankford both seem up to the task, but Shannon was the most resolved about the issues. Lankford seemed less committed to attacking the federal debt issues which both candidates agreed is the biggest threat to the USA. Lankford seemed to be focused on running as the candidate of experience. They look about the same age to me. Both would be acceptable.
Congressman Lankford is critical of the Speaker’s ability to balance the budget saying it is constitutionally required?
That sounds more like a solution to me! How about requiring it of Congress?
Oh yeah, they don’t have to pay attention to the Constitution, silly me.
There is no federal Constitutional requirement to balance the budget, so Congress isn’t ignoring the Constitution on that issue. Lankford has been vocal about supporting a federal balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
http://lankford.house.gov/floor-speech-support-balanced-budget-amendment
The point he was making here is that Speaker Shannon bragging about balancing the state budget is pointless, because our state Constitution requires it to be balanced. He didn’t do anything special, so there is no point in bragging about it.
Then again, if you are incurring more debt via bond issues, your idea of a balanced budget needs work.
Brogdon gets my vote.