Will tonight’s Tea Party GOP Debate discuss costly government programs like the drug war and mass incarceration?

I am genuinely excited and intrigued that tonight’s scheduled GOP debate in Florida is co-sponsored by the Tea Party Express.  (It is also co-sponsored by CNN, which has me decidedly less excited and intrigued.)  Though Social Security and health care and the economy are sure to be the main topics for discussion, I am (naively?) hopeful that the tea party involvement might prompt at least a little bit of criminal justice discussion.

This debate page on the Tea Party Express website provides notable context for its sponsorship and involvement (with my own emphasis added):

The Tea Party Debate is a truly historic, first-of-its-kind event that will bring conservative candidates for President together to discuss tea party principles, and determine which candidate has the best solutions to lead the United States of America and her people into greater freedom and prosperity.

The debate demonstrates that the tea party, which began as a small grassroots movement, has grown tremendously in size and influence to become a powerful force in American politics.  The Tea Party Debate will focus only on the core principles and values of the tea party movement: limited government, free markets, and fiscal responsibility….

The Tea Party Debate has tremendous significance because it is powered by engaged tea party activists. The Tea Party Debate will be coordinated by Tea Party Express and CNN, with participation and involvement from co-host local tea party groups in every state across the country.  The questions asked of the candidates will all come from the tea party groups and their members — to ensure the debate is about the issues that matter most to the tea party movement.

The poorly-considered and poorly-delivered question about the death penalty from Brian Williams to Governor Rick Perry at the last debate (lamented here) has me exicted to learn that tea party groups  — and not the “lamestream” media — are to ensure questions in this debate focus on the “core principles and values of the tea party movement: limited government, free markets, and fiscal responsibility.”  And yet, as the title of this post highlights, I am unsure (but perhaps foolishly hopeful) that at least a few debate questions tonight might reflect the application of these Tea Party “core principles” to our modern, massive and costly, government-run criminal justice systems and programs.

Regular readers know that I believe that anyone with a truly serious and sustained commitment to “limited government, free markets, and fiscal responsibility” must start asking a number of tough questions about huge federal and state government spending on the drug war and mass incarceration.   Here, as just a couple of examples, is how these tough questions might find expression in the tonight’s Tea Party Debate:

• Do you support the bill introduced by Ron Paul and Barney Frank to get the federal government out of the marijuana regulation business (basics here)?  Would you sign or veto such a bill as president if it came to your desk? 

• Do you consider the modern “War on Drugs” — a federal government program started by Richard Nixon and increasingly funded at the federal level by every President since — to be a classic example of a failed big government program or a notable example of big government success?

• According to a Pew Center report in 2009, state criminal correction spending has quadrupled in the past two decades, outpacing budget growth in education and transportation (basics here).   Meanwhile, the Justice Department recently wrote to the US Sentencing Commission about federal prison spending and overcrowing (basics here).  Does this data concern you and what do you think this nation’s president can or should do about the pure economic costs to taxpayers of modern mass incarceration?

Though I would love to hear the GOP candidates’ response to all of these questions, I will be pleasantly surprised if even a single question about the drug war or big-government criminal justice spending comes up tonight.  If there are not any such questions during the Tea Party Debate, I will continue to wodern if the “core principles and values of the tea party movement” really are “limited government, free markets, and fiscal responsibility.”

Some recent and older related posts:   

• Ron Paul and Barney Frank introduce bill to let states set pot policy
• Might GOP start debating Texas crime and punishment with Rick Perry in the 2012 race?
• Rick Perry’s death penalty record already a topic of press coverage inside the Beltway
• Will the death penalty come up in tonight’s big GOP presidential candidate debate?
• “Perry draws applause in defending death penalty, hasn’t struggled over questions of innocence”
• Path started to place pot legalization on Colorado ballot in 2012
• Why pot legalization fans are likely to try again in 2012
• Effective commentary concerning political discussion of pot policy and the drug war
• Big international report calling global drug war a failure
• “Would Legalizing Marijuana Cut Law Enforcement Costs?”
• “Tea Party = Pot Party?”
• Might Sarah Palin’s sensible points about pot get Tea Party types to push for sensible drug reforms?
• Thoughtful academic thoughts on ending marijuana prohibitions
• Green tea party: will Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin or other professed liberty lovers support ending pot prohibition in California?