How not ready for prime time is Alaska Senate Republican candidate Joe Miller? You decide. This is a long clip, and a bit of it is transcribed below.
MILLER: I think the question is what is the role of the federal government? Right now we've grown the federal government into such a size we have, I think we have, what -- in absolute terms now, $13.4 trillion in debt. If you look at the future unfunded obligation, a lot of those are the entitlement programs, by some estimates $130 trillion. That is unsustainable. That's just the facts. And I think Americans recognize that those are the facts. The exciting thing is Americans are looking for answers. Alaskans are looking for answers. Here in Alaska, 40 percent of our economy in Alaska is somewhat derived from the federal government. If we continue say things have to continue the way they are, the expansion from the government which is unconstitutional in many ways is the future, it's a dead-end road. Particularly for this state, because of the impending bankruptcy --
WALLACE: Mr. Miller, if I may, I'm not sure you answered my question. Why are unemployment benefits unconstitutional? In the time of a tough economy, recession, and now kind of a jobless recovery, what are you going to do for the 44 million people who are living in poverty?
MILLER: I think what you need to look at is the context. We had an extension of unemployment benefits several weeks ago, which is beyond what we had in the past in this country. What we have in this country is an entitlement mentality. Entitlement, not just as individual but even at the state level. If all goes wrong, it's the federal government's role to get in there and provide for the general welfare and provide for solvency; particularly, of states and the auto companies, and the banks. Everything else that fails, the government should be involved in bailing out. The Constitution provides enumerated powers. I guess my challenge is to anybody that asks, show me the enumerated power. And then look at the 10th amendment that says if it's not done in the Constitution, it's a power that belongs to the state and the people. And I think we as a people need to stop being disingenuous about what the Constitution provides for. It does not provide for this all-encompassing power that we've seen exercised for last several decades. It's what got us in the bankrupt position.
Chris Wallace actually got frustrated with his refusal to provide an answer not just on the supposed unconstitutionality of unemployment benefits but on any actual policy solution he would advance in the Republican party, beyond "restricting the growth and actually reversing the growth of government and in the process transferring power to the state." Wallace pressed him again, "But I'm asking you more than just Alaska. You made that point clear. How would you like to see the GOP handle things differently in Washington on issues that affect the whole country?"
And he got another filibuster on the tentherism, just as he did when he asked about Medicare and Social Security, which Miller asserted are "just like unemployment," which presumably means unconstitutional. He also displayed a profound misunderstanding of how the Social Security system acutally works, saying that, at 43, he's been paying into this system and his "money has been stolen from me." Then he goes on to say that his parents are on Social Security, and that "they've got to continue to receive it." What Miller doesn't seem to understand at all is that the money he's being paying in is going to his parents. And that if Social Security changes to private accounts now, and Americans stop paying in, his parents wouldn't continue to receive it.
Watching Joe Miller struggle to get beyond his tenther talking points in as friendly a venue as Fox makes one almost sympathetic to Murkowski in her effort to hang on.