WASHINGTON — Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana described the nation’s fiscal condition in dark terms more often reserved for a terrorist threat, declaring, “We face an enemy lethal to liberty and even more implacable than those America has defeated before.”
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey argued that the country was headed toward financial ruin if leaders did not summon the courage to tackle the most politically charged aspects of the problem.
Budget deficits and the nation’s growing debt load have emerged in the past few weeks as the consuming issues in Washington and in state capitals, and they are now shaping the early stages of the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
Not a single candidate has formally opened a campaign yet — and some of those delivering the toughest talk on the budget might never do so — but the subject is giving focus and energy to a contest that has so far been largely unformed.
The growing profile of the issue has given Republicans an opportunity to cast President Barack Obama as a weak leader, unwilling or unable to confront the tough issues, and has added fuel to the conservative drive for smaller government.
But it has also highlighted divisions among Republicans about how aggressively to cut domestic spending; the wisdom of supporting specific steps to address long-term problems in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security; and the proper balance between emphasizing fiscal issues and social ones such as same-sex marriage.
And with the Republican-controlled House voting to cut deeply into this year’s federal budget and state capitals producing their own volatile showdowns, it has underscored the opportunity for potential candidates to seize on a fiscal-themed message to break out of the pack.
As a result, a presidential race that once seemed poised to be a straight referendum on Obama’s record — with a particular focus on the health care law, the unemployment rate and criticism over the expansion of government regulation — now seems likely to focus more at the outset on how aggressively the country should be reassessing the size and role of government and the future of the social welfare system.
The first debate of the Republican presidential season is scheduled for a little more than two months from now. Some candidates are expected to make formal announcements in March. But it is still not clear who, from a potential field of more than a dozen candidates, will decide to run.
The challenge for the Republican candidates, said David Winston, a Republican strategist, will be finding effective ways to distinguish themselves and connecting fiscal policy to the broader economic concerns of voters.
