Live-blogging the Democratic-Des Moines Register debate
Balancing the budget

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is a bit noncommittal on this one, which is realistic considering the years of deficit spending we've endured during the Bush assumption of power.

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is more macho: it's a big priority of his.

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden is making sense along the same lines of Obama's sense-making.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd chides Richardson, saying the federal government is more complicated than a state government.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards tries to move the discussion off of deficit spending to addressing the "structural deficiencies in the economy." (That should be a cinch!)

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton took the opportunity to remind everybody how great the economy was when there was "fiscal responsibility" exercised by the White House. And when might that have been? Not "very far" back, said Clinton. Like "the 1990s."

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