Tonight’s GOP debate moderators know they must tread carefully

[Commentary] NBC questions pressed the candidates on whether deep tax cuts could really be made to work — without increasing the deficit — by unleashing spectacular growth. They asked whether a budget deal that would avert default and a government shutdown (which could still happen, by the way) was worthy of support. They asked whether deep entitlement cuts were required and whether it’s fair to cut benefits. They asked whether a budget deal that traded 10-to-one in spending cuts for tax increases (which the 2012 GOP candidates famously rejected) was worthy of support at this point. They asked what concrete steps should be asked of corporate America to reduce income inequality. They asked whether capital gains should be taxed at the same rate as ordinary income, and whether tax plans that give a much larger windfall to the top one percent than to the middle class are really compatible with a populist message. If such questions don’t constitute a “real debate about our economy and our future,” what questions are we going to hear tonight?