It’s possible that during the presidential debate on Wednesday evening Mitt Romney will face questions about comments he made about nearly half the American population paying no federal income tax and the numbers of Americans receiving a government entitlement.

Romney’s comments, secretly recorded at a campaign fund- raiser in March, generated a flurry of negative comments from the Obama campaign as well as from pundits across the political spectrum. If given a chance during the debates, Romney could clarify his point by finding better ways to say what was behind his comments at the fund-raising event in Florida.

One approach would be to suggest that every American should pay something in federal income taxes so everyone feels like they have something at stake when it comes to government spending.

Romney should argue that there is a problem with nearly half of U.S. citizens paying no federal income tax. It is true, as Romney’s critics noted, that most Americans pay plenty of taxes, including Social Security taxes, sales taxes and property taxes. It’s also true that most of the people not paying federal income taxes are at income levels where they cannot afford to pay any additional taxes.

But paying some level of federal income tax is important to give people a reason to care about government spending.

Without paying some level of federal income tax, people have little reason to care about government spending, wasteful or otherwise. Without paying fed- eral income taxes, they have no skin in the game.

While every American should pay some federal income tax, many low-income people cannot afford a higher tax bill. To address that issue, whatever federal income tax a low-income person pays should be matched by an offsetting reduction in some other tax, such as their Social Security tax.

The 47 percent of Americans who now pay no federal income tax should not have to pay any more total taxes. However, they should have to pay something to the U.S. Treasury to encourage them to care how their tax dollars are spent.

If the percentage of Americans not paying any federal income taxes continues to grow and goes above 50 percent, the political challenge of controlling government spending will become even more difficult.

Romney also should talk about a similar challenge when it comes to reforms necessary to curb Medicare spending, which both parties say is necessary.

For years, budget experts have warned that Medicare spending is growing faster than the economy, and, along with other entitlements, threatens to consume much of the federal budget. But the Medicare problem will soon be getting worse, much worse, as millions of baby boomers retire and join Medicare.

Today, there are about 47 million seniors on Medicare. That powerful bloc of older and reliable voters discourages most politicians from proposing tough, but necessary, reforms to slow the growth of Medicare spending. By 2030, there will be an estimated 77 million Americans on Medicare. At that point, it might be politically impossible to reform Medicare.

The time to act is now. Actually, the time to act was a decade or two ago, but now is better than five years from now.

Still, too few politicians in Washington are talking about curbing Medicare spending. Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan has proposed some reductions, but that part of his larger budget proposal has been attacked by Democrats, who, like President Barack Obama, have failed to offer a credible plan of their own to slow the growth of Medicare spending.

Romney might risk another campaign attack-ad campaign, but he should not shy away from talking honestly about the problems created by 50 percent of Americans paying no federal income taxes and the political realities that will resist entitlement reform when 80 million Americans are on Medicare.