Republican Debate In Iowa
By Andrew Riley • Dec 12th, 2007Today I’m going to blog as I’m watching the Republican debate from Iowa. This is not a verbatim transcript of the debate, but I will try to give the most honest summary of what the candidates are saying possible. I encourage everyone to watch the debates and make up your own mind, but if you missed them you might find this useful. I hope you will share your comments on this post as well.
Question: Do you agree our country’s financial situation creates a security risk and why or why not?
Rudy Giuliani: Cut government spending, cut taxes - especially corporate tax. Won’t say it’s a threat to national security, only a threat to economic security.
Duncan Hunter: Problem is trade loss with people like communist China. Need to bring back jobs to the United States.
Ron Paul: It’s absolutely a threat to our national security. We’ve lived beyond our means and our currency is becoming devalued. We can’t afford the foreign policy that we have now.
Tom Tancredo: It’s a national security problem because we’re importing oil from countries that are not our friends. Because we’re sending to much oil money to people who want to destroy us, it’s a national security issue.
Fred Thompson: Our country has a nine trillion dollar debt. A good chunk of that is owned by China. It hurts our national security because we’re squeezing military spending. We need to spend more for the military and less on entitlements.
Mitt Romney: The future is bright. We need leadership in Washington that will cut spending and promote growth. (Didn’t really answer the question)
Mike Huckabee: Most certainly a national security threat. A country can only be free if it can do three things. Feed itself, fuel itself, fight for itself. When we start outsourcing everything we are enslaved to the people that feed us, fuel us, and manufacture our weapons.
John McCain: Any nation that loses it’s economic strength will lose it’s military strength. We have to achieve oil independence.
Alan Keyes: Absolutely a national security issue. Implement Fair Tax which will put Americans in control of their money. This will encourage politicians to limit spending. (Sure Alan, sure)
Question: What sacrifices would you ask the American people to make to lower the countries debt?
Rudy Giuliani: The federal government has to limit it’s spending. The problem is not the American people. What we should be doing is restraining the amount of money Washington spends. Rather than rely on a nanny government, let’s let people make their own choices about their healthcare.
Ron Paul: I think it’s absolutely unnecesary to sacrifice, we want to give people more freedom, more chance to spend their own money. We maintain an empire which we can’t afford, we have 700 bases overseas, we are in 130 countries. We cut there. And then we have a better defense of this country and the people get that money and they get to spend it here at home. There’s no need to sacrifice. We need more liberty, more rights for the people to spend their own money. And in that situation there is no sacrifice and no need for it.
Mike Huckabee: It’s not about sacrifice, it’s about doing things differently. We need to move from an emergency based health care and and to a preventative system. It’s better to kill the snake than keep treating the snakebite.
Question: Are there programs or situations that are so important that you’d be willing to run a deficit to pay for them?
Mitt Romney: We don’t have to have a deficit to have things that are important because we can eliminate things that aren’t critical. We have to focus our resources on the things that have the biggest impact. Let the programs that don’t work go.
Tom Tancredo: We need to follow the constitution and stop exceeding the limits that were put in place by the constitution. Concentrate on defending the nation and everything else becomes extraneous. Don’t ask the government to build a womb to tomb bubble of protection around you - it’s outside of the bounds of the constitution.
Fred Thompson: Yes, the military. Our infrastructure. Research and development. Our entitlement programs are going to eat up our budget.
Question: Who in this country is paying more than a fair share of taxes relative to everyone else? The wealthy, the middle class, the poor, or corporations.
Alan Keyes: (Went off on a tangent and didn’t answer the question)
John McCain: i don’t know exactly.
Mike Huckabee: Mentions Fair Tax, doesn’t really answer the question.
Mitt Romney: I don’t worry about the taxes rich people are paying. We need to reduce the burden on middle income families.
Fred Thompson: Five percent of Americans pay over half of the income taxes in this country.
Tom Tancredo: Everyone is paying too much, we need a different system.
Ron Paul: Talks about inflation tax which taxes the poor and middle class.
Duncan Hunter: Mentions cost of paying taxes to IRS, endorses Fair Tax.
Rudy Giuliani: Have to reduce taxes across the board.
Question: One in five jobs in Iowa depends on exports to foreign countries, but we’re also exporting a lot of high wage manufacturing jobs. What’s your plan for keeping foreign markets open while protecting good paying American jobs?
Ron Paul: We need to adopt free trade agreements with other countries. We should open up exports to Cuba for example.
Mitt Romney: We need to invest in education, in technology, and in innovation. Getting ourselves off of foreign oil. And making sure the playing field we play on around the world is level.
Mike Huckabee: Three things drive jobs offshore: excessive corporate taxes, regulation, and litigation. Take care of those three things and we won’t see the incredible level of job migration that we see today.
Question: Some of our big trade partners commit human rights violations. Considerting that poverty and abuse are often blamed for fostering terrorism, should we alter trade policies with those countries?
John McCain: (Makes vague comment about opposing human rights violations, then says he will open up any market for trade that he can. Then talks about removing subsidies for ethanol production)
Question: What specific changes should be made in NAFTA?
Rudy Giuliani: NAFTA is a good thing and it should be enforced.
Fred Thompsonn: Free trade and fair trade is the backbone of our economy. NAFTA has been good for us.
Tom Tancredo: NAFTA has been a disaster for a lot of places. It destroyed the agricultural economy of southern Mexico. Because of NAFTA’s failure, we have a worse immigration problem.
Duncan Hunter: We went from a trade surplus to a trade defecit after NAFTA. NAFTA is a bad business deal.
Question: By show of hands, how many of you believe global climate change is a serious threat and caused by human activity?
None of the candidates was willing to do a show of hands, and they refused a simple yes or no.
John McCain: I know that climate change is real. We have to do something just in case it is real.
Rudy Giuliani: Climate change is real, it’s happening, I believe human beings are contributing to it.
Question: Let me come at it this way. What impact on the economy would be acceptable in order to reverse global warming and greenhouse gas emissions?
Mitt Romney: It’s going to help our economy because we’re going to invest in new technologies to get ourselves off of foreign oil. That will also reduce our CO2 emissions. It has to be a global effort.
Alan Keyes: Goes off on a major tangent that has nothing to do with the question.
Question: Governor Huckabee: are you willing to mandate biofuel usage even if it means driving up the price of livestock feed?
Mike Huckabee: Danced around the question and never gave an answer
Duncan Hunter: Rather than mandates, we should have incentives to private enterprise.
Tom Tancredo: No. No mandates. The market should determine how this should be addressed, not politicians.
Question: What educational standards does the U.S. need to adopt or improve to compete in the global economy? And what will you do to move us toward those standards, and what’s your timetable?
John McCain: We need more choice and more competition. More charter schools, more vouchers where it’s approved by local state school boards.
Rudy Giuliani: Parents should choose the school their children go to. It should not be up to bureaucrats.
Duncan Hunter: School choice, inspiration, change the credentialing system.
Mitt Romney: School choice, better pay for teachers.
Mike Huckabee: This is a state issue, and shouldn’t be an federal issue. The federal government can at least share the information between states.
At this point Alan Keyes interrupts and complains that he’s not being asked enough questions and that he’s being treated unfairly.
Alan Keyes: We have to bring God back into our schools. Our national creed needs to be taught to our children.
Ron Paul: Give tax credits to the teachers to raise their salaries. We should encourage home schooling and private schooling and let the parents write that off. Federal involvement in schooling has brought down the quality of education.
Fred Thompson: The National Education Associationn (NEA) is the biggest problem.
Tom Tancredo: We need to abolish the Department of Education. It should be up to the states.
Question: In light of the big needs and the financial realities we’ve just discussed up to this point… realistically what do you think you can accomplish in the first year of your presidency?
Rudy Giuliani: We can make sure the country is secure against Islamic terrorism. I would begin to reduce the size of the federal government and work toward energy independence.
Duncan Hunter: Strengthening the military, enforcing the border, building the fence. Bringing back the industrial base of this country.
Ron Paul: End the war and bring our troops home. Become diplomatically credible around the world again. End the policy of preemptive wars.
Tom Tancredo: Begin the process of enforcing the borders.
Fred Thompson: Tell the American people the truth that we haven’t come to terms with the war we’re fighting.
Mitt Romney: Establish a strategy to overcome global Jihad. Enforce the border.
Mike Huckabee: Bring the country back together and end the polarization that is paralyzing the government. Before we can do anything, we have to do that.
John McCain: We must make America safe with our military and diplomacy. Restore trust and confidence in government by ending pork spending, fixing Medicare and social security.
Alan Keyes: Restoring the sovereignty of the people of this country. Executive order to ban abortion. Abolish the income tax and implement the Fair Tax proposal. Seal the border of the United States.
My hope, and the primary reason that I am involved with this website, is that people will take it upon themselves to research the position and record of all the candidates. We are at a difficult position in our history, and so this is a very important election. Find the candidate that you feel has the best interest of the American people driving him and then get involved and tell people about it.
