IMMIGRATION was a hot topic during the Republican debate on Wednesday, Sept. 16 at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, but the top 11 contenders for the GOP presidential nomination also addressed other issues facing the United States, including foreign policy, Planned Parenthood and the economy.
The 11 Republican presidential hopefuls – former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, real estate entrepreneur Donald Trump and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker – took the stage for the prime-time debate at 5pm.
Foreign policy
Among foreign policy issues raised during the three-hour forum were Russia’s providing of troops and tanks to Syria, the Iran nuclear deal, and the upcoming state dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
When it came to the situation with Russia, Trump said he would get along with many world leaders America does not get along with.
“I will get along – I think – with Putin, and I will get along with others, and we will have a much more stable, stable world,” he said.
Fiorina, having met Putin, said America has talked to the Russian leader too much and wouldn’t talk to him at all.
Her approach would involve immediately rebuilding the Sixth Fleet, the missile defense program in Poland and conducting regular aggressive military exercises in the Baltic states.
“I’d probably send a few thousand more troops into Germany. Vladimir Putin would get the message,” she said.
Fiorina said she would also provide Egypt with intelligence and that America could arm the Kurds.
While President Barack Obama’s incoming top military adviser, Gen. Joseph Dunford, said Russia poses the greatest threat to America’s national security, Cruz disagreed and said the biggest security threat is a nuclear Iran.
He called America’s deal with the Middle Eastern country, which would send more than $100 billion to the Ayatollah Khamenei, “nothing short of catastrophic.” The deal, he said, further abandons four American hostages in the country, speeds up Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons. If elected president, Cruz said he would rip the deal to shreds.
Trump took a position on Iran parallel to Cruz’s, calling the agreement “terrible” and “incompetent.” He then segued into comments on North Korea.
“And nobody ever mentions North Korea where you have this maniac sitting there and he actually has nuclear weapons and somebody better start thinking about North Korea and perhaps a couple of other places. But certainly North Korea.”
Few candidates touched on their stances regarding the upcoming Chinese state dinner at the White House on Sept. 25.
Walker has expressed favor toward canceling the dinner given the country’s currency manipulation and alleged cyberattacks against America, though Paul said, “I don’t think we need to be rash, I don’t think we need to be reckless, and I think we need to leave lines of communication open.”
“It doesn’t mean we give … China a free pass, but, to be engaged, we need to continue to talk. We did throughout the Cold War, and it would be a big mistake not to do it here,” Paul added.
Planned Parenthood
Candidates spoke in harmony about stripping federal funding from Planned Parenthood, citing pro-life values and graphic videos depicting the non-profit organization’s selling of fetal body parts.
Christie and Bush said they had defunded Planned Parenthood in their respective states; Cruz called the videos “horrifying” and encouraged all Americans to view them.
“Seeing your Planned Parenthood officials callously, heartlessly bartering and selling the body parts of human beings, and then ask yourself, ‘Are these my values?’” Cruz said.
Fiorina dared Clinton and Obama to watch the tapes.
“Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone ways we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain. This is about the character of our nation, and we will not stand up in and force President Obama to veto this bill, shame on us,” Fiorina said.
Dozens of House Republicans have vowed to reject a government funding bill that includes money for Planned Parenthood. On Friday, Sept. 18, in a nearly partisan 241-187 vote, advanced a bill that would halt federal funding to Planned Parenthood for one year. But the Senate has enough votes from Democrats to stop the measure, while the White House said Obama would veto the legislation if it reaches his desk.
During the debate, candidates expressed determination to defund the organization while averting a government shutdown. Funding for the government expires at the end of September.
“We got to talk about what we would be willing to shut down for. Why don’t we put tax reform on this president’s desk, and make him veto it if that’s what he wants to do? Why haven’t we repealed and replaced Obamacare?” Kasich said.
Bush suggested funding should be redirected from Planned Parenthood to the 13,000 community-based organizations throughout America that offer health services for women.
“There are ways to do it without having to shut the government down, but I’m sympathetic to the fact that we don’t want this organization to get funding, and the money ought to be reprogrammed for family planning in other organizations that don’t support this tactic,” Kasich said.
Economy: Back-and-forth between Fiorina and Trump
The state of America’s economy and how to improve it was a topic that elicited candidates’ harping about their track records. Fiorina and Trump were spotlighted in the beginning of the discussion, given their business backgrounds.
The former Hewlett-Packard CEO offered her experience with the company, how she led it during “the worst technology recession in 25 years” when the NASDAQ stock index plummeted 80 percent and took 15 years before it recovered.
“Despite those difficult times, we doubled the size of the company, we quadrupled its topline growth rate, we quadrupled its cash flow, we tripled its rate of innovation,” she said.
Fiorina added that by making hard decisions, Hewlett-Packard managed to save 80,000 jobs, grew to 160,000 jobs; Now, the company employs nearly 300,000 people.
“We went from lagging behind to leading in every product category and every market segment,” she said.
Trump took to counter Fiorina’s resume by citing a recent paper by the head of Yale Business School who wrote that Fiorina’s time as head of Hewlett-Packard was one of the worst tenures he has ever seen. He added that the company’s revenues increased because it acquired Compaq.
To Trump’s comment, Fiorina responded by saying Trump had filed for bankruptcy four times.
“Why should we trust you to manage the finances of this nation any differently than you managed the finances of your casinos?” she said.
The real-estate entrepreneur went on to talk about how he has made more than $10 billion.
While both businesspeople used their records as a basis for why they could be effective national leaders, Christie said the focus of the discussion should be on the middle class.
“You’re both successful people. Congratulations. You know who’s not successful? The middle class in this country who’s getting plowed over by Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton. Let’s start talking about those issues tonight and stop this childish back-and-forth between the two of you,” Christie said, drawing applause from the audience.
Economy: improvements through tax cuts, minimum wage approaches
A variety of tax proposals were pitched by Republicans during the debate as solutions to further propel the US economy.
Paul, who has served in the Senate since 2010, proposed a single rate 14.5 percent tax for business, corporate and personal income. He also suggested eliminating the payroll tax, which would allow the working class to receive a tax break.
Huckabee suggested eliminating all taxes on those who produce.
“Why should we penalize productivity?” he said.
Walker, who has served as governor of Wisconsin since 2011, suggested a plan based on the Ronald Reagan tax cuts of 1986 and said he would repeal Obamacare on his first day in office if elected president. He also explained by he finds raising the federal minimum wage a “lame idea.” He said the best way people can attain higher wages is through acquiring the education and skills they need to secure careers that pay more than minimum wage.
“The real issue is about jobs,” he said.
Carson, who had nearly caught up to Trump in the polls a day before the debate, offered an approach to the minimum wage by proposing a two different types: a starter and sustaining minimum wage, “because how are young people ever going to get a job if you have such a high minimum wage that it makes it impractical to hire them?”
Trump addressed the middle class by proposing a “major reduction” in taxes.
“I know people that are making a tremendous amount of money and paying virtually no tax, and I think it’s unfair,” he said.
Another tax cut proposal came from Kasich, Ohio’s 69th governor, who also laid out his resume for debate viewers.
“Well, look, people still have to get to know me, so I want to spend my time talking about my experience reforming welfare, balancing budgets, cutting taxes, providing economic growth when I was in Washington, turning Ohio around. Eight billion in the hole, $2 billion surplus, up over 300,000 jobs, big tax cuts, strengthening our credit,” he said.
“We’ve had the largest amount of tax cuts of any sitting governor. We’ve grown well over 300,000 jobs. You see, I’ve done it in both places. I’m the only one here that has done it in both places,” the governor added.
Clinton’s post-debate comments
Less than a day following the CNN debate, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the party’s frontrunner, warned Republicans about jeopardizing the economy by shutting down the federal government by blocking funding for Planned Parenthood.
“I would hope that the Republicans, and particularly the Republicans in the House led by Speaker Boehner, would not put our country and our economy in peril pursuing some kind of emotionally, politically charged partisan attack,” Clinton said in an interview with CNN the day before the House voted to freeze funding for Planned Parenthood for a year. “That would be a very, very unfortunate decision.”
In an earlier statement, she also said Republican presidential candidates’ pledge to defund Planned Parenthood propels a “race to the bottom” on women’s health and rights issues.
