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Republican Presidential Debate
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Published: December 12, 2007
Following is a transcript of the Republican presidential debate in Johnston, Iowa, as provided by the Federal News Service.

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REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES DEBATE PARTICIPANTS:
FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR RUDOLPH GIULIANI
REPRESENTATIVE DUNCAN HUNTER
FORMER ARKANSAS GOVERNOR MIKE HUCKABEE
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN
REPRESENTATIVE RON PAUL
FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY
REPRESENTATIVE TOM TANCREDO
FORMER TENNESSEE SENATOR FRED THOMPSON
FORMER AMBASSADOR ALAN KEYES
MODERATOR: CAROLYN WASHBURN


MS. WASHBURN: We're going to start with a discussion about the financial situation facing our country, which was the single biggest issue Iowans of both parties wanted you to talk about. I'd like to ask everyone briefly to answer this question, and then we're going to talk more specifically.

The comptroller general has said the U.S. faces a tsunami of debt that is a great threat to our national security. Do you agree our country's financial situation creates a security risk? And why or why not?

We're going to just go down the line, starting with Mayor Giuliani. And please limit your answers on this to 30 seconds.

MR. GIULIANI: I believe that it's a major problem, and it's one that hasn't been addressed the way it should be over the course of the last seven, eight, maybe really 20 years. And there are three major things that we have to do.

First, we have to reduce government spending, and we have to be very disciplined about that. And we have to do it by imposing spending caps on the civilian agencies in governments -- 5 percent, 10 percent, maybe 15 percent. We have to say that we're not going to rehire half of the civilian employees that come up for retirement. Forty-two percent are coming up over the course of the next eight to 10 years. They should not be rehired. That would give us a $20 billion, $22 billion reduction. The other would even be higher. And then we have to reduce taxes. Right now we should reduce the corporate tax. We should reduce it from 35 percent to 25 percent.

It would be a major boost in revenues for the government. Most importantly, it would be a way of dealing with our fiscal policy in the same way that the Fed is dealing with our monetary policy to create more liquidity.

And then there are other taxes we should get rid of. We should get rid of death tax and a whole group of others, but the first one should be the corporate tax.

MS. WASHBURN: Okay. Yes or no. I just want to be sure that I'm clear. Is the debt a threat to our national security?

MR. GIULIANI: I would say I would look at it --

MS. WASHBURN: (Inaudible.)

MR. GIULIANI: I wouldn't call it national security. I would call it economic security. It's very, very important. I think --

MS. WASHBURN: Congressman?

MR. GIULIANI: -- Islamic terrorism as being national security. Economic security is also very important.

REP. HUNTER: There are two debts that are a threat to the national security. One is the budget deficit, which is going to be about $161 billion this year, but the real deficit, the real loss that we have right now that is a threat to national security is a trade loss. The trade loss this year is going to be $800 billion. It's going to be $200 billion to communist China, which is rapidly becoming our banker, and there's an old saying, "You don't want to have a banker who doesn't have your best interests at heart." We should level the playing field. We should stop China from cheating on trade, bring back a lot of those high-paying manufacturing jobs to this country that we pushed off-shore. That means bigger paychecks. That means more money going into the Federal Treasury and to Social Security and to Medicare, eliminate those twin deficits, and we'll be on the right track.

MS. WASHBURN: Thank you.

We do need to stay at 30 seconds. This is not the time to get behind.

Congressman?

REP. PAUL: It's absolutely a threat to our national security because we've spent too much, we tax too much, we borrow too much, and we print too much. When a country spends way beyond its means, eventually it will destroy the currency, and we're in the midst of a currency crisis. Our dollar is going down rapidly as we speak. It's because we have lived beyond our means. We can't afford the foreign policy that we have. We have to cut back. We have to live within our means. If we're going to spend money, we ought to spend it at home, and that is why we have to change this foreign policy. We can't afford it to do what we're doing today because it will destroy our dollar.

This goes on for 22 pages so go to the site if your interested
There were some views on NAFTA that surprised me

www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/us/politics/ ... cript.html?