1. After Iraq, the number one issue facing the American people is abortion and its ancillaries (stem cell research, cloning, Terri Schiavo, etc.).
2. The solution to our problems is to recapture the optimism that was epitomized by Ronald Reagan:
MR. MATTHEWS: Mayor Giuliani, how do we get back to Ronald Reagan’s "morning in America"?
MR. GIULIANI: You get back to it with an optimism. The same situation that I faced in New York City. When I became mayor of New York City, 65-70 percent thought New York City was going on the wrong track. And what I did was I set policies and programs of growth, of moving people toward prosperity, security, safety.
And what we can borrow from Ronald Reagan, since we are in his library, is that great sense of optimism that he had. He led by building on the strengths of America, not running America down. And we’re a country that people love to come to. They want to come to this country. We’re the shining city on the hill... Those are the things that Ronald Reagan taught us. You lead from optimism. You lead from hope, and we should never retreat in the face of terrorism. A terrible mistake.
And this:
MR. MATTHEWS: Governor Huckabee, the question is, how do you unify the country the way Reagan did, a good portion of the country?
MR. HUCKABEE: I think it’s important to remember that what Ronald Reagan did was to give us a vision for this country, a morning in America, a city on a hill. We were reminded that we are a great nation not because government is great; we are a great nation because people are great.
Chris, I want to go back, though, to say why we’re a great nation. We are a culture of life. We celebrate, we elevate life. And let me just say, when hikers on Mount Hood get lost, we move heaven and Earth to go find them.
When coalminers in West Virginia are trapped in a mine, we go after them because we celebrate life. This life issue is not insignificant, it’s not small. It separates from the -- us from the Islamic fascists who would strap a bomb to the belly of their child and blow them up. We don’t do that in this country.
[America: the country that saves coalminers, doesn't strap bombs to children!]
And there's more:
MR. THOMPSON: Where I think the Republican party lost its way is, we went to Washington to change Washington. Washington changed us. We forgot to be coming up with new ideas, big ideas like Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan had an optimism and a belief that America could be stronger and better tomorrow than it is today, and he instilled that and inculcated that in every American. That’s what we have to do as a party again.
And:
MR. GIULIANI: I have plenty of weaknesses and I kind of work on them, but I think that I’m a person who’s an optimist. I try to look at the half-full glass rather than a half-empty glass. The only way I could turn around a city like New York that was considered the crime capital of America and turn it into the safest large city in America is to kind of inculcate some of the Ronald Reagan optimism and look to try to create results that people thought were impossible, and we did.
3. The Republicans are the party of big ideas. To whit:
MR. VANDEHEI: Congressman Paul, Pete from Rochester Hills, Michigan wants to ask you this. If you were president, would you work to phase out the IRS? (Laughter.)
REP. PAUL: Immediately. (Laughter.)
MR. VANDEHEI: That’s what they call a softball.
MR. HARRIS: Governor Thompson, same theme. If a private employer finds homosexuality immoral, should he be allowed to fire a gay worker?
MR. THOMPSON: I think that is left up to the individual business. I really sincerely believe that that is an issue that business people have to got to make their own determination as to whether or not they should be.
MR. VANDEHEI: Okay. So the answer’s yes.
MR. THOMPSON: Yes.
MR. VANDEHEI: Governor Thompson, is racism still a problem in our society? And can a president do anything about it?
MR. THOMPSON: A president can do a lot of things. A president can -- can set a vision that’s going to abrogate as much as possible racism in our society. A president’s got to be able to get out and speak and be able to unite. And the great thing about Ronald Reagan was he was a uniter, and that’s exactly what I tried to do as governor of the state of Wisconsin. I tried to bring people together. And if you do that, you can reduce and abrogate racism to a very great degree, and the president of the United States has got to be the number-one person in doing that.
So there you have it, Republicans want to get rid of the IRS, let businesses fire gays at will, and solve racism by setting a good example. Oh, and they all want a big ol' fence on the border with Mexico and ID cards for immigrants.
4. And of course taxes: they've got all sorts of ideas for which taxes to cut:
MR. MATTHEWS: Okay, let’s start with an enjoyable down-the-line, okay? I want each candidate to mention a tax he’d like to cut, in addition to the Bush tax cuts, keeping them in effect.
MR. ROMNEY: Zero rate on capital gains for middle-income Americans.
SEN. BROWNBACK: I’d put forward an alternative flat tax and allow people to choose between the current tax code and system, which doesn’t work, which ought to be taken behind a barn and killed with a dull ax, and an alternate flat tax and let them choose.
MR. GILMORE: the answer is the alternative minimum tax, which is continuing to drive people in the middle class in the higher and higher tax --
MR. HUCKABEE: I would work for the fair tax which meets the four criteria: flatter, fairer, finite, family-friendly. We’d get rid of the IRS. We’d get rid of all capital gains -- income, corporate -- and we’d have a consumption tax. The fair tax proposal, I believe, offers the best opportunity for all levels of America.
REP. HUNTER: eliminate manufacturing taxes. So eliminate all taxes on Americans who will stay in the United States and make products and hire American workers.
MR. THOMPSON: I think the biggest problem we got in America is the alternative minimum tax that’s bringing more middle-income people in. Let’s put it in, let’s have the people have a flat tax and have the option of paying whichever is least.
SEN. MCCAIN: The Alternative Minimum Tax is obviously eating Americans alive, and it’s got to be repealed.
Another one. Another one I think is important is a $3,000 tax credit for people to be able to purchase health insurance, so low- income Americans will have access to health care, which is an amazing and difficult problem today; and a simpler, flatter fair tax so that Americans don’t have to spend $140 billion, as they just did last April, to prepare tax reform -- returns.
REP. PAUL: Well, in my first week, I already got rid of the income tax. In my second week -- (laughter) -- I would get rid of the inflation tax, the tax that nobody talks about. We live way beyond our means with a foreign policy we can’t afford and an entitlement system that we have encouraged. We print money for it, the value of the money goes down, and poor people pay higher prices. That is a tax. It’s the transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class to Wall Street. Wall Street’s doing quite well, but the inflation tax is eating away at the middle class of this country. We need to get rid of the inflation tax with sound money.
MR. GIULIANI: We have to adjust the AMT; that has to be reduced. We have to get rid of the death tax, which is going to go to zero in 2010, which is going to create an incentive. I can’t imagine what kind of an incentive it’s going to create. It’s going to go to zero in 2010, and then in 2011, it’s going to go to 55 percent. And we have to make sure that the tax cuts that went into effect at that level remains.
REP. TANCREDO: For all the reasons mentioned by some of my colleagues, I absolutely support the FairTax. It has to be accompanied, however, with the repeal of the 16th Amendment or we’d end up with a consumption tax AND an income tax.
I'll have to look into FairTax, and while I'm at it resurrect my occasional posting on my favorite proposal, the progressive consumption tax. Meanwhile, I'll just note that: middle-income Americans do not have significant capital gains income; the Sixteenth Amendment was ratified in 1913 - together with the IRS, this has turned out to be a fairly useful way for the federal government to finance its expenditures; I'm in the top 15% of the income distribution and did not have to pay the ATM this year - who's being "eaten alive"?; what are "manufacturing taxes"?; good health insurance costs far more than $3000 per year, and most people who don't have health insurance also don't owe $3000 in income taxes; I think Rudi Giuliani anticipates a wave of murders as people try to cash in on their inheritances in 2010, before the estate tax returns.
5. Three of the candidates are disqualified from the get-go.
MR. VANDEHEI: I’m curious, is there anybody on the stage that does not agree -- believe in evolution?
(Senator Brownback, Mr. Huckabee, Representative Tancredo raise their hands.)
And likewise anyone who believes in the tooth fairy.
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