Oct. 9 Republican debate transcript

Harwood: Senator Thompson, in the kind of dynamic economy that you mentioned, lots of new jobs are created, but a lot of jobs are lost, as well.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says three-fourths of manufacturing workers who lose their jobs and get new ones see their incomes go down. How would you explain to those people that their shrinking American dream is the price of progress? And what would you do to help them?

Thompson: Well, in a dynamic economy, there are jobs lost and there are jobs gained. And so far, there have been more jobs gained. To put up barriers and say that so-and-so cannot lose a job would be the wrong thing to do in a free-market economy that's been so well for us. It's made us the most prosperous nation in the history of the world.

But there are some things that you can recognize about the manufacturing industry and how important it is to us and how we can do something for the industry to help them hire more people and keep the wheels rolling -- government policies in terms of taxing and spending and regulation. The manufacturing industry is, in large part, an international industry nowadays, which means prices are set internationally. Manufacturers cannot do much about that but they get hit with cost domestically. We can do a lot about their cost, in terms of taxes and regulation.

We have the second-highest corporate tax penalty in the world.
We need to do better than that. We need to open up foreign markets. A lot of them are closing their markets to our people. Our people are not afraid to compete if the markets are open and the currency's not devalued.

Matthews: Congressman?

Tancredo: Yeah, let me answer that. You know, Senator Thompson, there is one place where the federal government has a role in manufacturing, and that's ensuring that everybody's playing by the rules.

Now, when Communist China devalues their currency by 40 percent, they undercut American products around the world. They undercut them so low that we can't even pay for the cost of materials and meet their prices. Now, that has put 1.8 million working Americans out of work, and that job, the job of enforcing those rules, is the president's job. That's what I intend to do.

Matthews: Let me ask Senator McCain, you know, when a lot of us grew up in the late '50s and early '60s, a young guy could come out of high school, marry his girlfriend from school, get a job at a big industrial plant making planes or making subways and provide for a family with a middle-class income and his spouse wouldn't have to work. Will we ever go back to that world again?

McCain: I'd like to say yes, Chris, but I think we are in the midst of a revolution that we haven't seen the Industrial Revolution. A lot of people don't know that 50,000 Americans now make their living off eBay. We know that people have been left behind. We know that the tax code is eminently unfair.

We know that one of the big problems right here in Detroit is that when they -- before they turn a wrench on a new car, it's a $1,700 legacy cost for health care for their retired employees. For Toyota, it's 200 (dollars). We're going to have to fix health care. We're going to have to fix Social Security.

And this line about it's just discretionary spending that's a problem -- the problem is, my friend, the American people no longer have trust and confidence in us that we will fix anything. As president, I'll fix them.

And the point is that we need to have job retraining programs. We need to go to the community colleges. We even need, if you're a senior laid-off worker and -- who gets another job to make up in compensation for the amount of money that's the difference between the job that they lost -- we have to fix these programs, but first we've got to go to the American people with clean hands. We've got to tell them we've stopped spending $3 million to study the DNA of bears in Montana. I don't know if that's a paternity issue or a criminal issue. (Laughter.) I've got -- we've got to tell them -- we got to tell them that we will not spend $2 billion on an aircraft tanker, which I was able to stop and save the taxpayers $2 billion, because of this incredible extravagant waste in defense spending today, which is the biggest part of our budget. (Applause.)

Harwood: Governor --

Matthews: Can I -- Congressman Tancredo.

Tancredo: John, I just want to quickly respond. I certainly can agree with the senator on one thing, that the people of this country believe that the government is broken and hasn't fixed their problems to a large extent because of the senator's efforts in support of illegal immigration. That's one reason why they're concerned, and that's -- you're absolutely right, the government hasn't fixed the problem. And for every single illegal immigrant family in this country, it costs 20,000 -- it costs us $20,000; $20,000 in infrastructural costs. They pay about 10,000 in taxes. You really want to do something about -- to restore the people's faith in government? Do something about illegal immigration, don't just talk about it. (Applause.)

Okay, Gerry.

Bartiromo: Very sad.