Dec. 12 Republican debate transcript

Speakers: Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.; Former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass.; Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo.; Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, R-New York City; Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas; Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark.; Former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.; Former Ambassador Alan Keyes

Moderator:  Carolyn Washburn, Editor, Des Moines Register

Carolyn Washburn: Hello. I'm Carolyn Washburn, editor of the Des Moines Register. And welcome to day one of the Des Moines Register debates.

Today we're going to talk with nine Republican candidates for president of the United States.

The Democrats have spent lots of quality time in debates during this campaign, but this is the first time since summer that the Republicans have gone head to head in Iowa.

And it's a critical time. Six in 10 Iowa Republicans who say they expect to caucus told us just two weeks ago that they could still be persuaded to support another candidate, and now we're down to 22 days to go.

So we're going to focus on issues Iowans say they still to know more about.

We won't talk a lot about issues like Iraq or immigration. They're important issues, no doubt, but Iowans say they know where the candidates are coming from on those.

Instead, we'll dig in on issues that need more clarification. Iraq or immigration may come up, because of course everything is interrelated, but we're not going to spend concentrated time on those.

First I'd like to welcome the candidates: Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of the city of New York, Congressman Duncan Hunter of California, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, Congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado, former Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee, Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, former Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, Senator John McCain of Arizona, and Ambassador Alan Keyes of Maryland.

Thanks to all of you for being with us today, despite the ice yesterday.

The rules are pretty simple. I'll ask the questions and let you know how much time you have. There are timing lights. You'll see a yellow light when you have 10 seconds left, and a red light when it's, please, time to stop.

I will try not to be a grinch about it, but I do ask you to respect the time, so that we cover as much ground as possible.

I will offer up to 30 seconds of rebuttal time for any candidate criticized by name. And I may allow other candidates to respond, if we have time.

I'll explain everything as we go along, so let's begin.

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.

Rudy 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 and 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.

Giuliani: 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 from 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 the death tax and a whole group of others. But the first one should be the corporate tax.

OK, yes, or no, I just want to be sure that I'm clear. Is the debt a threat to our national security?

Rudy Giuliani: I would say -- I would...

Washburn: Yes or no, please.

Giuliani: I wouldn't call it national security. I'd call it economic security. It's very, very important.