Dec. 12 Republican debate transcript

Washburn: Thank you. We're going to have to move on. Let's watch the next videos.

(Video)

If a person says, "I'm a person of faith, but I don't let it influence me and I don't talk about it," what they just told me is that there faith is so immaterial, insignificant and inconsequential that it really isn't a faith at all.

Huckabee: If it's a faith, it will drive their judgment, it will drive their value system and, therefore, it will help define them.

It's ludicrous to say that, "I have faith, but it doesn't impact me at all."

(End video)

(Video)

McCain: I think the hardest thing in this age of struggle against radical Islamic extremism is balancing the rights of everyone's privacy, plus our ability to combat this great evil of radical Islamic extremism.

And that's why I think that there has to be the participation of the courts, the legislature, the executive branch and the American people to what measures we take.

(End video)

Washburn: Governor Huckabee, you are distinguishing yourself from other candidates by focusing on faith. You say your faith doesn't just influence you, that it defines you.

A person who chooses you for president, then, would expect that to translate to public policy.

So give me two examples you've not previously given, one in health care and one in education, where your faith would define change you want to see in policy.

Huckabee: The two overriding principles are, you treat others as you wish to be treated.

As it relates in health care, that means that we recognize that a person who is sick shouldn't be treated differently, because they're in poverty, than a person who has extraordinary wealth, that we have some sense of balance in how we approach that.

That's the essence of what America is about.

The second basic principle is that, inasmuch as you've done it to these least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me.

As it relates to both health, education, or any policy, what it really means is that you go back to what the founding fathers said, all of us are created equal and endowed by our creator with those rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Washburn: But two specific changes in policy?

Huckabee: Well, I think I just tried to give them to you. Both in education -- that everyone has an opportunity, you give education and health care, that you don't have some that are more equal than others.

So there has to be a sense in which you have opportunity, whether it's through choice and charter schools in the education field, you have a curriculum that touches every child, not just a few, and in health care, you don't have a health care system like Congress has that is incredibly -- almost platinum, but there are a lot of Americans who can't even go to the doctor and find out if they're critically ill or if they have a terminal disease.

Washburn: Thank you.

Governor Romney, as you look at the most pressing problems facing our country and the best opportunities to effect change in the next four years, do you think it's more important for the next president to be a fiscal conservative or a social conservative?

Romney: I think it's incredibly important that he be a conservative. And I'm going to build on the same foundation Ronald Reagan built. We're not going to get the White House nor strengthen America unless we can pull together the coalition of conservatives and conservative thought that has made us successful as a party. And that's social conservatives. It's also economic conservatives. And foreign policy and defense conservatives.

Those three together form the three legs of the Republican stool that allowed Ronald Reagan to get elected and allowed our party to have strength over the last several decades.

And I'm going to continue to draw as many on this stage try and do upon those strengths and to build America by virtue of those conservative principles, whether in health care, education, defense, spending, entitlement reform, you name it.

Washburn: Thank you.

Romney: Conservative principles work. They've been tested time and again, and they'll keep working.

Washburn: Thank you.

Congressman Hunter, same question?

Hunter: Repeat the question. I was lost in Governor Romney's explanation. I thought it was quite good, though.

(Laughter)