Dec. 12 Republican debate transcript

Washburn: Governor Romney, I'd like you to address this first.

You'll have one minute.

Are there programs or situations that are so important that you'd be willing to run a deficit to pay for them?

Romney: Well, we don't have to run a deficit to pay for the things that are most important, because we can eliminate the things that aren't critical.

On the private sector, where I spent the first 25 years of my life and most of my career, you learn how to focus on the things that are most important and you get rid of the things that aren't.

We have in the federal government 342 different economic development programs, often administered by different departments. We don't need 342. We probably don't need 100 of those. We probably need a lot fewer than that.

We have 40 different programs for workforce training. There are probably five or six that are really working, and a lot that are not working terribly well. We can get rid of some of those.

We have 13 different programs to prevent teenage pregnancy. Well, they're obviously not working real well and we can probably cut it down to one or two that are making a difference.

And so what anyone in the private sector's learned how to do is to focus their resources on those things that have the biggest impact, that are most important.

Surely, protecting our country and our defense of our military is critical; getting our free market finally able to allow all of our citizens to have insurance -- health insurance, that's something we did in Massachusetts; improving our schools with school choice, better pay for better teachers -- these are a lot of things that we can do, but they don't require us to eliminate the things that are most critical in our society.

Instead, they require us to get rid of those things that are unnecessary. And the sacrifice that we need from the American people, it's this: It's saying let the programs that don't work go.

Washburn: Thank you.

Romney: Don't lobby for them forever.

Washburn: Thank you.

Congressman Tancredo, how would you answer that?

Tancredo: I would say that there is a way -- a very clear way to actually establish what the government needs to do in order to reduce its -- the cost that it incurs and to do what is right, and that is called, "Follow the Constitution of this country."

The Constitution is a limiting document. It tells the federal government what it can and cannot do. Today, we do far too many things that exceed our constitutional -- the constitutional bounds that are placed there.

We have a responsibility. It is to protect and defend this country. Concentrate on that. Concentrate on doing what's right and what the Constitution itself gives us the responsibility for. And the rest of that stuff becomes extraneous.

And, honestly, if you think about it, if you ask America, "What would you do? What would you sacrifice?," the one thing I would say is this: Don't ask the government for womb to tomb protection for your life, to build a bubble around you. Because all of that will cost a humongous amount of money and money that we don't have.

But we will respond to you. Politicians will do it, because they want the votes. Don't ask.

And I guarantee you, my administration will remain inside the bounds of the Constitution.

Washburn: Senator Thompson, could you answer that? Are there programs or situations so important you'd be willing to run a deficit for them?

Thompson: Yes, the military. The security of our people, first and foremost -- always. Our infrastructure, which is coming apart. In research and development, which is going to help us solve some of the problems in future as far as energy and a lot of other issues.

But I'm going to take a chance on telling the truth to the American people. Our entitlement programs, by 2040 or so, we're going to eat up our entire budget.

But we'll go all day here, and nobody else will talk about that obvious problem that we've got and we've got to address.

The thing about is that we can do it now without hurting those programs, with actually strengthening those programs so that our kids and grandkids have them.

I don't think we, as American people, are so selfish that we're going to put this off the table, kick the can down the road and let everybody else solve that problem, you know, when our grandkids get to be working age.

That's not America. That's not what makes us strong.

And, specifically, as far as Medicare is concerned, we need to tell people that are in Warren Buffett's category, we're not going to take care of all your Medicare in the future. We can't afford it.