Dec. 12 Republican debate transcript

Washburn: Mr. Keyes, what do you think about this?

Keyes: Well, what I think is that a lot of folks out there ought to understand that what you're watching represents the situation in our country. Ask yourself who represents the people they don't let you hear from. And you'll know who you should vote for in the Iowa Caucuses.

Who represents the voice that they're absolutely determined to overlook in the discussion of our sovereignty and the betrayal of this people's sovereignty, on the border, on our moral principles, on the major export overseas -- which is our jobs?

These folks represent the very elite who year, after year, after year, have destroyed our Constitution, betrayed our rights and undermined our strength created by our people in the world.

Washburn: Ambassador?

Keyes: And yet the one person willing to talk about that is overlooked, time and time again. That person...

Thompson: I agree with Alan Keyes' position on global warming.

(Laughter)

Washburn: Let me come to...

Keyes: I'm in favor of reducing global warming, because I think the most important emission we need to control is the hot air emission of politicians who pretend one thing and don't deliver.

Washburn: Let me come back -- let me come to a question that Iowans may not let you out of answering.

Governor Huckabee, you've said you support increasing government mandates, requiring motorists to use 36 million gallons of biofuel by 2022, which is six times what we're producing this year.

Are you willing to increase that mandate even if it will drive up feed for livestock producers or force consumers to buy flex-fuel vehicles?

Huckabee: I don't think that's what's necessary. And the reason that this issue ought to be important is because we don't own this Earth; we are simply stewards of it, caretakers. And I know on a day like today, it's hard to believe there is global warming, if anybody's been in Iowa on a day like today.

But climate change and who's causing it is of less importance than what Senator McCain said. He exactly right. We have done no harm if we take better care of this planet and give it to our children with cleaner air, cleaner soil and cleaner water.

We have done...

Washburn: So are you willing to increase the mandate?

Huckabee: I am willing for us to make the decisions which will not necessarily create the mandates. And let me tell you how we do it.

You know who one of the biggest energy users is in the whole country? The United States government.

If the government commits to being the primary user of alternative forms of energy, we have a market built in and, therefore -- the big argument against having alternative energy is there's no market for it. Let the government be a marketplace, and we'll create the kind of demand that lowers the price rather than raises the price.

Washburn: Congressman Hunter?

Hunter: You know, I'd say, instead of mandates, incentives.

The problem with mandating only biofuels -- and you know, ethanol is not the greatest thing in show business; you use a lot of energy to create ethanol and there's other biofuels out there -- biodiesel, et cetera.

But by giving incentives in R&D and by bringing our government laboratories together with business, with our educational institutions, the United States can become the center with a grand new industry of energy innovation. We can be the leaders in the world in this.

But you don't want to push away things like hydrogen fuel cells and others things. Incentives is the way to go, and we should take the entire array of alternative energy sources and give incentives to private enterprise to get involved, to get into the business of delivering us a great product. And we can produce a great new industry for this next generation.

Washburn: Congressman Tancredo, what would you do about mandates?

Tancredo: No, I don't believe in mandates. I don't believe that they should be increased. I believe that the market is the best determinant of exactly how these problems should be addressed.

I don't mind and I would not be opposed to any investment in research and development. But the idea that the government knows the right amount somehow, some way, some brilliant analyst, usually some politician who hasn't the slightest idea of the issue, will make a decision about what is the right amount of mandate to impose on the rest of the country.

And you know what? It never works out right.

Let the market -- I trust the market more than I do the government.