Between Rick Santorum's temper tantrums, Ron Paul's wise cracks, and Gingrich and Romney trying to one-up (or maybe one-down) each other, it could be hard to keep track of what they actually have to say about the issues. This article attempts to forgo the rhetoric and mud-slinging and restate each candidate's stance on the issues discussed. The entire transcript can be read here.
Can you tell me what specific actions you'll take to address the costly consequences of illegal immigration while preserving the rights of those who seek to immigrate legally?
Santorum: People who immigrate here illegally have repeatedly broken the law. We need to strengthen border security and employer enforcement, including E-verify. Employers who break the law need to be sanctioned. If there is no opportunity for illegal immigrants to work, they won’t stay.
Gingrich: We need to control the border and fix legal immigration in terms of visas so coming and going legally is easier than doing it illegally. Deportation needs to be made easier. We need to institute a guest-worker program. Those who are here a long time should go before a panel to review whether or not they should be allowed to have residency.
Romney: An E-verify system would be effective and efficient so employers know who is here legally, and those employers who do not follow the law would be severely sanctioned. We need to make legal immigration work and stop illegal immigration.
Paul: Illegal immigration is part of a bigger problem: the weak economy. Resentment sets in when the economy is weak. My suggestion is to use the resources we spend on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan and spend them on our own border.
Speaker Gingrich, you had an ad, but you pulled it this week, in which you described Governor Romney as the most anti- immigrant candidate. Why did you do that?
Gingrich: Governor Romney’s plan would result in families declaring sanctuary in churches. His plan is not humane or realistic.
Romney: Supporting U.S. law to enforce our borders does not make me anti-immigrant.
Gingrich: You describe it for us, then.
Romney: People who come here legally get a work permit. People who do not come here legally do not get a work permit. Those who don't get work will tend, over time, to self-deport.
The rhetoric on immigration, Governor, has been intense, as you well know, as all four of you know, and anyone who watches television knows. You had an ad running saying that Speaker Gingrich called Spanish "the language of the ghetto."
Romney: That’s not my ad.
Gingrich: I think English should be the official language of government, and every young American should learn English. No one should be trapped in a linguistics situation where they can't go out and get a job.
Romney: I think we should teach kids English, also.
The U.S. has been largely away in its foreign and trade policy with Latin America. In the meantime, Iran and China have been increasing their influence over an involvement in Latin America through the leftist and left-leaning governments. What would each of you do as president to more deeply engage in Latin America and, importantly, to support the governments and the political parties that support democracy and free markets?
Paul: I would work with the people and encourage free trade, and try to set a standard here where countries in Central America or South America or any place in the world would want to emulate us and set the standards that we have. We should not use military force to dictate what kind of government they should have.
Santorum: I will visit that area of the world, repeatedly, to solidify those ties when I become president.
Paul: Using military force doesn’t work.
Santorum: You weren’t listening. What I talked about is building strong economic relationships, strong national security relationships. No one's talking about force.
We did double-check, just now, Governor [Romney], that ad that we talked about, where I quoted you as saying that Speaker Gingrich called Spanish "the language of the ghetto" -- we just double-checked. It was one of your ads. It's running here in Florida in -- on the radio. And at the end you say, "I'm Mitt Romney and I approved this ad."
Romney: Let me avoid acknowledging this and ask Gingrich a question. Did you say that or not?
Gingrich: Yes, but you took it out of context. I said, in general, about all languages. We are better for children to learn English in general, period.
How would you phase out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Does the private mortgage industry need additional regulation?
Romney: The right course for our -- for our housing industry is to get people back to work so they can buy homes again. We have 9.9 percent unemployment in Florida. It's unthinkable, 18 percent real unemployment here. Also, Gingrich was a spokesperson for Fannie May and Freddie Mac.
Gingrich: So? You made money off of investments from Fannie May and Freddie Mac.
[Insert cat-fight]
A follow up question to you both [Santorum and Paul] specifically. It seems they both acknowledge they both made money from Fannie and Freddie. Should they return that money?
Paul: I really don’t care. We know how the bubble came about. It was excessive credit, interest rates held too low, too long, the Federal Reserve responsible for that. It needs to stop.
Santorum: The reform we'd need is to gradually decrease the amount of mortgage that can be financed by Freddie -- or underwritten by Freddie and Fannie over time, keep reducing that until we get rid of Fannie and Freddie. Also, I’m tired of listening to Romney and Gingrich fight.
Part 2 to follow.
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