The Fox News-Google GOP Presidential Debate: What the Candidates Said about Poverty
Despite running a full two hours, last night۪s Republican presidential primary debate barely mentioned poverty and economic opportunity. Hosted by Fox News and Google in conjunction with the Republican Party of Florida, only three of the nine candidates participating addressed poverty in their answers.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />
The debate was moderated by Fox News anchors Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly, and Chris Wallace. In addition to the moderator۪s own questions, the public was invited to submit questions via video and text. Fox۪s Shannon Bream also presented real-time polling results from debate viewers.
OOTS believes it is worth noting a viewer poll was conducted during the debate in response to an exchange in which former Governor Romney was asked to define what income level he considered “rich.” The question was posed to the viewers as “I define rich as someone having an annual income higher than”
The response, read by Shannon Bream, was as follows: “A hundred thousand dollars, 13 percent of you weighed in there; $250,000, 22 percent; $500,000, 22 percent; and the majority went with $1 million annual income, that defines you as rich, 44 percent of those who voted.”
The following candidates were all either asked about poverty or referred to it in their responses:
– Texas Governor Rick Perry
– Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney
– Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
Here۪s a rundown of what candidates were asked, and what they said:
Rick Perry
WALLACE: Governor Perry, I now have a question for you. Texas has the most uninsured residents of any state in the country, 25 percent.
In the last debate, you blamed it on restrictions imposed by the federal government. But we checked about that, sir, in fact the feds treat Texas like they do all the other big states. On its own, Texas has imposed some of the toughest eligibility rules for Medicaid of any state in the country. In fact, you rank 49th in Medicaid coverage of low income residents.
So the question is, isn’t Texas’ uninsured problem because of decisions made by Texas?
PERRY: Well, I disagree with your analysis there, because we’ve had a request in for the federal government so that we could have a Medicaid waiver for years. And the federal government has stopped us from having that Medicaid waiver. Allowing the state of Texas, or for that matter the other states that we’re making reference to here, that have waivers give them more options to be able to give the options, there’s a menu of options that we could have, just like Jon Huntsman talked about. That is how we go forward with our health care.
Each state deciding how they’re going to deliver that health care.
Mitt Romney
BAIER: Welcome back to the Orange County Convention Center here in Orlando, Florida, and the Republican presidential debate.
Now a question for all of the candidates. Independent New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently fretted over the possibility of the unemployed rioting in the streets. Ohio’s Republican Governor John Kasich recently said, quote, “For the first time in my life, I’m worried about this country.” And recently, a liberal columnist wrote this, quote, “We’ve lost our mojo.”
You know, President Obama promised hope and change. And according to many polls, fewer and fewer Americans believe he’s delivered.
Now, I’m not asking for your jobs plan here. What I’m asking for is, how are you going to turn this country around? We’ll go down the row, 30 seconds each.
ROMNEY: All across America, you’ve got families sitting across from theirsitting in their living rooms and their kitchens, sitting at that kitchen table, with a calculator and a checkbook, seeing if they have enough money to make ends meet for the month or the week.
You’ve got people who are sitting at that same table filling out job application forms, knowing that there are hundreds of other people that are doing the same thing for the same job.
* * *
ROMNEY: I — I know there are some that say, look, we should lower taxes for the very highest-income people. Other folks have different plans. My view is very simple: The people that have been hurt most by the president’s economy, the Obama economy, has been the middle class.
That’s why I cut taxes for the middle class.
BAIER: So, sir, what…what do you consider rich? Is half-a-million dollars, a million dollars rich? At what income does someone reach your definition of rich?
ROMNEY: I don’t try and define who’swho’s rich and who’s not rich. I want everybody in America to be rich. I want people in this country to have opportunity.
And I want everybody to have the kind of opportunities that we on this stage have had. I want people in America to recognize that the future will be brighter for their kids than it was for them.
I know that the — the president’s party wants to try and take from some people and give to the others. That isn’t the way to lift America. The way to lift America is to give people opportunity and to let them enjoy the freedoms that have made us the envy of the world.
Newt Gingrich
KELLY: Speaker Gingrich, this next one’s for you. You criticized extending unemployment benefits, saying that you were, quote, “opposed to giving people money for doing nothing.” Benefits have already been extended to 99 weeks, and they are set to expire soon. If you were president today, would you extend unemployment benefits? And if not, how do you justify that to the millions of unemployed Americans who are looking in earnest and whose families are depending on those checks?
NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Well, what I’ve said is that I think unemployment compensation should be tied directly to a training program. And if you have toif you don’t have a job and you need help, then in order for us to give you the help, you should sign up for a business-led training program so that that 99 weeks becomes an investment in human capital, giving us the best-trained workforce in the world so you can get a job.
But I believe it is fundamentally wrong to give people money for 99 weeks for doing nothing. That’s why we had welfare reform.
(APPLAUSE)
And, frankly, the easiest thing for Congress to do, if the president sends up a proposed extension, is to allow all 50 states to experiment at the state level with developing a mandatory training component of unemployment compensation, so you’d have 50 parallel experiments, and not pretend that Washington knows best or that Washington can solve the problem by itself. But I believe deeply, people should not get money for doing nothing.
Viewer Response on “What Defines Rich?” [Note: Below is a reaction to an answer from Governor Romney regarding how he defines rich. This question was posed in real-time to debate viewers immediately after Romney۪s response.The result below was inserted later in the debate, once viewers۪ responses were collected.]
SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS: Hi Bret.
Well, this is the most interactive debate ever, and it’s thanks to our partner Google. You can go to YouTube.com/Fox News. What happens there, folks can see the debate streaming live. But also, to the right of the screen, all night long, we are sending out questions so we can get your answers at home. And you can participate and weigh in.
Bret, a little bit earlier, asked Governor Romney how he defines rich. It’s a question we put to folks out on the Internet as well, and we’ve got the results.
Here’s the question: “I define rich as someone having an annual income higher than.” A hundred thousand dollars, 13 percent of you weighed in there; $250,000, 22 percent; $500,000, 22 percent; and the majority went with $1 million annual income, that defines you as rich,
44 percent of those who voted.
Posted by Mike
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