Republican Debate on Economics: Wealth Creates Wealth

Republican debate on CNBC. Transcript. Questions were by Chris Matthews and a Money Honey.

Giuliani: She Who Must Not Be Named (that would be Hillary) “once said that the unfettered free market is the most destructive force in modern America.”


There’s actually quite a bit of Hillary-bashing. Not so much with the Obama- or Edwards-bashing.

Romney suggests that the Democratic governor of Michigan so loves herself some taxes that she would tax this debate. Like that would be a bad thing.

McCain tells Ron Paul to read “The Wealth of Nations,” says “wealth creates wealth.”



McCain on the proposed cigarette tax to fund S-CHIP: “So we want to take care of children’s health and we want everyone to smoke? I don’t get it.” That’s his new slogan by the way: “McCain ‘08: I Don’t Get It.”


McCain is against wasteful spending.

Brownback: we’re taxed to the max.

The sexual tension between Romney and Giuliani is palpable as they incomprehensibly attack each other’s respective records on taxes. Romney used the line-item veto 844 times! Rudy cut taxes 24 times! I cut taxes more! No, I cut taxes more! He raised the commuter tax!


Read everyone’s lips: no new taxes.

McCain: a lot of people don’t know that 50,000 Americans make their living off eBay. Wealth creates wealth.

Tancredo says we can save the economy by getting rid of illegal aliens. Or possibly the other way around: I try not to listen to Tancredo.


McCain: it sounds like a lot of fun to bash China.

Thompson: low taxes grow the economy, as was proven in the 1920s, the Kennedy administration and the Reagan administration and... hey, did he just hold up the 1920s as a model for the American economy?


Tancredo thinks that if California doesn’t allow off-shore oil-drilling, it shouldn’t get any of the oil from Louisiana. After all, he has no objection to oil-drilling off the coast of Colorado.

Romney: I spent my life in the economy. Most of us spend dollars, Mitt.

Brownback on America: “this place rocks.”

McCain says several times that energy efficiency is a national-security issue, and no he wouldn’t restrict oil company profits or make them reinvest those profits in energy efficiency. Wealth creates wealth.

Asked whether they hate unions, and to name good unions and bad unions, several candidates trot out their dues-paying grandmothers, Frederick of Hollywood asks if the Screen Actors’ Guild counts, and Chris Matthews tries to get Giuliani to sing “Look for the union label,” but Rudy just can’t sing unless he’s wearing a dress.


Chris Matthews slyly attempts to trip Thompson up by asking him the name of the Canadian prime minister but, astonishingly, Thompson gets it right. He is totally qualified to be president after all.


McCain said that the president of France (it’s unclear if McCain knows his name)_is pro-American, which, he says, just goes to show that “if you live long enough, anything is possible.” That’s just the sort of comment that really boosts pro-American attitudes in France.

Good evening.