Loved it. The candidates went into a lot of specifics and it
seems Rubio was on Governor Christie's hit list with respect to leadership
ability. Christie saying that being a Governor dealing with real issues
and problems shows he is better able to run a country than Rubio who while
supporting bills that were passed into law, did not do anything to deal with a
real crisis.
Cruz and Carson hashed out the controversy
over the Cruz campaign saying Carson was leaving the race in the Iowa Caucus.
Cruz re-apologized, but Carson still seems to be angry at least at Cruz's
campaign staff and to a degree at CNN who failed to even check with the Carson
campaign to verify the authenticity of the statements.
All agreed that ISIS was a threat and that
they would basically try to wipe them out. However, Cruz clarified for
what seemed like all the candidates that the Kurds will liberate their towns
and cities and the Sunnis will liberate theirs or else sectarian violence would
erupt. Trump also added that they will take the oil too.
Also, all agreed, or all who were asked
agreed with an exception, that they would bring water boarding back as
according to what Cruz said, by definition it is not torture but its use should
be limited and as such be used selectively. Trump distinguished himself
though to say he would not just use waterboarding more but also use torture
making Trump the only one on the stage to literally do anything to stop
terrorists even if it is something immoral like actual torture.
On illegal immigration, Kasich said he
would not deport illegals and then Cruz was asked the same question to provide
contrast. Cruz would deny welfare to illegals, no money for sanctuary
cities, build a border wall with more troops and technology/resources, use
e-verify to ensure that illegal citizens cannot get jobs over Americans, an
electronic ingress egress system to track people coming in and leaving the
country and finally he would enforce the law by deporting illegals that have
been found.
On health care they would all get rid of
Obama Care with Cruz allowing the buying and selling of healthcare across State
lines to lower costs and help to institute the decoupling of health insurance
from jobs so that it becomes affordable to each and every individual. Additionally
health savings accounts would be used as well to afford the more costly
medications and medical visits. Carson wants to get rid of Obama Care
after the new system is put in place though while providing a cradle to grave
inheritable savings account called a "Health Empowerment Account" to
help pay for catastrophic health incidents with a separate system, which he
could not get into due to time, for all other health care needs.
Jeb Bush clarified that we as
conservatives want more millionaires. That taxing them more hurts the
country and as such we need to make it so that the country has more economic
mobility. Governor Christie supported Jeb here saying they once taxed
millionaires more in Jersey and thus the State of New Jersey lost millions in taxpayer
money as the millionaires left the State. As such Christie says use New
Jersey as the litmus test to know why taxing the rich more will only hurt our
nation.
The debate turned to infectious diseases
with all sides saying they would restrict travel and Carson saying that rapid
response teams should be created to combat Ebola and other diseases led by the
CDC.
Next topic was on women registering for
the draft. In which case Rubio seemed to dodge it and said that he will
rebuild the military to make it stronger. Jeb says he is in favor of
women registering but will not institute a draft, though he will rebuild the
military as well. Carson used this question to springboard the discussion
on veteran affairs where he advocates for better treatment for veterans via
support groups that follow the career and post military career of soldiers to
help them acclimate into society. Kasich said he wants to give more
benefits to veterans including giving community college credit to veterans for
things they did in the military mimicking what he did in Ohio. Rubio
added further that he wants to make it so that soldiers can see any doctor and
go to any healthcare facility they choose which means veterans’ healthcare
becomes much more portable. None said if they would privatize the VA or not.
There next question was on paying ransoms
to terrorists including allowing families to raise money to pay for ransoms to
rescue family members citing the death of the kidnapped the son of the Foley
family. Cruz said that as a nation by paying a ransom it would put a
target on the backs of every single member of the military and thus he would
not allow it, but instead will launch raids to get the kidnapped victims back.
Trump followed saying that while he did help raise money for the Foley
family to get their son back, he said after that experience he would do
basically as Cruz said.
Final thought: They all did well. Jeb and
Kasich did say a lot more to make them memorable. Christie started strong
but seemed to fizzle a little bit toward the end. Rubio initially
struggled against Christie, but as time went on he finished strong. Cruz
held his own and was not the subject to as many attacks compared to last time
he was on stage, but Trump was only attacked on his support for eminent domain.
Carson had some renewed vigor, though he was his calm usual self.
Overall a good debate and an influential one for New Hampshire's primary
this coming Tuesday February 9th.
P.S. I think Trump and Cruz
tied overall with the runners up being Rubio and Jeb.
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