GOP RIVALS FACE OFF AGAIN
Candidates target Clinton, minimum wage in economy-focused night
MILWAUKEE — Drawing a sharp contrast with Democrats, Republican presidential candidates faced off in Tuesday’s primary debate on fiscal issues, global views and America’s role in the world.
The night started off with the candidates voicing opposition to raising the federal minimum wage, casting it as an impediment to national job growth.
“If you raise the minimum, you’re going to make people more expensive than a machine,” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said.
Billionaire businessman Donald Trump concurred. “We cannot do this if we’re going to compete with the rest of the world,” he said.
Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton has called for raising the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $12. Her chief rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie
Sanders, has backed an increase to $15.
The economy-focused debate, the last for the GOP until mid-December, could help shape the course of the campaign into the winter as voters begin to pay more attention to the White House race.
Trump has led the field for months, defying standard political logic, while experienced governors and senators have struggled to break through. Another outsider, Ben Carson, the quiet retired neurosurgeon, began challenging Trump’s grip in recent weeks. As he’s risen in preference polls, however, Carson has faced a flurry of questions about his biography, which has been central to his connection with voters.
The debate could be crucial for the presidential hopes of Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor who has struggled mightily. Bush sought to interject early, reminding moderators that he had limited time in the last contest two weeks ago.
“I got about four minutes in the last debate,” Bush said.
On another fiscal issue, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said the federal government should not bail out failing banks.
Asked if he would provide a bailout to Bank of America if it was about to fail, Cruz said he would not.
Still, he said there was a role for the Federal Reserve to play, noting: “What the Fed should be doing is number one, keeping our money tied to a stable level of gold, and number two, being a lender of last resort. That’s what central banks do, so if you have a run on a bank, the Fed can serve as a lender of last resort, but it’s not a bailout, it is a loan at higher interest rates.”
Cruz’s comments drew criticism from Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who said he wouldn’t ignore people who have their life savings in these banks. He said executive experience matters, arguing that “on-the-job training for president of the United States doesn’t work.”
Political statesmanship provided fodder for the candidates to show a contrast in their style — and a chance to be somewhat combative with their onstage opponents.
Carly Fiorina jabbed rival Trump, saying she met privately with Putin — “not in a green room for a show.”
Fiorina said Trump “fancies himself a very good negotiator,” and he should know not to negotiate from a position of weakness.
Fiorina said she would not negotiate with Vladimir Putin now because the U.S. is in a position of weakness, and should first bolster the military in the region to make sure “Putin understands the United States of America will stand with its allies.”
Trump, for his part, said he was fine with Putin playing a role in trying to “knock the hell” out of the Islamic State in Syria. But that led to Jeb Bush speaking up and saying not so fast.
Bush said, “Donald is wrong on this.” He added that allowing Putin to collude with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against the Islamic State is “like a board game. That’s like playing Monopoly or something.”
Bush said the United States must be a leader in Syria, while Trump said it’s not the United States’ job to be the world’s policeman. He’s suggested that arming rebels to fight Assad may create more problems in the region.
The exchange was the first combative moment between Bush and Trump on last night’s debate stage.
Trump also criticized the new international trade deal recently organized by the Obama administration, calling it “horrible” and saying it empowers China.
But Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul had a quick reminder: The Trans-Pacific Partnership doesn’t include China.
The sharp response from Paul during the fourth Republican presidential debate Tuesday came after Trump called China the “number one abuser of this country.” He says the TPP deal makes the United States vulnerable, and “we’re losing with everybody.”
Trump says: “I love trade. I’m a free-trader 100 percent, but we need smart people making the deal, and we don’t have smart people making the deal.”
Paul says there’s an argument that China doesn’t like the TPP deal because it will increase U.S. trade with China’s competitors. Paul says the U.S. should be negotiating from a position of strength, but Congress has given up too much of its power to the president in making the deals, leaving the legislative branch as a bystander.
Paul also lobbed the first attack of the night at Florida’s Rubio by questioning his conservative credentials on taxes and military spending.
Pointing to Rubio’s plans to expand the military, Paul said, “Can you be a conservative and be liberal in military spending?”
Rubio fired right back: “I know that Rand is a committed isolationist. I’m not.”
Despite Rubio’s campaign momentum, no other candidates took a chance to hit him in tonight’s debate. But Paul didn’t hold back, also slamming Rubio’s plan to expand the child tax credit, which Paul says amounts to a new expensive welfare program.
Paul said, “we have to decide what is conservative and what isn’t.”
The earlier undercard debate featured the four hopefuls lagging in national polls.
“Believe me: Hillary Clinton’s coming for your wallet, everybody,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie warned. “Don’t worry about [Mike] Huckabee or [Bobby] Jindal. Worry about her.”
But candidates such as Jindal who have failed to gain traction in a race dominated by political outsiders did highlight key differences. The Louisiana governor turned Christie’s argument over electability into one about ideological purity, accusing Christie of overspending and highlighting New Jersey’s credit downgrades and its expansion of the food-stamp program.
“Chris, I think records matter,” Jindal said, arguing that America needs to elect a true conservative. “Let’s not be a second liberal party.”
New national polls exiled two mainstays of the prime-time debate — Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee — to the second-tier event, joining Jindal and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
Christie and Huckabee both touted their records as state executives, their promises to rein in federal spending and expand economic growth. But more than anything, they made a case for their own electability in a matchup against Clinton, the former first lady, senator and secretary of state seen as the most likely Democratic nominee.
Jindal, who along with Santorum has never appeared in a top-tier debate, most aggressively took on his own party, saying it wasn’t enough to simply send “a big-government Republican” to Washington.
Christie declined to take the bait, praising Jindal’s record, defending his own and pivoting to an attack on Clinton.