Republicans Dismiss U.S. and Europe Bailouts in Candidate Debate
Republicans Dismiss U.S. and Europe Bailouts in Candidate De
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Republican presidential candidates, left to right, former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania Rick Santorum, U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN), former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, businessman Herman Cain, Texas Governor Rick Perry, U.S. Representative Ron Paul (R-TX), and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, are introduced at a debate hosted by CNBC and the Michigan Republican Party at Oakland University on November 9, 2011 in Rochester, Michigan.
Republican presidential candidates, left to right, former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania Rick Santorum, U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN), former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, businessman Herman Cain, Texas Governor Rick Perry, U.S. Representative Ron Paul (R-TX), and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, are introduced at a debate hosted by CNBC and the Michigan Republican Party at Oakland University on November 9, 2011 in Rochester, Michigan. Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images
Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Texas Governor Rick Perry, who has acknowledged his previous Republican presidential debate performances were subpar, had an embarrassing moment in last night's debate in Rochester, Michigan. Asked to identify the three federal agencies he would eliminate to help cut government spending, specifics Perry talks about on the campaign trail, he could name just two. Erik Schatzker reports on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)
Republican Presidential Candidate Herman Cain
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Herman Cain, republican presidential candidate.
Herman Cain, republican presidential candidate. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Republican presidential candidates stressed their opposition to U.S. government bailouts for banks, Europeans and the auto industry as they debated last night in Michigan, a state that benefited from billions in federal funds for car companies.
Even as financial markets tumbled amid concerns focused on Italy, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney rejected a suggestion that the U.S. should help prop up that nation’s economy. “Europe is able to take care of their own problems,” he said.
While focused almost entirely on economic issues, the event also was marked by an embarrassment for Texas Governor Rick Perry, who has acknowledged his previous debate performances were subpar.
Asked to identify the three federal agencies he would eliminate to help cut government spending -- specifics Perry talks about on the campaign trail -- he could name just two.
“The third agency of government I would do away with?” Perry responded. “Education. Commerce. And let’s see. I can’t. The third one I can’t. Sorry. Oops.”
Later in the forum Perry said it was the Department of Energy “I was reaching for.” And when he met briefly with reporters after the debate, Perry described the lapse as “embarrassing.” He added, “I’m glad I had my boots on tonight because I sure stepped in it out there.”
Economic Theme
The economy, expected to be the main issue in the 2012 general election, retook center stage following a week in which charges of sexual harassment against Herman Cain -- vying with Romney for the lead in national polls of the Republican race -- dominated the political conversation.
Cain cast himself as a victim of “character assassination” as he parried a question about the accusations.
“The American people deserve better than someone being tried in the court of public opinion based on unfounded accusations,” Cain said of the allegations, drawing applause from the audience.
Cain is facing sexual harassment allegations made by two women who have identified themselves and two who have remained anonymous. The accusations stem from his time as chief executive officer of the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s. One of his accusers, Karen Kraushaar, is pushing for a joint press conference in which she and the other women would discuss their allegations. Another woman, Sharon Bialek, went public with graphic allegations on Nov. 7, claiming Cain groped her during a July 1997 encounter.
Romney Passes
Romney declined to be drawn into the matter when asked about it.
“Herman Cain is the person to respond to these questions,” Romney said. “The people in this room and across the country can make their own assessment.”
The debate, at Oakland University in Rochester, was co- sponsored by CNBC and the Michigan Republican Party. Michigan is home to the U.S. automobile industry, which is reviving after President Barack Obama helped push what ended up as an $82 billion bailout for it. President George W. Bush also supported aid for the industry as he was leaving office in late 2008.
General Motors Co. (GM) and Chrysler Group LLC have since emerged from bankruptcy. The state is recovering from the recession at the second-fastest pace in the U.S., according to a new Bloomberg index that tracks the pace of growth nationwide.
Romney, in dismissing talk of a more aggressive U.S. approach to the euro zone’s economic challenges, said, “We do not need to step in to bail out banks in Europe or banks here in the U.S. that may have Italian debt.”
Cain’s Approach
Cain, asked what steps he would take to make sure the European turmoil didn’t take down the U.S. financial system, said the answers were to “grow this economy” and “assure that our currency is sound.”
U.S. Representatives Ron Paul of Texas said it would be a “real tragedy” if the U.S. sought to bail out Europe.
Paul, who has long promoted limited government, also took aim at all federal loan programs, including those that help students attend college. “The policy of student loans is a total failure,” he said.
Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. said Americans are “sick and tired of seeing taxpayer dollars go to bailouts.”
Frequent Republican Target
The Troubled Asset Relief Program, a frequent Republican target, began in late 2008 as a $700 billion program to prop up the nation’s failing financial and auto industries. Last year, Congress cut that amount to $475 billion. A total of $413 billion has been spent so far, and as of Aug. 31 the government had received $314 billion in repayment, according to the Treasury Department.
In March 2011, Treasury officials announced that taxpayers had turned a profit on the $245 billion in TARP money used to shore up banks.
Romney, who was born in Michigan and whose late father, George, served as the state’s governor and headed the now- defunct American Motors Company, was pressed on his opposition in 2008 to the auto industry bailout.
“Whether it was by President Bush or by President Obama, it was the wrong way to go,” he said of the aid to GM and Chrysler. “I said from the very beginning they should go through a managed bankruptcy process, a private bankruptcy process.”
Under his plan, “we would have had a private sector bailout” with “the private sector guiding the direction as opposed to what we had with government playing its heavy hand,” he said.
Changing Positions
Romney also was asked to address questions about whether he has changed his position on a number of issues, including abortion rights and health care.
“I think people understand that I’m a man of steadiness and constancy,” Romney said. He also claimed that Obama’s campaign “continues to push this idea” that he lacks political convictions.
The Obama campaign kept its focus on Romney before and after the debate.
“Mitt Romney says he’s a man of ‘steadiness and constancy,’ but the only thing he’s consistent about is saying anything to get elected,” Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said in a statement.
Bernanke Targeted
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, when asked in the debate what he would do to create jobs, repeated his past criticism of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, saying he is partially to blame for the struggling economy.
“Bernanke is a large part of the problem and ought to be fired as rapidly as possible,” he said.
Perry, in summarizing his economic approach, said, “We are not going to pick winners and losers from Washington, D.C. We are going to trust the capital markets and the private sector to make the decisions, and let the consumers pick winners and losers.”
U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota said she would stop American borrowing from China.
“What we need to do is stop enriching China with our money,” she said. “We do that by stop spending money we don’t have.”
Santorum’s Plan
Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania defended his tax plan, which would eliminate corporate taxes on manufacturers.
He said that would help “an entire sector of the economy that we are getting our hat handed to us by losing jobs” under current policies.
The rebound in Michigan has been boosted by improvements in the auto and manufacturing sectors, the Bloomberg Economic Evaluation of States Index shows. Only North Dakota, where an oil boom is raising incomes and boosting government coffers, topped Michigan in its recovery pace, the data show.
Michigan’s unemployment rate in September was 11.1 percent, third-highest in the nation and above the national rate of 9 percent in October.
Obama won Michigan in 2008 and the last Republican presidential candidate to carry it was George H.W. Bush in 1988. The 2012 election in the state promises to be more competitive for Obama amid the economic challenges.
Democrats think that Romney, even with his Michigan ties, is politically vulnerable in the state because of his opposition to the federal auto industry aid. Before the debate’s start, they leveled an attack on Romney’s position that featured a Web ad, union representatives and Democratic lawmakers.
The attacks highlighted a headline from a Nov. 18, 2008, New York Times essay in which Romney argued against the bailout and included the headline: “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” Romney’s column, which urged structured bankruptcies, didn’t include the headline language.
Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul fired back, saying in a statement: “The last thing President Obama wants to do is run against Mitt Romney -- and that is why his political machine continues their deceptive attacks to ‘kill Romney.’”
To contact the reporters on this story: John McCormick in Rochester, Michigan, at jmccormick16@bloomberg.net; Lisa Lerer in Washington at llerer@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
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