We Are Live Blogging the GOP Presidential Debate in Milwaukee
Mother Jones
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OK, I’m up for this. Are you up for this? Sure you are! Together, we can get through the full two hours. We can do it! We can!
11:18 – And that’s a wrap.
11:17 – Trump: I’m spending my own money in this campaign. Actually, no, he isn’t.
11:14 – Carson: fight political correctness!
11:13 – Jeb wants to rebuild the VA.
11:12 – Fiorina: America will literally collapse if Hillary Clinton becomes president.
11:11 – Kasich worries about his children and grandchildren if Hillary Clinton is president.
11:10 – Time for closing statements!
11:09 – Trump: bring back profits from overseas with a tax holiday. Paul: drill, baby, drill. Bush: natural gas is great.
11:04 – Cruz also says Hillary sucks.
11:01 – Bartiromo: Hillary Clinton has an impressive resume. Audience boos. Not really sure what the question is, but Rubio says Hillary sucks and this election is about the future.
10:59 – Hey, I thought Donald Trump had personally guaranteed this debate wouldn’t go over two hours. What’s the deal?
10:58 – Fiorina: Dodd-Frank is socialism. Freddie Mac was responsible for housing bust. Etc.
10:54 – Kasich: Put a sock in it, Cruz. Real executives need to make decisions, not philosophize. Kasich says he wouldn’t bail out banks, but would help the hardworking folks who put money in the bank. Big boos!
10:51 – Cavuto: Just to be clear, if Bank of America were on the brink, would you let it fail? Cruz: Yes. Also: we need fewer philosopher kings at the Fed. And the gold standard would be great for working men and women!
10:50 – Cavuto: Would you go after Wall Street crooks like Bernie Sanders? Freudian slip, I guess. Cruz would “absolutely” go after them. We need less cronyism. Blah blah blah.
10:48 – Kasich: too much greed on Wall Street.
10:46 – Question to Carson about big banks. This ought to be good. Answer: shouldn’t allow banks to “just enlarge themselves at the expense of smaller entities.” Low interest rates are bad. We need less regulation. Hurts the poor and middle class because it raises the cost of a bar of soap by ten cents. Baker: OK, but would you break up the big banks? Carson: I wouldn’t allow them to get big in the first place. But, no, I wouldn’t tear down banks that already exist.
10:40 – Bush thinks we should raise capital requirements on banks. He says we’ve reduced them. This is totally wrong.
10:37 – Kasich winds up with yet more whining about not getting enough time. Put a sock in it, John. Besides, what about Ted Cruz? He seems to have virtually disappeared for the past half hour.
10:36 – Kasich: If anyone cyberattacks us, they should know we will destroy their means to perform cyberattacks. Not really clear what this means. Then a tour of the world showing what a tough guy he is.
10:32 – Rubio: Putin sucks. Obama sucks. Blah blah blah, machine gun speech about all the terrible people in the world. Big cheers.
10:31 – Trump to Fiorina: “Why do you keep interrupting everyone?”
10:28 – Fiorina says she’s met Putin not in a green room, like Trump, but in a private meeting. Yee haw!
10:26 – Bush says Trump is full of shit. Trump says we have no idea who the rebels are. Look at Libya. Look at Iraq. He almost sounds like a Democrat. Almost.
10:24 – Trump is now in full ADD mode on foreign policy. Syria! China! Putin! Ukraine! Germany! But we can’t be policeman of the world.
10:22 – Bush says America needs to lead in the Middle East. But his plan is distinctly small-bore: no-fly zone, support the rebels, think about the refugees.
10:18 – Carson: we have to oppose Putin in Middle East. But it’s very complicated. Carson’s plan for ISIS: We have to make them look like losers. We do that by taking their oil fields and then destroying them. “We could do this, I believe, fairly easily.” Carson says he learned that from “several generals.” Names, please!
10:16 – Is anyone ever going to ask Fiorina to describe her tax plan? Come on. It’s only three pages long!
10:14 – Paul thinks Congress should have the ability to amend treaties. This would, of course, make it impossible to negotiate treaties.
10:11 – Trump says TPP is worst trade deal ever. We should sign deals with each country separately instead. Baker: Is there anything in particular you dislike about TPP? Trump: It doesn’t do anything about currency manipulation. China is killing us! Rand Paul points out that China isn’t part of the deal.
10:10 – Kasich tries to barge in. Baker finally shuts him up. Kasich is whining a lot tonight.
10:09 – Trump: We need a big military so no one will mess with us.
10:09 – Now Fiorina goes into yet another riff about zero-based budget and the three-page tax code. Jesus.
10:07 – Now everyone wants to chime in to show that they want a kick-ass military too.
10:05 – Now Rubio and Paul get into a fight. Somehow this ends up with Rubio saying he wants to spend more on defense, unlike Paul, who’s a big wimp. Then a riff about having the most powerful military in the world Huge cheers.
10:04 – Baker asks Rubio if his child tax credit is just a new entitlement. Rubio doesn’t really respond. He just natters on about how important the family is.
10:03 – Jeb Bush delivers some argle bargle about needing a better economy.
10:00 – Cruz would cut five agencies: IRS, Commerce, Energy, Commerce, and HUD. Paging Rick Perry!
9:56 – Rand Paul wants a flat tax. Ted Cruz wants a flat tax. Cruz promises that his plan totally adds up and it abolishes the IRS. The result will be incredible economic growth.
9:52 – Cavuto wants to know which tax plan God would prefer: Trump’s or Carson’s? Carson sort of rambles on about proportionality and putting more money in people’s pockets. Also: his plan will include some kind of rebate for poor people. I believe this is news.
9:49 – The moderators are fulfilling their assigned roles and asking softball questions almost exclusively. Bartiromo said she was going to get to the bottom of all the tax and budget plans, but so far she’s done virtually none of that.
9:45 – Fiorina: Nobody can possibly understand Obamacare. Follow-up: What’s the alternative? Fiorina: high-risk pools. Obamacare is helping no one and crushing small business. We need free market health care. Also: again with the three-page tax code. Fiorina is really obsessed with this tonight.
9:42 – Cruz delivers pretty good line about elite opinion on immigration being different if it was bankers or journalists crossing the Rio Grande. Probably so!
9:40 – Rubio delivers stock speech about taxes, regulations, energy, and Obamacare.
9:38 – Bush has Kasich’s back. We can’t just ship all the illegal immigrants back. Big cheers (!).
9:37 – Trump: I’m rich, I don’t need to listen to Kasich. Big boos (!).
9:34 – Finally, Kasich starts a fight with Trump over immigration. Then he defends Ohio’s honor.
9:32 – Carson: I’m an honest guy. Trump: Immigration is bad.
9:27 – Very subdued debate so far. Everyone seems to have decided that fighting each other just makes the whole field look like children. I wonder how long this will last?
9:26 – Rand Paul goes through a riff on the Fed that I honestly didn’t understand. Plus: we should all move to cities and states with Republicans in charge.
9:23 – Fiorina: We need five things. Zero-based budgeting. Three-page tax code. Total review of all regs. Pass the REINS Act. Hold government officials accountable for their performance. Big applause.
9:20 – What specific regs would Bush cut? Answer: repeal every rule Obama has put in place. Internet. Clean power. Water. Repeal ’em all.
9:17 – Cruz says keys to economic growth are tax reform, slashing regulations, and sound money.
9:14 – What would you cut from the budget? Kasich tap dances. Doesn’t mention a single thing he’d cut. Follow-up: he’d cut Social Security. And Medicaid. Freeze nondiscretionary spending. Increase defense spending. So: cut basically all domestic spending and increase defense spending.
9:10 – Rubio: if we raise the minimum wage, people will be more expensive than machines. We need more welders and fewer philosophers. (No, I don’t get it either.)
9:08 – Carson: people need to be educated on the minimum wage. Wages are too high. Lower wages will create more jobs. High wages create dependency, or something.
9:06 – Trump opposes $15 minimum wage because….we don’t win anymore. Also: wages are too high. People are just going to have to buck up.
9:04 – Could Jeb Bush possibly look less enthusiastic during the introductions?
9:00 – And we’re off. But first, an inspiring video.
8:58 – Tonight features 90-second answers from the candidates. Substantive!
8:57 – Everybody is already at their podiums. I miss having them walk in and wave.
More here –
We Are Live Blogging the GOP Presidential Debate in Milwaukee
