>> the politics of it would be very different if a bunch of lawyers and bankers were crossing the rio grande. or for bunch of people with journalism degrees were coming over and driving down the wages in the press. [applause] neil: me and my two other moderators we nervously laughed at that one. the border security issue we have and people trying to sneak into the country. with mia senator ted cruz who is

he is exciting. he's articulate fast on his feet and that's coming from jack welch. very good to see you senator. how do you think you did tonight? >> i thought it was a terrific debate. i will say kudos to boston who attended "the wall street journal." midway through the debate i told all three of you i thought you were doing a terrific job and it's because the content was substandard in the questions weren't softballs. you press the candidates but it was based on substance and policy and record. it wasn't condescending and nasty and personal and i think the result of that as we saw some very clear differentiation among the candidates. i think this debate will prove very helpful for republican primary voters in understanding the differences between where the republican candidates are. neil: contrary to reports no one gave you much of a chance.

you are not the top guy that you were in the top tier now. you are having no problem raising money. you have a lot of cash on hand. you don't blow it away. scott walker have a lot of cash coming in but inexpensive tight budget. not you, you are lean and mean and all of that but how do you close the deal? you have got to wait for others to fail, right? they can keep going on. >> there's a natural windowing process that's happening. you are seeing a clear break in the field and historically there have been two lanes in the republican primary. there has been a moderate establishment lane and a conservative lane. typically in the past there is one consensus moderate candidate all the money gets behind him and on the conservative side there are a bunch of conservatives. nobody has the money and we fight like cats and dogs and that's how the moderate tends to win the nomination on to lose the general election. what i'm encouraged by this election cycle neil that has

flipped. the moderate lane is crowded as all get out. there are a whole bunch of candidates that i think will spend millions of dollars ripping each other apart to see was going to be the moderate candidate. neil: a couple of them were going after you. i'll know if that's a testament to the money you are racing that you and rand paul. >> and you look at the flipside the conservative link on the two candidates but dropped out rick perry scott walker is very good men, strong governors. both were competing predominantly in the conservative lane and what we are saying is conservatives uniting behind our campaign. neil: you're considered a bridge between the establishment. you are a u.s. senator after all that you are maverick senators who you are outside the difficult political petri dish so do you align yourself closer to the donald trump or the marco rubio's? >> will let me put it this way. i am an elected office although i will point out i've been in the senate three years.

three years ago the last thing i been elected to a student council and i don't think -- neil: well you were solicitor general and argued some of the most important legal cases of our time. >> but that's the other point which is that if you look at, unlike some the candidates in this race, i've got a record. everyone on that stage says they are going to take in washington. they're going to stand up to the cronyism. the natural next question you say you are going to take in washington is okay who actually has taken on washington, not just democrats but leaders in our own party. neil: has said alienated you on both sides? it's one thing to take them on but you are taking everybody on. you have burned a lot of bridges. >> i had earned bridges among career politicians in washington but if you are looking for someone to go along to get along by your guy. neil: if you became president you would have to work for the same people that you ripped a

new one. >> one of the things i talk about a lot, this summer i wrote a book called a time for truth in the book talks about the washington cartel. the career politicians that get in bed with lobbyists and special-interest and grow and grow government. if you look at the last time we broke the washington cartel it was 1980. ronald reagan, and it was a grassroots campaign from the people and it's worth remembering washington despised ronald reagan. remember and 76 reagan had the primary of gerald ford. if you want to make republican leadership in washington load view, come within an inch of the incumbent republican president in a primary and reagan led a grassroots level revolution that swept in and turn the country brown. neil: but you raised a complexity. 76 wasn't easier, 80 was to let me go forward and say 2016 might not be your year in 2020 might.

>> 2016 has to be. the stakes are too high. we are bankrupting our country. it's now or never and i do think the parallels are uncanny uncanny. think of celebrities between barack obama and jimmy carter are striking. neil: they made the solidarity with you and barack obama, roughly the same age and not a lot of senate experience. >> if you think about how did obama get elected? he turned out in. every time we nominate a candidate that runs to the middle we lose and if we nominate another candidate in the mold of the bob dole or john mccain or mitt romney all of whom are good men. neil: we never built monuments to moderates. >> let me put it this way. if you define as a reaganite anyone who was with ronald reagan in the primary in 1980, do you know republicans have never once nominated reaganite for president in 1984?

ever republican nominee from 84 on a post-reagan in 1980. i'm 44 years old and i have never once been able to go and vote for reaganite for president and if you look at why we are losing, if you look at the numbers, i am in numbers and date a guy and you mention i was supreme court litigator. images of the winning bid if you look at the numbers most striking difference between old for the last race we won in 08 and 12 are the millions of conservatives who stayed home in 08 and 12 and if we want to when we need to bring them back. neil: you might be a list to do that but here's where you could get caught up. your comments rescuing the banks made good legal sense. too big to fail obviously a lot of people don't believe it and if we are on the brink we are going to do it again but you seem to be and john kasich was here a few minutes ago, you can't tell innocent depositors through no fault of their own

who got caught up in the malfeasance of the crooks who ran the place or played it wrong that their deposits are gone. >> of course you can't but that's a nonsense point. we have the fdic the federal deposit insurance corporation at aaron tieser deposit. this. neil: there are limits on those deposits. >> we don't necessarily guarantee billionaires and look people are fed up with the cronyism. neil: but how would you played on the stump if you were running for president, ted cruz would let you drown a fine. >> i will tell you what neil, i am happy to give hillary clinton every voter in america the things we should they allowed wall street in the giant banks and i'll take every voter thinks we need to stop bailing out wall street and the giant banks and stand with main street and working men and women and if that's the divide we will win another election and we will be like 2004. it will be like 1984 where

reagan won 49 states. i guarantee the people of america are tired of politicians deciding who is the winner and who is a loser and favoring giant corporations at the expense of the little guy. i fight for the entrepreneur. i fight for the working men and women. i fight for people like a dad in 1957 washing dishes making 50 cents an hour. that's free enterprise, not the cronyism and corruption that characterizes washington right now. neil: where you headed to tomorrow? >> heading to new hampshire. we have a phenomenal pace. it's interesting they are candidates in this field who have to win iowa's comments do or die in their other candidates that have to win new hampshire. i think we have got tremendous flexibility for where allin and iowa. we have an amazing team. we are all in new hampshire. we are all in south carolina and

we are all in nevada but 10 days after south carolina is super tuesday. its georgia, alabama tennessee arkansas oklahoma, texas. those are all conservative southern states. our team there is phenomenal. it's a single day with the most delegates awarded. neil: do you think someone will get to cleveland because we have so many delegates states that we could get to cleveland without a nominee without someone who has both delegates necessary? >> you know is possible by don't think so. we were talking about the two lanes. i think there will be a winner of the moderate lane. it may take until january or february or march. i believe i'm going to win the conservative plan and then when it gets head-to-head and moderate versus a conservative, we went. in the republican primary conservatives outnumber moderates 3-1 in here's a game-changer in the reference it earlier. if you think back to 2012, republican primary voters

desperately wanted a more conservative alternative to mitt romney. they have six, seven, eight mott mott -- front-runners. neil: waterfalls of big money goes to marco rubio? >> that could happen. jeb used marco is the most formidable player in the moderate lane in there slugging it out. neil: they could cancel themselves out. >> what is amazing and a game-changer our fund-raising we have raised over $26 million. reported the last fund-raising quarter the most money in the bank of any republican in the field and that's because today, over 450,000 contributions have gone to ted cruz.org, ted cruz.org. there has not been a true grassroots movement conservative but serious fund-raising ability and the resources to communicate since 1980. ronald reagan was the last time that happened.

neil: you are right about that. senator cruz very good seeing you. be well, safe travels. he's the guy that jack welch likes and he's a pretty good judge of character so that alone should make you think this guy they were dismissing a few months ago is still standing and guess who is still raising money? you are watching fox business where we mean business. we promise you we would stick to it and we did. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare? that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, they pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay and could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call today to request a free decision guide

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neil: you know we have been getting a ton of e-mails and this e-mail, you did guys did a great job on the debate that maria bartiromo is so much prettier than you are. she has been moderating with people. not about the debate but about the race. >> that's right neal. the most social woman according to facebook right here is when marco marco rubio and rand paul when added when it came to defense spending on the side of the military. overall let's take a look at the top five candidates in terms of engagement. people are talking about on

facebook ben carson no supplies leaving followed by trump and carly fiorina in the top five. we are looking at the gender break down surprisingly rand paul broke through during this debate joined those two hours among men followed by ben carson and donald trump. who were they talking about, ben carson, donald trump, rand paul coming in fourth and then carly fiorina. we are also looking at a top issue nail a very economic focus debate. taxes were the biggest concern among facebook users. that's what they wanted to talk about followed by immigration minimum wage jobs and health care so neal this debate very much capturing the discussion on facebook and you see taxes at the very top. neil: a very good job. the guy that made this debate possible tonight and the fact of the matter is he crunches a lot of the stuff for the national

committee. when they were going through the scheduled debates and they had the numbers with cnbc which is fine and i used to work and it's a a wonderful place. used to be, anyway he could have left it at that and we would make a name for ourselves because really is trying to get included on the movie premiere run and the republican party said we will get these cajon's at fox a chance. you could easily argue her business commitment was filled and he made that possible. sean is not your typical conservative because i noticed his socks as he and i were talking. if we could take a look at those socks. are you able to look at sean socks, guys? this is not your normal conservative guy. we are going to get a close-up of his socks here because i guarantee you and i've seen it before, he'd care of goes in

public by this all the time that he is crafting the next person of the united states. so much for decorum here. >> george w. bush. you can get them at gop.com. neil: arai fine, leaving it at that. how do you think everything went? >> tonight was phenomenal. you guys set the new standard because you did exactly what you said you were going to do. he talks about substantive issues and made about the candidates and for everyone who tuned in tonight they learned about those candidates. they learned where they stood on the issues and that was not one candidate against another. it really was the new gold standard of what a debate is supposed to be about. so congratulations to you, murray of the "washington journal." neil: we promised we would be fair but we would not be -- but the one thing i did notice among your cabinet they picked up

where the prior network left off. they are at each other's throats and wondering if you and i touched on this, sometimes and i did this at cnbc and i got a bad rap but what i think what happens is the close you get to the caucus and the closer you get to campaigns losing money on life-support, they get desperate and they start throwing grenades is it your sense that this field regardless of how they did in the debate is whittling down fast? >> i don't think so. we had two debates tonight. that tells you that we still have these qualified members. that's amazing so i think each of them will make a decision but the difference tonight was a lot in the town. the difference was about issues and where they differed on that particular policy issue. neil: but they are lashing out at each other. ted cruz a close friend and you know them better than i do they were at each other's throats

tonight. >> they want to be president of the united states. if it's done in a respectful way , this is politics. neil: donald trump and what did you think of carly fiorina is interrupting? >> there was a lot of jumping in and out. neil: we wanted to let it go. it wasn't about us but by the same token they didn't want to let it go. it tells me some of them were desperate which is fine. >> it's not always desperation though. sometimes it's how you debate. you want to get your points across and assert yourself. i don't open source about desperation. so i think there are a lot of reasons you do that. tonight overall each of them got their points across. they all got in and had an equal amount of time. that's a good thing to walk out of here. no one is walking out talking

about the moderators and talking about the dodgy questions. they lived and died by their performance and that's what debates are supposed to be about. neil: we were talking about this at the break, when it comes to capital and business and money and markets there is this prevailing mainstream view that capitalism is a great system and you yourself said it. it's hardly everybody. but that was punctured somewhat and the candidates some better than others found a different year. not all these views are so wacky >> now because i think you mainstream media picks financial issues and if you don't believe in giving everything away more government you are bad. the candidate should be can be for economic development and he could be for lifting up workers wages but allowing the market to do -- to have innovation. there are things, that's what made our country.

and that's what we'll continue to maker country great not what we spend on government handouts to people. that's never a long-term fix. neil: i know you think you don't envision there will be a mass exodus of candidates but can it go on very long when you have eight on the field and it will be different with other venues but that's hard for them to get a word in edgewise. >> it is and that's what i'm saying for each one of them the process will work its will and i think they will make a decision based on how much support they have, how much money they are racing and how long they stay in or out of the race. you saw the candidate in rick santorum who didn't have a ton of money but he worked hard and came out the winner. i think a lot of campaigns looked at the santorum model in said hey you know what i think i can resonate with voters in new hampshire iowa south carolina nevada or in a lot of the states but each will craft their own on

resources they have. neil: when was the last time you slept? >> slept well and slept are two different things. i'm going to sleep like a baby tonight because i really was proud of the job not only do you guys did but the performance that these candidates put forward. every one of them should be proud of what they did. neil: you don't get much credit for a lot of things but i want to stress you could make an argument that sean was doing this. you know we are covered. they did it and now was up to us to succeed or fail. i am getting e-mails especially those of you that don't find me particularly handsome hurtful. but thank you. falling on deaf ears but my point is shown gave us that opportunity to prove you could do these issues without getting personal about these issues. he was doing it. he was saying it.

some of these players are doing it and saying it but all the attention was on one giant entity and forgetting all other entities. i will not forget that. stick around. you are watching fox business.

i think we need to repeal every rule that barack obama has come everyone every one of them. [applause] and start over. neil: all right i'm not very good so close to the fire helping to moderate this debate to know who won or lost that i will say i think jeb bush did a heck of a lot better than he is done in prior debates. his campaign manager joins us right now. i think he did certainly better and certainly stood out more than he has in the past. but the question is whether he has enough momentum now because there are a lot of people, talking about this with my buddy , lot of people who still aren't sure he can never get

that mojo back at least the early front-runner of momentum mojo that he had before these other candidates entered the race in the phelbeck further in the race. what do you say? >> governor bush is the most accomplished conservative performer on the stage. he has robust policy positions and achieved high sustained economic growth in washington and taking a bite sizes. from our perspective tonight we were able to talk about that a little bit. we were able to litigate the case against hillary clinton. we are able to talk about how his policies affect everyday americans so we appreciate the opportunity to do so and i think as voters learn more about governor bush he is the most prepared person to be president they will support them more and more. neil: all right you could debate whether he was the most prepared in the debate but i will agree someone watching he was certainly on top of this his game tonight. a lot of candidates were but this might surprise you that

hillary clinton was watching the debate as well or at least of people were. she was tweeting out two different things. times republican had ideas for the middle-class, zero. times republicans -- hillary, lost count. >> giving barack obama an a on his failed economic policies with left with the candidates on the stage. one candidate governor florida was able to work with others to get 4% growth. cut taxes every year totaling 90 year totaling $19 million has a plan to move the country forward and do the same year nationally. i think that's a stark contrast versus hillary clinton and we look forward to having that discussion with her in the general election. neil: why does your candidate not do a lot of the conventional things that candidates do? they run up into the spin room where i am now. when he is done with these things he can't be bothered.

>> is going to be on fox tomorrow. he will do much like the other candidates. we appreciate the opportunity to share our message and speak with wonderful people like you nailed. no you didn't answer my question why doesn't he spend his performance? >> a candidate is on his way to iowa to talk to others. no understood. thank you very much. what do you think of what danny was saying? i will agree as far as bush's performance was markedly better paid. >> i don't think it was better enough. jeb bush is good on the issues. he's a smart man. he's a wonk. he understands all the issues. he can write all the position papers himself. i will say a couple of things. i don't think he was good enough to rise above rubio. if you look at just who won tonight on rhetorical points and you had a better command

particularly banking issues it had to be marco rubio. i would say this, jeb pushed and kasich to a certain degree were incomprehensible when it came to describing banks, the problems with banks. no kasich was saying this much, that he couldn't picture leading america go down maybe that was the most honest. >> it wasn't that. it was how he described how he prospered. no i understand that. you would think the risk here though is a ted cruz we will never rescue the banks. can you see that happening? >> i don't think there was a good answer because it's not just ted cruz. it's neil cavuto who says that. i'm not saying that you are some super right-wing lunatic. you and i have -- i've defended bank bank bailouts and you say it's unfair. why should things be bill back? the guy at the corner store to get bailed out.

that argument resonates with republican voters and i'm telling you he made a huge mistake on that. jeb made of this -- a mistake. no you are in the liberal camp that supported the bank bailouts. >> i'm in the camp were says it was a necessary evil. no understand that but that is what kasich was saying. so you hate yourself create it means you hate you. >> dude. no do? you want to win the republican primary? you call me dude? who won the debate tonight? >> i thought donald did very well. no oh it's donald now. >> by the way he sadly and he said sometimes i want to kill you, just so you want to know. i thought ben carson did well. i think he did okay and i think marco rubio beyond a doubt one

this thing and i will tell you his people who are not pollyanna-ish about these things are doing high fives right now. they think they have just ended it for bush. in terms of their establishment republicans they think marco rubio has one. no what about carly fiorina? >> carly is very good on the issues. one of the problems is there are always people out there whose standout. donald stands out and i thought marco stood out in about 10 carson stood out. carly was somewhat muted. she did not have a breakout. did you think she had a breakout performance? neil: it's hard to tell with all those people out there. >> but the people who spoke the most articulate. particularly in the second hour marco rubio was slow in the first hour but that second hour. no how do you think the debate went? >> you guys were terrible. you guys were great.

no i can't wish you enough pain. >> why would i be here? why would i be sitting next to you if -- neil: because i asked you to. >> it by value debate was horrible. should i drink a surely temple on new? neil: the pumpkin lattes are good at starbucks. pumpkin lattes. >> number one i tried to jump the line at a nice restaurant. it was in your name. no cnbc. >> a very pretty woman said she thought she saw me in the strip club and i was a stripper. it happened last night. no there is always a risk. we will be back here continuing in the spin room and there are very few spinners left great

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>> his day consider its -- conservative. he can't be conservative promote new programs that you're not going to pay for. [applause] >> we can't have an economy . . a radical shia cleric in iran trying to get a nuclear weapon. trying to take over the south china sea. i don't believe, i know that the world is a safer and better place when america is the strongest military power in the world. [applause] neil: i was two senators going at it and they were discussing security, military spending things like the budget and the debt. it was pretty heated, right?

i want to disavow folks of the notion that if you're talking business issues you can make . . dull. there's a whole network devoted to that the fact of the matter is these are not dull issues. these are germane issues and a few but the candidates have it out on these issues you will get some riveting exchanges where do you agree or disagree with those who are arguing on that stage. to a fellow who is living proof elected to the senate when everyone said he didn't have a chance in the world facing the pressure again. of course it's good to have him. >> not everyone nail. no let's talk about the debate and that i want to go with this. >> trying to resort to some prostate cancer. no i will ask you making fun of it. let's talk about the debate into

one. early reits are that marco rubio had a good night, ted cruz had a good night in rand paul had a good night. do you buy that? >> i think fox business one because you lived up to your word and he didn't make yourself the issue. we had a really good debate. the american people won one because they did see from my standpoint in number people on the stage that the leadership of the nation underscore and i saw that serious discussion of what i was hoping would be about economic growth and opportunity and they saw a fair amount of gray matter by the candidates on the stage about we have to reduce regulatory burden of this country and we have to have pro-growth tax reform. we have to have clean environments but we have to keep energy prices low as well. no i know your thoughts on that and that is on the prospect of another bank it forward bank of america, where you had those like ted cruz saying no.

there are procedures in place but you don't bail out banks. i cannot imagine sitting with you we are in a situation god forbid like we went through in 2008, bankamerica must citigroup. they are on the brink and we let them go. >> first of all the whole issue with the federal reserve in our banking system is complex. it doesn't lend itself to demagoguery, wall street versus main street. it's a complex situation. we needed a functioning financial system. no you lead a bank that was on the brink go. >> you have to resolve it in your processes in place to resolve it. no jeb roche indicated that's not going to happen. >> it was way too simplistic in terms of what the answers were. to very complex questions. no but it will happen again. one thing about crises, the

cause might be different but they do happen. >> the agreement was that dodd-frank didn't solve the problem. it exacerbated too big to fail so we didn't fix the problem. we made it worse. no he wouldn't rescue of bank? >> you would make it worse as well. president obama has made it much worse across-the-board. no senator johnson thank you very much. >> congratulations. no are you going to stick with it after the whole thing? >> probably not particularly not raced in your comments. no thank you for sticking around in the spin room. we have a lot more after this including weighing all this out on what they do tomorrow. they're all going to be traveling on the campaign trail. i will give you a hint what is probably in their travel plans, new hampshire and iowa. oh that's right it's a

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i will tell you what happened in the second half, bush did great in the beginning and then he seemed to fade into bush-ism. when he got there i was lost with him. the other thing that was interesting was foreign-policy. you remember you show the thing about homeland security.

neil: i don't remember anything. was i moderating a debate tonight? >> yes she worker then i'll it was a numbing experience. the foreign-policy thing >> tax is too high, wage is too high. >> we get back to the prin principles and liberty that built this country, we can turn this country around. >> applying to unique issues of our time, if we do, we will not save the american dream. >> we must take our government back. >> thank you. [cheers and applause] >> nicole: breaking news this morning, a great debate that delivered, answering tough questions on how to fix the