with the florida republican party. besides watching us on fox news channel, we are being streamed on youtube.com/fox news and heard on fox news radio. now let's meet the candidates. texavern texas governor governor mitt romney. congressman ron paul. congresswoman michelle bachmann. former speaker of the house newt gingrich. businessman herman cain. former senator rick santorum. former utah governor jon huntsman.

and former new mexico governor gary johnson. joining me at the big desk my fox news colleagues, megyn kelly and chris wallace. with our partner google we have new features. throughout the night we'll be playing questions from viewers who posted their video and text questions on youtube. we will be polling viewers on key issues while the debate is underway. we'll have updates from shannon bream. our rules are similar to previous fox debates, one minute for answers, 30 seconds for follow-ups. after an outpour of e-mails from dog owners who said the last bell sounded like their doorbell, we have a new sound for the candidates if they run too long. thank you to google for that sound. we hope, after a string of debates we don't have to use

that too much. we received thousands and thousands of questions from around the world on different topics. each one of these pins on the map is another question from health care, immigration, foreign policy and social issues. the highest percentage of questions dealt with jobs, the economy, debt and government spending. that was even before today's major market slide. what makes this debate unique is that not only did you submit the questions, you voted on them. letting everyone know which questions you think the candidates should be asked tonight. we received questions from all 50 states. our first question comes from dave maldo mere in florida. >> i have -- as a small business owner one of the big obstacles i have in growing my business is is having the confidence and incentive to hire new employees. i'm wondering what each one of our candidates would propose to help small businesses like

mine to hire new employees and confidently grow our business in this economic environment? >> bret: governor perry? >> rick scott sitting there he and i compete everyday trying to get jobs into our state. what we have done in texas over the course of the last decade is lower that tack burden on the small business men and women. have a regulatory nate is fair and predictable. sweeping tort reform we passed in 2003 that told personal injury trial lawyers don't come to texas because you are not going to be suing our doctors frivolously. that's the way you get the government off the back of small businessmen and women. that's the way you free-up those small business entrepreneurs. where they know they can risk their capital and have a chance to have a return on investment. if it will work in the state of texas, it will work in washington, d.c.. that's what i'm going bring to

washington when i go there in november -- excuse me in january of 2013. >> bret: governor perry the thing we heard from people who submitted questions. they wanted details. most of the people on the stage opponents have a specific jobs plan on paper that people can read. where is your jobs plan? >> you will see a more extent service -- extensive jobs plan. look at the state of texas from lower the tax burden, regulatory climate in the state of texas. we've taken those types of regulation off the throat of small business operators. people understand the state of texas during the last decade something special happened there. i was the number one state for relocation. for five years in a row. we plan on keeping it that way, rick. >> bret: governor romney, you have a specific plan. in recent days the top rising

search of your name on google dealt with people searching for specifics of that plan. a wall street journal editorial called your 59 point economic plan surprisingly timid and tackle considering our economic predictment. the editorial board had a problem with you picking the $200,000 income fresh hold for eliminating interest capital gains taxes you were afraid of president obama's class warfare rhetoric. how do you spoken? >> let's talk -- microphone on? there we go. let's go back and talk about the question that dave asked. which is how to get small business a break? president obama has didn't everything wrong. i happen to believe to create jobs it helps to have had a job, and i had. having had a in small business and big busy know you have to make america the most attractive place in the world for police. corporate and employer tax rates have to be competitive.

small business pay as the highest rates we need get those rates down. government and regulators have be allies of business, not foes. we have to become energy secure. number four, we have to have trade policies that work for us not just the other guys and crackdown on cheaters like china. and my list goes on. i know there are some that say we should lower taxes for the highest income people. other folks have different plans. my view is simple, the people that hurt most by the president's economy the obama economy has been the middle class that's why i cut taxes for the middle class. >> bret: what do you consider rich? is half a million dollars, a million dollars rich? >> i don't try and define who is rich and who is not rich. i want everybody in america to be rich. i want people in this country to have opportunities. i want everybody to have the

kind of opportunities that we on this stage have had. i want people in america to recognize that the future will be brighter for their kids than i was for them. the president's party wants to take from some and give to the others that isn't the way to lift america. the way to lift america is give people opportunity and let them enjoy the free drops that have made us the envy of the world. [ applause ] >> bret: occasionally through the debate we'll ask the same questions to you at home. the first is what is your definition of rich? we'll bring some of those results throughout the show with shannon bream. now to megyn kelly. >> megyn: congresswoman bachmann after the last debate a young member of the california tea party said he didn't feel he had his question fully answered. question that received the most votes on the list. the answer his question is a

out of every dollar i earn how much do you think that i deserve to keep? >> after the debate i talked to that young man and i said i wish i could have answered that question because i want to tell you what my answer is. i think you earned every dollar. you should get to keep every dollar that you earn. that's your money. that's not the government's money. that's the whole point. barack obama seems to think that when we earn money, it to him. we are lucky just to keep a little bit of it. i don't think that. i think when people make money, it is their money. obviously, we have to give money back to the government so we can run the government. but we have to have a completely different mindset. that is, the american people are the genius of this economy. it certainly isn't government. that's the two views. president obama has embraced a view of government-directed temporary fixes and gimmicks. they don't work. he's destroyed the economy. what does work is private

solutions that are permanent in the private sector. that gives certainty. that will grow our economy. megyn senator santorum. 22 states if the u.s. are right to work states in the other 28 if the business is a union job you have to join the union if you want to work there. this next question is one of the top voted questions online via youtube: >> with unemployment numbers above 9% union issues such as the national labor relations board lawsuit against boeing and several union battle as across the country have become relevant to the national discussion. for all the candidates, would you support some form of a right to work law allowing all workers to choose or not to

join a union? [ applause ] >> i think the most important area that we have to focus in on when it comes to unions public employee unions. that's the area of unionization growing the fastest and costing us the most money. we've seen these battles on the state level where unions have bankrupted states from pension plans to here on the federal level, 30 to 40% union employees make above their private sector equivalents. i do not believe that state, federal or local workers, unions should be involved in unions. i would support a bill that says we should not have public employee unions for the purposes of wages and benefits to be negotiated. [ applause ] >> megyn: speaker gingrich, you criticized extending unemployment benefits saying you were opposed to giving peep money for doing nothing. benefits have been extended to 99 weeks expire soon if you

were president today, would you extend unemployment benefits? if not, how do you justify that to the millions who are looking and whose families are depending on those checks? >> i said unemployment compensation should be tied directly to a training program. if you don't have a job and you need help, in order for us to give you the help, you should sign up for a business-led training program so that 99 weeks becomes an investment in human capital giving us the best trained workforce in the world so you can get a job. i believe it is fundamentally wrong to give people money for 99 weeks for doing fog. -- for doing nothing. that's why we had welfare reform. [ applause ] >> the easiest thing for congress to do if the president sends up a proposed extension to allow all 50 states to experiment at the state level with developing a mandatory training component

of unemployment compensation. so you would have 50 parallel experiments and not pretend washington knows best or washington can solve the problem by itself. i believe deeply, people should not get money for doing nothing. [ applause ] >> bret: now chris wallace. >> chris: good evening candidates. governor huntsman in utah offered millions in tax credits to promote clean energy in june you said as president you would subsidize natural gas companies. how is that different from the obama administration, which gave the solar panel company solyndra a half a billion dollars in federal loan guarantees, as we all know that company ended up and we taxpayers ended up on the hook. >> chris, first of all it is an honor to be here in orlando, home of my wife. we've learned some important lessons as this economy has spun out of control. we have hard decisions to

make. we are not going to fix the problem. we are not going to be able to bring our people together in america, until we fix the economy. i'm convinced that part of the divide we are experiencing in the united states, which is unprecedented, it is unnatural, and it is unamerican, is because we are divided economically, too few jobs, too few opportunities. we have learned subsidies don't work and we can no longer afford them. believe we can move toward renewable energy but we have to have a bridge product. everybody wants to draw from the sun, wind. eventually that will make sense. today the economics don't work. we need something like natural gas. i put forward an energy independence program with tax reform and regulatory reform. natural gas, you are looking at 500,000 to a million jobs over the next five years. it is ours, affordable, it has important national security implications and we should begin the conversion process. >> chris: in june you told the

new hampshire union leader as president you would subsidies -- us is dice the natural gas industry. >> i would be willing to begin an effort so long as there is a rapid phase-out. i do not like long term subsidies. if there was some sort of way if get the ball rolling with a quick phase-out, i would be in favor of that. >> chris: mr. cain i want to follow up on your nine, nine, nine plan for economic growth. [ applause ] >> chris: they seem to already know what it is. 9% corporate tax. 9% flat income tax and a new 9 weather 9% national sales tax. -- conservatives say repale the income tax before you impose a new tax. isn't there a danger with your plan with these three taxes that some government down the road after president cain is going to increase three forms of taxation on americans?

>> no, there's no danger in that. first, let me answer dave's question with the 9, 9, 9 plan. unfortunately, nobody up here answered this question. he wanted to know as a small businessman what are we going to do to help him? i have walked in dave's shoes. this economy is on life support. that's why my 9, 9, 9 plan is a bold solution. it starts with throw out the current tax code and pass 9% business flat tax. 9% personal income tax. and the 9% national sales tax this is the most important part it replaces corporate income tax, personal income tax, capital gains tax as well as the estate tax. then it treats all businesses the same. and the people who are paying only payroll tax, 15.3, that they don't have to a. now they only have to pay that 9%. unlike governor romney's plan

my plan throws out the old one he's still hooked to the current tax code. that dog won't hunt. [ cheering and applause ] >> the rule is if your name is mentioned if an answer you get 30 seconds to respond. >> i put my plan out, i want to make it clear my intent is to help the people who have been most hurt by president obama's economy. the people who have been most hurt are the middle income families. that's why my plan says if middle income families want to avenue their money, anybody earning $200,000 and not pay any taxes, interest dividends or capital gains, zero tax on their safes that's the plan i'm for and i will -- their savings that's the plan i'm for and i will get that done if the first year. >> congressman paul the video that go the most votes of all the questions submitted to youtube.

this comes from brandy and michael in spencer, indiana. >> growing concern among americans about size and scope of the federal government and infringement upon state and individual rights. >> if elected how do you plan to restore the federal government allow states to govern themselves? >> congressman what is your answer? >> obviously, it would take more than one individual. but the responsibility of the president would be to veto every single bill that violates the 10th amendment. that would be the solution. [ applause ] >> anything else? you have a little time left. [ laughing ] >> i'll tell you what, that is the subject that is crucial because government is too big in washington, d.c., we have no controls of spending, taxes, regulations no control in the

federal reserve printing money. if we want government, whether it is medical care or whatever, it is proper to do it at the local level as well as our schools. there's no authority in the constitution to do so much what we're doing. there's no authority for them to run our schools. no authority to control our economy. and no authority to control us as individuals on what we do with our personal lives! [ applause ] >> bret: okay we got to the full answer at the end. governor johnson, same question to you about the 10th amendment. with this added, you are an outspoken libertarian. what makes you a better choice for libertarian republicans than congressman paul? >> i'm not going to presume to make that assumption. but i would like to say that i do bring a unique perspective to this stage. i started a one-man handiman business in albuquerque in 1974 and graw it to over 1,000

employees. i have run for two political offices in my life governor of new mexico and reelection. i promise to submit balanced budget to congress in the year 2013. i promise to veto legislation where expenditures exceed revenue. anybody doubts my willingness to veto bills, i think i vetoed more bills than any governor in the history of the united states. i think i vetoed more bills than all the other governors in the country combined. add to that, throwing out the entire federal tax system and replacing it with a consumption tax. the fair tax. which would absolutely reboot the american economy because it does away with the corporate tax to create tens of millions of jobs in this country. >> bret: governor johnson, thank you. we'll be coming back to the economy throughout this debate tonight. as i mentioned, we'll be checking in with our own

shannon bream throughout the night to get real-time updates from people watching. >> shannon: this is the most interactive debate ever. thanks to our partner google. go to youtube.com/fox news. what happens there, folks can see the debate streamingly. to the right of the screen, all night long, we are sending out questions so we can get your answers at home. bret asked governor romney how he defines rich? a question we put out on the internet many >> i define rich as someone having an annual income higher than $100,000. 13%. >> shannon: we'll be going through polls and data on the commercials join us at youtube.com/fox news. >> bret: after the break, we will be tackling foreign

policy. government spending. also, the issue of immigration. here for a preview of what is to come let's look at what's called a word cloud. it shows the words that were used most often in all of the questions you asked about immigration. the bigger the word the more often it was used. the biggest word as you see is illegal. back after a short break.

>> good evening i'm florida governor rick scott. because of florida's diversity our state represents the pulls

of our nation. not only will florida be a must win for a republican to be our party's nominee it is a must-win on the road to the white house. it is my belief the next president will be the candidate to articulate a plan for getting the economy back on the right track and inspire confidence in the hearts and minds of all americans. good luck to all the candidates. this debate is the partnership of fox news and google. i thank the men and women of fox news and google for choosing florida. and thank all of you for being part ever this exciting event. >> thank you governor scott. welcome back to orlando, florida and the republican presidential debate. my colleague megyn kelly will take us through the next ron of qstions. >> megyn: governor perry, governor romney has been hammering you on your idea of turning social security back to the states. repeatedly. can you explain persian gulf, how 50 separate social security systems are supposed to work?

>> let me say first, for those that are on social security today, for those people that are approaching social security. they don't have anything in world to worry about. we have made a solemn oath to the people of this country that social security program in place today will be there for them. now, it is not the first time that mitt has been wrong on some issues before. and the bottom line is, we never said we were going to move this back to the states. we said we ought to have as one of the options the state employees and the state retirees, they being able to go off of the currencies tell on to one that the states would operate themselves. as a matter of fact, in massachusetts, his home state, almost 96% of the people who are on that program retirees and state people are off of the social security program. so having that option out there to have the states, louisiana does it, almost every state has their state employees and the retirees, that are options to go off of

social security. that makes sense. it is an option we should have. >> megyn: governor romney are you satisfied with that? >> it is different than what the governor put in his book six months and what you said on interviews following the book. there's a rick perry out there that is saying that almost quote it says, that the federal government shouldn't be in the pension business. that it is unconstitutional. unconstitutional and it should be returned to the states. you better find that rick perry and get him to stop saying that. [ laughing ] >> my own view is, we have to make it very, very clear that social security is a responsibility of the federal government, not the state governments. we are going to have one plan and make sure that it is fiscallyound and stable. i'm committed to keeping social security working. i put in my book that i wrote a couple years ago, a plan for how we can do that to make sure social security stable for the next 75 years. thank you.

>> i would like to respond. speaking of books and talking about being able to have things in your books, back and forth. your economic adviser talked about romneycare and how that was an absolute bust and i was exactly what obamacare was all about. as a matter of fact, between books your hard copy book you said it was exactly what the american people needed to have that romneycare given to them as you had in massachusetts. then in your paper book, -- in your paperback, you took that line out. speaking of not getting it straight in your book sir -- [ cheering and applause ] >> megyn: governor romney? >> governor perry, we were talking about social security if you want to talk about health care i'm happy to do that. i actually wrote my book.

in my book i said no such thing. when i put my health care plan together and met with the -- he said if this is a plan if you were president you would have the whole nation adopt it? i said absolutely not this is a state plan for a state, not a national plan. fine for to you retreat from your own words in your own book but don't try to make me retreat from the words i wrote in my book. i stand for what i wrote. believe the people in this country can read my book and see exactly what it is, thank you. [ applause ] >> megyn: we have plenty of questions for the other candidates but i want to stick with you on this governor romney. congresswoman michelle bachmann has said president obama ushered in socialism. governor perry said he is hell bent on taking this country to a socialist country. speaker rich was asked if he believed president obama was a socialist?

he said, sure he is. do you, governor romney -- [ cheering ] >> do you governor romney believe that president obama is a socialist? >> let me tell you the title i want to hear said about president obama. that is, former president barack obama. [ cheering ] >> what president obama is, is a big spending liberal. he takes his political inspiration from europe and from the socialist democrats in europe. guess what? europe isn't working in europe. it is not going to work here. i believe in america. i believe in the opportunity and in the freedom that is american opportunity and freedom. i believe in free enterprise and capitalism. i believe government is too big from 27% of our economy in the years of jfk to 37% of our economy. we have to rein in the scale of government or we are not going to continue to be a free economy. i love this country. i spent my life in the private

sector, not government. i spent only four years as a governor. i didn't inhale. i'm a business guy. i'm going to get america working again, because i believe in the principles that make america the hope of the earth. thank you. [ applause ] >> megyn: governor huntsman, this week president obama proposed a tax hike on millionaires saying they need to pay their fair share. according to a gallup poll 66% of american adults believe a tax hike on the wealthy is a good idea. any scenario under which you could size with the 66% of people who believe it is a good idea to raise taxes on millionaires? >> we are not going to raise taxes this is the worst time to be raising taxes and everybody knows that. we need to grow. we need to be reminded of what ronald reagan told us so beautifully, that which is great about america, freedom. we need to reestablish freedom

in the marketplace. we need to address our underlying structural problems. in order to do that, we have to fix our taxes. and we put forward a program endorsed by the "wall street journal" that phases out for individuals all the loopholes, all deductions and creates three rates, on the corporate side it phase out all corporate welfare, all subsidies and it gets it from 35 to 25% this is where we need to be. we need to grow, create jobs. this is not a point in time where we should be raising taxes. we need to fix the underlying structural problems. until such time as we do, we are not going to provide the confidence to businesses who are looking to the capital in marketplace and hire people, serious tax reform like i proposed in the stay of utah, structural reform as well, dealing with dodd-frank and repealing obamacare because they are sprinting tremendous

uncertainty in the marketplace. >> megyn: mr. cain this was one of the top 10 video questions by people online. >> my question is, if you were forced to eliminate one department from the federal government, which one would you eliminate and why? thank you. the first department, if i were forced to eliminate a department, i would start with the epa and start all over. [ cheering ] >> it's out of control. now i know that makes some people nervous. but the epa has gone wild. the fact that they have a regulation that goes into effect january 1st, 2012, to regulate dust, says they've gone too far. rather than try fix it,

eliminate all of the things that they have right now. then start rebuilding a responsible epa. with the rest of my time, may i offer a solution for social security, rather than continuing to talk about what you call -- what to call it? i have proposed the chilean model it has been around 30 years and it works. a personal retirement account. in the past 30 years not only has chile succeeded with that model, but 30 other countries have done so. the solution is, fix it. [ cheering and applause ] >> megyn: speaker gingrich, everyday the federal government takes in about six billion dollars, but spends 10 we borrow 40 cents for every dollar we . you believe if we modernize the government it would save billions. given the resistance we've

seen in washington, to spending cuts how can you slash spending by 40%? >> the way you described the question, you can -- you can't. if you assume washington remains the way washington is right now it is all hopeless might as well buy greek bonds and go down together. [ cheering ] i'm going to outline a 21st century contract with america. it is going to be bolder, deeper, more profound than what we did in 1994 or what i helped jack kemp and ronald reagan do in 1980. it is important to remember, this month in the reagan administration, september 1983, we created a million 100,000 new jobs. obama's socialist policies,

class warfare and bureaucratic socialism we created zero in august. believe with leadership we can balance the budget. did it for four consecutive years we went from 2.2 trillion projected deficit over a decade to 2.7 trillion projected surplus when i left. it is doable, but it takes real leadership. [ applause ] >> the next question is for all the candidates if atlanta, georgia on the topic of education. >> hi, i've taught in public and private schools. now i'm a 7th grade teacher. i see administrators more focused on federal mandates, retaining funding and trying not get sued. teachers are jumping through hoops trying to serve up a one size fits all education. what as president would you do

about what i consider a massive overreach of big government into the classroom? thank you. [ cheering ] >> that topic is for all candidates and should get everyone to weigh in, 30 seconds each please. governor johnson. >> i'm promising to submit a balanced budget to congress in 2013, a 43% reduction in federal spending. i'm going to promise to advocate the abolishment of the federal department of education. the federal department of education gives each state 11 cents out of every dollar that every state spends but it comes with 16 cents worth of strings attached. what america does not understand is it is a negative to take federal money. give it to 50 laboratories of innovation the states to improve on and that's what we'll see. dramatic improvement. >> senator santorum? >> 20 years ago the federal contribution to education was 3%. it is now 11% and our schools

doing worse. because the federal government is meddling. bottom possible line problem the system doesn't serve the customer of the education system. who is the customer? the parents. the parents' responsibility to educate the children. it has been that responsibility from the moment they were born. they began the education of their children. at some point we have -- the government has convinced parents at some point it is no longer their responsible. they force them in many respects to turn their children over to the public education system and rest control and them out of participation of that. that has to change or education will not improve in this country. [ applause ] >> speaker gingrich? >> i think you need profound reform at the state level. you need to shrink the federal department of education. get rid of all regulations. i believe we would be farber off if most state as adopted a program of the equivalent of pell grants for k-12 so

parents could choose where their child went to school, public, private or home school florida has a virtual school program that is worth the entire country studying as an example. >> congressman paul? >> if you care about your children you will get the federal government out of the business of educating our kids. [ applause ] >> in 1980, when the republican party ran that part of the platform was to get rid of the department of education. by the year 2000 it was eliminated and we add on to it, no child left behind. the first thing a president should do, goal set to get the government out. don't enforce this law of no child left behind it is not going to do any good, nobody likes it. there is no value it to. teachers and students don't like it there. are other things, give tax credits to the people who will opt-out if you want.

>> governor perry. >> there are a lot of good ideas here. whether it is cutting back on the department of education. making those types of reductions. i happen to believe we ought to be promoting school choice all across this country. i think voucher system, a charter schools across this country. one person on this stage that is for obama's race to the top that is governor romney, he said so this last week. i think is an important difference between the rest of the people on this stage and one person that wants to run for the presidency. being in favor of the obama race to the top and that is not conservative. >> governor romney? >> nice try. let me tell you what i think i would do. one, education has to be held at the local and state level, not at the federal level. we need get the federal government out of education. all the talk about er

classroom size. that's promoted by the teachers unions to hire more teachers. we looked in our state, the best thing for education is great teachers. hire the best and brightest. pay them properly. make sure that you have school choice. test your kids to see if they are meeting the standards that need to be met. make sure that you put the parents in charge. as president i will stand up to the national teachers unions. >> governor romney, i want give you more time. did governor perry say something that wasn't true? >> i'm not sure what he's saying. i don't support any particular program that he's describing. i think that the president -- i think the secretary of education arne duncan is doing a good thing by saying we should insist teachers get evaluated and schools -- and teachers that are not successful are removed from the classroom. those ideas by secretary duncan is better than what the president did which is cutting off school choice in the

washington, d.c. schools. let's give us a full chance to talk buy it. >> congresswoman bachmann? >> we need do an education that has always worked local control with parents pwhaeufpl doesn't work is what we see happen now. i'm a mom five biological kids we've raised 23 foster children. the reason why i got involved in politics was because of the concern i had about our foster children and the education they were getting. i would pass the mother of all repeal bills on education. i would take the entire federal education law, repeal it. then go over to the department of education, turn off the lies, lock the door and i would spend -- off the lights, lock the door and i would send all the money back to the states. >> mr. cain? >> a lot of good ideas, i won't repeat them. all programs at the federal level where there's string attached, cut the strings. we have to encourage parents

to take advantage of choices, provide choices and find ways to empower students. this is how we are going to improve education, primarily get the federal government out of trying to educate our kids at local level. >> governor huntsman? >> this is a key question, it has so much to do with our nation's competitiveness. i feel like i've run my own clinical trial in my home, raising seven kids. we've seen every option. we've experienced everything out there. i signed the second voucher bill in the united states, i've done something about this. we worked on early childhood literacy. if you can lock in the pillars of cognitive development around reading and math before age six, you are giving those kids the best gift possible. finally, you've got to say no to unfunded mandates coming out of washington. totally unacceptable. no one loves their schools more than parents and local school boards, localize, localize, localize.

[ applause ] >> governor huntsman thank you. everyone likes the new sound, far more pleasing instead of the bell? i guess they do. >> congresswoman bachmann, a number of stays are trying to crackdown on illegal immigration. we got a bunch of questions on immigration like this one from tim emerson, this is a text question tim emerson of california. would you support each state enforcing the immigration laws since the federal government is not? congresswoman, could you answer tim's question? if your answer is yes, how do you square that with the constitution which says congress has the power to establish a uniform rule of naturalization? >> the reason why he's asking this question is because the federal government has failed the american people and failed the states. it is reprehensible that president obama has sued the state of arizona and the

governor of arizona, for trying to protect the people in arizona. that's wrong. as president of the united states, i would do what my job would demand of me. that's to uphold the sovereignty of the united states of america. to do that, i would build a fence on america's southern border on every mile, on every yard, on every foot, on every inch of the southern border that's what we have to do. not only build it, also have sufficient border security and enforce the laws that are on the books with the ice agents and border security. i would not allow taxpayer funded benefits for illegal aliens or for their children. that's a madness. end the madness for illegal aliens to come into the united states of america. >> thank you. we'll get back to that in a moment. first, speaker gingrich, there's a debate going on in

congress now about whether or not to make all employer, all businesses use e-verify, a government database to check with new hires are illegal. some tea partiers october to that idea they say it would turn small businessmen into immigration agents. kristin williamson of the federation for american immigration reform sent this question. >> struggling u.s. workers continue to compete with millions of illegal aliens. do you support legislation to inspire all employers to use e-verify to ensure the people they hire are legal to work in the u.s.? will you empose penalties against employers who continue to hire illegal workers? >> should employers be required to use e-verify? >> first of all i think we would be better off to

outsource e-verify to american express, master card or visa because they know how to run a program like that without massive fraud. second, the program should be as easy as swiping your credit card when you buy gasoline. i would ask of employers what is it you would object to in helping the united states of america in dealing with the problem involving illegal immigration? i want to reinforce what congresswoman bachmann said. i strongly favor 100% control of the border. and i strongly favor english as the official language of government. [ applause ] >> and i favor modernizing the legal visa system to make it far more convenient, far easier and far more practical. here in orlando we have a huge interest people visiting for tourism we have an antiquated

legal system while our border is too open for illegal. >> governor romney, i want to continue a conversation you had with governor perry in the last debate in massachusetts you vetoed legislation to provide interstate tuition rates to the children of illegals. -- governor perry signed the texas dream act to do that. what about governor perry's argument that it is better to get these kids an education and get them jobs than to consign them just to be a burden on the state? >> it is an argument i can't follow. i gotta be honest with you. i don't see how it is that a state like texas to go to the university of texas, if you are an illegal alien you get an in-state tuition discount. that's $22,000 a year. four years of college, almost $100,000 discount if you are an illegal alien go to the university of texas. if you are a united states citizen from any one of the other 49 tates you have to pay

$100,000 more. that doesn't make sense to me. that kind of madness -- [ applause ] >> -- that kind of magnet draws people into this country to get that education to get the $100,000 break. it makes no sense. as speaker beginning riff said and as michelle bachmann said as well, congresswoman bachmann we have to have a fence, enough border patrol agents to secure the fence. we have to have a system, like e-verify that employers can use to identify who is here legally and illegally. we have to crackdown on employers who hire illegally. and we have to turn off the magnet of extraordinary government benefits like discount for going to the university of texas that shouldn't be allowed. it makes no sense. >> governor perry i'm going to ask you a question so you don't feed to respond to him you will get a full minute to answer. you're the candidate whose

name, by a wide margin came up most often in the questions submitted to all of you candidates about immigration. dave of arizona sent this: today it appears -- to date it appears that you have not tried to stop the illegals from coming. we have high unemployment and a considerable amount of jobs going to illegals are you going to exert an effort to stop the abuse of u.s. it is by illegals? last year more than 16,000 children of illegals, young people in texas, took advantage of your in-state tuition rate. speak to that issue. generally, how do you feel be criticized by a number of these candidates on the stage for being too soft on immigration? >> i feel normal getting criticized by these folks. the fab of the matter is there is no -- the fact of the matter is there is nobody on this stage who has spent more time working onboard security

than i have. we put 400 million dollars of our taxpayer money into securing that border. we've got our texas ranger recon team there is now. i supported arizona's immigration law by ginning in that lawsuit to defend it. border that are doing their job. if you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they've been brought there by no fault of their own, i don't think you have a heart. children. because they will become a drag on our society. i think that's what tens wanted to do. out of 181 members of the texas legislature, when this issue came up, only four disentering votes. this was a state issue. texans voted on it. and i still support it greatly. [ applause ] >> senator santorum --

[ booing ] >> no one here is suggesting -- >> you don't feed to butt in. i would like to ask you a question on this issue. you say governor perry's opposition to building a a long the entire fence he is a big moderate. is he soft on i will illegal immigration? >> no one is suggesting that the students that are illegal in this country shouldn't be able to go to a college or university. i think you are making this leap unless we subsidize this, the taxpayers subsidize it they won't be able to go. most folks who want go to the state of texas or any other state have to pay. the point is why are we subsidizing. they go go they just have to borrow, find other sources to be able to go. why should they be given preferential treatment, as an

illegal in this country? that's what we're saying. [ cheering and applause ] >> yes, i would say that he is soft on illegal immigration. i think the fact that he doesn't want to build a finances. he gave a speech in 2001 where he talked about -- buy national health insurance between mexico and texas. i don't even think barack obama would be for buy national health insurance. i think he's very weak on this issue of american sovereignty and protecting our borders and not being a magnet for illegal immigration, yes. >> 30 seconds to respond. >> one question, have you ever even been to the border with mexico? >> yes. >> i'm surprised if you have. but you weren't paying attention. >> the answer is yes. >> you are going to build a wall, a fence for 1200 miles and then go 800 miles more to tijuana, does not make sense. you put the boots on the ground. we know how to make this work. you put the boots on the ground. you put the aviation assets --

>> it is not working. >> no because the federal government has not engaged in this. when i'm the president of the united states i promise you one thing, we will put the assets on the ground, the boots on the ground [ talking over each other ] >> letim finish. >> aviation assets on the ground and we will stop illegal immigration, we will stop the drug cartels and we will make america secure. >> can you answer the question? >> you asked your question, he gave his answer, sir. sometimes we are frustrated with all of you answering questions. [ laughing ] >> i want to ask you about a comment you made a couple weeks allege buy a border fence. there's capital control and there's people control. every time you think of a fence keeping all those bad people out, think about those fences may be being used

against us, keeping us in. question congressman, do you know a lot of americans who want to take their money and flee the united states of america? [ laughing ] >> there are some. all the candidates up here talk about repatriation of dollars. they've already taken them overseas. we are talking about trying to bring in a trillion and a half dollars because they leave our country because we make it uncomfortable, too many regulations, too much taxation they can't start business, they've lost confidence. yes, when countries destroy currency they lead to capital control and people control. i think it is a real concern. also, once you have these data banks, that means that everybody is going to be in the data banks. you say oh no it is there for the illegals. everybody is in the data banks that's nation id card if you care about your personal liberty you will be cautious when you feel comfortable blame illegal immigrants for

everything. you need to attack their benefits. no free education. no free subsidies, no citizenship. [ cheering and laws ] >> economically, you should not ignore the fact that in tough economic times, money and people want to leave the country. that's unfortunate. >> congressman paul, thank you very much. >> let's check in now with shannon bream. >> shannon: when we want to take you through search trends. they've looked online for people searching for coupons. we talk about the economy a lot. the trend has been going up, up steadily since 2004 to right now. another search compares home loan searches for foreclosure searches. more people searching for information about foreclosures than home loans. this compares folks searching for the best suv miles per

gallon and gas prices those go together. we people are worried about their pocket books, finding a bargain looking at how they can save on gas and conserve. we've been tracking questa you have been putting to the candidates. we put them to the folks at home. -- if you had to cut a government department, what would you cut? this is what the folks at home told us. >> shannon: check it all out. >> bret: up next, foreign policy, social issues and health care. after the break.