tonight after this bain capitol thing, again. >> he was pushed into that. probably good advice but we're out of time. thanks for being with us. >> thank you. >> that is all of the time we have left this evening. thank you for being with us. the news continues andororororor the debate. here's bret baier in myrtle beach. >> welcome to the myrtle beach convention center and the republican presidential debate. [applause] >> it is being sponsored by fox news, the wall street john natural and the south carolina republican party. now let's meet the five remaining candidates. texas governor rick perry. [applause] former senator rick santorum. [applause] former massachusetts governor mitt romney.

[applause] former speaker of the house, newt gingrich. [applause] and congressman ron paul. [applause] and, of course, our stage is town one podium with governor jon huntsman announcement today that he is leaving the race. you at home can participate through twitter tonight. you can weigh in on how questioning the candidates are answering the questions. tweet the candidate's last name and hashtag answer if you think he is tackling the question or hashtag dodge if you think he is avoiding the question. then you can see the results during the break at foxnews.com. let's meet our panelist tonight. fox news political analyst and my colleague, juan williams. and from the wall street journal, economic correspondent kelly evans. and washington bureau chief,

jerry. the rules are similar except now answers will be one minute and 30 seconds to allow for a fuller discussion of the issues. but followups are still 30 seconds. in past debates we've reminded candidates it's time to wrap up with various sounds. we started with a doorbell that didn't work for dog owners and then we had a digital sound that seemed rarely pretty ineffective. tonight after a long string of debates and with longer answer time we are going to try to not use any sound. you all have done this now 15 times. i'm sure you know the drill. but warning, we do reserve the right to bring back the bell if we have to. today, as you know, is martin luther king, jr. day. as we look live we dr. martin luther king memorial in washington, its first year on the mall, we are reminded of one forecast many notable quotes

from the late dr. king. the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in a moment of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. this campaign has been filled with challenge and controversy. the challenges are large. here in south carolina the unemployment rate is near 10%, well above the national average. on this day unemployment in african-american communities is near 16%. but the controversy on the campaign trail in recent days has been about governor romney's jobs. we are going to talk about world hotspots and social issues, but first let's clear the air. speaker gingrich an debate stage in september, you vowed to, quote, repudiate every effort of news media to get republicans to fight each other to protect barack obama, who deserves to be

defeated, close quote. yet you have cited numerous attacks on governor romney's business record. exact line of attack the obama campaign is using. why? >> well, first of all, i think that the staying positive through iowa, through three and a half million dollars of attack bruce you have to leave the race or bring up your competitors record. second, i think it's important for us to look at job creation. as a young member of congress i worked with president ronald reagan. we passed an economic growth package. we created 16 million jobs. the american people within a framework that reagan had established created 16 million jobs. as enter i came back, working with president bill clinton, we passed a very reagan-like program, less regulation, lower

taxes, unemployment dropped to 4.2% and we created $11 million. those are real numbers people can verify out in the open. governor romney as governor raised taxes and massachusetts was 47th in job creation, fourth from the bottom. that's a public record difference. the second part of his campaign is citing his experience in business which is perfectly legitimate, but if that's a part of your campaign then questioning it has to be equally legitimate. it struck me raising those questions, giving me an opportunity to answer them is exactly what campaigns ought to be about. we need to satisfy the country that whoever we nominate has a record that can stand up to barack obama in a very effective way. [applause] >> governor romney, i will give you time to respond in just a minute. speaker gingrich, the wall street editorial page calls it

crude and character centers of modern business and capitalism and they write you are embarrassing yourself by taking the obama line. how do you respond to that? >> first of all, i don't think raising questions is a prerogative only of barack obama and anything republicans should be intimidated because every time you raise a question somebody yells you are doing something the democrats do. i raise questions that are legitimate questions. some came out of wall street journal articles. the governor has every opportunity to answer those questions and give us facts and data and that's part of his responsibility as a candidate and that's what a cane is about, to raise question and whether or not whether or not your competitor can answer them buff get to a general election where you know those questions are going to be asked. >> one more time. you said last week if somebody comes in and takes all the money out of your company and leaves you bankrupt while they go off with millions, that's not

traditional capitalism. that doesn't sound like a question. >> i think if you look at the record, part of which is published in the wall street journal, remember its limited public record because he was in a private company. but there was a pattern in some companies, a handful of them, with leaving them with enormous debt and then within a year or two or three having them go broke. i think that is something he ought to answer. >> governor romney, your response. >> well, i appreciate the expanse chance to talk about my record and the private sector and also the governmental sector. i appreciate the speaker's work working in the reagan years and the clinton years. we did see good growth in this countryism want to see that come back again. my experience is run, the head of a consulting firm that got me in trouble and work to create jobs there and hold on to jobs in tough times. i got a chance to start a business of my own. four of the companies we invested in, they weren't businesses i ran but we invested in, ended up today having some 120,000 jobs. some of the business wes

schedule in weren't successful and lost jobs. i'm very proud of the fact we learned from the experience. we invested in well over 100 different businesses. the people have looked at the plays of that added jobs and lost jobs and that record is pretty much available for people to take a close look at. but my roar as the governor of massachusetts and as the person that led the olympics flowed from the fact that i had experience turning around tough situations. that i worked in the private sector, demonstrated a record of success. by virtue of that i was asked to come out and organize the olympic games in salt lake city. and i was asked to come back to massachusetts by a number of people there, encouraged me to come back and run for governor. i did. we were fortunate to have an unemployment rate of 4.7 percent by the time i left office. sounds good today. i was proud of the fact we balanced the budget every year i was in office. we reduced taxes 19 times, put in place a rainy day fund of over $2 billion by the time i left. my record is out there, proud of it, and i think if team want to

have someone who understand how the economy works, having worked in the real economy, that i'm the guy that can best post up against barack obama. [applause] >> governor perry, you have gone so far as to call what romney did result tower capitalism. but you also said regulations in america are killing america. in fact, you said we should repeal the most recent financial regulations law, dodd-frank. what specific regulations would you put in place to curb vulture capitalism? >> let me go back and say that having been the governor of the state that created over a million net new jobs, that we are all about capitalism, and i think our record proves that we are all about capitalism. but i visited georgetown, south carolina. there was a steal mill. they swept in and picked the company over and a lot of people

lost jobs there. the fact of the matter is we've got records. we've got records. my record is one of those that's been open to the public for quite a few years. as a matter of fact, my income tax have been out every year. newt, i think you will let your income tax come out thursday. mitt, we need for you to release your income tax so that the people of this country can see how you made your money. and i think that's -- i think that's a fair thing. here's the real issue for us. as republicans, we cannot fire our nominee in september. we need to know now. so i hope you will

country. >> i would get back to many regulators so we can get back to capitalism without washington strangling it. >> governor romney, 30 seconds. >> i need longer than that. >> there will be plenty of time, 30 seconds this time. >> let's take more time than that. first of all, i think -- i think governor perry makes a very good point about georgetown. for those who don't know it was a steal mill and my firm invested in steel mill and invested there for 7, 8 meals. and dumping steal in this country led to some h. different steel mills being closed, 40 steel mills. i understand what others cheat and dump products in this country. that's one of the reasons i'm running to make sure we crackdown on cheaters.

by the way, we started a new steel mill with new technology in indiana. i agree with the governor with regard to regulations. regulations are choking off this economy. i will do everything in my power to put a halt to all the obama era regulations and review those and get the private sector working again. >> governor romney, let's look deeper at the business record you are talking about. in a nutshell your opponents are saying buy companies, load them up with debt, take the products and head for the exits. let's respond to that. american pad and paper was a company bought with $15 billion, took on more debt to expand, couldn't pay back the loans, went bankrupt, several hundred people lost their jobs, but took profits and fees. is that a flaw or is that the

rough and tumble of american capitalism? >> first awful you never want to see an enterprise go bankrupt and you never want to see anyone lose a job. at the time i was there the business was still going and didn't go bankrupt. what the company did, they had one paper company and they bought another one down the road and said we don't need to have in angie that's shrink being two different plants make the same product so let's consolidate the plants together and all the people in the plant that closed were offered jobs in the new plant. they were union working and didn't want the nonunion work setting. but ultimately do i believe free speaker enterprise works? and the private equity and the various features of our economy work to improve our economy to make america stronger with a brighter future? absolutely. this is a major part of our economy. has been for a long time. free enterprise with all of the different dimensions and players makes america the strongest economic nation in the world. the gdp per capita in this

country, income per capita in this country is about 50% higher than average in europe. every time we invested, we tried to grow an enterprise, to add jobs to make it more successful. i know people will come after we me. i know president obama will come after me. but the record is pretty darn g you look at staples, bite morrow risens, the sport authority, they alone added 120,000 jobs as of today. and those kinds of experiences are the kinds of things that allow me to know what it takes to get this economy working and to put people back to work. we've got a president in office three years, and he does not have a jobs plan yet. i've got one out there already and i'm not even president yet. thank you. [applause] >> kelly engines with -- evans h the wall street urinal. >> congressman paul, this morning when he suspend his campaign, governor huntsman said the republican presidential race

has degenerated into an onslaught of negative and personal attacks not worthy of the american people. you have been particularly scathing in your ads against other candidates on stage tonight. do you agree with governor huntsman that these attacks should be abandoned? >> they should be abandoned if you are not telling the truth but if you are exposing a voting record i think it's quite proper. there was one ad that we used against senator santorum, and i only had one problem, i couldn't get all the things in i wanted to say in one minute. [applause] >> but, you know, we mentioned no child left behind and that he supported deficits times five, raising the national debt, and that he voted for prescription drug programs, as well. he voted against right to work. and i could have added, you know, things like he voted for -- my only regret is i couldn't get enough in in that

one minute that i should have. >> congressman paul? >> senator santorum, you are going to get a question next, but respond, please, to congressman paul. >> congressman paul has been quoting sources like crew, which is a left wing back organization saying that i was corrupt. in fact, throughout his entire ad he quotes a lot of left wing organizations. well, of course, left wing organization say a lot of bad things about me. i would expect them. i wear that as a badge of honor, not something that i'm ashamed of. with respect to some of the votes, i admit, i'm a strong conservative but i'm not perfect. president bush's no child left behind, i voted for it, i shouldn't have. it's something i said, and i will say publicly we should repeal. in fact we should repeal all of federal government's role in prime that marry and secondary education and if you give me the opportunities i'll do that. [applause]

>> and with right to work, look, i represented the state of pennsylvania, which is not a right to work state. if you look at who voted for the right to work bill in the congress, those who came from right to work states voted for it. those who came from nonright to work states represented their states. i wasn't going to vote in washington d.c. to change the law in my state. i support right to work. i actually, as president, will sign and advocate for a right to work bill but when i represented the people of pennsylvania i made the decision that i wasn't going to do in washington change the law in my state when my state cannot want to have that provision in their laws. >> ron -- juan williams. >> senator sunday, you said governor romney is guilty of distorting your record as well as lies and hypocrisy. you said this behavior is classic romney and no one is holding him accountable. so the same question kelly asked, this time to you, should these personal attacks be

abandoned by the candidates. >> i have run a positive campaign. the only ad i put up that contrasts myself with the other candidates and does so in a way of talking about issues. governor romney's super pac has put an add out there i allow felons to vote from prison. and i would ask governor romney, do you believe people who were felons who served their time, who have extended, exhausted their parole and probation, should they be given the right to vote? >> governor romney? >> first of all, as you know, the pacs that run ads on -- >> i'm looking for an answer to the question first. [applause] >> we have plenty of time.

i'll get there. i'll do it in the order i want to do. i believe you realize the super pacs run ad and if they ever run an ad or say something that is not accurate, i hope they take off the ad or make it correct. i guess they said you vote today make felons vote? is that correct. >> that's correct. that's what the ad says. first, i'm asking you to answer the question because that's how you got the time. it's actually my time. if you can answer the question, do you believe, do you believe that felons who have served their time, gone through probation and parole, exhausted their entire sentence, should they be given the right to have a vote? this is martin luther king day. this is a huge deal in the african-american community because we have very high rates of incarceration, disproportionate high rates, particularly with drug crimes in the african-american community. billy voted on was the martin luther king voting bill. this targeted african-american i

voted to allow them to have their voting rights back once they completed their sentence. do you agree with that? >> 30 seconds to respond. >> i don't think people who have committed violent crimes should be allowed to vote again. that's my own view. [applause] >> last thing. senator. >> very interesting you should say that because in the state of massachusetts when you were governor, the law was that not only could violent felons vote after they exhausted their sentences, but he this could vote while they were on probation and parole which was a more liberal position that i took when i voted for the bill in the congress. >> governor. >> if, in fact, you -- if, in fact, you felt so passionately about this that you are now going to have somebody go out and criticize me for restoring voting rights for people who exhausted their sentence and served their time and paid their debt to society, why didn't you change that when you were governor of massachusetts?

>> first of all, as governor of massachusetts i had an 85% democratic legislature. this is something we discussed. my view was people who committed violent crimes should not be able to vote even upon coming out of office. secondly, i did not have a super ppac run an ad against you, that's out of the control of candidates. one of the things i decry in the current financial system that gets behind campaigns we have the voting requirements that put the super pacs in power that say things we disagree with. and some of the attacks on me have just been outrageous and inaccurate and shown to be inaccurate and that's the process -- i hope it ends. i hope it ends. >> we have a long debate. we have a lot of questions. >> i need to respond. the governor said he didn't propose anything to change the law and what he is saying is the ad that he says i said that allowed felons to vote is inaccurate and it is inaccurate.

if i had a super pac supporting me that said something inaccurate, i would go out and say stop it. you are representing me and my campaign, stop it. >> governor perry, go ahead. >> this is a great example of the insiders that are having the conversation up here. and the fact of the matter is this. washington d.c. needs to leave the states alone and let the states decide these issues and don't do it from washington d.c. that's what needs to happen. >> governor romney, any response to any one of those? >> i agree with governor perry, it should be decided at the state level. i also agree with congressman paul that a number of the positions that were described that senator santorum took were position tharpe very different of the conservative views that he would suggest today. i think the decision on voting against right to work was a bad decision and was made, as he indicated, based upon the reflection of the people of the

state he was representing. it's politics, if you will. in my state i had a state that said they did not favor my position. i'm not letting felons who had committed violent crimes vote. i think it's a position that's reasonable, and that's the position i've got. >> we may have to rethink that whole bell thing. but we are going to take a break right here. remember to send your thoughts on how the candidates are answering the questions, via twitter. tweet the candidates last name and hashtag answer or hashtag dodge. and after the break key issues and some more fireworks. we will see. stay with us.

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>> good evening from myrtle beach, south carolina. home of the world's most beautiful beaches. i'm chairman of the south carolina republican party. in five days south carolina republicans will continue the tradition of pick their party's nominee. since we helped get ronald reagan to the white house in 1980, no candidate has ever won the gop nomination without first winning here in south carolina. simply put, we pick president. be one of the first to get the results of our primary by texting or you can visit us

online. we would love to see you here in myrtle beach or anywhere else in our beautiful state. enjoy the debates. >> welcome back to myrtle beach, south carolina and the presidential gop debate. we are getting questions from twitter. governor romney endorsed, you were endorsed you were called a perfectly lubery indicated weather vein on the important issues of the day and governor huntsman said it's hard to find your core which leads to our first twitter question. quote, i want to support mitt romney, but considering his changing views, convince me you won't change again. ". >> you know, the issue where i change my mind, which obviously draws a lot of attention was when i was running for governor, i said i would leave the law in place as it related to abortion. and i thought i could go in that

narrow path between my personal belief and letting government stay out of the issue. then a piece of legislation came to my desk and it said we would begin to create embryos for the purpose of destroying those embryos, and i said i couldn't support that. i defend my position for as being a pro life governor. they said this is a solid record of a very pro life governor. i'm record of that record. my other social issues, gay marriage, i've always opposed gay marriage. i believe we should provide equal rights to people regardless of sexual orientation but marriage should not -- should be between people of the same gender. i think he is drawing us into becoming more like a european social welfare state. i think he wants us to become an

entitlement society where people think they are all entitled to something from government and government takes from some to give to others. i want to make sure don't transform america into something we don't recognize but instead we restore the principles that made america the hope of the earth. i believe in free enterprise, i believe in liberty, i believe in an opportunistic vote and everybody i will did strengthen the values of the country, strengthen the values of the country and the economy and keep a military that is second to none in the world. [applause] >> juan. >> governor perry, last month the department of justice challenged south carolina's new law requiring registered voters to show state-issued identification before they can vote. governor haley has pledged to fight the federal government all the way to the supreme court. you sided with the governor.

now, governor perry, are you suggesting on this martin luther king jr. day that the federal government has no business scrutinizing the of states where they were denied the right to vote? >> i'm saying the state of texas is under assault by federal government. i'm saying also that south carolina is at war with this federal government and with this administration. [applause] >> when you look at what this justice department has done, not only have they taken them to task on voter i. d., they have also taken them to task on their immigration law and the most egregious thing is the national labor relations board where they come into a right to work state and tell the state of south carolina we aren't going to let a private company come in here. that is irresponsible. i will suggest to you it's

unconstitutional and when i'm the president of the united states, the states are going to have substantially more rights to take care of their business and not be forced by the epa or by the justice department, for that matter, to do things that are against the will of the people. look, i've said this administration is at war against organized religion. and when you look at what they have done, going after churches because churches had that ministerial exception in that and can decide who they were going to hire at their churches, the idea that the catholic charities cannot take money or the federal government, this administration won't give them those dollars for sexually trafficked individuals because this administration doesn't agree with the catholic church on the issue of abortion. if that's not a war on religion, i don't know what it is. and this administration is out of control. [applause] >> governor santorum, we talked

about the high unemployment right here in south carolina, almost 10%, well above the national average. we've talk about the skyrocketing national debt. in december congress authorized an additional 20 weeks of jobless benefits. benefits being paid by the federal government in many cases because states can't afford them. do you support extending these benefits when they expire at the end of the month? why or why not? >> i think we have to look at having a reasonable time for people to be able to come back, get a job and then turn their lives around. but what we've seen in the past under this administration is extending benefits up to 99 weeks. i don't support that. i think if you have people who are out of work that long a period of time, it's without question, makes it harder to find work when you come back. when you are that far long away from a job, then you lose certain skills. you lose, you lose a lot of things had you are out of work. there's a lot of research to

show that to be the case. what i believe, just like i did with welfare reform when we reformed welfare, we sent it back to the states and we gave the states the flexibility to design these programs. just as i would do here with unemployment insurance. it should go back to the states, let the states design it. if south carolina, because of a unique situation, wants to have a longer unemployment period of time because of a unique situation here, fine. but to have a federal program that roughly and crudely tries to assess the problem of unemployment from state to state and area to area is the wrong approach. what we should do is have it just like welfare. give it to the states, put a time limit n the case of welfare it was 40 weeks. give flexibility to the the stao operate those programs. and even unemployment, you can have, as we did on welfare, have some sort of work requirement or job training requirement as a condition. we aren't doing people any favors by keeping them on unemployment insurance for a long period of time. [applause]

>> speaker gingrich, senator santorum just mentioned it, the surge in unemployment has created these so-called 99ers, people who collect benefits for the maximum 99 weeks offered now. what is the maximum length anyone should be able to collect unemployment checks? >> well, you know, i think there's a better way to think about this. all unemployment compensation should be tied to a job training requirement. if somebody can't find a job and they show up and they say, you know, i need help, the help we ought to give them is to get them connected to a business run training program to acquire the skills to be employable. now the fact is, 99 weeks is an associate degree. [applause] >> i think it tells you

everything. i hope my four colleagues would agree here, tells you everything you need to know about the difference between barack obama and the five of us. we actually think work is good. we actually -- we actually think saying to somebody i'll help you if you are willing to help yourself is good. [applause] >> and we think unconsciousal efforts by the best food stamp president in american history to maximize dependency is terrible for the future of this country. [applause] >> ms. evans. >> governor romney. governor romney, some european nationings were downgraded and several were unable to get funds because of help from the banks. and this is not some imaginary event. how far would you be willing to

go to keep the financial system functioning? >> of course you want to keep our financial system functioning but we've learned some lessons from the experience of the last few years. don't want to give the president or anyone else a slush fund to take care of their friends or companies or industries they think they want to save. what we have to do -- what we have to do is to recognize that bankruptcy can be a process, reorganization for banks as well as other institutions to allow them to get rid of their excess costs, to re-establish a sound foundation and to emerge stronger. we are seeing that as a result of the bankruptcy in the auto industry. we can see that in our bankling sector or two it a bank or two gets in trouble. we don't need to run over to europe to save their banking stem or to pump money into the banks in this country. this is time or us to recognize the system of laws we have and the free enterprise system works and we don't need government stepping in with regularrings and higher taxes and telling us

what we can and can do as a society to keep america strong. the best way to get america's economy going is not to think about how much we can push government into the american economy, but instead how much we can get government out of the american economy. [applause] >> our tax rates, our tax rates are too high on individuals, as well as on our employers. our regulars are too burdensome. regulators see themselves as the opponents of free enterprise as opposed to those that encourage it. we have an energy policy that doesn't take advantage of our natural resources. that makes no sense, our coal, oil, gas, nuclear. and finally we need to open up new markets. this president has opened up no new markets over the world as europe and china have opened 44. we have to open markets and put americans to work. that's the answer, not bailouts. >> jerry seib, the next question. >> congressman paul, south

carolina has seven major military bases and thousands of people employed in the defense industry. but you want to make major cuts in defense spending, several hundred billion dollars in the coming years that inevitably would cost south carolina jobs. what do you say to people in this state who worry that your military plans would hurt the national security and cost south carolina jobs? >> i would say your question suggests you are very confused about my position. i want to cut money, overseas money. that's what i want to do. i want to cut military money. i don't want to cut defense money. i want to bring the troops home. i would probably have more bases at home. we were closing them down in the 1990s and building them overseas. that's how we got in trouble. we would save more money and have a stronger national defense and that's what we should do. to say we would be weaker is absolutely wrong. and another important thing you

should consider is the fact that the military is behind me more than the others. i get twice as much money from the active military duty than all the other candidates put together. so they are saying that i'm on the right track. they are sick and tired of the wars, they are sick and tired of the nation building and the policing activity. but to say that we would have less money for defense, we actually have more money. and if i may, i would like to go back to the international financial thing. >> to be clear, your plan calls for freezing defense spending at 2006 levels, which is where -- >> no. you still don't understand. >> what is he missing, congressman? >> you don't understand there's a difference between military spending and defense spending. just because you spend -- spend a billion dollars on an embassy in baghdad, bigger than the vatican, you consider that defense spending. i consider that waste. [applause] >> now, if you want to -- a

little while ago we were talking about funding the unemployed and of course that should be private tied and i don't support it but i don't support cutting it off like that. i would cut some of the military spending like eisenhower advises, watch out for the military complex. defend this country. we have to have a strong national defense but we don't get strength by diluting ourselves in 900 bases in 130 countries. that is where the problem is. but you need to understand that there is a difference between just military spending and defense spending. just to spend money. we understand this domestically. if you spend more money domestically, it's wrong, but we are supposed to spend more money and that's conservative. i never understood that. we are supposed to be conservatives. spend less money. >> i would like to k you a question about keeping money for all of the candidates down the

line. what is the highest federal income tax any person should have to pay? we are looking for a number. >> 7% flat tax. keep it simple. >> senator santorum. >> my plan has two rates, 10 and 28%, which is the highest rate under ronald reagan when he cut taxes. >> governor romney. >> i would like 25% but right now it's at 35 so people have to pay what is legally required but ultimately let's get it down to as low as we can, whether it's 20, 25 but maybe more than 25 is too much out of our pockets. >> the highest is 35? >> that's what the law is right now but 25 is where i would like to see us go. >> speaker gingrich. >> i would like a flat tax at 15% and i would like to see us recuse government to to meet revenue, not raise revenue to meet the government. >> congressman paul. >> well, we should have the lowest tax that we've ever had and up until 1913 it was 0%.

what's so bad about that? now, i would like to follow up on that because i think the question on taxes is generally misleading because anytime you spend money, it's a tax. you might tax, you might borrow, you might inflate. the vicious tax, attacking the american people, the retired people today is the inflation tax. the standard of living is going down, and you need to address that. that's why i want to make the in flakes tax zero, as well. >> so your answer is zero? >> zero. >> about taxes. kelly. >> governor romney, speaker gingrich and now governor perry are calling for you to release your tax records. the obama campaign is asking for the same thing. governor, will you release your income tax records? >> you know, i looked at what has been done in campaigns in the past with senator mccain and president george w. bush and others. they have tended to release tax records in april or tax season.

i hadn't required to release tax records because i have released our as seconds everything we own, it's a complete disclosure but if that's the tradition, i'm not opposed to doing that. time will tell. but i anticipate that most likely i am going to get asked to do that around the april time period and i'll keep that open. >> governor, you will plan then to release your income tax records around april? >> i think i've heard enough from folks saying, look, let's see your tax records. i have nothing in them that suggests there's any problem and i'm happy to do so. i sort of feel like we are showing a lot of exposure at this point. and if i become our nominee, and what's happened in history is people have released them in about april of the coming year and that's probably what i would do. >> okay. next round of questions. juan williams. >> governor romney, your father was born in mexico. you still have family there, yet you have taken the hardest line of anyone on this stage on

immigration reform, including opposition to key parts of the dream act, which is supported by 80% of latinos in this country. are you alienating latino voters that republicans will need to win the general election? >> i think latino voters, like all voters in this country, are interested in america being an opportunity nation. people come here because they believe they want to have a brighter future and that's been the story of america. the president looks out across the country and says it could be worse. i can't believe saying that. the american people recognize it's got to be better. in my view, as long as we communicate to the people of all backgrounds in this country that it can be better, and that america is a land of opportunity, we will get those votes. now with regards to immigration policy, i absolutely believe that those who come here illegally should not be given favoritism or a special route to becoming permanent residents or citizens that's not given to

those people who have stayed in line legally. i just think we have to follow the law, i think that's the right course. [applause] >> and i have indicated i would veto the dream act if provisions included in that act to say that people who are here illegally, if they go to school here long enough, get a degree here that they can become permanent residents. i think that's a mistake. i think we have to follow the law and insist those who come here illegally, ultimately return home, apply, and get in line with everyone else. look, i want people to know i love legal immigration. almost all of us in this room are descendents of immigrants. our country is stronger by a strong legal immigration system. but to protect it we have to protect our borders and stop the flood of illegal immigration and i will not do anything that opens up another wave of i will

will -- illegal immigration. >> senator santorum, the obama administration has not particularly addressed high levels of joblessness and a 25% aboverty rate in black america. they say they want to fix the economy for all. but given the crisis situation among a group of historically disadvantaged americans, do you feel the time has come to take special steps to deal with the extraordinary level of poverty afflicting one race of america? >> it's railroad interesting. if you look at a study done by the brookings institute back in 2009, they determined if americans do three things, they can avoid poverty. three things. work, graduate from high school, and get married before you have children. those three things --

[applause] >> those three things, if you do, according to brookings, result in only 2% of people who do all those things ending up in poverty, and 77% above the national average in income. it's a huge, huge opportunity for us. but what is the obama administration doing? elaine bennett runs a program called best friends, the wife of bill bennett. and she told me through bill that the obama administration now has a policy, and this program is a program targeted at at-risk youth, specifically in many case necessary the african-american community, who are at-risk young girls. the obama administration now has regularrings that tells them that they can no longer promote marriage to these young girls. they can no longer promote marriage as a way of avoiding poverty and bad choices that they make in their life. they can no longer even teach abstainens education. they have to be neutral with

respect to how people behave. the problem is neutrality ends in poverty. neutrality ends in choices that hurt people's lives. this administration is deliberately telling organizations that are there to help young girls make good choices, not to tell them what the good choice is. that is absolutely unconscionable. [applause] >> congressman paul. an analysis by the prison policy initiative finds that blacks who are jailed at four times the rate of whites in south carolina are most often convicted on drug offenses. do you see racial disparities in drug-related arrests and convictions as a problem? and if so, how would you fix it? >> yes. definitely. there is a disparity. it's not that it is my opinion, it is very clear. blacks and minorities who are

involved with drugs, are arrested disproportionately. they are tried and imprisoned disproportionately. they suffer the consequence of the death penalty disproportionately. rich white people don't get the death penalty very often. most of these are victim less crimes. sometimes people can use drugs and arrested three times and never convict a violent compact they can go to prison for life. and times recently we heard actually murders get out of prison in shorter periods of time. i think it's way disproportionate. i don't think we can do a whole lot about it. i think there's discrimination in the system but you have to address the drug war. the drug war is very violent on our borders. we have the i willgation problems and i'm all for having, you know, tight immigration policy also but we can't look at the border without looking at the drug war. 47,500 people died in the drug war down there the last few

years. it's a major thing. it unfairly hits the minorities. this is one thing i'm quite sure martin luther king would be in agreement with me on this. in fact, he would be in agreement with me on the wars as well because he was a strong opponent to the vietnam war. so i would say, yes, the judicial system is probably one of the worst places where prejudice and discrimination still exists in this country. >> speaker gingrich, you client said black americans should demand jobs, not food stamps. you also said poor kids lack a strong work ethic and proposed having them work as janitors in their schools. can't you see that this is viewed, at a minimum, as insulting to all americans, but particularly to black americans? >> no. i don't see that.

no. my daughter, jackie, who is sitting back there, reminded me that her first job was at first baptist church in carrollton, georgia, doing janitorial work at 13. and she liked earning the money. she liked learning that if you work, you got paid. she liked being in charge of her own money, and she thought it was a good start. i had a young man in new hampshire who walked up to me. i have written two newslers about this topic. i have had over 50 people write me about the jobs they got at 11, 12, 13 years of age. ran into a young man who started a doughnut company at 11. he's now 16. he has several restaurants to take his donuts. his father is thrilled he's 16 because he can now deliver his own doughnuts. what i tried to say, and it's fascinating, as joe klein reminded me, it started with an

article he wrote 20 years ago. new york city paying their janitors an absurd amount of money because of the union. you can take one janitor and hire 30 kids to work in a school for the price one janitor and told be a lot less likely to drop out. they would have money in their pocket, they would learn to show up for work, they could do light janitorial duty, they could work in the cafeteria, the front office, the library. they would be getting money, which is a good thing 23 you are told. only the elite despise earning money. >> governor -- [applause] >> the suggestion was about the work ethic. i have to tell you my twitter account has been inundated, all races, who are asking if your comments are not intended to belittle the poor and racial

minorities. you saw some of this reaction dug your visit to a black church in south carolina. we saw some of this during your visit to a church in south carolina where a woman dad's you why you referred to president obama as the food stamp president. it sounds as if you are seeking to be little people. >> well, first of all, juan, the fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by barack obama than any president in american history. i know among the politically correct you are not supposed to use facts that are uncomfortable. second, you are the one who earlier raised the key point. there's an area on i-73 that was called by barack obama as an area of shame because of

unemployment. has it improved? no. they haven't built a road, they haven't help the people, they haven't done anything. [applause] >> one last thing. >> yes, sir. >> so here's my point. i believe every american of every background has beenen do youd by their creator with the right to pursue happiness, and if that makes liberals unhappy, i'm going to continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn to get a better job and learn some day to own the job. >> okay. when we come back -- they can't hear me but i will talk to you. foreign policy. tweet me your questions.

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