the first ever presidential debate in sioux city here in northwestern, iowa. how about that? this crowd is fantastic. it is being sponsor the by fox news and the iowa republican party. this is the final debate before the january 3 iowa caucuses. the closing arguments for the now familiar 7 candidates on this stage. from left to right, former senator rick santorum. texas governor rick perry. former massachusetts governor mitt romney. former speaker of the house, newt gingrich.

congressman ron paul. congresswoman michele bachmann. and former utah governor jon huntsman. joining me at the big desk tonight my fox news colleagues, neil cavuto, chris wallace and megyn kelly. now, our rules are similar to our previous fox debates. one minute for answers. 30 seconds for follow-ups. if the candidates run too long we will politely remind them it is time to wrap up with this sound. after a long string of debates we trust you all know the drill and we won't have to use that sound too much. also a very enthusiastic crowd here tonight and we welcome that. we do have a limited amount of time here and we ask you to honor the fact that we are are trying to keep the valuable time for the candidates throughout this debate. tonight's event obviously comes amid an extraordinary backdrop. the struggling america economy

now further threatened by financial turmoil in europe, gridlock on capitol hill, a real threat to world security posed by iran even as we pull the last u.s. troops out of iraq. we have received thousands of tweets and facebook messages and e-mails with suggested questions. the people want to know which is in the best position to beat president obama. and that is the number one goal for republican voters. speaker gingrich your position has changed dramatically. you are physically in the center of the stage which means you are at the top of the polls yet many republicans seem conflicted about you. they say that you are smart, you are a big thinker. at the same time, many of the same republicans worry deeply about your electability in a general election saying perhaps

governor romney is a safer bet. can you put to rest once and for all the persistent doubts that you are, indeed, the right candidate on this stage to go up and beat president obama? >> well, first of all, let me just say to you and to all of our viewers merry christmas. this is a great time for us to be here and i hope that everybody across the country has a very joyous christmas season. i have been around long enough that i remember that the exact time in 1979 when ronald reagan was running 30 points behind jimmy carter and if people had said gosh, electability is the number one issue they wouldn't have nominated him. what they said was he believes what he is talking about, he has big solutions, he can get the economy growing, he understands foreign policy and he is the person i want to have debate jimmy carter. he carried more states against carter than fdr carried against herbert halve hoover in 1932.

i believe i can debate barack obama and in seven three hour debaits he will not have a leg to stand on in trying to defend a record that is terrible and an ideology that is radical. >> governor romney said you are an unreliable conservative. obviously he is your opponent. even iowa governor territories arery bram stead said today he respects you greatly but openly questioned whether you had the discipline and focus to be president. >> those are two different questions. let me take them one by one very quickly. i have a 90% conservative voting record for 30 years. balanced you the budget for four straight years. paid off $405 billion in debt. pretty conservative. the first welfare reform entitlement of your lifetime. two out of three people went back to work or went back to school. pretty conservative. first tax cut in 16 years. largest capital gains cut in

american history. pretty conservative. i think on the conservative thing, sort of laughable to suggest that somebody who campaigned with ronald reagan and with jack kemp and has had a 30 year record of conservativism is somehow not a conservative. bret and what about the concerns from iowa governor? >> i think people have to watch my career and decide. i spent 16 years working to create the first republican majority in 40 years. i spent years helping create the first balanced budgets. i am the longest serving teacher in the senior military. 27 years in teaching generals the art of war. i think it is fair to say my commitment to disciplined systematic work is fairly obvious. people have to decide. part of the difference is i do change things when conditions change and part of the difference is i strive for very large changes and i'm prepared to really try to lead the american people to get this country back on the right track and that is a very large change. >> bret: now, to my colleague, megyn kelly.

>> a similar question to you, congressman polishings you have bold ideas and ferraro vent supporters and probably the most organized ground campaign here in iowa. many republicans inside and outside of the state who openly doubt whether you can be elected president. how can you convince them other are wise? and if you don't wind up win manager this nomination, will you pledge here tonight that you will support the ultimate nominee? >> well, you know, fortunately for the republican party this year, probably anybody up here could probably beat obama so. [ applause ] so the challenge isn't all that great on how we are going to beat obama. i think he is beating himself. i think really the question is what do we have to offer. and i have something different to offer. i emphasize civil liberties. i emphasize a proamerican foreign policy which is different than policemen of the world.

i emphasize monetary policy and these things that the other candidates don't talk about. i think the important thing is the philosophy i'm talking about is the constitution and freedom and that brings people together. brings i independence in the td and brings democrats over on some of the issues. it is an american philosophy. it is the rule of law. it means that we ought to balance the budget. it opens up the door for saying supporting my willingness to cut $1 trillion out of the budget the first year. [ applause ] senator santorum no one has spent more time in iowa than you. you have visited every county in the state. while we have seen no fewer than four republican candidates surge in the polls sometimes in extraordinary ways. so far your campaign and you have failed to catch fire with the voters. why? >> i'm counting on the people of iowa to catch fire for me. that is what this plan was all about from day one was to go to

all 99 counties and do already almost 350 town hall meetings here in iowa. we are organizing. we have a clear message. that is the thing that is going to pay off for us in the end that we present the clear contrast that really nobody else in this race does. we present the contrast of someone who has been a strong conviction conservative. you know where i stand. you can trust me because i he have been there and a i have done it. and i did it as a leader. when i was in the leadership if you were a conservative and you had an issue that you wanted to get voted on and you wanted to get done in the united states senate you came to rick santorum because i was fighting for the conservative cause when it was popular and when it was unpopular. the speaker had a conservative revolution against him when was the speaker of the house. i d conservatives knocking down my door because i was the effective advocate for the principles that they believed in. that is the contrast. we have -- we need someone who is strong in their political and personal life to go out and contrast themselves with the president and make him the

issue in this campaign and that is why iowans are beginning to respond. they like the accountability and the fact that i have been there and met with them and believe in them to lead this country. >> chris wallace? >> thank you, bret. governor romney, i want to follow up on bret's line of questioning to the speaker because many of our viewers tell thaws they are supporting newt gingrich because they think that he will be tougher than you in take the fight to barack obama in next fall's debate. why would you be able to make the republican case against the president more effectively than the speaker? >> well, let's step back and talk about what is really happening in the country. what we are finding across america is a lot of people are really hurting. 25 million people out of work. stopped looking for work or part-time work that need full-time jobs. a lot of people in the middle class who have seen incomes go down as the cost of living has gone up and up and up. the american people care deeply about having a president who can get america right again.

all of us on this stage have spoken over the last several debates about the fact that government doesn't create jobs but the private sector does. i spent my life, my career in the private sector. i understand from my successes and failures what it is going to take to put americans back to work with high paying jobs. i can debate president obama based upon that understanding and i will have credibility on the economy when doesn't. my successes include businesses that were successful like staples and childrens centers and a steel mill in the middle of indiana and some failures. is i remember when the founders of jetblue came to me and saided invest in us and i said that will never work. i was wrong. now, my favorite airlines. the proof is in president obama's record, it terrible. my record shows that i can get america working again. >> congress woman bachmann, no one questions your conservative credentials but what about your appeal to independents who are so crucial in a general

election. if you are fortunate enough to become the republican nominee how would you counter the efforts by the barack obama campaign to paint you as too conservative to moderate voters? >> well, it is very clear in the last five years i have won four elections as the first republican woman ever to win out of the state of minnesota and i did that by attracting not only republicans but also independents and democrats as well because people wanted to know who could they trust. they knew that in me they may not always agree he with me but they knew that i was a woman who said what she meant and meant what she said. and they respected that level of authenticity and sincerity and they also knew that i was an action person that i was wasn't just going sit on my hands. i was going to work and serve them and that is what i have done. i have worked very hard in the united states congress in the brief time that i have been there. i'm 55 years old. i spent 50 years as a real person and now five years going toe to toe with barack obama taking him on on every issue

from dodd frank to cap and trade to illegal immigration to obama care and i will do that as president of the united states. that is my proven track record. >> if you were to become your party's nominee you would be going up against an accomplished debater in barack obama. there are many in this audience tonight, sir,, who fear that possibility and don't think you are up to the fight. >> well, i -- >> allay them of their concerns. >> i want to share something with you. at each one of these debates i am kind of getting where i like the debates. i hope obama and i debate a lot and i will get there early and we will get it on and talk about our differences which are great. i will talk about what we have done in the state of texas and passing a balanced budget to

the united states congress. i will talk about having the type of part-time congress that i think americans are ready for. and there are a lot of people out there, i understand it, you know, there are a lot of folks that said tim tebow wasn't going to be a very good nfl quarterback. people stood up and said he doesn't have the right throwing mechanisms or not playing the game right. and you know, he won two national championships and that looked pretty good. we were the national champions in job creation back in texas. am i ready for the next level. let me tell you i hope i am the tim tebow of the iowa caucuses. [ applause ] >> governor huntsman, your campaign has been praised by moderates but many question your ability to galvanize republicans that energize the conservative base of the party. they are especially leery of our refusal to sign on to a no tax hike pledge. how can you reassure them tonight? >> i think people, neil, are

coming around to finding that i am the consistent conservative in this race. they are coming around to find that i'm not going to pander. i'm not going to con tort myself into a pretzel to please any audience imnay front of and i'm not going to sign those silly pledges and you you know what else, i'm not going to show up at a donald trump debate. this nation has been downgraded. this nation is on the cusp of the third government shutdown. we have been kicked around as people. we are getting screwed as americans and i'm here to tell you we going to lead the charge in doing what must be done in addressing the two deficits we have. we have an economic deficit in this country and it is going shipwreck the next generation unless we can deal with it and we have a trust deficit. people in this country don't trust their institutions of power any more. we need to go to congress and we need to say you need term limits.

we need to go to congress and say we need to close that revolving door that allows members of congress to file on out and lobby and need to go to wall street and say no trust there either because we have banks that are too big to fail. i'm telling you, neil, i'm the person that is going to lead the charge on all of the above and not only fix the economic deficit but i'm going to fix this country's trust deficit because we are too good as people to be in the hole we are in and we deserve better. >> as governor huntsman just mentioned there is a real drama playing out real time in washington right now with the threat of yet another government shutdown. the possibility that millions of americans could see their payroll taxes go up. if you are president as is the case now, and you are at loggerheads with 8 one chamberf commerce how would you handle this situation? 30 seconds down the line. start with senator santorum. >> do what leaders do when they try to bring people together. tell a narrative and remind

americans who we are and how we solve our problems. this country is a great country because we believe in free people. in 2008 the american public were convinced by barack obama that they needed someone to believe in, that they could believe in. we now understand that what we need is some president who believes in them. that is the narrative. go out and motivate the american public. have them talk to their representatives in washington to pass solutions that believe in bottom up, how we built america, free markets, free people. >> governor perry? >> after three years, you would think this president had learned how to work in washington, d.c. if there has ever been a greater example of on-the-job training this is it. and it couldn't have been at a worst time for america. we need a president who has executivening eck experience. frankly, we should never have got ton this point at all. the idea that he walked away from the work at hand and we had a supercommittee that was

put into place that was going to fail on its face. that is the type of leadership that this president has been an absolute failure at and the type i have been working at as the governor of texas for the last 11 years. >> governor romney. >> bret, this is a question that ought to take a lot longer than 30 seconds. the question of the presidency. what is leadership. i had the disadvantage in some respects of becoming governor in a state with a legislature, 85% democrat. turned out to be a blessing in disguise. to get anything done i had to learn how to get the respect of the speaker of the house and the senate president and democratic leaders. when crises arose we were able to work together. that is what has to happen. there are democrats who love america as republicans do but we need to have a leader in the white house that knows how to lead. i have had four leadership experiences in my life where i have led enterprises. i want to use that experience to get america right again and i will do it as president bret >> we will have maurice taylor

questions about gridlock in washington. >> leadership is the key. when you have a saul olin ski radical. the constitution can't work. i held ronald reagan when tip o'neill was speaker had enough votes to pass the regan program despite a democratic majority. as speaker one of the reasons some people aren't happy with some of my leadership is i actually worked things out with bill clinton to get welfare reform, a tax cut and four balanced budgets signed in a way that required bipartisanship because you couldn't get anything done otherwise. leadership matters immensely in getting this done. >> congressman paul? [ applause ] >> the main problem we have is the government is too big and the debt is too big and you have to cut spend so you have to get people to come together.

there are two facilities objections up there. one want welfare and the other want war fare around the world and pleasing the world. go to the warfare and say give me half the cuts that have to be in the welfare. and go to the welfare and say you give me the cuts to bring people together and live up to what they say. >> congresswoman bachmann? >> as president of the united states i would have called all 535 members of congress to come in and state down in washington last summer when we were looking at the debt ceiling crisis. and what i would have done is said there are three principles that we are going to follow because the first one needs to be no new taxes. we are are taxed enough already. the second principle needed to be that government can't spend any more money than what it is taking in. and the third principle had to be that we were going to follow the constitution of the united states. what that would have meant is that we would have looked that $15 trillion debt in the eye and said we are not going to add one more cent to it. we are going to prioritize our

spending and put the reform in the long-term programs now. not wait eight months or five months. we are going to reform right now. >> governor huntsman. >> leadership is action, not words. i learned a very important lesson about this when i ran for governor in 2004. i promised the people of my state as governor that we would create the finest state in america for business. i ran on a flat tax plow posal. took us two years we got it delivered. i hear people talking about tax reform on a flat. we he got one done. the finest business climate in the united states we delivered to our people. healthcare reform without a mandate. the list went on and on and on. i ran for reelection. i got almost 80% of the vote. not because i'm a great politician but i learned lessons in leadership. people want to be told where you can take them and then they want you to deliver. >> thank you. many more interesting questions coming up. after the break, the candidates on the increasingly sharp tone of this campaign, the economy and a topic that has not been

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good evening from sioux city in northwest iowa. i'm chairman of the iowa gop. four years after propelling barack obama to the white house i he would have seen a surge of new republican voters as iowa republicans posted 33 straight months of voter registration gains. as those republicans prepare to vote in just 19 days we understand the responsibility that comes with the privilege

of being first in the nation. and because the fight to reclaim the white house extends far bond, iowa's borders we want you to be the first to know so text, iowa, to 91919 to know the results and other updates. thank you and now let's return to the final debate before the january 3 iowa caucus. >> thank you and welcome back to sioux city iowa and the republican presidential debate. for the next round of questions i turn to my colleague, chris wallace. >> thanks, bret. candidates i will call this section for lack of a better word d.c. culture. speaker gingrich says you should give back the millions dollars in his words he has made bankrupting companies and laying off employees. his comments dove tail with arguments you hear from democrats that your belief in what is called the creative destruction of capitalism shows a hard, hardedness.

what do you think of what speaker gingrich had to say about you and are you vulnerable for that type of attack? >> the president will level the same type of attack. he will say in businesses you invested in they didn't all succeed. some failed. some laid people off and he will be absolutely right. if you look at all of the businesses we invested in, over 100 different businesses they added tens of thousands of jobs. in the real world, the president has not -- that the president has not lived in, i actually think he doesn't understand that not every business succeeds. that not every entrepreneur is lucky enough to do as well as the entrepreneurs i described. i myself have had the chance of leading four different organizations. each was highly successful. in part because of hard work and in part because of good luck. in the real world some things don't make it and i believe i learned from my successes and my failures. the president i will look at and say mr. president how did

you do when you were running. >> greg: a general motors as the president, took it over. i closed down businesses and factories. i learned the lessons of how the economy works. this president doesn't know how the economy works. i believe to create jobs it helps to have created jobs. >> thank you. on the freddy website you said i like at an earlier debate a recent debate you said that politicians like barney frank who in your words profited from the environment that led to the financial meltdown should go to jail. now, that it turn is out that you were on the freddie mac payroll to the tune of more

than $1.6 million, how do you answer critics who say that you are being hypocritical. >> barney frank was in public office with direct power over freddie mac. he exploited that power just as chris dodd was in public office when got special bargains from countrywide a firm which went broke. they were using power. i was a private citizen engaged in a business business like any other business. if you read the whole thing that they posted i said they need more regulations and i want to go back to my point about helping people buy houses. i worked for years with habitat for hugh you manty. i think it is a good conservative principle to find ways to help families right at the margin learn how to budget, learn how to take care of a house, learn how to buy a house. i'm not going to step back from the idea that in fact we should have as a goal helping as many americans as possible be capable of buying homes and when you look for example electric membership co--ons and

credit unions, this are a lot of government sponsored enterprises that are awfully important and do an awful good job congressman paul, you are all over iowa tv with a negative ad about speaker gingrich. you accuse him of selling access and playing the corrupt revolving door game. what about the explanation that you just heard that he is in the private sector and this is preenterprise. >> he has a different definition of the private sector than i have because it is a government sponsored enterprise. it is completely different. it is a different agency. they get mixed up. pure private enterprise more closely probably to what governor romney is involved with. it it is government sponsored it is a mixture of government and business. some people say if it goes to extreme it becomes fascism because big business and big government get together.

i was talking about the line of credit from the federal reserve. community reinvestment act for ten years or so. the austrian economists knew there was a bubble and nobody was listening or doing anything in the congress. to go to work for them and get money from them it literally is coming from the taxpayer. they went broke. we had too bail them out. indirectly that was money that he ended up getting. they are still getting money from us. government sponsored enterprise. it is not a free market enterprise. >> speaker gingrich, 30 seconds to a respond. >> the term government sponsored enterprise has a very wide range of things that do a great deal of good. talk to people in the electric membership co-ops and in the credit unions. there are a lot of good institutions that are government spencerred and the idea that anything which in which way ever touched government can ask questions about doctors dealing with medicare and medicaid.

there are many things governments do. i did no lobbying of any kind for any organization and that was a key part of every agreement we had. >> well, let me pick up with that with you, congresswoman bachmann because you accused speaker gingrich of peddling his influence with the congressional republicans to help the companies that paid him tens of millions of dollars since he has left office. given his denial over time and again tonight that he denies ever having lobbied. what is your hard evidence that he engaged in -- >> it is the fact that we know that he cashed pay checks from freddie mac. that is the best evidence you can have. over $1.6 million. frankly i'm shocked listening to the former speaker of the house because he is defending the continuing practice of freddie mac and fannie mae. there is a big difference between a credit union and freddie mac and fannie mae and they were the epicenter of the mortgage financial meltdown. i was trying to see these two

entities put into bankruptcy because they frankly need to go away. when the speaker had his hand out and he was taking $1.6 million to influence senior republicans to keep the scam going in washington, d.c. that is absolutely wrong. we can't have as our nominee for the republican party someone who continues to stand for freddie mac and fannie mae. they need to be he shut down, not built up. >> speaker gingrich? >> well, easiest answer is that is just not true. what she said is factually not true. i never lobbied under any circumstance. i never went in and suggested in any way that we do this. in fact, i tried to help defeat the housing act when the democrats were in charge of the house. and if you go back and talk to former congressman rick laed zio i will tell you when we were passing housing reform i never at any time tried to slow

down the reform effort. in fact, i helped him pass the reform bill. some nice people ought to have facts before they make wild allegations. >> congress woman? >> after the debate we had last week politici fact came out and said everything i said is true. the evidence is that speaker gingrich took $1.6 million. you don't need to be within the technical definition of being a lobbyist to still be influenced peddling with senior republicans in washington, d.c. to get them to do your bidding. and the bidding was to keep this grandiose scam of freddie mac going. that is something that our nominee can't stand for. we have to shut down these government enterprises and we to end them. i think that is shocking that he is saying that. >> can i say two things. >> speaker gingrich, quickly. >> i want to say two things. first, my policy is to break up

both fannie mae and freddie mac is not like anything she just described. second, i want to state for any person watching tonight i have never once changed my positions because of any kind of payment because the truth is i was a national figure who was doing just fine doing a whole variety of things including writing best selling books, making speeches and the fact is i only chose to work with people whose values i shared and having people have a chance to buy a house is a value i believe still is important in america. >> now, to neil cavuto with questions about the economy. speaker gingrich, not to make you a target, but you -- >> it goes with being right here. >> you just responded this morning, sir,, tweeted originally and followed statements as a major breakthrough of it plan on the part of republican congressman paul ryan working with democratic senator are ron widen to find a sort of an updated way to keep medicare

solvent and this would involve a choice, those who like the program as it is can stick with it. there will be a private option et cetera. earlier on this might have confused congressman ryan to know for whom you said it was the initial medicare fix it was right wing social engineering. later on you backed off that comment and said there was much you could find in mr. ryan's plan to like. can you blame governor romney for saying you have a consistency problem on this issue? >> i'm not in the business of blaming governor romney. i'm in the business are trying to understand what we can do as a policy. if you go back and look at the meet the press quote it didn't reference him. i will say it again. a free throw see sighty should make big decisions with the support of the people. you can win a communications argument, regan was good at that. on meet the president one you will have a major change and

have to communicate with the american people in order to ensure they are for you. governor romney came up with a good variation on the ryan plan which allowed the maintenance of the current system. paul as adopted that. a brave act by senator ron widen. a democrat willing to endorse the bill. i think it is a big step forward and i think governor romney deserves some of the credit. i think it is a nice thing to have a bipartisan plan in washington that we could look at in a positive way and hope would help save medicare. >> governor romney, do you want to respond to that compliment? >> thank you. i hope people understand just how big today is for this country. we all understand that the spending crisis is extraordinary with $15 trillion now in debt with the president that racked up as much debt as almost all of the other presidents combined. there is another problem we have which is our national balance sheet which are these

obligations we made that have no funding behind and it adds up to $62 trillion. and today, republicans and democrats came together with senator widen and congressman paul ryan to say we have a solution to remove that $62 trillion. this is a big day for our kids and grandkids. means we finally have the prospect of dealing with something which has the potential of crushing outages future generations. this is the impact of people on both sides of the aisle that care about america at a critical time and i applaud it. it is good news. >> congressman paul, as you have been warning we are on the brink of another government shutdown because the spending that you have called out of control but haven't you contributed to that spending problem yourself, sir,, supporting over the years earmarks that have benefited your district and your state? back in 2009, you explained this by saying if i can give my

district any money back i encourage that. i have a responsibility to represent my self. isn't that what they call a mixed message, congressman? >> it is a mixed question is the problem because the real message is you you should include in your question also you have never voted once for an earmark. it is a principle that i deal with because if you -- if the government takes money from you and you fill out your tax form you take your deductions. i look at that the same way in our communities. they take our money, they take our highway funds and we have every right to apply for them to come back. it is a bigger principle to me than that. the congress has an obligation to ear mark every penny. not to deliver that poured concreter to the executive branch. what happens when you don't vote for the ear marks it goes

into the slush fund injuries the executive branch spends the money and then you have to grovel and beg and plead and say please return my highway funds to me. the whole principle of budget that is messed up. i never voted for an earmark but i do argue the case for the people i represent to try to get their money back if at all possible. >> isn't that the same thing of having your cake and eating it, too. you can complain about earmarks but if there are provisions there that help your district or your state that is different. if 434 other members felt the same way, how would we ever fix the problems? s? >> i don't complain about ear marks because it is the principle of the congress meeting their obligation. if everybody did what i do i thought there would be no ear marks. that would be the solution. but you also want to protect the process and emphasize the

responsibility of the congress in not drinking more power to the president. i would be a -- in not delivering more power to the president. i as a president wouldn't want to run the world. i don't want to police individual activities and their lifestyle and i don't want to run the economy. that is an entirely different philosophy but very much in the tradition and in the tradition of our constitution. >> governor perry you said the only way to stop our spending problem is to get congress to stop spending. quoting you, say, you said i vetoed 82 bills in my first year as governor of texas. i have a record of keeping, texas, under control. have you overseen a state program. had so many defaulted the state had to stop guaranteeing bank loans to startups in the agri

business and see vent wally bailed out the program with the taxpayer money. aren't you against the same thing as you rail about. >> the second site is wed that that program put in place and the state did not bail out. those programs worked as they were toed to work. you will have some that fell. i want to go back and talk about just a second the issue where we had a big back and forth about whether newt was involved in untoward activity or not. the issue we ought to be talking about on this stage is how you overhaul washington, d.c. and the idea you can't del the difference between lobbying or consulting and congress staying there as many days that they do and the salary they have. that is the reason i called for a part-time congress. cut the pay in half. send them home.

let them get a job like everybody else back home he has and live within the laws of which they passed. we do that and you pass a balanced budget and the conversations we will be having up here will be minor. >> they worked 150 days last year. how much more would constitute part time? >> i would suggest maybe 140 days every other year like we do in texas. >> governor huntsman as you are probably familiar, the chinese just left huge tariffs on imports on some sport utility leadership. >> as an arguementment how would you respond to what some are calling a childish move on the part of a country that routinely international trait news. >> part trade, part north

korea, iran, part burr ma, part south china sea. part military to military engainlment. the best thing to do, invite a few dissidents seeking freedom and want to expand democracy in china to the united states embassy. the kind of thing i used to do. that is what matters to the chinese people looking for change and reform these days. that is the kind of thing that over time is going to create enough swell of change and reform in that country that is going to make 9 u.s./china relationship successful longer term. eventually we need more than just a transactional relationship. we need shared values infused into the relationship. the 21st century will only have two relationships that matter, the united states and china. nor that to succeed we need shared values. that is democracy and human rights and recognition of the role of the nebraska.

as president of united states i would live that home and make it a relationship that worked. >> right now american companies have trillioned parked overseas because of the high tax rates here. would you aah port a tax holiday to bring that money back but only under as some democrats have stud the condition that these companies hire workers with that money. >> what i proposed in my made in the usa plan is that if money has been made overseas it can come back at a 5.5% rate which is what we did back in 2004 and it did cause a lot of money could come back. i put a special rate zero if they bring it back and invest in plant and equipment in america. we need to rebuild the manufacturing base in this country. i went to a lot of small towns like sydney and hamberg in fremont county where they lost

jobs to injuries seas. why? because we are not competitive we need to cut the corporate tax on manufacturers to zero. there is a 20% cost differencial between america and our nine top trading partners and this section including labor costs. we feed to get our taxes down. we need to repeal regulations. i promise to repeal every single obama care ragbags that cost. i can repeal it 86 can't repeal loss but as a president you can appeal regulations and i will appeal every single one of them so business can get going in this country. [ applause ] >> thank you, neil. this question is from twitter and it is for you, governor romney. at leon james page tweets over the next ten years in what sector or in tuscaloosatrys will most of the new jobs be created.

>> the free market will beside that. governor won't. we have in a president again somebody who doesn't understand how the economy works and think its as a government for instance he can choose which energy segment is going to be most successful. not understagging that perhaps toyota and gm could do a better o job than tesla and fisker. let markets determine what the future course of our why will be. what do i happen will be the future? >> i think manufacturing is going to come back to the u.s. i also think, of course, that high tech is going to be an extraordinary source of growth for a long time in this country. and energy. we have extraordinary resources in this country. our president doesn't give them the permits to start drilling and getting the gas and oil o. this economy has every potential to continue to lead

the world. our president thinks america is in decline. it is if he is president. it is not if i'm president. this is going to be an american century. >> thank you, governor romney. now, to may gi may gin kelly tt round of questions. >> something we have heard precious little about. >> you have proposed plan to subpoena judges to testify before congress about controversial decisions they he make. in certain cases you advocate impeaching judges or abolishing courts all together. two former attorney's general say it alters. they used words like dangous, outrageous and totally irponcible. are they wrong? >> the first half is right. it alters the balance because

the courts have become too dictatorial and frankly misred in their reading of the american people. there is an entire pape irat nude.org. i have been working when it said one nation is unconstitutional and if you had surges to radically antiamerican that they thought one nation under god was wrong they shouldn't be on the court. [ applause ] >> i tr taught a short course in this at the law school. i warned them, you keep attacking the core business of american exceptionalism and you will find an uprising against you which will we balance the judiciary. we have a billion of three bank is. that what the federal's papers promised us and just like jefferson, jackson, lincoln and fdr i would be prepared to take

on the judiciary if it didn't restrict itself in what it is doing. >> these are former attorney's generals. they say -- have they studied he goinger son. 28 out of 35 were agoal easterns. >> somebody that was highly criticized. >> not by anybody in poured concreter in 1802. jefferson himself asked is the supreme court supreme and he said that is absouthern division. that would be an oligarghy. >> lin son says no nine people could make -- as a historian i may understand this better as lawyers and as lawyers these two attorneys generals are acting like law schools which overly empowered lawyers to think they can dictate to the

rest of us. >> you heard speaker gingrich reference the 9th circuit court of appeals. that is one of the courts he has suggested abolishing. a left leaning court and as he has done before he believes it is an activist court. a decision that was reversed by the supreme court leader. do you agree that the ninth circuit should be apoll george w. bushed and if is what would then happen if a democratic president came into office and a dem rally controlled. where it needs to end is under the constitution of the united states. that is the real issue are the courts following the constitution or aren't they following the constitution. it isn't just congress that gets it wrong. it is the courts that get it wrong as well. >> what do you do about it? >> what we need to do about it is have both the president and the united states congress take

their authority back and i would agree with newt gingrich that i think that the congress and the president of the united states have failed to take their authority. because now we have got ton the point where we -- got ton the point where -- gotten to the point where we think the final arbitrer of law was the court system. the founders wanted the courts to be the least powerful system of government. if we give to the courts right to make law the people will have lost their representation. they need to hold on to their representation. i commend iowans because they chose not to retain three judges that decided that marriage should be in like their -- and iowans decided to take their constitution back. that is what the american people need to do. take the constitution back and as president of the united states i would only appoint judges to the supreme court who believe in the original intent of the constitution.

>> congressman paul, do you believe in what the two candidates said it would be okay to abolish courts entirely or judges impeach them if congress and president decide they don't like their rulings. >> the congress can get rid of these courts, if a judge misbehaves and is unethical and gets into trouble the proper procedure is impeachment. but to subpoena judges before the congress, i would really question that. and if you get too careless about abolishing courts that could open up a can of worms because there could be retaliation. should be more serious, yes, we are getting very frustrated with this but the whole thing is if you say well, is it there are ten courts let's get rid of three this year because they ruled a way we didn't like, that to me is i think opening up a can of worms for us and would lead to trouble. but i really, really question this idea that the congress could subpoena judges and bring

them before us. that is a real affront to the separation of powers. >> governor romney, many people believe that the way to rein in activist judges is to be careful in appointing or nominating the judges in the first place. as governor of massachusetts you passed over republicans for three quarters of the judicial vacancies you faced, instead nominating democrats or independents. with that track record why should republicans believe that you will appoint conservatives to the bench if you become president? >> in massachusetts i actually don't get to appoint the judges. i get to nominate them. they go before something known as the governor's council. consists of seven members all of whom are elected democrats and so be able to get my appointments through i had to have people of both parties and the people i put forward all were individuals who i vetted carefully to make sure they would follow the rule of law. these are largely people going into criminal courts. i chose overwhelmingly people prosecutors in their prior experience and so we had that

kind of justice. now, let me note that the key thing i think the president is going to do is going to be with the longest legacy is going to be appointing supreme court and justices throughout the judicial system. as many as half of the justice system in the next four years appointed by the next president. a critical time to choose someone who believes in conservative principles. i don't believe it makes a lot of sense to have congress overseeing justices. the only group that has less credibility than justices perhapses is congress so let's not have them in charge of overseeing the justices. however, we don't call it, you know, we the judges. we call it we the people and we do have the ability to remove justices that need to be imappreciated. we he also is have the ability to pass new amendments if we think the jus moments of justice is take aing then is nation in the wrong direction. congress with write a statute that clarifies that point. we have the ability to rein.

>> that justice. >> current favorite supreme court justice. >> these folks over here have been talking about taking on the cores. i have done it. i campaigned in iowa against those justices and i was the only one on this panel that did it, number one. number two, when the partial birth abortion statute was struck down by the supreme court, george bush got elected we went back and i worked with henry hyde and we passed another bill and told the supreme court they were wrong and passed it and george bush signed it and it was overturned. we talked about reform and doing something to confront the courts. you can go out and make it happen and i made it happen. >> and quickly down the line. >> favorite current supreme court justice. >> i will try to be as quick as i can. everhalling washington, d.c. one of the things besides a part-time congress is no longer having lifetime terms for the federal bunch. that someone of the ways that you keep these unaccountable

legislators from trying to dictate to the rest of us. i would say you pick aloe toe >> pick one, please. >> roberts, thomas, salito and scalia. >> probably the most intellectual of the four. we had nine judges as good as those four we would be very happy with the supreme court. >> congressman paul. >> from my view point they are all good and they are all bad because our country a long time ago split freedom up into two pieces. personal liberty and economic liberty and the judges as is the congress as is the nation think it is two issues. it is but one issue so therefore congress is split on thish are sho issue as well ase judges. >> last chance to say a name. >> all are good and all are bad. >> congresswoman bachmann? >> i would put scalia at the

top of the list and include chair lense thomas and john roberts and alito. it would be crease to pick any one of them. >> governor hunts. >> we have rule of law, let's face it. one of the great things that this country has that very few countries have so the judiciary is critically important. also important to note that governors actually have experience in appointing judges. you have to make the hard decisions and as i reflect on those who serve i have to say justice roberts and alito fit the bill nicely. >> it was a valiant effort. >> i tried. >> i tried. >> a lot of ground to cover in the next hour. the threat from iran. up and down immigration and border issues and controversial social issues. stay with us. we'll be right back. a welcome idaho,

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