Iowa Speaks: Republicans answer town hall questions
The Des Moines Register and Change Politics, a new elections platform launched by Change.org, organized an online town hall this month for Iowans to pose questions to presidential candidates ahead of next Monday's first-in-the-nation caucuses. The online town hall, called Iowa Speaks!, ran for seven days. More than 200 questions were asked, and more than 6,700 votes were cast. Editors then selected five of the most popular questions and one bonus question for the candidates to answer. All candidates were invited to participate, but several did not submit answers to the questions by Tuesday’s deadline.
Of those who did participate, here are their answers in alphabetical order to two of those questions; some have been edited for length. Full answers are available on Change Politics.
Jeb Bush: My education plan is designed to ensure Americans have the skills our economy needs and that all individuals have the ability to rise, starting from early childhood. First, it allows for the conversion of 529 college savings accounts into Education Savings Accounts to allow tax-free saving for all stages of education. Second, we will allow states to deposit $2,500 annual scholarships in the ESA of every low-income child under 5 so their parents can choose the type of education services and care their children need to flourish. Third, I will restructure higher education to drive down costs and increase quality so more Americans can get the skills they need to succeed in today’s economy. By forcing institutions to share the risk of failure with students, I would incentivize them to reduce costs, boost quality and ensure that students graduate, find a job and have the skills needed to succeed.
Ben Carson: There is no question that we have to have the right kind of workforce, particularly as our society changes. At one point, we were an agrarian society and we were very good at it, and then an industrial society during the industrial age and nobody could outproduce us. But now we are in the technological age, the information age, and we have to bring our populous up to speed to be able to work effectively there. That doesn’t mean we still don’t need plumbers, welders and electricians, and people with other practical skills, because we absolutely do. I would advocate once again training people in high school with vocational programs giving them those options, not necessarily pushing them into a one-track program but making sure that everybody knows those skills, even if you are going to college to become a doctor. I think you should know something about basic electrical circuits, you ought to know something about plumbing. So that will help to fill in those kinds of gaps.
Chris Christie: The critical measure of success for any growth plan is people going to work at jobs worth doing. Today, though, there are too many federal policies which discourage work. America must reduce the marginal cost to the employee of taking a job, and reduce the federally-imposed cost to an employer of hiring someone. I have proposed eliminating the payroll tax for those above age 62, as well as for those newly entering the workforce, below age 25. This will encourage those nearing retirement to keep working should they want to, and make it easier for the young to enter the workforce. America must remain the home of innovation in the world. This will require investing in research and development, focusing education on the needs of employers and increasing access to capital. The U.S. must do a better job matching the skills students learn with the needs of employers.
Carly Fiorina: So of course, education reform is another thing that people have been talking about for a long time. And yet it isn’t getting better. The Department of Education is getting bigger and the quality of education continues to deteriorate. ... So, first, we have to make sure that people get a good education in K-12, and that means, every single parent, regardless of their circumstances, must have a real choice because if parents don’t have a choice in how to educate their children, then, children don’t have a chance. ... Secondly, we need to give to give them real choices as they graduate from high school and move on. ... And third, not only do we have to fix higher education, as well as K-12, get the government out of so much of it, but we also have to invest in lifelong learning. In other words, when someone loses their job, when an able-bodied adult loses their job, they should immediately begin retraining. …
Mike Huckabee: First of all, let’s make sure jobs are available. The passage of the Fair Tax helps to bring back jobs that we are losing. It also means that employers would be able to pay people. Right now every time you hire somebody, it’s not just a business decision, it’s a tax decision. … The second thing is to bring the job skills in line with what the needs are. We push a lot of people to college when, frankly, they might be better off going to trade school and learning a craft or a skill, whether it’s carpentry or mechanics. And we need to make sure when people are going to school, they are going to a school they can actually afford. College kids don’t drive Lamborghinis and Ferraris when they can’t afford them, and they shouldn’t be wasting their money on a college degree they can’t afford and won’t lead them to a good job.
Marco Rubio: We need a complete overhaul of our higher education system, meaning we need to change how we provide degrees, how those degrees are accessed, how much that access costs, how those costs are paid, and even how those payments are determined. As president, I will establish a new accreditation process that welcomes competition and encourages low-cost, innovative providers — driving down prices and improving outcomes. I will empower students to choose the right degree at the right price for them by requiring institutions to tell students how much they can expect to earn with a given degree before they take out the loans to pay for it. I will make student loans more manageable by making income-based repayment automatic for all graduates, reducing the risk associated with loans and easing the shadow of debt hovering over millions of graduates. Finally, I will make career and vocational education more widespread and accessible.
Question: Please describe the kinds of people you will surround yourself with in your decision-making process?
Jeb Bush: As president, I will surround myself with principled men and women who are devoted to this country and committed to its prosperity and security. As conservatives know, personnel is policy, and my administration will be formed with the utmost care. I will insist that those serving in the White House have an unwavering respect for the Constitution, a devotion to full application of the law without equivocation and high ethical standards. I will choose from a broad pool of proven leaders. When facing a challenge, I have always believed it is important to bring together people with a wide range of experiences and ideas to bring to the table, and I will plan to do so as president. I will look for people I can trust to bring their knowledge and judgment to the task of identifying the best ways to shrink government, expand opportunity and protect our country.
Ben Carson: I will be looking for wise counselors and people who also have a record of achievement. That means I might not have a cabinet or advisory council of academics, but there will be some academics there absolutely, but I’m really much more interested in people who have lived in the real world. Our system was designed for a citizen’s statesman not for career politicians and academicians. I believe there is room for all those kinds of people. You know in the bible proverbs 11:14 it says in the multitude of counselors is safety. I would also be interested in having a core of individuals who are spiritually aligned with me. I believe in God and make no bones about that. … I will be very interested in people who like to look at evidence and who like to look at history, who like to make decisions based on facts and not on ideology.
Chris Christie: You’re only as good as the people around you. The fact is that if you don’t have good people around you, you can’t have any chance of doing really well in the job of president or any other executive leadership role. In my administration as governor, I have been surrounded by folks who are smart and loyal. They have shown their willingness to serve our state even with the daily sacrifice to themselves and to their families that these jobs entail. I would look for those same qualities in staff and Cabinet officials as president.
Carly Fiorina: The thing is, we know that the political establishment responds to pressure. … I will use citizens to put pressure on this Congress. Specifically, I’m going to ask you, each and every week during the weekly radio address, to please take out your smart phones. I will ask you, for example, do you believe we need to go to zero-base budgeting? Do you believe that we need to know where every dollar of your money is being spent? Press 1 on your smart phones for yes, press 2 for no. I am willing to bet that you will press 1 for yes, and the enormous pressure that we put on the political class, as a result, will make them move. … Eighty-percent of people now think we have a professional, political class that cares more about its power, position, and privilege than on getting anything done; I agree with that as well. So, I know when citizens are given an opportunity … you’re going to press 1 for yes. And that pressure will move Congress.
Mike Huckabee: Unlike any of the other candidates, I have held an executive office not only in the private sector, the nonprofit sector, but as a governor in the public sector and hiring tens of thousands of people and being responsible for the output of their work. More importantly, your inner circle of staff that you surround yourself with, your chief of staff, cabinet agency heads and others to whom you entrust your day-to-day operations. One philosophy that I have lived by is this: Surround yourself with people who know what you don’t know, and I’ve always said the most dangerous man in the room is the man who doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. ... I think the kind of people I would want to surround myself with are people who first and above all have integrity, have honor, who love this country, and want to put its interest above self and above others. …
Marco Rubio: I will surround myself with people who share my faith in the American dream. These will be people who believe that by embracing limited government, free enterprise and a strong national security, we can apply our founding principles to the challenges of the 21st century. America is not a weak country, we have just had a weak president for the last seven years. When I’m president, we will undo the damage President Obama has done, repeal every one of his unconstitutional executive orders, rebuild our national defense and enact pro-growth policies that will expand the American Dream to reach more people than ever before.
See their answers to more questions:
- Do you believe that all human life is sacred and demands protection from fertilization to natural death? For you, are there instances where exceptions to abortion should be allowed?
- What are your plans to fix our nation's immigration system?
- How will you work to implement comprehensive tax reform that will help my generation and others?
- How are you going to keep access to healthcare for people like my son who has autism, who’s on Medicaid and on the CHIP program?