Republican Presidential Candidates Debate Focused on Economic Issues

Interview

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MS. BARTIROMO: Ladies and gentlemen, we ask you please to refrain from the applause so that we can get as much time as possible with the candidates. Thank you so much.

Senator Brownback, are you prepared to say categorically that under a Brownback administration, there will not be a tax increase?

SEN. BROWNBACK: Yes. And I'd like to use the rest of my answer and time -- (laughter) -- to talk about some other things, because clearly, the last thing we need to do is raise taxes in this country. Currently the country now, the average citizen works until the first part, middle, of May just to pay their taxes? We're taxed to the max.

I think it's not enough just to say I'm not going to raise taxes. What should we go to differently? Because the current tax code really is an abomination. People don't understand it. It's manipulative. It's Washington trying to direct people's lives.

So I've put forward a proposal of an optional flat tax, and putting that on the table, saying, okay, you can pick this. If you want to stay in the code, go ahead, God bless you, but here's an optional flat tax. Sixteen countries around the world have gone to the flat tax. Nobody's gone back away from it, because it creates growth, it creates growth in the economy, and it increases revenue for the government.

And we also -- we have to get spending under control. Here you've got to change the system. And I've been around it long enough to see that Republicans or Democrats in control -- the system is built to spend. I have constituents come in all the time to my office, and they say, "I'm a conservative, but could we have this bridge? How about this hospital?" They never say, "We've got too much federal money; would you please cut it?" Nobody's ever told me that. So I think we need to take that BRAC military process for base closings, apply it to the rest of government, so you have an annual process for culling federal spending that requires a vote of Congress.

MS. BARTIROMO: So name one program you would cut.

SEN. BROWNBACK: Advanced Technology Program would be a good one to start with. It goes towards high-end spending, corporate welfare programs. There's an abundance of those that we've gone at. I worked with Senator McCain -- a number of us did. But cutting spending is tough to do because you always got somebody pushing back and seeking more. That's why you got to change the system, so that it regularly requires a vote of Congress on things to cut. That's what'll actually reduce spending.

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MS. BARTIROMO: So, yes or no, should a Dubai company be able to own 20 percent of NASDAQ?

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SEN. BROWNBACK: Yes, I think of the people on this stage I'm the only that's worked in the trade field. I was in the trade field as White House fellow in the first Bush administration.

If this party walks away from free trade, we're going the wrong way as a party. And I think Congressman Hunter is a wonderful man. The United States is a low-trade -- low-tariff country. I think our average tariff on anything that we have a tariff on -- and most things we don't -- is at 4 percent, so the negotiations we do are always with countries that have higher tariffs. And it's the objective that we have is to get those down, and we've had a decent record. What we've got to do now, I think, is really focus in on China's currency manipulation and intellectual property rights.

MS. BARTIROMO: So the answer is yes.

SEN. BROWNBACK: Yes.

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MR. MATTHEWS: Congressman Paul, would you -- would we have gone to war in Iraq if we weren't so dependent on Middle East oil?

SEN. BROWNBACK: I don't believe that in the least. We went to Iraq -- on the war in Iraq, what I voted for was the war on terrorism.

And Afghanistan was where the Taliban was -- where al Qaeda was located; it was run by the Taliban. And we saw in Iraq what we thought was the mixture of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. And it was in 2003, this was in close proximity to 2001, when we had the 9/11 crisis, and I wasn't about to trust that Saddam Hussein wasn't going to mix terrorists with weapons of mass destruction. And we haven't found the weapons of mass destruction, but that doesn't mean we leave. And I think the Bush administration has generally done well military, and I think the military has done a fabulous job. (Applause.) I think we have done poorly on the political side.

And this Friday, Joe Biden and I are getting together in Des Moines, and we're going to be talking about the political side, a three-state solution in Iraq. This is what ultimately is going to happen. You're going to have a Kurdish north, a Sunni west, a Shi'a south within one country, federalism, with a weak federal government; the federal government headquartered in Baghdad. Joe and I don't agree on hardly anything, but this is what we need to do to get the political equation. That's what has been poorly done by the Bush administration starting with General Garner and moving on through the succession. It hasn't been well-handled politically. We've got to get a better bipartisan political solution -- we can.

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MS. BARTIROMO: Senator Brownback, the same question. Where do you draw the line? Do you support drilling/exploration off the coasts of Florida?

SEN. BROWNBACK: I think you go in every place that you can to find resources. I put forward a proposal for us to be energy-secure -- not independent, energy-secure -- in 15 years. I don't think it's realistic for us to say we can be independent of every country around the world on oil supplies or on energy supplies in the near future, given our dependence and given the nature of what the global economy is like.

But I think one of the key answers is right here in Detroit. We've got to get more electricity involved in our car fleet. There's a Chevy Malibu parked out front here that's a hybrid flex-fuel -- they've got hybrid cars. They have flex-fuel cars. I think that's a big part of the answer. I'd like to see us move forward with getting the first 20 to 30 miles off of electricity that you plug into at night. That's technology. We're putting forward tax credits and incentives to try to move that forward. That's something Detroit here needs to grab on and is. And that can move us forward as an industry and as a country.

MS. BARTIROMO: But on the issue of exploration, you said yes to the coast of Florida, and you say yes to ANWR?

SEN. BROWNBACK: I voted yes for ANWR, and I would support those in other places, environmentally sound.

We have to do it in environmentally sound fashion.

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MR. MATTHEWS: Thank you, Governor.

This is a 30-second answer.

And the question is, are unions good for America? And please act like you're a member of a union and limit it to 30 seconds. (Laughter.) Okay?

I'll start with Congressman Paul. Please, we have limited time.

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MR. MATTHEWS: Senator Brownback.

SEN. BROWNBACK: Sure. They've been good for the United States, I think, historically. My mother was a union member. She was a mail carrier, a rural mail carrier. She called herself a "postal packin' grandma" for a good period of time. And it helped her on health care. It helped her, I think, in some negotiations.

I think there can be abuses, and I think you're seeing some of them taking place. Department of Labor is going through and looking at some of those abuses. And I think the government has to work aggressively to see that those don't take place and that there is effective oversight, which I don't think you see during a Democrat administration. I think that is good for union members to have that effective oversight.

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MR. MATTHEWS: Senator Brownback, who would be your top economic adviser, your ideal adviser for economics?

SEN. BROWNBACK: (Pause.) I like the former chairman of the Federal Reserve's thoughts that he has, would be a key individual. There would be -- I think you'd need to get really an amalgam of people on economic issues. You know, you talk about having -- economist says on this hand, it goes this way, on that hand it goes this way, and so they always are saying they're looking for a one- handed economist. I think on economics, because the things do move around on you, you need a number of people. There's even a pretty good one in the audience in Phil Gramm, the former senator out of Texas.

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MR. MATTHEWS: Senator Brownback, same question. Would you support the nominee before you know who it is?

SEN. BROWNBACK: You know, I will support the nominee of this party. I think it's a big party that has a lot of different people and a lot of different philosophies, and I believe that person that's going to lead the party will be somebody that is pro-growth and pro- life. I think these are two pivotal, key foundation issues that this party needs to stand for. (Applause.)

MR. MATTHEWS: But if not, if they are not, would you still support them?

SEN. BROWNBACK: (Off mike) -- it's going to be, and I'm going to support the nominee of the party.

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MS. BARTIROMO: Very quickly, Senator Brownback.

SEN. BROWNBACK: The breakdown of the family is our biggest long- term problem we have. You've got 36 percent of the children born out of wedlock in Detroit --

MS. BARTIROMO: Greatest economic threat.

SEN. BROWNBACK: Yes, on a long-term basis. Because if you don't start children -- and you can raise a good child in a single-parent family. You can do that. But we do know by the broad numbers that the best place is between a mom and a dad, and in our inner cities, you're looking at 65, 70 percent of the children born out of wedlock.

You know, your best way to solve your education, your crime rate problems, your drug problems is to get more children in that stable environment. It's a tough issue. This is a tough issue. But long term, I think that's our biggest problem.

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