The Republicans running for the presidential nomination got together in Iowa Wednesday for another debate. We’ve pulled highlights from the transcript that might be of interest here at our little intersection of the web. The breakdown is after the jump.
Rudy Giuliani on health care:
MS. WASHBURN: So, Mayor, you’ve said you would cut non-military spending 10 percent across the board. What sort of sacrifices would that require from people who use those government services?
MR. GIULIANI: Well, that would — that would require their trying to figure out other ways to do it. I mean, rather than moving in the direction of more people on government medicine, I’d rather see us reduce the income tax burden, create an exemption for health care so people can buy their own health care. So that’s going to require they take a little bit more time, take a little more ownership of their health care. Rather than relying on government as the nanny government, let’s rely on people to make choices about their health care. Let’s rely on, instead of 17 million people buying their own health insurance, 50, 60, 70 million. You’ll see the price come all the way down and you’ll see the quality come up. That’s an American solution. It’s a bold one, but it’s the kind of thing America has done in the past. We rely on our people, not on our government.
Mike Huckabee on controlling health care costs:
Sometimes it’s not so much doing things so that people sacrifice; it’s doing them differently. Let me give you an example. A lot of the federal budget goes to health care. We need to
do what most American companies are finding works in reducing health care cost. That’s moving from the intervention-based health care model to a prevention-based.
Our current model is upside-down. We wait until people are catastrophically ill and then we spend the most expensive ways of trying to cure incurable diseases. If we would put the focus on prevention, we would find, like American business is finding, that there really is savings if you kill the snake rather than just treat the snakebites, which is the way our current system is built.
Fred Thompson on Medicare spending:
And specifically, as far as Medicare is concerned, we need to tell people that are in Warren Buffet’s category we’re not going to take care of all your Medicare in the future; we can’t afford it.
Huckabee responding to a question about how his faith influences his plans for health care policy:
The two overriding principles are you treat others as you wish to be treated. As it relates in health care, that means that we recognize that a person who is sick shouldn’t be treated differently because they’re in poverty than a person who has extraordinary wealth; that we have some sense of balance in how we approach that. That’s the essence of what America is about.
The second basic principle is that inasmuch as you’ve done it to the least of these, my brethren, you’ve done it unto me. As it relates to both health, education or any policy, what it really means is that you go back to what the Founding Fathers said, all of us are created equal, endowed by our Creator with those rights — life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Mitt Romney on abortion:
This audience and the whole nation has heard time and time again the fact that I was effectively pro-choice when I ran for office. When I became governor of Massachusetts, the first time a bill came to my life that dealt with life, I simply could not side with — with taking a life, and I came on the side of life. Every bill that came to my desk, every issue that related to protecting the sanctity of life, I came down on the side of life. I’m pro-life. I’m not going to apologize for becoming pro-life. Ronald Reagan followed the same course, as did Henry Hyde and George Herbert Walker Bush. And I’m proud to be pro-life.
Giuliani on abortion:
I think I’ve explained my position on abortion, which is that I oppose it, but I believe that ultimately the government should leave that decision to a woman and her conscience. I would like to see limitations on abortion. I brought those about in New York City. We reduced abortions. We increased adoptions by 135 percent. But ultimately, it’s a position that I thought out a long time ago. For me it’s a position on conscience, and it’s a position that, in spite of the fact that Alan [Keyes] wouldn’t vote for me, I’m not going to change. (Laughter.)
The New York Times has a transcript of this debate.
Earlier on blog.bioethics.net:
+ Speed reading the December 4 Democratic debate
+ Speed reading the November 28 Republican debate
+ Speed reading the November 15 Democratic debate
+ Speed reading the October 30 Democratic debate
+ Speed reading the October 21 Republican debate
+ Speed reading the October 9 Republican debate