The Creating Post: 2012 Republican Presidential Debate Nevada (Nov. 2011)

Link to videos Parts 1-8 below of the debate:

Part 1

Part 1 summary (paraphrased):

Introductions:
Rick Santorum: Loves his family
Ron Paul: Champion of Liberty
Herman Cain: Solve Problems for a living
Mitt Romney: Also Solve problems
Rick Perry: Authentic Conservative
Newt Gingrich: Will replace Class Warfare with Cooperation
Michelle Bachmann: Hopes what happens in Vegas won't stay in Vegas

Absent:
Tim Pawlenty
Gary Johnson
Jon Huntsman

Question: What is your position on replacing the Federal Income Tax with a Federal Sales Tax?
Translation: Is Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan a good one or not?

Michelle Bachmann: When you give the government a new tax, it doesn't ever go away... it only grows. There are hidden taxes in Herman Cain's plan. She has better plans.

Herman Cain accused by those who analyzed his plan, that it would actually raise the tax of lower and middle class.

Herman Cain: Look at the plan on my site. Its attacked because others want taxes to stay confusing to trick Americans.

Rick Santorum: Analysis show it will raise taxes: Major increases. A singal person pays as much as a husband, wife, and each child = NOT FAMILY FRIENDLY!

Herman Cain: Invites everyone to do their own math.

Michelle Bachmann: Every level of profit gets taxed... a hidden tax and the government can raise the tax and customers think the vendor is just raising the price.

Example: Farmer farms popcorn. Sells it to company (taxed by fed and state). Company puts it in bags and sells it to Grocery store (taxed by fed and state again). People buy it from the grocery store... taxed again by the Federal government and taxed by the state!
When the tax goes up a little, the price goes up alot.

Rick Perry: Go to New Hampshire where they don't have a sales tax and you're are going to give them one. Nevada has an 8% state sales tax already, do they want to another 9% to what they already pay on everything? I will have a better plan by the end of the week.

Cain: State tax is apples and Federal tax is oranges. Don't mix them.

Ron Paul: It is regressive and dangerous. We should replace the income tax with NOTHING... no income tax! Less government spending is how you cut taxes. Ron Paul offers a program to cut 1 trillion dollars out in the first year budget!

Cain: Says none of his colleagues understand his plan. Invites families to do their own calculations.

Romney accused on having 59 point plan too complicated by Cain

Romney asks Cain: Will the state tax also go away with your 9-9-9 plan?

Cain: No! That's an apple. We are talking about oranges.

Romney: Then Perry was right.

Cain: No! Perry was mixing apples and oranges.

Romney: So people will have to pay their state sales tax and a federal sales tax.

Cain: You are doing the same thing... mixing apples and oranges.No matter what we do on the federal level, people will still have to pay their state's taxes. They are apples and oranges, two separate things.

Romney: We are all going to get a big bushel of apples and oranges, because we have to pay both. I want to reduce taxes on business, so we grow... and reduce taxes on the middle class and reduce the burden.

Newt was quoted as insinuating that Cain's plan would be hard to pitch.

Basically, all the candidates believe the 9-9-9 plan will hurt the country, except Cain. In most states, everyone would be paying two taxes on everything they purchase.

Part 2

Part two summary (paraphrased):

Gingrich: There are much more complexities and details than Cain lets on. Change on this scale takes years.

Michelle: Every American benefits from living in the U.S.A. and should pay something... even if its only a dollar. I want to flatten the tax code. The Regulations cost us the most (1.8 trillion/year) and cause job loss. We need to repeal Obama's plans that have caused destruction of our economy. Plugs: MichelleBachmann.com

Perry is asked to speak on Romney's 59 point plan:
Instead Perry states: We need to focus on the 9% unemployment in the country. I laid out a plan. We have 300 feet of resources under our feet and the government is keeping up from using it to create jobs and energy...Lets have American Energy Independence!

(love how they avoid questions so masterfully)

Romney: Perry is right about becoming energy independent. We are a resource rich nation acting like a resource poor nation. We need to create more jobs in technology too. We need to repeal Obamacare.

Santorum: I agree. Santorum created the term "Income Mobility" which means people at the bottom of the income scale should be able to rise to the top. Western Europe has better income mobility. We have lost our manufacturing base. We need more "made in America." The country needs to make this a manufacturing friendly country by taking away extra taxes on those companies.
By the way, Romney mentioned repealing Obamacare, yet Romney's plan was the bases of Obamacare.

Romney: Every debate I've made it clear that I want to repeal Obamacare. I was asked if this would be good for the entire nation in my book I said no. It was crafted for a state not the nation.
Santorum: You had it removed from your book. It's one thing to change your mind, its another thing to change history.
Romney: It was crafted for a state not the nation. I will repeal Obamacare.
Santorum: Romneycare

Romney: There is alot that has to be done... but it needs to be done at the national level. Obamacare is wrong. I will provide a system that works for America.

Gingrich: There is fundamental difference between trying to fix a problem from the top of the government down to the people and trying to fix a problem from the bottom and allowing the people to fix it to the top. Romney is all about big government. His state had the biggest welfare and most money coming in from big government. Romney is not as bad as Obamacare, but alot closer to it than he is admitting.

Romney: Actually we got the idea for an individual mandate from you.
Gingrich: No, not me.
Romney: from the heritage foundation and you
Gingrich: The Heritage Foundation, not me. I support them, but you didn't get the idea from me.
Romney: did you ever support an individual mandate?
Gingrich: yes, one against Hillarycare.
Romney: so you did support an individual mandate. That's what I'm saying. We got the idea from you and the Heritage Foundation.
Gingrich: ok... a little broader.

Romney: We didn't have government insurance plan. People had private insurance. Nothing changed for 93% of the people. For the others, they got private insurance, not government insurance.

Bachmann: Obamacare is so unpopular that the democrats have turned on themselves. The republicans are going to win no matter what.

Basically, they are all against Obamacare, however, Romney's plan was the bases for it and he appears to be supportive of big government.

Part 3

Part three paraphrased:

Twitter Question: Obamacare is bad for US. What is the alternative?

Narrator: Is there any part of Obamacare that you would keep?

Ron Paul: NO. He's just adding on more government. We have too much government management involved. If you want better healthcare and medical competition, then let the people choose to opt out of government health care and get back to the doctor-patient relationship. There is so much inflation because the government has gotten involved. Whenever the the government gets involved prices go up. We have tort laws to deal with. We need more competition. Let the people have more control of their money and take out the third party (government).

Cain: No. Obamacare must be repealed. I'd start with HR3400 introduced in 2009. Allow loser-pay and insurance product sells across state lines etc.

Narrator: Texas is one of the most uninsured state.

Perry: We have a lot of illegal immigrants in Texas. By the way, Romney hired and illegal and didn't fire them until after a year of finding out.
Romney: I have never hired an illegal.
Perry interrupts Romney as he talks.
Romney: You put a magnet to your state by offering free tuition to illegal immigrants. If anyone has a problem here, its you.
Perry: You hired an illegal and found out and let them still work for you for another year.
Romney: Explains
Perry interrupts again
Romney: You have a problem with letting a person speak. If you want to be president, then you need to learn to let people speak!
(crowd cheers)
I hired a lawn service and then found out that they had hired an illegal. I told them they could not work for me if they are going to have illegals working for them. They fired the illegals. I hired them again the next year and it turns out they had hired more illegals who had falsified their information to get hired. So I fired the company and haven't used them again.

Narrator: Addressed Cain about his comments on an electric fence. Later Cain said he was just joking. Then even later he said, we might have an electric fence, I'm not walking away from that. I just don't want to offend anyone.
(crowd laughs/claps)

(Ironic how every time Cain says something that doesn't go over well, he says it was a joke. Only so many times that we will fall for that Cain.)

Cain: Here is the serious answer. Yes we would build a fence, and use technology, and put boots on the ground. Close the backdoor so people use the front door. Empower the states to do what the government is not.

Perry (Texas): Sure we can build a wall/fence, but the way to really stop it, is put boots on the ground... alot of boots and technology. That will make America safer.

Bachmann: Obama's uncle and aunt are illegal aliens who get to stay in America. I will build a double wall fence. This is an economics issue. It cost 13 billion/year by letting the illegals in. I will enforce English as the official language. Anyone who comes into this country will have to agree not to get tax payer subsidized benefits.

Perry: You can build a fence, but that's not enough. We need boots on the ground and in the air.

Romney: We all love legal immigration. Its not hard to secure our boarder. Build a fence and get the boots on the ground and turn off the magnets (benefits to illegals) like employers who will hire illegals... we need the e-verify system...and magnets like tuition breaks. California and Texas (Perry) have the highest rate of illegals. Perry is like a college coach whose team has lost 40 games in a row saying he's ready to coach at the NFL.
Perry: He hit the nail on the head. Romney is a magnet, because he hired illegals. You are part of the problem Romney.
Romney: We talked about this already and the crowd agrees (crowd boos Perry).

Question from audience: There are alot of Latinos and many are illegal. What message do you have for Latinos?

Short Summary:

No one wants any part of Obamacare. Ron Paul would take the government out of health care so that prices and services would become competitive. Cain would put different government regulations found in HR3400.

Perry and Romney accuse each other of being/creating illegal immigration magnets. Perry, Romney, Bachmann, and Cain want to build a fence, use technology, and put boots on the ground to secure our boarder.