Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo, Rudy Giuliani, Charlie Crist, Duncan Hunter, and Brit Hume

“ MCCAIN: If you need to have people in special categories such as congenital diseases, we may have to set up a fund to care for those. But the key is, make health care in America affordable and available. Don't destroy it, as the Democrats want to do.
(APPLAUSE)
GOLER: Congressman Paul, you say that insurance companies and government programs have made health care simply unafforable. You objected so strongly to Medicaid that, as a doctor, I'm told, you simply treated patients on your own, at your own expense.
Is charity the way we should provide health care for the poor right now? ”

“ Nobody seems to be happy -- except the corporations, the drug companies and the HMOs.
You take care of poor people by turning the medical care back into the system, where people have some choices.
Now, we have a mess because we have -- a lot of people are very dependent on health care. But I have the only way we can afford to take care of people now, because we're going broke, with $500 billion going to debt every single year. And we have a foreign policy that is draining us. ”

“ Governor Romney, among the so-called top tier candidates, you support the ban on gay marriage. What does it say that Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Ron Paul all don't?
ROMNEY: Well, they have a different point of view. But I've been in a state that has gay marriage, and I recognize that the consequences of gay marriage fall far beyond just the relationship between a man and a woman.
They also relate to our kids and the right of religion to be practiced freely in a society. ”

“ If as President Bush says, we are fighting terrorists in Iraq to protect our homeland, shouldn't the Turks be able to go into Iraq to protect their own?
THOMPSON: Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that. I think the underlying point here is that Turkey is a friend of ours. We've got an important base there, actually more than one, but one especially important as far as our efforts in Iraq are concerned.
THOMPSON: They've got a right to defend themselves from acts of terrorism, and PKK are terrorists.
The Kurds in the northern part of Iraq are our friends, too. ”

“ We in this party have to realize the American people are sick and tired of big government, big government overseas, an empire we can't maintain, the bankruptcy of this country, and also the attack on our personal civil liberties. We don't have privacy left anymore, and Hillary Clinton offers no solution to that, and neither does any of the Democrats. ”

“ You know, look at the challenges that America faces right now.
ROMNEY: And not only do we face global jihad, with all of the implications of a group of people who want to bring down our nation and free nations around the world, but you also face an emerging economic superpower in China. It's the new Asian tiger.
And China and India are coming in a remarkable way to compete for our jobs.
The idea that someone wants to be president who's never worked in the private sector is really a big question mark. I've spent 25 years in the business world, running a small business that became a large one. ”

“ And I'm committed to making sure that we reinforce the institution of marriage in this country by insisting that all states have a right to have marriage as defined as between a man and a woman; and we don't have unelected judges, liberals, standing up and saying we're going to impose same-sex marriage where it was clearly not in their state constitution. ”

“ In reality, of course, there is a plan to give Social Security benefits to illegal aliens who have worked in this country. That is ridiculous. And we should never ever, ever, do anything that would harm not just the Social Security plan, but also you go back and talk to me about health care.
TANCREDO: Let me tell you what health care means, with illegal immigrants: $1 billion a year in California, 86 or more hospitals closed, maybe up to hundreds of hospitals closed, throughout this country, because they've had to provide care for illegal immigrants and cannot be reimbursed. ”

“ Our dollar today is worth 4 cents compared to the dollar of 1913, when the Federal Reserve took charge of it. And if you don't deal with the dollar there will be no retirement for anybody. We're going to have chaos.
And that is why you have to cut spending. That's why we need a new foreign policy. We need to tie it to people over here in this country, the people who are dependent, but we need to let the people get out, whether it's Social Security or medical care or education. The Constitution doesn't advise that we do any of that anyway. ”

“ One thing, when people reach retirement age, if they really have enough retirement benefits, they don't need Social Security for the long term, give them the option of one-time buyout, or the opportunity to purchase an annuity, with their funds, tax-free, that frees up the long-term obligation of the government. ”

“ ROMNEY: That mathematically works. It's not as attractive. And the last is to index the Social Security benefits, the first benefit, to something other than wages, which is what it has always been.
But, in my view, that's the wrong way to go. That's the wrong way to go other than for higher-income Americans. Higher-income Americans -- that is the Posen plan -- yes, let's consider doing that. That is indexing based on prices rather than wages.
But the others, Medicaid and Medicare, we can solve those. I know that. We did it in our state. We are on track to have everybody in our state insured. ”

“ China and Russia have, obviously, economic interests in dealing with Iran. What they have to see is that America would act. And if America acted, that would be inconsistent with what would be good for them.
You've got to understand, in foreign affairs, just like in the affairs of people, self-interest is enormously important. You've got to figure out the other person's self-interest, and then you have to deal with that.
And I think our taking a strong position here would be similar to the difference between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, when he was dealing with Iran. ”

“ Those 1,000 mandates that we have throughout the States, where we do have mandated health insurance plans, is driving up the cost of health care by about 35 percent. We need freedom. We need to allow people to buy their health care across state lines. That will bring down the cost of health care. ”

“ And in the discussion you were having about health insurance before, the point that I think was missed -- we only have 17 million people in America who buy their own health insurance. If we have 50 million or 60 million people who bought their own health insurance, the price of health insurance would be cut in more than half. ”

“ Hillary Clinton wants to run the largest enterprise in the world, the government of the United States. It employs millions of people, trillions of dollars in revenue.
ROMNEY: She hasn't run a corner store. She hasn't run a state. She hasn't run a city. She has never run anything. And the idea that she could learn to be president, you know, as an internship just doesn't make any sense. ”

“ GIULIANI: Oh, the simple fact is that New York City had a policy of allowing people who are illegal immigrants to report crime and to put their children in school. Otherwise, we reported every single illegal immigrant that committed a crime.
The results had to be pretty darn good. I brought down crime by over 60 percent in New York City. I brought down homicide by 67 percent. I had the most legal city in the country. And I took the crime capital of America and I turned it into the safest large city in the country.
The senator has never had executive responsibility. ”

“ I think the first thing you need is their respect, and I intend to earn their respect because they may not agree with me on a couple of issues, but they’ll know I’m telling the truth, and what I believe and my steadfast positions on these issues for more than 20 years, and I know that the transcendent challenge I have the qualifications to lead, to grapple with and to emerge victorious. ”

“ When Ronald Reagan became a Republican, he said he hadn't left the Democratic Party, the Democrats had left him.
Given your differences with the other gentlemen on the stage, has the Republican Party left you? Have these gentlemen left the Republican Party?
PAUL: I think in many ways they haven't followed our platform and they don't follow the Constitution. So they're really not following (inaudible) . I think in many ways we have become big spenders. Republicans are the big spenders. Our big-government conservatives, they're part of the neo-conservative movement. ”

“ Let's use that money our way. We'll go down the road of power spending, where people are told, Don't worry about your kids, don't worry about the next generation, although we're clearly bankrupting them, with regard to their Social Security and Medicare expenditures.
THOMPSON: We can't sustain it. But don't worry about that. We'll make it all up out of the rich.
The only problem with Democrats is that everybody who works for a living is rich, according to them.
(APPLAUSE)
They say that all we've got to do is bring the troops home, and the world will leave us alone. ”

“ If she's president, taxes go up, health care becomes the domain of the government, spending goes out of control, our military loses its morale, and I'm not sure we'll have the courage and the will and the resolve to fight the greatest threat this country's ever faced in Islamofascism.
(APPLAUSE)
We've got an enemy that wants to kill every last one of us. We cannot be soft. We must be strong. ”

“ There will be efforts to raise your taxes. There will be efforts to have a single-payer big government solution by the Democrats. They've already espoused those causes. If you believe them, please take a trip to Canada or England before you decide to support such a thing.
(APPLAUSE)
America has the highest quality health care in the world. Our job is to preserve it. Our job is to keep the costs down. Last year, the Medicaid inflation was 10 percent. No, no program in the world can survive under that. ”

“ States ought to be allowed to experiment and do the things that they know best at the state and local level.
And we can't lay all this at the feet of any government. We have to accept some hard truths. Part of the problem in our education system and with our children has to do with the societal breakdown that's going on in this country. We need more fathers to stay and raise their kids.
(APPLAUSE)
GOLER: Mayor Giuliani, most people agree that you helped New York's crime problem and its economy, but you met your match with the schools. ”

“ Governor Romney says the Republicans aren't going to beat Hillary Clinton by acting like Hillary Clinton. And the point seems to be that on a lot of the social issues, like abortion and gay rights and gun control, that there's not much difference between you and Clinton. ”

“ Hello, I'm Jim Greer, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida. As the part of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan prepares to choose its nominee for president of the United States, Florida is honored to host tonight's Republican president debate. ”

“ We all worked on it, came up with an idea, and then we met with Democrats and said: Can we find common ground here?
And, you know, Democrats also love America. As Ronald Reagan used to say, it's not that liberals are ignorant. It's just that what they know is wrong. ”

“ We appreciate the opportunity to bring the candidates together here in Florida for an evening of dialogue on important issues that face our state and our nation.
In Florida, we have proven that when we put problem-solving above politics, we can truly accomplish great things.
From the beautiful city of Orlando, Florida, welcome to the debate. ”

“ Senator McCain, your plan for lowering health care costs involves switching people from employer-provided health care to policies they buy on their own. There's concern that could lead insurance companies to cherry-pick their clients. ”

“ That will give the parents the kind of control over their children's education. They understand their children better. Why should a government bureaucrat be sending 168,000 children to failing schools when parents think they can do better for their children? ”

“ You know, President Putin did give us one opening, and I think we should exploit it. And that is that he offered to work with us on sea-based missile defenses. The throat of the -- of missiles launched from Iran at western Europe would go over the Black Sea.
HUNTER: I think we should undertake an initiative with Putin's people and discuss the prospects of putting our Aegis missile defense cruisers in the Black Sea, ask them if they're interested in an partnership that would protect Western Europe, also protect us. ”

“ We ask our large, and as you can tell enthusiastic, audience to please limit applause during the question and answer portion of the debate so we can devote as much time as possible to the candidates themselves. ”

“ We don't have to put our military in harm's way. The Kurds have the capacity to do it against those in the PKK -- but also to try to get Turkey to realize that there's nothing to be gained by crossing into that border and creating yet another hostile situation. ”

“ Well, there's a very big difference, and I think the American people, if we as a party realize this and understand it, 70- some percent of the people in America want the war over with. They're sick and tired of it and they want our troops to come home. ”

“ I think, in every case, you can always find one exception or two to someone being absolutely conservative or absolutely this or absolutely that, but I think I had a heck of a lot of conservative results. ”