The release of the poll results comes on the heels of news that Christie will be relegated to the “kids table” at tonight’s Fox Business Network debate.
Advertisement
The line delivered Tuesday in response to the first question of the fourth Republican undercard debate drew applause from the audience in Milwaukee.
Jindal has yet to make it onto the main debate stage, and he used his time to hammer home the argument that he was the only person on stage who had cut government spending in his state.
Huckabee took issue with Jindal’s point that he’s the only governor on stage with a record of cutting spending: “It’s just not accurate”, Huckabee replied.
“We can’t afford to elect a big-government Republican”, said Jindal. He criticized Christie’s economic record for not being conservative enough, but the New Jersey governor reverted to grilling Obama and Clinton’s record instead of continuing negative comparisons with the Louisiana governor. The senator is widely seen as among the most talented politicians in the GOP field, and his rise appears to have anxious a few of his rivals. They’re building those artificial islands in the South China Sea, and the president, up until recently wouldn’t sail a ship within 12 miles or fly a plane over it. I’ll tell you this – the first thing I’ll do is fly Air Force One over those islands. “A liberal is not one of them”.
“That’s the person you want on the stage prosecuting the case against Hillary Clinton”, he said, one of several times Christie pointed to his history as a USA attorney.
Not all the candidates reciprocated Christie’s cease-fire.
Jindal said the electorate should not vote for a big-government Republican who would essentially represent a second-class Democratic Party.
The hour-long confrontation revealed agreement on a number of issues.
During Huckabee’s tenure, spending in Arkansas increased by 65 percent and taxes went up by 45 percent, he suggested. Santorum offered his 20-percent flat tax that would apply equally to earned income and investments. Christie’s plan includes a bottom rate of 8 percent and top rate of 28 percent.
Huckabee was asked by moderator Sandra Smith to reiterate his position whether he thought America should allow refugees fleeing from the war-torn Syria to seek asylum inside the United States.
“Frankly, when we got as many homeless people that we have, I am not sure this makes any sense”.
Huckabee defended his view that it is wrong for the federal government to reduce Social Security and Medicare benefits. Huckabee addressed the VA problem, saying that if the Obama administration and Congress had to use the same healthcare Veterans did, then the VA health system would be fixed.
Advertisement
Santorum emphasized his blue-collar roots.
