The 4th Republican Debate for the Presidential Election for 2016 has dropped two more candidates out of the top tier, Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee.  My synopsis is only of the top tier candidates, because the bottom tier is irrelevant.  The candidates we have left are (from left to right) John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, and Rand Paul.

The first question came from Neil Cavuto, and was directed to Donald Trump asking if he was sympathetic to those who demand a $15.00/hr minimum wage.  Trump said he would not raise the minimum wage and explained how it would keep us from being competitive in the world.  He failed to mention that a federal minimum wage is unconstitutional.  Neil took the question to Carson, who has advocated 2 minimum wages, a lower one for younger people.  Carson’s explained that raising minimum wages increases unemployment, especially among blacks and that he would never have gotten his first job if the employer were forced to pay him more, but he benefited tremendously from that first job by gaining experience so he could ascend the ladder of opportunity.

Cavuto moved on to Rubio and asked him if he isn’t a fan of all the give-a-ways promised in the democrat debate, what would he take back?  Rubio started by addressing raising the minimum wage, saying that it would only make people more expensive than machines and automation will be accelerated.  He said we have to make America a better place to start a business with tax reform & regulatory reform, bring our debt under control, fully utilize our energy resources, repeal and replace Obamacare,  and make higher education faster and easier to obtain.  Kind of a departure from the question and I am tired of hearing about replacing Obamacare.  It only needs to be repealed.

Maria Bartiromo asked a Facebook question from someone named Seth Bell on what plans the candidates have to cut federal spending.  Bartiromo read off a litany of expense the country has and gave the question to Kasich.  Kasich took the opportunity to give a history of the hard workers in his family who died of black lung from coal mining and said that he had raised the minimum wage in Ohio.  He said we need to help people. He said that his tax plan isn’t going to cut as much as the other candidates promise but will get us to a balanced budget by the end of a second term. He told us that his web site shows exactly how he plans to balance the budget. He said that we have to do what we can to train those on the bottom, so they can move up.  Just looking the other way is not acceptable.  For a minute there, I thought I was watching the democrat debate.  The bell rang, but because he never answered the question, Bartiromo gave him another chance.  It was more of the same.  He’d move the medicare system from a 7% growth to a 5% growth. In other words, still growing an unconstitutional entitlement.  He rambled on about how he balanced the budget before until the bell rang again.

Bartiromo asked Ted Cruz what other elements he needs in his tax plan to create jobs other than his proposed 10% flat tax on individuals and 16% tax on business.  Cruz said that in history, there are three levers that government has had to spur economic growth.  The first is tax reform and his 10% flat tax would create 4.9 million new jobs within a decade.  The 2nd element is regulatory reform.  Pulling back the burdensome regulations.  Third is sound money.  He said the result of using all three of these has always been incredible economic growth, in the 1920’s with Calvin Coolidge, in the 1960’s with JFK and in the 1980’s with Ronald Reagan.  We’ve done it before and can do it again.

Bartiromo tried to move on to Jeb Bush, but John Kasich interrupted wanting to make a comment.  Jeb told him that he had already made two comments and he only had 4 minutes in the last debate and it was his turn now.  Kasich just kept on going, talking over Jeb and said that he wanted at some point to talk about a value added tax and 11 or 12 trillion dollar tax cuts that would put our kids way deeper in the hole than they have been at this point.  He was basically attacking Cruz’s tax plan as any good liberal would.

Back to Bush.  Bartiromo told him that almost 40% of Americans are without a job and quit looking.  That’s our real unemployment rate, folks!  She said to Bush, you said that your policies will drive the economy back to a 4% growth.  What specific regulations would you change and how would that get us to 4% growth?  I couldn’t keep up with Bush’s answer, because it was rambling, but the details I picked out of it are that he wants to start with tax reform, a proposal that the Wall Street Journal likes best.  Eliminate a lot of deductions, cut the rates down, a corporate rate of 20%.  On the regulatory side, he said we need to repeal every rule that Barrack Obama has in terms of work in programs.  Only rules that he has in terms of work in progress?  On he went about regulations already in existence including regulation of the internet, we have to start over, but we have to do that.  The Clean Power Act, we ought to repeal that and start over on that.  It sounds like he wants to repeal and replace the regulations created under Obama.  I don’t think he understands that we need to put a period after the word “repeal.”  No replacing of unconstitutional regulations is required.  Somehow Jeb got an applause, but the entire audience seems to be Wall Street Journal people.  They are the ones who sponsored the debate.  So it’s apparently an establishment audience.

Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Gerard Baker was the third debate moderator and he addressed Carly Fiorina.  Baker’s question started off with a false premise.  He said that under the 7 years of President Obama, the U.S. has added an average of 107,000 jobs per month.  A flat out lie.  Under President Clinton the economy added 240,000 jobs per month.  Under George W Bush, it was only 13,000 a month.  So he asked Fiorina how she would respond to the claim that democratic presidents create more jobs?  Fiorina’s answer began with a story about a woman she met who is afraid for her children’s’ futures.  She said the government is growing bigger and bigger, more corrupt, less effective, crushing the engine of economic growth.  I wish the government was less effective at what it gets away with doing.  She said that big government has created a big business called politics and a lot of people are invested in the status quo.  Then she said we need to do 5 things.  We need to go to zero base budgeting.  We need to reform the tax code.  We need to do a top to bottom review of all regulation on the books.  We need to pass the Reins Act, so Congress is in charge, not nameless faces bureaucrats.  Carly, that’s already in Article 1 of the Constitution.  We’ve become a nation of rules not a nation of laws.  Finally, we have to hold government officials accountable for their performance.  We must take our government back!  She got some applause for that.

Gerard Baker now asked Rand Paul about income inequality, claiming that it has been rising in the U.S.  Paul answered by saying we need to look at where income inequality is the worst.  Cities run by democrats, states run by democrats and countries run by democrats.  He also blamed the federal reserve for artificially keeping interest too low for regular citizens to make any money on interest and now they are even talking about negative interest.  Then he nailed the federal Reserve for devaluing money and explained how this causes prices to rise, so the value of your money declines.  He said the bottom line is that if you want less income inequality, move to a city or state with a republican mayor or governor.

Cavuto addressed Carson media bias and about the media exaggerations involving his life story, but their looking away regarding Obama’s.  Cavuto asked, as a candidate whose brand has always been trust, he he worried that he is hurting his own campaign.  It sort of sounded like Cavuto is taking the media’s side.  Carson first thanked Cavuto for not asking what he said in 10th grade.  That got a big laugh from the audience.  He then said that we should vet all candidates and that he has no problem with being vetted.  What he has a problem with is being lied about.  He said he wouldn’t even mind that so much if they did it with everybody, like people on the other side.  He said he sees Hillary Clinton tell her daughter and government officials that it was a terrorist attack, but then tells everyone else it was a video, where he came from they call that a lie.  The crowd roared!  There was a pause while Fox panned the camera to show the cheering audience.  He said that’s very different than when he said that he was offered a scholarship to West Point.  That’s the words that they used.  He said that people who know him, know that he’s an honest person.

Now Bartiromo asked Trump about the federal court ruling against Obama’s plan to prevent the deportation of 5 million illegals.  The White House is appealing to the Supreme Court.  She said at heart of this issue, is the effect that illegals are having on our economy.  What will you do about it?  Trump said he was so happy yesterday when he saw that decision come down.  He of the Executive Order, because nobody wants to listen to him, including the Democrats, so he just goes around signing executive orders.  Trump said we have to stop illegal immigration, it’s hurting us economically, it’s hurting us from every standpoint, it’s causing tremendous difficulty with respect to drugs and what they do to our inner cities.  He said we are a country of laws.  We need borders.  We will have a wall.  The wall will be built.  The wall will be successful and if you think walls don’t work all you have to do is ask Israel.  Bartiromo asked, can we just send 5 million people back with no effect on the economy?  He said we’re a country of laws.  We either have a country or we don’t have a country.  They’ll have to go out.  And they’ll come back, but they have to go out and hopefully they get back, but we have no choice if we are going to run our country properly and if we’re going to be a country.  Kasich asked to comment on that.

They allowed Kasich to comment.  He said that when Reagan was president they said that the law abiding illegals could stay.  What didn’t happen is that we didn’t build the wall effectively and didn’t control the border.  We need to.  Just like people need to control who goes in and out of our house.  But if people think that we are going to ship 11 million people who are law abiding, who are in this country, and somehow pick them up at their house and ship them out to Mexico!  Think about the families!  Think about the children!  Wrong debate Kasich.  You really need to get in the next Democrat debate where you will fit right in.  If an intruder is in your house, you don’t let them stay just because you didn’t have your fence up yet.

Trump came back and said Kasich was lucky in Ohio that they struck oil.  Then he said that Dwight Eisenhower moved a million and a half illegal immigrants out of this country.  He put them just over the border and they came back.  He did it again and they came back.  He moved them WAY south.  They never came back.  He said we have to move them out, we have no choice.

The next question was about to go to Jeb, but again Kasich got angry and wanted to speak out of turn, claiming that Trump said his name, so he gets to speak.  He forgot that he spoke out of turn in the first place.  Jeb was in the background asking for his question.  Trump said, you should let Jeb speak.  The crowd roared!  The moderators allowed Kasich to carry on though.  He said that in Ohio they have grown 347,000 jobs.  Ohio unemployment is at half of what it was.  Our tracking industry may have contributed 20,000, but if Mr. Trump understood that real jobs come in the downstream, not in the upstream.  He rambled on about Ohio being diversified.

When Jeb finally got to speak he said that to send them back at 500,000 per month is just not possible.  He said that having this conversation is making the Clinton campaign have high fives.  He then said that we need to provide a path to legal status for the illegals.  Trump broke in and said that we have millions of people in line who are trying to come into this country and this is very, very unfair to those who want to come here legally.  Very, very unfair to them.

Baker addressed Rubio.  He said that more wealth is going to innovators and investors, factories are run by robots and shopping is done on smart phones, so how will Rubio reassure Americans that their jobs are not being steadily replaced by robots?  Rubio said that the economy is changing.  It took the telephone 70 years to reach 100 million users and took Candy Crush 1 year to reach 100 million users.  He said we are losing in competition, because we have the highest business tax rate in the industrialized world.  We have regulations that grow by the billions every single week.  We have a crazy health care law that discourages companies from hiring people.  We’re not fully utilizing our energy resources.  We have an outdated higher education system.  It’s too expensive, too hard to access, and it doesn’t teach 21st century skills.

Baker turned to Cruz and said that he has argued for raising the retirement age, and reducing benefits for future retirees.  He then paraphrased the liberal commercial showing granny getting pushed off the cliff.  Cruz said that Baker misstated what he said on entitlement reform.  He said that for seniors we should make no changes, but for younger workers we should gradually raise the retirement age we should have benefits grow more slowly and allow them to keep a portion of their taxes in a personal account that they control and can pass on to their kids.  Then Cruz said he wanted to go back to the previous conversation, because what was said was right, the democrats are laughing, because if Republicans join Democrats as the party of amnesty, we will lose.  He said when the main stream media covers immigration it doesn’t often see it as an economic issue, but for millions of Americans watching this, it is a very personal economic issue.  He said the politics of it would be very different if a bunch of lawyers and bankers were crossing the Rio Grand.  Or if a bunch of people with journalism degrees were coming over and driving down the wages in the press.  The audience applauded.  He went on.  Then we’d see stories about the economic calamity that is befalling our nation.  We’re tired of being told that we’re anti-immigrant.  It’s offensive.  I am the son of an immigrant who came legally from Cuba to seek the American dream.  Try going illegally to another country, China, Mexico, Japan.  See what they do!   It’s not compassionate to say we aren’t going to enforce the laws and we’re going to drive down the wages for millions of hard working men and women.

Maria Bartiromo brought up another Facebook question from Dewayne Wesley Cato asking how we get rid of regulations that are choking our businesses.  She addressed it to Carly Fiorina by pointing out that Obamacare requires small businesses with 50 or more employees to provide medical insurance, so they are just paying the fine or cutting back the hours of workers and how would Fiorina decrease that pressure on small business.  She said, well first Obamacare has to be repealed.  It’s failing.  She said we need to try the free market for health insurance, where people have to actually complete.

Cavuto said that one of the biggest economic concerns is taxes.  He said to Carson, you are in favor of a tax favor akin to tithing with a flat tax rate of up to 15%.  But Donald Trump says, that isn’t fair, the rich should pay a higher rate.  So Cavuto asked Carson which plan God would endorse, his or Mr. Trump’s.  Carson said that when he says tithing he is talking about the concept of proportionality.  He said you also have to get rid of the deductions and loopholes.  He said that people say you get rid of the American dream if you eliminate deductions such as mortgage deductions.  But people had homes before the income tax was introduced in 1913 and before they later got mortgage deductions.  And they say there will be no more charity if there are charitable deductions.  He said we had charities and churches before charitable deductions and if you put more money in people’s pockets they will be more generous.  If we get the economy moving there will be a lot more opportunities for poor people not to be poor people.

Cavuto said that Rand Paul wanted to blow up the tax code and start over with an across the board 14.5% fair and flat tax.  He said it is not revenue neutral and that is the idea.  He wants to choke off the amount of money coming into Washington.  He asked if Paul wouldn’t be risking creating a near term budget crisis just as his term would be beginning.  Paul asked, where is money best spent, in the government or private sector?  I want a government really small.  He said he has put together 3 budgets plans that actually balance the budget.  Each one has details on exactly where we’d cut.  No one ever wants to say where they will cut.

Now Bartiromo addressed Cruz on taxes asking how he can cut taxes as much as he proposes without running up debt and deficits?  Cruz said Washington is corrupt and there are more words in the IRS code than there are in the Bible and not one of them is as good.  All of them involve a carve out or a subsidy and it’s all about empowering the Washington Cartel.  He said that his flat tax says that for the first $36,000 you earn, you pay no taxes.  Then a simple 10% for anything earned above that.   His plan eliminates the death tax, the payroll tax, the corporate income tax, and abolishes the IRS.  He said that it would not apply to any exports would would apply to all imports, creating jobs in the U.S.  He then said that he has also put out a spending plan with a list of cuts including 5 agencies he would eliminate, the IRS, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Energy, and HUD.  He mentioned commerce twice, so I’m not sure what the 5th one is.

Rubio was asked by Baker about his tax code and the child tax credits he proposes.  Basically it’s more entitlements.  You have kids, everyone else pays for it.  He called it a pro-family tax code.  It sounds like another page of loopholes.  If it’s great to give parents a tax break it should be even better to give everyone a tax break.  Rand Paul broke in and said regarding tax credits we have to decide what is conservative and what isn’t.  We aren’t talking about giving people back their money, Rubio is talking about giving people money they didn’t pay.  It’s a welfare transfer payment.  Rubio wants to give a trillion dollars in this new welfare entitlement and then another trillion in new military spending, so how is that conservative?  Rubio said, this is their money.  It’s refundable against the payroll tax.  That’s Social Security folks.  Can I have mine back and still get my Social Security check when I retire?  He continued and called Rand an isolationist and said that we believes the world is a better place when America has the strongest military in the world.  Rand told Rubio that he can’t claim to be a conservative if he is going to keep promoting new programs that he’s not going to pay for.  Basically Rubio is proposing the spending, but has proposed no way to fund it.  They argued back and forth, Rubio claiming we need a strong military and Paul agreeing, but saying we have to avoid bankruptcy.

Cruz interrupted and said there is a middle ground, which brings both of these together.  He said that it is exactly right that we have to defend this nation, if you think defending this nation is expensive, try not defending it.  But, you can do that and pay for it.  He said that in the 25 expenditures he would eliminate, among them are corporate welfare like sugar subsidies.  He would end those subsidies to pay for defending this nation.

Baker went to Trump.  Trump preempted the question and said we have to make our military bigger than ever before and that he agrees with Marco and Ted.  He said we all have a tax plan and each one is better than the mess that we have right now.  Baker continued to ask his question and Kasich tried to butt in, but Baker just kept going with Trump and asked about trade policy and TPP.  Trump said that TPP is a horrible deal, designed for China to come in through the back door and take advantage of us as they always do.  It’s 5600 pages lone, so complicated that nobody has read it.  Like Obamacare, nobody ever read it.  It will be repealed.  He said we lose a fortune in trade, over 500 billion in imbalance with China, $75 Billion a year with Japan, 50 billion dollars a year imbalance with Mexico.  Then Trump went off on how currency manipulation isn’t even discussed in the almost 6000 page agreement.  Currency manipulation is the single great weapon.  Rand Paul said that we might want to point out that China isn’t part of this deal.  He said, but I do agree with Mr. Trump that we should negotiate from a position of strength and using the constitutional power that was given to us.  I think it’s a mistake that we give up power to the Presidency.

Bartiromo brought up terrorist attacks.  She said to Carson, you were against putting troops on the ground in Iraq and large military force in Afghanistan.  Do you support the president’s decision to put 50 special ops forces in Syria and leave 10,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan?  He replied that putting special ops there is better than not putting them there.  Putin is really trying to spread his influence throughout the Middle East.  What we’ve been doing so far is very ineffective, but we can’t give up ground right there.  We have to look at this on a global scale.  We’re talking about global jihadists and they’re desire is to destroy us.  He said that we have to make them look like losers so they can’t recruit so easy and to do that we have to destroy their caliphate.  He said our goal is not to detain them, but to destroy them before they destroy us.

Bartiromo paraphrased Obama’s mocking of Mitt Romney that Russia was the top geopolitical challenge facing the United States calling them a cold war dinosaur and asked Trump what he would do in response to Russia’s aggression.  Trump said it isn’t only Russia, North Korea actually has nuclear weapons and nobody talks about it.  He said the Iran deal was one of the worst deals ever made, worst contracts ever signed ever in anything.  And it’s a disgrace.  China is a problem too.  If Putin wants to go and know the H*ll out of ISIS I am all for it 100% and I can’t understand how anybody would be against it!  Jeb tried to interrupt, but Trump shut him down.  He said, they blew up a Russian airplane.  He cannot be in love with these people.  He’s going in and we can go in and everybody should go in.  Regarding Ukraine, he said there are European countries all around them, we can’t continue to be the policeman of the world.  He rattled off a list of things that are falling apart in America and said that we have to start investing in our country!

Jeb broke in to say that Trump is wrong and that we need a no fly zone over Syria and the idea that it’s a good idea for Putin to be in Syria, let ISIS take out Assad and then Putin will take out ISIS, that’s like a board game.  That’s like playing Monopoly or something. No Jeb, more like RISK.  That’s not how the real world works.  Jeb, that’s what is happening in the real world.  He said that we have to be the leader and then went on about how if you are a Christian in those countries you’ll be beheaded.  Trump broke in and said, yes Assad is the bad guy, but we don’t even know who these rebels are.  He talked to a general who said we are giving 100’s of millions of dollars worth of equipment to these people and we have no idea who they are.  He said these people could be worse than Assad.  We don’t know.  Look at Libya, look at Iraq!  Look at the mess we have after spending 2 trillion dollars and thousands of lives, wounded warriors all over the place, who I love!  We have nothing!  And I said, keep the oil!  And we should have kept the oil, believe me!  And we should have given the oil, big chunks, to the people who lost their arms, their legs, and their families and their sons and daughters, because right now, you know who has a lot of that oil?  Iran and ISIS.

Fiorina broke in to say that she wouldn’t speak with Putin right away, because this administration left us in a position of weakness, but she would rebuild the 6th fleet and build up the military all over under his nose to make sure that Putin understands that the United States of America will stand with our allies.  She then agreed with Bush on a no fly zone over Iraq and named off a large number of countries and people in the Middle East, such as the Kurds, who she would arm.  She said we need to have the strongest military on the face of the planet and everyone has to know it.  This got her a roaring applause.

Cavuto then addressed Paul on the issue.  Paul said that you have to realize that Russia is already flying planes over that area and if we say we’re going to have a no fly zone that means we’re going to shoot down Russian planes.  He said I think the first war in Iraq was a mistake.  You can be strong without being involved in every civil war around the world.  He started to bring up Ronald Reagan being strong without sending troops everywhere when Fiorina interrupted.  Paul asked if he could finish with his time, then Trump asked, “Why does she keep interrupting everybody?  Terrible!”  Paul continued about the folly of a no fly zone and threatening to shoot down Russian planes.  Cavuto asked what his strategy would be and Paul replied that first he wouldn’t arm our enemies and wouldn’t arm ISIS.

Rubio jumped in saying that Putin recognizes weakness.  We have only one ally in the Middle East who values American ideals, Israel, and Obama gives the Israeli prime minister less respect than he shows the Iatola of Iran.  Putin is exploiting that weakness.

Baker asked Kasich about China, saying that 100s of U.S. companies have been subjected to cyber attacks from the Chinese military while state backed Chinese companies are growing their presence in the United States.  They have invested 50 billion dollars in the U.S. and are now trying to take over the larges hotel chain.  He asked Kasich if he would stop them.  Kasich responded by saying that we need to make it clear that if we are attacked by cyber attacks that we will destroy the mechanisms they use to attack us.  He then said that we should arm the people of Ukraine, so they can fight for themselves.  The media has done a wonderful job of hiding the fact that Ukraine was overthrown in a violent coup last year and started all this.  He rambled off a bunch of Middle Easter countries that we are friendly with and said that Israel is our best ally.  Then regarding China he gave Obama credit for moving a naval force through the South China Sea to let the Chinese know that we aren’t going to put up with it anymore.  Then he said the TPP trade agreement is critical for us.  Not only for economic reasons and for jobs, but because it allows us to create economic and strategic alliances against the Chinese.  They’re not our enemy, but they’re certainly not our friend.

On the issue of bank bail outs, Bush brought up Dodd/Frank and how it destroys small banks and makes big banks bigger.  Then Carson was asked if he favored breaking up the big banks.  He said that this nation declared its independence in 1776 and within 100 years was the number one economic power in the world, because we had an atmosphere that encouraged entrepreneurial risk taking and capital investment. What we’ve done now is let the creep of regulations become a stampede involved in every aspect of our lives.  He explained how every regulation costs money and really hurts the average person, because these costs are passed on to the consumer.  He said that Sanders and Clinton want to blame the rich, so take their money, but you can take all of it and it won’t make a dent in the problem that we’re having.  We need to come back to the fundamental principles that made America great.  Regarding the breaking up of big banks, he said he would have policies that wouldn’t allow what they do to occur.  He wouldn’t go in and tear anybody down, that doesn’t help us.  We need to stop tinkering around the edges and fix the problems.

Rubio chimes in and said that government made these banks big with pages and pages of regulations.  The big banks have an army of lawyers, an army of compliance officers, the small banks can’t deal with all these regulations.  The result is the big banks get bigger.  He said we need to repeal Dodd/Frank as soon as possible.

Kasich couldn’t let a conversation go without interrupting and started attacking the greed on Wall Street.  He said yes, free enterprise is great, profits are great, but there have to be some values that underlay it and they need a good ethics lesson on Wall Street on a regular basis to keep them in check, so we the people do not lose.

Cavuto asked Cruz if he would go after the crooks that Wall Street has ignored.  Cruz said absolutely yes.  The problem that underlies all of this is the cronyism and corruption of Washington.  Regarding the original question asked that nobody else answered, “would you bail out the big banks again,” absolutely not!  The biggest lie in all of Washington is that the Republicans are the party of the rich!  The truth is that the rich do great with big government, they get in bed with big government, the banks get bigger and bigger and bigger under Dodd/Frank and community banks are going out of business.  And by the way, the consequence of that is small businesses can’t get business loans.  It is that fundamental corruption that is why 6 of the 10 wealthiest counties in America are in and around Washington D.C.  He told a story of a black woman named Sabina Loving, who went into business as a tax preparer and the IRS attacked her with regulations she couldn’t afford and she sued them and Obamacare in court and won.  Then Cavuto asked, are you saying that if Bank of America were on the brink, you would let it fail?  Cruz said, Yes.  Then he said, Let’s be clear!  Then he explained how the Federal Reserve are a bunch of philosopher kings trying to guess what’s happening with the economy and one of the reasons we had the financial crash was that throughout the 2000s, we had loose money and an asset bubble that drove up the price of real estate and commodities.  In the 3rd quarter of 2008, the Fed tightened the money and crashed those asset prices causing a cascading collapse.  That’s why he’s supporting getting back to a rules based monetary system, not with a bunch of philosopher kings deciding, but tied ideally to gold.

Kasich broke in to give a socialist view of things, supporting the bank bailouts, claiming that it’s the executive’s job to decide when there’s a water crisis, how do we get water to the city, when there’s a school shooting, how do you get there and help heal the community, when there are financial crisis or crisis with ebola you’re going to go there and try to fix it. I’m not sure he’s read Article 2 of the Constitution, which lays out the powers of the executive.  Then he said it would be a bad idea to turn the Fed over to the Congress.  Odd, since the Constitution gives the power to Congress and never mentions a Federal Reserve.  Kasich is in the wrong debate.

Cruz asked Kasich, why would you bail out big Wall Street banks, but not main street, not mom and pop, not Sabina Loving.  Kasich kept repeating “I wouldn’t.”  Then Cruz told him that he just said an executive knows when to step in and bail out a bank.  Kasich waffled really bad, then Cruz asked him, What would you do if the bank was failing.  Kasich said, “I would not let the people who put their money in there all go down.”  Cruz said, “so you would bail them out.”  Kasich said no, that as an executive he would figure out how to separate those people who could afford it vs those people who are the hard working folks who put their money into those institutions…  The crowd started booing Kasich.  Cruz just kept looking at him stoically.  Kasich started waving his hands around and said, “No, no, just let me say one more thing…”  Ok, he didn’t start waving his hands around, he continued waving them around.  He’s always waving his hands around.

Kasich carried on, he said, “Here’s what I mean by that. When you are faced in the last financial crisis with banks going under,  and people who put their life savings in there, you gotta deal with it.  You can’t turn a blind eye to it.  No going forward that’s one thing, if you had another financial crisis, perhaps there would be an effort to make sure that we do it.”  I don’t know what that meant. He got shut down by Bartiromo right after it sounded like some jeers came from the audience.

Regarding Dodd/Frank Fiorina said that it is a great example of what happens when government causes a problem and then government steps in to solve the problem.

Bartiromo addressed Rubio and said that if he ends up running against Hillary, he will be facing a lady with an impressive resume.  The crowd booed with ferocity.  Rubio laughed!  She said that Hillary has spent more time in government than anyone on the stage, so why should the American people trust Rubio to lead this country even though Hillary has been so much closer to the office.  Rubio laugh some more.  Then he answered saying that this election is about the future.  He said that this will be a generational choice and that for over 250 years America has been a special country.  Then he ran off a list of things that have gone horrible in America recently including having a society that stigmatizes those with traditional values, people are living paycheck to paycheck, and worthless college degrees.  He said that many of these things are a direct result of decisions made while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State.  He said the left’s answer to everything is a new tax on someone and a new government program and then that if he is the nominee, they will be the party of the past and we will be the party of the 21st century.

Cruz told Bartiromo that Hillary may have experience, but her policies have been disastrous.  Under her leadership we have abandoned the nation of Israel, radical islamic terrorism has been on the rise, Iran is getting 100 billion dollars and on the verge of getting a nuclear weapon.  Hillary Clinton embodies the cronyism of Washington, an example of which is the congressional exemption from Obamacare, which is fundamentally wrong.  He said that as president he would veto any statute that exempts members of Congress, the law should apply evenly to every American.

Regarding Trump’s plan to make it possible for companies to bring their money back to the States from other countries where it is sheltered, Cavuto wanted to know if this wasn’t a one time bounty, because they still keep the loot but pay only a small price to bring it back.  Trump explained that that with corporate inversions, companies are leaving.  Trump said that the taxes to bring the money back him is too high, so they can’t do it.  He would charge only 10% tax, get rid of the bureaucratic road blocks, and we’ll have all this money pour back into the United States.  Let’s make America great again!

Rand Paul was one of 15 Republicans who voted for an amendment which states that human activity contributed to climate change, so Bartiromo asked him if it’s possible to pursue energy self sufficiency while at the same time pursuing a meaningful climate change program.  Paul said that first he would repeal all of the regulations hampering energy that Obama has put in place.  He said we will have some rules for keeping the environment clean, but we have to balance that with the economy.  I am not sure where the Constitution says that Congress has the power to keep the environment clean.  Paul should know that’s a state power given by the 10th Amendment.  He said that Obama has devastated Kentucky.  We have to have an all of the above policy.

The closing statements were limited to 30 seconds each, starting with Rand Paul.  He said that we are the richest, freest, most humanitarian nation in the history of mankind, but we also borrow a million dollars a minute.  Can you be a fiscal conservative if you don’t conserve all of the money?  Is it conservative to spend money in an unlimited fashion for the military?  Is that a conservative notion?  We have to be conservative with all spending, domestic spending and welfare spending.  I am the only fiscal conservative on this stage.

Next up was John Kasich.  He said that if Hillary or Bernie were to win this election he’d worry about what his 16 year olds’ lives would be like.  The conservative movement is all about opportunity.  It’s about lower taxes, balanced budgets, it’s about less regulation and sending power, money, and influence back to where we live, so we can run America from the bottom up.  We each have a responsibility to reach out and rebuild our families, make them stronger and connect our neighborhoods.

Carly Fiorina:  She said to imagine a Clinton presidency.  Our military will continue to deteriorate.  Our veterans will not be cared for.  The rich will get richer, the poor will get poorer.  A Clinton presidency will corrode the character of this nation.  Saying whatever you have to, lie as long as you can get away with it. We must beat Hillary Clinton, Carly Fiorina can beat Hillary Clinton.  Under a President Fiorina we will restore the character of this nation, the security of this nation, the prosperity of this nation, because as citizens we will take our government back.

Jeb Bush pointed out a woman named Jane Horten who was witting with his wife in the audience whose husband Chris was killed in Afghanistan.  She now fights for military families.  They’re both heroes.  I don’t think we need an agitator in chief or a divider in chief, we need a Commander in Chief that will rebuild our military, and restore respect to our veterans by revamping and fixing a broken Veterans Administration.  That’s my pledge to you, I ask for your support.  Thank you.

Ted Cruz said that 58 years ago, his father fled Cuba.  He looked back at the oppression and torture he was escaping and yet he looked forward to the promise of America.  We are all children of those who risked everything for freedom.  America is in crisis now.  I believe in America and if we get back to the free market principles and constitutional liberties that built this country, we can turn this country around.  I believe that 2016 will be an election like 1980, that we will win by following Reagan’s admonition to paint in bold colors, not pale pastels.  We’re building a grass roots army, I ask you to join us at TedCruz.org and we the people can turn this nation around.

Marco Rubio: The story of America is an extraordinary story.  It is the story of a nation that for over two centuries each generation has left the next better off than themselves.  But now that Washington is out of touch, at the fault of both political parties, for the first time in history, that is in doubt.  And that is what this election must be about, because if the next four years are anything like the last eight years our children will be the first Americans ever left worse off by their parents.  This election is about making a different choice.  About applying our principles of limited government and free enterprise to the unique issues of our time and if we do, we will not just save the American dream, we will expand it to reach more people and change more lives than ever before.  And the 21st century can be a new American century.  So tonight, I ask you for your vote.  And I ask you to join us at my web site. MarcoRubio.com

Ben Carson: In the two hours of this debate, five people have died from drug related deaths, 100 million dollars has been added to our national debt, 200 babies have been killed by abortionists, and 2 veterans have taken their lives out of despair.  This is a narrative that we can change.  Not we the democrats, not we the republicans, but we the people of America, because there is something special about this nation and we must embrace it and be proud of it and never give it away for the sake of political correctness.

Donald Trump:  Over the years I’ve created 10’s of thousands of jobs and a great company.  It’s a company I’m very proud of, some of the most iconic assists anywhere in the world.  And I will tell you that I don’t have to give you a web site, because I am self funding my campaign.  I’m putting up my own money.  I want to do something really special.  I want to make our country greater than it’s ever been.  I think we have that potential.  We can not lose this election.  We cannot let Hillary Clinton, who is the worst Secretary of State in the history of our country, win this election.  We will fight, we will win, and we truly will make this even more special.  We have to make it better than ever before and I will tell you, the United States can actually be better than ever before.  Thank you.

To conclude, I would say that overall, this debate was full of much more policy substance than previous debates, targeting mostly economical issues.  I mistakenly thought that I would find it easier to shorten my synopsis with fewer candidates in the race, but the opposite turned out to be true.  This was due to more substance being discussed and more time for the candidates to speak.  The CNBC debate was filled with monologues from the leftist moderators.  These moderators were more professional.  The adherence to substance and policy issues made the left leaning positions of Jeb Bush and the down right socialist principles of John Kasich very apparent.  I try not to give my opinions of who won or who I liked best, but I don’t feel any regret for calling these two out.  I absolutely want them out of the race.  I’ll leave the others for everyone else to decide on.

Please forgive any typos.  This took hours to write and I have not had the time to proofread it.  I’ll do that tomorrow.

AMP (Anna Maria Perez)

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