Fred Thompson made his debate debut of the Republican presidential campaign on Tuesday, and said that while the economy is strong, the government is “spending money of future generations and those yet to be born.”
The former Tennessee senator and actor said, “We are spending money we don’t have,” but he advocated no changes to shift course.
Sen. John McCain said President Bush was right to veto a children’s health expansion bill, and he urged him to reject a multibillion- dollar public works measure as well.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said it was inexcusable that Michigan seemed locked in a “one-state recession,” and said the president should be open to suggestions from an auto industry that has shed hundreds of thousands of jobs in recent years.
He criticized Democratic Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm for raising taxes, and drew laughter when he said he was afraid she “was going to put a tax on this debate.”
Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani clashed over tax and spending cuts Tuesday, each saying he was more committed than the other as they vied for conservative support in a debate in the nation’s manufacturing heartland.
Romney said they were in agreement about tax cuts, then criticized Giuliani for having filed a court challenge to a law that gave President Clinton the right to veto spending items line by line. “I’m in favor of the line item veto,” he said, adding he exercised it 844 times while governor of Massachusetts.
Giuliani called the Line-Item Veto “unconstitutional” and said he took Clinton to the Supreme Court on that issue and won.
Romney also said that while mayor, Giuliani “fought to keep the commuter tax, which is a very substantial tax … on consumers coming into New York.”
