HANOVER, N.H. — The government is the problem. That was the message Tuesday night as eight Republican presidential hopefuls pointed fingers at President Barack Obama, the Federal Reserve and the government generally as the cause of the nation’s economic collapse.
Although the White House aspirants largely agreed on their overall visions, and on the need to reduce government regulations of business, the two whose positions at the top of the field were expected to rise or fall in Tuesday’s debate at Dartmouth College, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and businessman Herman Cain, were short on policy specifics, even when pressed by the moderators.
Asked what his plan would be to jump-start the economy and reverse Washington’s paralysis, Perry said he would focus on domestic energy resources.
“You’ve got an administration that by and large, either by intimidation or overregulation, has put our energy industry and the rest of the economy in jeopardy,” he said.
“We’ve got to have a president who’s willing to stand up and clearly pull back those regulations.”
Perry said he will announce a plan over the next three days, but would not discuss it in the debate.
“Mitt’s had six years to be working on a plan. I’ve been in this for about eight weeks,” Perry quipped, referring to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the front-runner in the GOP race who released a 59-point economic plan last month.
Meanwhile, Cain, who has gained in recent polls, talked about his “9-9-9” plan to gut the federal tax code and said he would reduce the federal debt.
“The only way we’re going to do that is the first year that I’m president and I oversee the fiscal-year budget, make sure that revenues equal spending,” Cain said. “We must grow this economy with a bold solution, which is why I proposed ‘9-9-9,’ and at the same time get serious about not creating annual deficits so that we could bring down the national debt.”
Romney cast himself as the most authoritative candidate on the economy, citing his business know-how and 25 years experience in the private sector to say he will make the difficult decisions necessary to revive the economy.
“You can’t get the country to go in the right direction and get Washington to work if you don’t have a president who’s a leader,” he said.
Referring to Obama, he added: “He said he’d bring us hope and change. Instead, he’s divided the nation and tried to blame other people.”
The candidates uniformly criticized the Federal Reserve, and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke specifically, in regulating currency, interest rates and other aspects of the economy.
“If you want to understand why we have a problem, you have to understand the Fed,” said Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. “When there are booms and they’re artificial, whether it’s the CRA, Community Reinvestment Act, or whether it’s the Fed, easy credit, when you have bubbles, whether it’s the Nasdaq or whether it’s the housing bubbles, they burst.”
The first debate devoted exclusively to the economy came as polling shows that Americans are increasingly pessimistic about the economy and torn about whether a Republican administration or a second term for Obama would improve the situation.
Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia were the most critical of the government’s size and role.
“I think if you look at the problem with the economic meltdown, you can trace it right back to the federal government,” Bachmann said.
Gingrich, when asked who is to blame for the economic recession, said: “The fact is, in both the Bush and the Obama administrations the fix has been in.
“And I think it’s perfectly reasonable for people to be angry. But let’s be clear who put the fix in: The fix was put in by the federal government. And if you want to put people in jail — I want to second what Michele said — you ought to start with Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and let’s look at the politicians who created the environment, the politicians who profited from the environment, and the politicians who put this country in trouble.”
Former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania said he would repeal “every regulation” the Obama administration has put into law.
“Repeal them all,” he said. “May have to replace a few. Let’s repeal them all, because they’re all antagonistic to businesses, particularly in the manufacturing sector.”
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman took a swipe at Cain, a former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza. Of his “9-9-9” plan, Huntsman said: “I thought it was a catchy phrase when I first heard it. I thought it was the price of a pizza.”
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