Republican South Carolina debate: on Jobs

John McCain: Straight talk: some jobs aren’t coming back

ROMNEY: We’re going to have to do the hard work of rebuilding our economy, strengthening it. And I know that there are some people, such as Sen. McCain, who think that some jobs have left that are never coming back. I disagree. I’m going to fight for every single job, in every state in this country.

McCAIN: Sometimes you have to tell people things they don’t want to hear. There are jobs--let’s have a little straight talk--there are some jobs that aren’t coming back to Michigan. There are some jobs that won’t come back here to South Carolina. But we’re going to take care of them. That’s our goal; that’s our obligation. We need to go to the community colleges and design education and training programs so that these workers get a second chance. That’s our obligation as a nation. And by the way, I don’t believe we’re headed into a recession. I believe the fundamentals of this economy are strong, and I believe they will remain strong.

Mitt Romney: MA had 3rd worst job growth; I turned around declining rates

A: First, let’s get the record straight. Could we be headed for a recession? Absolutely. Do we have to be headed for a recession? Absolutely not. Recessions hurt working families. They hurt people across this country. And so this is something we’re going to have to address in a very aggressive way.

Q: Given your record in Massachusetts, which had the third lowest job growth of any state during the years you were governor, why should voters trust you to handle a slowdown?

A: I’m very proud of the fact that after many months of declining job growth, I took over the state and helped turn that around. And in my years as governor, we kept adding jobs every single month after we saw that turnaround. The pipeline for new jobs coming into our state was in single digits when I came into office. When I left, it was over 200. And some of the biggest employers are still coming into the state. Every month since I’ve left, we keep on adding jobs