Ron Paul in 2011 GOP primary debate in Manchester NH

On Civil Rights: Let churches marry couples, without government document

BACHMANN: Well, I do believe in the 10th Amendment and I do believe in self-determination for the states. I also believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. I don't see that it's the role of a president to go into states and interfere with their state laws.

PAUL: The federal government shouldn't be involved. I wouldn't support an amendment. But let me suggest, get the government out of it. Why doesn't it go to the church? And why doesn't it to go to the individuals? I don't think government should give us a license to get married. It should be in the church.

GINGRICH: I helped author the Defense of Marriage Act which the Obama administration should be frankly protecting in court. I think if that fails, at that point, you have no choice except a constitutional amendment.

On Government Reform: Government investment in ANY business is malinvestment

PAUL: There shouldn't be any government assistance to private enterprise. It's not morally correct; it's illegal; it's bad economics. It's not part of the constitution. If you allow an economy to thrive, they'll decide how R&D works or where they invest their monies. But when the politicians get in and direct things, you get malinvestment. They do dumb things. They might build too many houses. And they might not direct their research to the right places. So no, it's a fallacy to think that government and politicians and bureaucrats are smart enough to manage the economy, so it shouldn't happen.

CAIN: The government should not be selecting winners and losers. The free market will figure it out.

On Health Care: Let people opt out of Medicare

PAUL: Well, under these conditions, it's not solvent and won't be solvent. If you're an average couple, you would have put $140,000 into it. And in your lifetime, you will take out more than three times that much. So a little bit of arithmetic tells you it's not solvent, so we're up against the wall on that, so it can't be made solvent. It has to change. We have to have more competition in medicine. And I would think that if we don't want to cut any of the medical benefits for children or the elderly, because we have drawn so many in and got them so dependent on the government, if you want to work a transition, you have to cut a lot of money. Some revamping has to occur. What we need is competition. We need to get a chance for the people to opt out of the system. Just--you talk about opting out of Obamacare? Why can't we opt out of the whole system and take care of ourselves?

On Immigration: Let churches provide services for immigrants, not state

SANTORUM: We should not be offering to people--particularly those who broke the law to come here or overstayed their visa--we should not be offering government benefits.

Q: [to Paul]: But should taxpayers have to pay for that care?

PAUL: No, they should not be forced to. But you know, there was a time when we didn't depend on government for everything. There was a time when the Catholic Church actually looked after immigrants. We shouldn't be penalizing the Catholic Church, because they're trying to fulfill a role. And some of the anti-immigrants want to come down hard on the Catholic Church, and that is wrong. Freedom has solved these kind of problems before. You don't have to say, oh, there won't be any care and everybody is going to die on the streets without medical care. That's the implication of the question. That's just not true, and you shouldn't accept it.

On Jobs: Printing & inflating money ships jobs overseas

PAUL: Pretty important because everything we've done in the last 20 or 30 years we've exported our jobs. And when you have a reserve currency of the world and you abuse it, you export money. That becomes the main export so [jobs] go with the money. The way you get capital into a country, you have to have a strong currency. Today it's a deliberate job of the Federal Reserve to weaken the currency. We should invite capital back.

We have at least a trillion dollars of US money made overseas, but it stays over there because if you bring it home, you get taxed. We need to get the Fed to quit printing the money and if we have to entice those individuals to repatriate their money, deregulate and de-tax to invite people to go back to work again.

As long as we run a program of deliberately weakening our currency, our jobs will go overseas, and that is what's happened for a good many years, especially in the last decade.

On Principles & Values: Congress should never prohibit Christian faith in public

PAWLENTY: The protections between the separation of church & state were designed to protect people of faith from government, not government from people of faith.

Q: How will that affect your decision-making?

SANTORUM: I approach issues using faith and reason. And if your faith is pure and your reason is right, they'll end up in the same place.

Q: Does faith have a role in public issues?

PAUL: I think faith has something to do with the character of the people that represent us, and law should have a moral fiber to it and our leaders should. We shouldn't expect us to try to change morality. You can't teach people how to be moral. But the Constitution addresses this by saying-- literally, it says no theocracy. But it doesn't talk about church & state. The most important thing is the First Amendment. Congress shall write no laws--which means Congress should never prohibit the expression of your Christian faith in a public place.

On War & Peace: Out of Iraq; stay out of Libya; stop bombing Yemen

ROMNEY: I want those troops to come home based upon not politics, but instead based upon the conditions on the ground determined by the generals.

PAUL: Not quite. I served five years in the military. I've had a little experience. I've spent a little time over in the Pakistan/Afghanistan area, as well as Iran. But I wouldn't wait for my generals. I'm the commander in chief. I make the decisions. I tell the generals what to do. I'd bring them home as quickly as possible. And I would get them out of Iraq as well. And I wouldn't start a war in Libya. I'd quit bombing Yemen. And I'd quit bombing Pakistan. Our national security is not enhanced by our presence over there. We have no purpose there. We should learn the lessons of history. The longer we're there, the worse things are and the more danger we're in, because our presence there is not making friends.