2011 GOP primary debate in Manchester NH: on Technology

Newt Gingrich: Replace NASA with incentives to private sector

GINGRICH: I'm a big fan of going into space and I worked to get the shuttle program to survive at one point. But NASA has become a case study in why bureaucracy can't innovate. If you take all the money we've spent at NASA since we landed on the moon and you had applied that money for incentives to the private sector, we would today probably have a permanent station on the moon, and a new generation of lift vehicles. And instead, what we've had is bureaucracy after bureaucracy and failure after failure. We're at the beginning of a whole new cycle of extraordinary opportunities. And, unfortunately, NASA is standing in the way of it, when NASA ought to be getting out of the way and encouraging the private sector.

PAWLENTY: I don't think we should eliminate the space program.

GINGRICH: I didn't say end the space program. I said you could get into space faster & more effectively, if you decentralized it & got it out of Washington

Rick Santorum: Make R&D tax credit permanent

BACHMANN: Today the US has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world. We've got to bring that tax rate down substantially so that we're among the lowest in the industrialized world.

Q: [To Santorum]: Your state of Pennsylvania, a big industrial state, has struggled in recent years.

A: We still make things there. And what I learned from growing up in a steel town is that's how the wealth from those who create the jobs gets down. We've been outsourcing those jobs. So what we need to do is a lot of what was said here. I would add another thing: We need to cut the capital gains tax in half, but for manufacturers we need to give a five-year window where we cut it to zero. We want to encourage people to set up jobs here in America. Take that R&D credit, make it permanent, take that innovation and then invest that money here to create that broad middle of America and have that wealth really trickle down.

Tim Pawlenty: Don't eliminate the space program; reprioritize instead

GINGRICH: NASA has become a case study in why bureaucracy can't innovate. We've had is bureaucracy after bureaucracy and failure after failure. NASA ought to be getting out of the way and encouraging the private sector.

PAWLENTY: I think the space program has played a vital role for the US.

Q: But can we afford it going forward?

PAWLENTY: In the context of our budget challenges, it can be refocused and reprioritized, but I don't think we should be eliminating the space program. We can partner with private providers to get more economies of scale and scale it back, but I don't think we should eliminate the space program.

GINGRICH: I didn't say end the space program. I said you could get into space faster & more effectively, if you decentralized it & got it out of Washington.