Fox News 2015 GOP primary debate: on Welfare & Poverty

Chris Christie: 12-point entitlement reform plan, including benefit cuts

CHRISTIE: No, he's not lying, he's just wrong. I'm the only guy on this stage who's put out a detailed, 12 point plan on entitlement reform and here's why--because 71% of federal spending right now is on entitlements, and debt service. If we don't deal with this problem, it will bankrupt our country, or lead to massive tax increases, neither one that we want in this country.

HUCKABEE: Whose fault is it that the system is screwed up? Is it the recipients, or is it the government? If Congress wants to mess with the retirement program, why don't we let them start by changing their retirement program, and not have one?

CHRISTIE: I don't disagree with ending Congress' retirement program. I'm a governor, I don't have a retirement pr

George Pataki: Mandatory workfare ends dependency, not cultural change

PATAKI: The answer is no. I know this, because when I ran for governor, one in 11 of every New Yorker was on welfare. But I knew that good people who wanted to be a part of the American dream have become trapped in dependency because the federal government and the state government had made it in their economic interest not to take a job because the benefits that they didn't work were better. I changed that. We put in place mandatory workfare.

Jim Gilmore: Grow economy so people have better opportunity than welfare

GILMORE: I'll tell them that we're going to grow the economy so that we can give people better opportunities so they don't have to rely exclusively on benefit types of programs. Some do, but many Americans are dying to have an opportunity to grow and to create something inside this economy. [My] specific program: We're going to do a tax cut for all Americans; and we're going to eliminate the death tax. With a couple of additional tweaks, we know what this will do. It will cause the economy to grow, to explode, to create more jobs. And first of all, we've got to recognize that there is problem that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have caused. And that problem is too big regulations like the EPA, too much new taxes on business that we have seen and ObamaCare. These are drags on the economy, it's a deliberate drag. I propose to reverse that and get this economy moving again.

Rick Santorum: I ended a federal entitlement; never done before or since

SANTORUM: I think it's a one-two punch. #1, we have to create better paying jobs. I mean, that's just the bottom line. We haven't. [#2], you're looking at the man who introduced and passed the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 over two President Clinton vetoes. Got 70 votes in the US Senate. Bipartisan issue. And I ended a federal entitlement. Never been done before, never been done since. What we need to do is take the rest of the federal entitlements, not just welfare, but food stamps and Medicaid and housing programs and do the same thing we did with welfare. Work requirements and time limits. That will change everything.