Meet the Press interviews during 2015: on Jobs


Chris Christie: I fought greedy unions and irresponsible spending in N.J.

You know what the problem is? It is the public sector unions who refuse to do even more compromising on pensions. If you look at the credit downgrades, they're all about long-term pension problems. Now we've saved $120 billion in the pension system over the next 30 years on what we've done already.

But the unions continue to want more and more and more. And in a Democratic state like New Jersey, it's tough to get them to push even further. But think about this. What the last credit report said was if the pension problem were fixed, New Jersey would be in good fiscal condition. And that's because we cut spending $2.5 billion from 16, lower than where it was in fiscal year '08.

So this is not about not having enough revenue. The government was too big. We've made it smaller. And if the pension system continues to get better, we'll be fine.

Source: Meet the Press 2015 interviews of 2016 presidential hopefuls Sep 13, 2015

Donald Trump: Don't raise minimum wage, but create more opportunities

Q: What is a fair living wage?

TRUMP: I want to keep the minimum wage pretty much where it is right now. Because of the fact that we have a country that is now competing more than ever before because of airplanes, and transportation, and the internet. If we raise it we're not going to be able to compete with the rest of the world. What I do want to do is bring in jobs so much so that people don't have to live on minimum wage. But we are going to have to compete with the rest of the world.

Source: Meet the Press 2015 interviews of 2016 presidential hopefuls Aug 16, 2015

Donald Trump: Take jobs back from foreign countries to lower unemployment

My policy is going to be something that's going to set the country back right. I mean, one of the big things is we have to take back jobs from China.

We have to take back jobs from Japan, and Vietnam, and Mexico, and virtually everybody that's taking our jobs and ruining our manufacturing base. And we have to put people to work. Because the real unemployment number is probably 21%. People give up looking for jobs. And they no longer become a statistic. And it's very unfair. So we have to put our country back to work. We have to get great jobs for people and good paying jobs for people. And we're going to be just fine.

Source: Meet the Press 2015 interviews of 2016 presidential hopefuls Aug 2, 2015

  • The above quotations are from Meet the Press interviews during 2015
    (David Gregory interviewing candidates for 2015 and 2016 races).
  • Click here for definitions & background information on Jobs.
  • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
  • Click here for more quotes by Rand Paul on Jobs.
  • Click here for more quotes by Jeb Bush on Jobs.
2016 Presidential contenders on Jobs:
  Republicans:
Gov.Jeb Bush(FL)
Dr.Ben Carson(MD)
Gov.Chris Christie(NJ)
Sen.Ted Cruz(TX)
Carly Fiorina(CA)
Gov.Jim Gilmore(VA)
Sen.Lindsey Graham(SC)
Gov.Mike Huckabee(AR)
Gov.Bobby Jindal(LA)
Gov.John Kasich(OH)
Gov.Sarah Palin(AK)
Gov.George Pataki(NY)
Sen.Rand Paul(KY)
Gov.Rick Perry(TX)
Sen.Rob Portman(OH)
Sen.Marco Rubio(FL)
Sen.Rick Santorum(PA)
Donald Trump(NY)
Gov.Scott Walker(WI)
Democrats:
Gov.Lincoln Chafee(RI)
Secy.Hillary Clinton(NY)
V.P.Joe Biden(DE)
Gov.Martin O`Malley(MD)
Sen.Bernie Sanders(VT)
Sen.Elizabeth Warren(MA)
Sen.Jim Webb(VA)

2016 Third Party Candidates:
Gov.Gary Johnson(L-NM)
Roseanne Barr(PF-HI)
Robert Steele(L-NY)
Dr.Jill Stein(G,MA)
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Page last updated: Feb 13, 2019