Joe Walsh: Nothing disappoints me more than this. I mean this is why I went to Congress eight years ago because we're bankrupting future generations. We are bankrupting future generations in this country. Both parties do it. When Obama was president, all of us Republicans screamed and howled every day about Obama increasing the debt and the deficits. Trump has actually increased the debt faster than Barack Obama did. Think about that: Trump has increased our deficits faster than Obama has. But all of my former Tea Party colleagues in Congress--what do we hear from them? Not a damn thing. Again, just one more example of the Republican Party now face fealty to Trump and they've forgotten about every issue that they've claimed to believe in.
Walsh: Look, same sex marriage is the law of the land. And how are we going to get Republican voters to eventually embrace it? It's going to take time. And we have to let time play itself out. I think the answer for most Republican voters eventually is the family--over the next number of years, seeing same sex couples parent their kids. Republican voters & conservatives that I've spoken to for years on the radio value the family more than anything. I think as the years go by and they see that loving children can be raised by same sex parents--this is one of those issues that will eventually move Republican opinion.
Q: What about GLAAD's report?
Walsh: I disagree with that vehemently. I use the power of my public profile to go at the issue and talk about the issue and try to find common ground on the issue.
Joe Walsh: Yeah, the Republican Party had better get onboard or they're done. This is the issue that concerns most young Americans, and the party's got to acknowledge the facts that it exists. Acknowledge that it's real. Acknowledge that on this four and a half billion year old planet, the climate changes and we've been on this planet for how long, and clearly we're impacting this environment. If we don't do this, we won't even be at the table. I don't want a Green New Deal-- I don't want the Democrats coming in and just re-revolutionizing the whole American economy, to a heavy hand of the government--but if Republicans don't sit at the table and acknowledge it's a problem, that's going to happen.
Trump: And we've ended the war on clean beautiful coal and we are putting our coal miners back to work. Clean coal.
Q: Under your administration would the future of America's energy be coal, green energy or something else entirely?
Joe Walsh: It would be all of the above. But it probably wouldn't be much coal. President Trump knows that the coal industry is dying in this country and it should be dying in this country because it's being replaced by cleaner forms of energy: natural gas and nuclear. We lost 15 percent of our total output two years ago under President Trump. We're we're on track to lose 20 percent of our coal output this year. It's a good thing. It should be replaced. It's dirty but it's an all-of-the-above thing: a balance with every issue. Balance our use of fossil fuels knowing that the future is renewables.
Joe Walsh: Like every issue, it's a balance between the environment and small In my Party, too many people think it's a hoax. But don't forget about those small businessmen and women all over this country who have been unduly burdened by government regulations over the years. We're trying to find the balance. Has Trump gone too far? Well, probably, [as he does] pretty much with everything.
Walsh: Helsinki wasn't the turning point for me--it was the final straw with Trump--when he stood in front of the world and said "I like that guy. I believe Putin," and not my own people. So it doesn't matter about American security. He'll sit down and have a summit with Kim Jong Un, no matter how brutal and bad that guy is. If Donald Trump can get a photo op, does it matter if it's a bad horrible thing to invite the Taliban to Camp David. As long as Donald Trump might get the Nobel Peace Prize, we've got a president who can't put the country's interests ahead of ours. We need a president who will put the country's interests first.
Joe Walsh: China cheats but they don't just cheat against us. They cheat against the whole world. And they've been doing it for a long time. So in comes Trump, and throws down tariffs against everybody and he goes at China all by himself. And so who pays the price? We do: our farmers, small business, and American consumers. The mistake Trump made, is he put us out there on an island all by ourselves. Instead of rallying the whole world--getting us back in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, where we could have a coalition of countries that could deal with China--he's done it all by himself. And America has paid a big, big price for that. You got to bring the world together to fight China.
Walsh: I believe in the second Amendment, plain and simple. The problem we have now in this country is this are these mass shootings. There are a lot of things we need to look at. And I am a big gun guy, but here's what our focus should be on. We don't want anybody who shouldn't have a gun to have a gun. When I leave here in about an hour if I go to a gun dealer down the street and I want to buy a gun, I have to get a federal background check. It makes sense to me that if I buy that same gun at a gun show, I should have to undergo a federal background check. It makes the same sense to me that if I buy a gun online, I should have to undergo the background check. It makes sense that if I buy that same gun from a friend across town I should have got a background check. I think that will help, but then we've got to really take a serious look at mental health issues in this country.
Walsh: This would probably be, if I'm elected president, the issue I would start with. There is no more important issue in this country than this. We've got the American people living longer and longer. That's a good thing. But how we pay for the health care for all of these Americans living longer? You've got Republicans out there saying nothing. Because they're afraid to talk about health care. It would be the issue I'd want to lead a discussion on.
Q: What would you do?
Walsh: We have to take care of and make sure that people in need in this country and those people with chronic health care conditions are always taken care of and never have to worry about their health care needs the rest of the American people need to begin paying for the day to day health care costs and then look at things like universal catastrophic care coverage.
Gov. Bill Weld: The whole thing is a scare tactic by President Trump, in order to stir up the pot and have people hating.
Walsh: The Governor's right: For Trump it is just a scare tactic. But for the American people it's a real issue. People are in this country illegally, and what do we do about it? Are we a sovereign nation? Are we going to defend our borders? It's a real issue, not a scare tactic to a lot of Americans. When it comes to people coming here legally--the more the merrier. And it doesn't matter what your color is, it doesn't matter what your creed is, it doesn't matter what country you come from. None of that matters. We welcome you, if you want freedom and opportunity. When it comes to people who come here illegally, that's another issue where Republicans and Democrats have to find a solution. Live on the border for a month: it's a real issue that impacts Americans. Neither party is prepared to talk about it.
Joe Walsh: I helped create Trump. Period. I went to Washington eight nine years ago obsessed with the fact that we're bankrupting future generations. I was part of that Tea Party way. Focused on the issues but plenty of times over the last seven or eight years, I got lost on these issues and, like many in my tea party comrades did, I engaged in personal hateful rhetoric some of which I've got to live with the whole rest of my life and knowing that I helped create Trump. Maybe a lousy thing to say on TV but I'm going to say it. Maybe a reformed gang member or a reformed outlaw like me sorry Helaine, who understands Henry some of what I did and we did to help create Trump can help bring the country together and heal the divide.
Gov. Bill Weld: Oh, I would keep them. I never met a tax cut I didn't like.
Q: But then where do you cut?
Weld: You cut across the board. You have to zero base the budget. You have to measure outcomes instead of inputs. How much money was spent last year--that should be irrelevant. Was it a good program? Increase it. If it wasn't, zero it out. That's how you cut spending, and I did it.
Joe Walsh: It shouldn't have been a tax cut for the wealthy, which is primarily what Trump's tax cut was. It should have been a payroll tax cut that middle class Americans would have felt. But look, the governor is right. Republicans and Democrats don't get this. We have a spending problem and both parties like to spend a lot of money. And you listen to these Democrats--there are a lot of good things they want to do but they never talk about how much these things are going to cost.
Walsh: I believe in American ingenuity and American innovation. You're not stopping automation, and it is a good thing. It's making the American economy more efficient. Our manufacturing sector is actually a hell of a lot more productive now with fewer workers. So what does government need to do? Help retrain those workers. Because you can't stop the market. You've got to keep the market changing. It'll lead to good things. But government's got to play a role as the American economy goes through these seminal moments where we move from one industry to another.
Q: Can the states take care of it?
Walsh: States can take care of it but the federal government's got to play a role here too. This is a major transformation in our economy. The federal government along with state governments have got to devote resources to train all of these displaced workers.
Joe Walsh: I would be honest with the Saudis. Iran's the biggest threat in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is no great guy either. With these troops, I worry about us getting further involved in a region that we shouldn't get involved in. Our men and women ought to be home from Afghanistan by now. We support Israel and we've got to do whatever we can to encourage that part of the world to move toward a democracy. But I don't like us placing resources in there, especially placing American troops.
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The above quotations are from Business Insider held the first-ever Republican primary debate on Tuesday, September 24, which was moderated by politics editor Anthony Fisher, columnist Linette Lopez, and Insider editorial director Henry Blodget..
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