Rudy Giuliani in Univision


On Education: All parents want more control & choice over kids' schooling

Q: Do you think that you're taking a risk to come here [to an Hispanic forum]?

A: I don't see any risk at all. Hispanic Americans are Americans, just as much as all other Americans. They have the same values, the same interests. I learned that being mayor of the largest Hispanic city in the US. I learned we have very common values. Hispanics have a tremendous interest in giving more freedom back to people, giving people more of a chance to decide on the education of their child. That's why I think school choice would be a very good thing to do for Hispanics, for Hispanic parents, for all parents. The decision on where the child goes to school should primarily be made by the parent, and the parent should decide what school the child goes to, not the government bureaucrat. That's one of many things that really unites what Hispanics want and need and what all parents want and need, which is more control over their child's education. And that's something that I would fight very hard to bring about.

Source: 2007 Republican primary debate on Univision Dec 9, 2007

On Education: Revolutionize public education by allowing for choice

Q: 1 out of 3 Hispanic students don't finish high school. What would you do to stop dropouts?

A: I'm the product of a Catholic education from the day I started in kindergarten until the day I got out of college. And it was my parents' choice. It was hard for them to afford it. I was fortunate enough to get scholarships along the way to help. But the reality is, that's really the answer. We can revolutionize public education in this country by allowing for choice. Why do we have the best higher education in the world and K-12 that's under great stress? Because higher education is based on choice. The government doesn't force you to go there. We should empower parents by giving them the money, giving them scholarships, giving them vouchers, let them choose a public school, a private school, a parochial school, a charter school, homeschooling. Let's give the power to the parents, rather than to the government bureaucrats. And we will turn around education within three years.

Source: 2007 Republican primary debate on Univision Dec 9, 2007

On Education: FactCheck: No, Hispanic K-12 test scores are rising

Giuliani was wrong when he said that "we have a weakening K-12, including for Hispanic students." Just the opposite is true. Nationally, all four 2007 scores for the National Assessment of Education Progress tests for Hispanics were higher than the 2005 scores, and all but one were higher than at any time since 1992. (The only score that wasn't at its highest level was for 8th grade reading, which was tied with the record score in 2002.) Tests for all US students in 2007 were higher than in 2005.
Source: FactCheck on 2007 Republican primary debate on Univision Dec 9, 2007

On Foreign Policy: Stand against Chavez's & Castro's form of dictatorship

Q: [to Paul]: How would you deal with Venezuela's Chavez?

PAUL: He's not the easiest person to deal with, but we should deal with everybody around the world the same way: with friendship & opportunity to talk & try to trade with people.

GIULIANI: I actually agree with the way King Juan Carlos spoke to Chavez [telling him to "shut up."] That would be the way I would do it. Far better than what Congressman Paul wants to do. But the reality is that Chavez is acting like a dictator. And he should be treated that way. There's a counter-movement going on in Latin America. [The people] don't want to go in the direction that Castro wanted to take Latin America. They don't want to go toward socialism and communism. They want to go to free markets, they want to go to freedom. I think it's the essential nature of the people of Latin America, and I think Chavez is going in actually the opposite direction, kind of a repeat of what Castro tried to do, and it's a disgrace, and we should stand against it.

Source: 2007 Republican primary debate on Univision Dec 9, 2007

On Health Care: Health Savings Account up to $6,000 per family

Q: How can we curb the high cost of healthcare and also offer insurance to the people who don't have it?

A: The very best way to do it is more of an incentive for people to buy their own health insurance. You give people a $15,000 family tax exemption to buy their own health insurance. You also give them a Health Savings Account to up to $5,000 or $6,000, so that they can then look for deductibles in insurance. And it brings down the cost of insurance. That's one of the primary ways to do it. And then you break down the barriers where people can only buy in one state and you let them buy in any state, so that we can set up a real competition. The thing that works in America is not socialized medicine that the Democrats want to bring us, not government control, not mandates, but a large consumer market where you empower people to enter that market is the only way to bring down costs and to bring up quality.

Source: 2007 Republican primary debate on Univision Dec 9, 2007

On Immigration: End illegal immigration or we risk legal immigration

Q: What do you think should be done with the 12 million undocumented aliens that live in the US?

A: The first thing that has to be done is we have to end illegal immigration. If we don't end illegal immigration, we're really going to risk legal immigration. We should end illegal immigration at the border, because it can't be really dealt with internally. We should do it by having a fence, a technological fence, as well as a physical fence. It should be used to alert the Border Patrol of the people coming to the border, and we should stop people from coming in. Then we should have a tamper-proof ID card that everybody can get who wants to come into the US legally. When we accomplish that, when we have control of our borders, when we preserve the legality of immigration, we can then turn to the people that are here. The people that come forward can sign up. They can pay taxes, and then the people who don't, those people should be expelled from the US if they don't already leave.

Source: 2007 Republican primary debate on Univision Dec 9, 2007

The above quotations are from Media coverage of political races in Univision News.
Click here for other excerpts from Media coverage of political races in Univision News.
Click here for other excerpts by Rudy Giuliani.
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