Jan. 24 Republican debate transcript

Russert: You all have described yourselves as tax cutters, and, yet, in your records, there are shortcomings on that issue.

Governor Huckabee, are you comfortable with the fact that Governor Romney raised fees a quarter of a million dollars as governor of Massachusetts? Do you trust him as a tax cutter?

Mike Huckabee: It's going to be really more do the voters trust him and do they trust me. I know this: I balanced the budget every year I was governor. I left a surplus of $850 million, coming up from a deficit of $200 million.

I know I signed the first ever broad-based tax cuts and I know that I've made tax cuts that really impacted families by eliminating the marriage penalty, doubling the child care tax credit, raising the income level at which people paid their income tax.

But let me speak to the really heart of what I think a lot of Americans are concerned about with the economy and, frankly, in talking about the stimulus package.

One of the concerns that I have is that we'll probably end up borrowing this $150 billion from the Chinese and when we get those rebate checks, most people are going to go out and buy stuff that's been imported from China.

I have to wonder whose economy is going to be stimulated the most by the package. And I'm grateful that something is being done. I think we all could at least acknowledge that it's good to see Congress working with the president to do something.

But if we're going to spend $150 billion, I'd like to suggest that maybe we add two lanes of highway from Bangor all the way to Miami on I-95. A third of the United States population lives within 100 miles of that.

This nation's infrastructure is falling apart and if we built those lanes of highways with American labor, American steel, American concrete, I believe it would do more to stimulate the economy. And the reason I say that is because when we were going to through a recession in my state, we were in the middle of a $1 billion highway construction program that brought about 40,000 jobs and brought $1 billion of capital into the economy.

That's a long-term stimulus package that I think would have more impact on the American long-term future and it would keep social capital from being wasted, fuel wasted.

A lot of people in Florida sit around in traffic every day, never getting to their kids' dance recitals or soccer games because they're stuck in traffic, and we've done nothing about it.

Russert: Governor Romney, you've criticized Senator McCain for opposing the first two Bush tax cuts. You've criticized Mayor Giuliani for going to court to try to retain a commuter tax on people coming to the city of New York.

Do you trust Senator McCain and Mayor Giuliani on the issue of being tax cutters?

Romney: I trust these two gentlemen and I respect them greatly. We do have differing views and over time our record with regards to taxes has been somewhat different.

But I think all of us on this stage want to see taxes brought down and want to see spending brought down. I have a sound record of doing that. I came into a state that faced an extraordinary series of challenges.

Massachusetts was in a ditch. We had about a $3 billion budget shortfall. Everybody thought we're going to have to raise taxes to solve the problem.

And I went to work to get Massachusetts back on track. Working with Democrats across the aisle, we were able to do that without raising taxes. And that was critical, because it said to the business community "You don't have to worry about Taxachusetts coming back again. You're going to see Massachusetts live within its means."

We balanced the budget every one of four years. We also put in place a surplus of over $2 billion to help make sure that we have the kind of resources that would be needed if there were a rainy day.

Now, I also support the Bush tax cuts. Senator McCain voted against them originally. He now believes they should be made permanent. I'm glad he agrees they should be made permanent.

I think he should have voted for them the first time around and that's just a difference of viewpoints. The Bush tax cuts helped get our economy going again when we faced the last tough times, and that's why right now, as we face tough times, we need to have somebody who understands -- if you will, has the private sector, has the business world, has the economy in their DNA.

I do. I spent my life in the private sector. I know how jobs come and I know how they go and I'll make sure that we create more good jobs for this nation. And one way to do that is by holding down taxes and making those tax cuts permanent.