The Answers Are In!
Republican candidates and their supporters answer your questions
Scholastic Kid Reporter Maeve Hammond interviews Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo at the CNBC debate in Dearborn, Michigan, on Tuesday, October 9, 2007. (Photo by Karla Hammond)
You sent in the questions and Kid Reporter Maeve Hammond got the answers. After the Republican candidates for President finished their two–hour–long debate in Dearborn, Michigan, on Tuesday, they sent their representatives to the spin room to talk to the media. Some of the candidates came, too. Maeve asked them your questions. Here are their answers:
Q: The Democrats have a woman running, an African-American running and a Latino man running. What do you or Republicans think about diversity in our government?
Answer from former Texas Senator Phil Gramm for candidate John McCain: We think that America is about diversity. America is a country where you can come from anywhere and be an American. Your children can become President, so we believe in diversity.
Q: What are your plans for our health care system? Do you have any plans for cancer research? What will be done for people without health insurance?
Answer from Phillip Harty, Michigan Director of Duncan Hunter for President: Representative Hunter has several proposals for health care. One would allow people to purchase health care across state lines. You can get it at a much lower rate in some other states. If you allow companies to compete across state lines you could bring down the cost of health care. People will make the smartest decisions with their own money.
Q: (for Rudolph Giuliani): Considering your experience as mayor of New York during 9/11, how do you feel about the cuts in funding for homeland security in the New York area? As President, how would you manage the need for higher security in the U.S. major cities with a shrinking budget for this important assistance?
Answer from Paul Celluci, former Governor of Massachusetts for Rudolph Giuliani: Mayor Giuliani has already shown this when he was Mayor of New York. When he took over as Mayor, New York was the crime capital of the country. He made crime fighting a priority. He hired civilians to go into the police stations so the police officers who were working behind the desks could get out in the streets and fight crime,. He turned New York into one of the safest cities in the country. He added police and he added teachers, but he [made cuts] in other areas of the city's government. For instance, he privatized the radio station. By setting the right priorities he was able to make New York a much safer city while at the same time bringing the cost of running New York down. People of American can be assured that Giuliani will keep America on the offensive against terror—and he'll do everything in his power to keep this a safe country.
Q: My class is wondering what would you do to repair our failing schools? Most students do not even know where the United States of America is on a map. What kinds of programs would you put into place to help us achieve better and be better prepared to take our place in American society when we are adults?
Answer from Janet Huckabee, wife of Mike Huckabee: I think what he (Gov. Huckabee) would really like to see is more arts in our education. A school for the arts is a great thing. He thinks we need to put more accountability on our students and our parents and our teachers and to make stronger and harder classes so that our students can develop and compete with [people in] other countries.
Q: What do you think about retreating from Iraq and why?
Answer from Tom Tancredo: I think we are going to leave Iraq in victory and we are going to do that by standing up the Iraqi army. There are 131 battalions in the Iraqi army and we’re going to get them battle-hardened. And when we get them battle-hardened, we can rotate them into the battlefield and we can rotate out America’s heavy combat forces. I think the Iraq government will hold and I think the Iraq army will hold.
Q: How do you plan to address the issue of global warming?
Answer from Ron Paul: If the globe is getting warm for weather reasons, I can’t do a thing about it. But we could stop dropping so many bombs, that helps warm the atmosphere. We could stop burning so much fuel in the Pentagon. They burn as much as Sweden does. And no one has a right to pollute a neighbor’s property, so people should be stopped.
Q: (For Mitt Romney:) Why do you believe that Guantánamo Bay [where alleged terrorists are detained in prison] is a good thing? You said we should have more Guantánamo Bays.
Answer from Scott Romney, brother of Mitt Romney: Well, he (Gov. Romney) believes that the first responsibility for a President is security of our country and that those who are detainees who are trying to create terrorism in our country need to be interrogated and in prison some place where they are not bothering us and where we can obtain information from them. And he thinks its important for us to continue to do that.
What do you want to know from the Democratic and Republican candidates for President? Send in your questions and the Scholastic Kid Reporters will get answers on the campaign trail.
Scholastic Kid Reporters are on the campaign trail. Keep up with the latest election news in this special report.
Maeve Hammond is a member of the Scholastic Kids Press Corps.
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