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There was a certain air of excitement, both inside and outside the Fox Theatre in downtown Detroit on Thursday night when the four Republican presidential hopefuls gathered for a spirited debate, just days before the state's March 8 primary.
But deep into the debate, the candidates were finally asked about pressing issues in the city, schools, jobs and unemployment, and their answers were a mix of unimpressive, and in some cases, uninformed.
Perhaps the most partisan and shallow answer came from Sen. Ted Cruz when one of the Fox moderators, Chris Wallace, asked the Texas senator how he would bring manufacturing jobs back to America and "train residents like Detroit to do those jobs."
Cruz rambled on at first without really giving much of an answer.
“Let me start by observing that Detroit is a great city with a magnificent legacy that has been utterly decimated by 60 years of failed left wing policy."
Of course, he failed to mention that in the past 60 years, there's been a good mix of Republican and Democratic presidents whose policies have impacted urban centers in both good and bad ways.
He goes on to say:
"You know Henry Ford revolutionized automobile manufacturing and brought automobiles to the middle class. During World War II, Detroit provided, funded the arsenals of Democracy to help us win World War II. In the 1960s, Detroit was the Silicon Valley of America, it had a population of 2 million people. It had the highest per capita income in the country. And then for 50 years, left wring Democrats have pursed destructive tax policies, weak crime policies and have driven the citizens out, This city now has just 700,000 citizens. There are vacant homes, one after the other after the other. Crime has been rampant, and it is an outrage. And let me say to folks in the media, that is a story that the media ought to be telling over and over again; The destruction of left wing policies and the millions who have hurt because of it."
Chris Wallace, who I think is one of the Fox reporters who has truly tried to be a fair and balanced reporter, unlike Fox alum like Brit Hume, came back at Cruz and said "I"ll give you 30 seconds to try and answer my question." In other words, drop the b.s. and give me a real answer.
Cruz shot back:
“The way you bring manufacturing back to America is, number one, you lift the regulations. As president I will repeal Obamacare, the biggest job killer in America. I will pull back the federal regulators, the EPA and all the regulators that are killing small businesses and manufacturing.
Interesting. The lax federal regulators at the EPA contributed to the Flint water disaster by not doing their job. Folks like Cruz fail to realize that the EPA, which was created by President Richard Nixon in 1970 to protect the health and well being of people, both Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives.
Cruz went on to answer:
"And my tax plan, which is a very very detailed plan on the website, TedCruz.org, is what‘s called border adjustable."
"We get rid of all the taxes, we get rid of the corporate income tax and the death tax and the Obamacare taxes and the payroll tax and we replace it with a 16 percent business flat tax, that is border adjustable which means all exports are entirely tax free and all imports pay the 16 percent business flat tax. That's a a 32 percent differential. What that will do Chris, is bring millions of manufacturing jobs back to this country."
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who was clearly the most classy of the four candidates, avoided the nastiness that often came through in the debate. For one, unlike Trump, he didn't feel compelled to defend the size of his hands.
But his answer gave some indication that he didn't have a great grasp of the Detroit Public Schools when asked if the federal government should bail out the system.
"First of all, I think the mayor now is controlling the schools," he said.
He's wrong there. The schools are still being controlled by Gov. Rick Snyder, who just appointed former U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes to oversee the district.
He went on to say:
"This is not much different than what happened in Cleveland. Ohio where the African American Democrat mayor, the union and business leaders came to see me and said, 'would you help us pass legislation to really create a CEO environment so that we can take control of the schools.' We even invested in a buyout plan where we bought out the teachers who had been there a long time because there were so many young teachers who had been laid off who were so enthusiastic to get back in the schools. It worked beautifully. Cleveland's coming back, the Cleveland schools are coming back because of a major overhaul. It’s the same thing that has to happen in all of our urban schools...Fixing schools rests at the state and the local level and particularly at the school board level. Now, I also believe that you need to introduce vocational education in those schools, you need mentoring in those schools and you need to have situation where people can have an alternative form to get a degree.. and .you need school choice, both vouchers and charter schools... Put the politics aside."
While well-intentioned, the concepts of charter schools and vocational training aren't exactly revolutionary ideas for the Detroit school system. His answer was a little too simplistic for such a complex problem.
Finally, Senator Marco Rubio was asked about Flint.
While Rubio raised some good points about the need for everyone to work together, he gave Gov. Rick Snyder far too much of a pass by saying he's taken responsibility for the disaster. Emails have suggested that Snyder may have known far more then he's admitted, and he failed greatly as a manager.
"What happened in Flint was a terrible thing, "Rubio said. "It was a systemic breakdown at every level of government, at both the state and partially at the federal level as well. And by the way, the politicizing of it I think is unfair because I don’t think someone woke up one morning and said 'let’s figure out how to poison the water system and hurt someone.'
But accountability is important. I give the governor credit. He took responsibility for what happened and he’s talked about people being accountable and the need to change this… This should not be a partisan (issue).. The way the Democrats have tried to turn this into a partisan issue that somehow Republicans woke up in the morning and decided...it’s a good idea to poison some kids with lead. It’s absurd. It's outrageous. It isn't true. All of us are all outraged about what happed and we should work together to solve it and there is a proper role for the government to play at the federal level.
