Steve Forbes: WMUR Debate
CARL CAMERON: Our next candidate, Malcolm Forbes, Jr., who prefers to be referred to as Steven Forbes. He is the CEO of Forbes, Incorporated. Also publisher of American Heritage magazine, Steve Forbes is the chairman of the board of directors for Empower America, a Republican and modern political activist group. Steve Forbes, welcome. You have two minutes for an opening statement. MALCOLM STEVE FORBES, Jr. (R), Presidential Candidate: Thank you very much, Carl, and thank you, Governor Merrill. America is at a critical crossroad. If we remove certain obstacles, ladies and gentlemen, we will enter a fabulous new era, where we will not only experience a dramatic advance in our standard of living, but also a heartening improvement in an area that has been under assault for 30 years - the quality of life in our schools, our streets, and for our families. After 80 years of warfare, two world wars and a 40-year cold war, we have a unique opportunity to rediscover and revitalize the American experiment, the essence of which is giving individuals the opportunity to discover and develop their God-given talents. But we have a political class in Washington with an obsolete mindset. The solution is simple - take away their power and give it back to the people. I think we all know that if Washington insiders had the answers, they would have implemented them by now. That is why I state, straightforwardly, that we must start with a flat tax that is also a tax cut. We must replace the current tax code with a pro-growth, pro-family tax cut that lowers tax rates to 17 percent and increases exemptions for children and individuals so that a family of four will pay no taxes on their first $36,000 of income. No tax on pensions, no tax on social security, no tax on personal savings. That is also why I'm also calling for term limits on politicians in Washington to give our government back to us. In this campaign I'll be discussing other changes as well. Fifteen years ago, ladies and gentlemen, another candidate, an outsider in his time, came here to New Hampshire. His name was Ronald Reagan. And he too started behind the leading candidates who had been anointed by the national media. But he had vision of tax cuts, growth, opportunity and hope, and the American people, the people of New Hampshire knew he was right. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm convinced that if we revitalize the American experiment we'll once again astound ourselves and the world with our achievements and our opportunities. Thank you very much. CARL CAMERON, WMUR-TV Political Correspondent: Thank you Mr. Forbes. On first blush, a number of Americans have suggested that perhaps you lack the qualifications for the chief executive office. Let's first begin with crime. How do you propose to combat the spread of crime in America? MALCOLM STEVE FORBES, Jr.: Well, Carl, you take a two-pronged approach. First of all, you have truth in sentencing. If a violent criminal is sentenced to ten years, he should serve most of that ten-year sentence instead of the two or three years today. If states need help on building prisons, build the prisons, encourage police departments as they are now doing into New York for more a proactive approach. And that works. New York has cut its murder rate by almost 40 percent. In a broader sense, we must change the culture that makes the crime possible, and that means welfare reform, allowing parents, especially in the innercity, to control the schools. It also means in public housing, allowing the tenants to control the public housing. Give people responsibility and they'll rise the occasion. They couldn't do a worse job than the bureaucrats are doing today. CARL CAMERON: You're an ardent supporter of a flat tax. Could you explain to us the advantages of it over, for instance, the national sales or VAT [sp] tax as proposed by Senator Lugar? MALCOLM STEVE FORBES, Jr.: Well, I think if you exempt things like housing, medicine and other things, you're going to have not a 18 percent rate, which is very high for a sales tax, but probably a 27 or 30 percent rate. It is regressive. Then if you want to give back rebates you're going to need still tax collectors to determine who gets the rebates. So, I think you're going to have a compliance problem with those high rates. You have a fairness problem. By contrast, the flat tax is simple. You can fill out on a postcard. It is fair. It removes millions of people from the tax rolls. And it is honest because it removes the principal source of political corruption in Washington, which is why all those lawyers and lobbyists are there to manipulate the tax code. CARL CAMERON: Foreign policy - a two-part question. Would you increase or decrease the number of foreign troops abroad right now, and what is the maximum or optimum number of American soldiers who should be overseas? MALCOLM STEVE FORBES, Jr.: Well, we need a strong foreign policy because if America does not take the lead then the world goes in bad ways. We saw that twice in this century. But I would absolutely oppose putting troops in Bosnia. That would be a disaster and a quagmire. We can help keep that peace through judicious use of air power and vigorous diplomacy. We should have done it two years ago, four years ago, but putting our troops there will simply give us another Somalia, another Lebanon, another debacle. CARL CAMERON: Could you put a number on the size of our foreign seas force in your eyes as a size it should be? MALCOLM STEVE FORBES, Jr.: Well, you could pick a number. But I think, Carl, that really will depend on circumstances, whether it's 100,000 - 200,000. We once had 400,000 troops in Europe. It's now below a 100,000, but we do need a presence overseas, and I think the exact number depends upon circumstances. But we must have a presence in both Europe and in Asia. CARL CAMERON: You have referred to some of your opponents as overly grim. What do you mean by that? MALCOLM STEVE FORBES, Jr.: Well, they talk about the future, at least until tonight, in a way that made it seem like that they didn't believe that we had a fabulous future if we remove certain obstacles. They weren't talking about flat tax. We had the `-er' candidates who talked about simpler, flatter, fairer, which is code for, you know, putting us in the emergency room. We tried that half-baked approach ten years ago. It doesn't work. the only way you can do it is by scrapping it. CARL CAMERON: We've got to leave it there. Mr. Forbes you have a minute-and-a-half for a closing statement. MALCOLM STEVE FORBES, Jr.: Thank you very much, Carl. The American people are frustrated. They don't understand, for example, why two incomes today can't do the job that one income could do in previous generations. They ask why is it that their children may not have the opportunities that parents and grandparents could take for granted in this country. The American people know we can do better. They're right. We can do better. If we remove certain obstacles we will revive America in ways that'll astound us and the world. To start we do have to change the culture in Washington, and to do that you have to change two things. Take away the politicians' power to manipulate the tax code and you have limit their terms. Do these two things, ladies and gentlemen, and you'll change Washington forever. That's why I'm calling for a flat tax that will restore fairness and honesty to the tax code and will cut taxes deep and wide for all Americans. And that's why I'm calling for term limits for all Washington politicians. The flat tax and term limits are just a start. I'll be discussing during this campaign additional ways where we can return opportunity and responsibility to the American people. What makes America unique is not that we don't make mistakes, we obviously do. But our genius is that when we stumble or fall we not only pick ourselves up but we find the inner strength to reach new heights. We've done it before. We can do it again. Thank you very much. CARL CAMERON: Steve Forbes, thank you very much.