A Latino take on the GOP Debate

I didn’t watch the Republican debate. I read the transcript. Better that way, I think.

And I read it with a focus on economic issues that matter to Latinos.

Mike Huckabee struck the first and harshest note

It ends the underground economy that right now makes it so that folks like us end up paying taxes, but drug dealers don’t; illegals don’t; prostitutes and pimps, they don’t. But we do.

Lumping illegal immigrants in the same category with drug dealers, prostitutes and pimps is not likely to win many Latino votes. And his bit about not paying taxes is demonstrably false. Even Tom Tancredo concedes that illegal immigrants pay taxes although too little in his view.

And for every single illegal immigrant family in this country, it costs $20,000 — it costs us $20,000, $20,000 in infrastructural costs. They pay about $10,000 in taxes. You really want to do something to restore the people’s faith in government, do something about illegal immigration, don’t just talk about it.

Tancredo did, however, talk at length about immigration with seven mentions of the topic. More than any other candidate. Leading immigration reform advocate Senator McCain made just one reference to it.

If we’re going to have real immigration reform, we’re going to have to have trust that we will secure the borders.

Giuliani also made exactly one mention of immigration, which was of a slightly different tenor than his comments over the past few weeks.

This country is the leader in the world. When Congressman Tancredo talks about the immigration problem, how about look at it this way: What country do millions of people want to come to? United States of America. What country — I don’t care if they bash us all over the world — what country do they most want to come to? What country do they most want to copy?

No mention of immigration whatsoever from Hunter, Paul, Romney or Thompson.

Plenty of talk about international trade but not a single mention of Nafta, which was curious.

A lot of time was rightly dedicated to middle-class workers but surprisingly no questions were asked that related to small business owners. Hispanics are an entrepreneurial bunch and represent a huge chunk of the growth in small businesses nationwide. It would have been a natural topic of interest

Education, which according to some polls, is the highest priority issue for Hispanics came in for all of two mentions. Senator Brownback suggested keeping married couples together would go a long way towards improving the educational system. And then Giuliani said

I’d like to point out that I think the biggest economic problem we face long term is our education, our K-12 education.
The best and most telling line about immigration came from Senator Brownback

My mother is not an illegal immigrant.

Tags: Debate, Election, Huckabee, Immigration, Republicans