Six Takeaways from the Great Milwaukee GOP Debate

Well, if CNBC got an F then Fox Business News gets an A. The winners of Tuesday night’s GOP debate in Milwaukee were the audience and the Republican party. This wasn’t just a debate. It was a tutorial on growth, taxes, health care, trade, regulation, and the Fed.

Six random takeaways:

1) Every candidate argued for lower tax rates and closing loopholes and simplification. What a contrast with the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

Rubio was the outlier. He argued for a tax credit as a way to help families. ‎He calls this a pro-family tax cut, but it doesn’t help the economy. Rand Paul zinged him with the argument that his refundable credit is a $1 trillion entitlement program.

2) Sparks flew the most on issues of foreign policy, immigration, and trade. Trump got smacked down on immigration when he called for a deportation of 11 million people. Bush, Kasich, Rubio, and Fiorina were for an aggressive, interventionist foreign policy with more military spending. Trump and Paul argued for a hands off policy.

Conservatives have to decide whether America should be the world’s policeman.

3) Republicans muffed the issue of bank bailouts. Bush, Kasich and Cruz all seemed to endorse taxpayer bailouts if we have another financial crisis. This is a big problem for the GOP. Why is it so hard to say: If I am president I will never bail-out a private company.