The Last GOP Debate Before New Hampshire
With the most awkward opening ever…
The debate as covered by Purple, sign up for election updates from the Purple nerds here 😃
The stats to know before the debate:
And then the debate starts, and the weirdest thing happens:
Ok then the real debate started.
In 2011, Alabama passed one of the strictest immigration laws in the country. The law required police to stop anyone they suspected might be in the country illegally. It also required all businesses to verify that their employees were legal residents. The result? Thousands of illegal immigrants fled Alabama, the state’s GDP shrunk by $2.3 billion in one year since agriculture is Alabama’s largest industry.
The United States has the highest official corporate income tax rate in the world, but it’s so full of loopholes that very few companies pay anything close to the official rate. Pretty much everyone, Republican and Democrat, think this policy sucks and that the corporate income tax code should be reformed. But the parties differ on how to reform it.
Then there was a heated exchange between Christie and Rubio. Christie was clearly trying to target Rubio tonight.
Congress passed a new bill in Nov 2015 that would make it basically impossible to close Guantanamo Bay. The prison currently holds 112 prisoners, and in 2013 the U.S. spent $4 million per detainee. The Pentagon recently announced that 10 prisoners were released and resettled in Oman, bringing Gitmo’s population below 100 for the 1st time since it opened in 2002.
The fact check on the Navy topic:
This claim is kind of true. In 1916, the U.S. Navy had 245 active ships. Today there are 273 which is the lowest since 1916. But experts say ships are not a good measurement of defense strength, especially since modern ships are more powerful than back in the day.
