Prior to the debate, it was reported that the turnout for the Iowa Republican caucus set a record, Romney won with 8 votes over Santorum who was in 5th place until then (a vote counter alleged that Romney was given votes and on January 18 they said Santorum won by 34). The placement of the remaining candidates was: Paul (21%), Gingrich (13%), Perry (10%), Bachmann (5%) and Huntsman (1%). John McCann endorsed Romney; Perry decided to stay in the race and Bachmann quit. On January 6, 2011 the Boston Globe endorsed Huntsman.
On January 7 ABC (Diane Sawyer, George Stephanopoulos and Josh McElveen of WMUR TV) held a debate in New Hampshire. The first question was – We saw 200,000 jobs created last month and optimists say this is a sign of a turnaround, are you in line with this? Romney responded with – I am an optimist and hope to see good news, there are 25 million Americans that need jobs but it’s not because of President Obama; his policies have made the recession deeper and the recovery more tepid; from Obama care, Dodd-Frank, to a stimulus plan that wasn’t as well directed as it should have been, to a host of new regulations that have made it hard for small entrepreneurs and big business to invest in America. My response is - per tradingecomomics.com, the unemployment rate in the United States fell to 8.5 percent in December of 2011, the lowest since February 2009. From 1948 until 2010 the United States' Unemployment Rate averaged 5.70 percent reaching an historical high of 10.80 percent in November of 1982 (during Reagan’s tenure) and a record low of 2.50 percent in May of 1953. The labor force is defined as the number of people employed plus the number unemployed but seeking work. The non-labor force includes those who are not looking for work, those who are institutionalized and those serving in the military. Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics - Both the number of unemployed persons (13.1 million) and the unemployment rate (8.5 percent) continued to trend down in December. I don’t know where Romney came up with 25 million people unemployed. I did learn that historically about 50% of new businesses fail but could not find any information to support that failure was due to new regulations.
After discussing other issues, the debate went back to jobs and an infrastructure example (I-93 project that is about $350 million away from completion) was given. Romney said there are certain things the government can do to rebuild an economy and improving our infrastructure (bridges, roads, rail beds, and air transportation) is one of them but fundamentally the government gets in the way of creating jobs; it taxes to much, it regulates too much, it has energy policies that keep us from using our own energy, it has trade policies that too often favor those taking jobs away from us; we need to change so that we’re encouraging the private sector; he said the President wants to turn us into a European welfare state that takes from some to give to others and that will kill our ability for a prosperous future, to secure our freedom and provide for the rights given under the Constitution. Gingrich said you can’t compete with China if you have an inferior infrastructure; he said the Northern Pass project ought to be buried and use state right-of-ways and modern ways to bring electricity from Quebec to Boston; he would have an energy plan to get us away from Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela and two-thirds of the revenue from that would go to debt reduction and one-third to infrastructure.
If you’re like me, you had no clue what the projects they were discussing were about. The Rebuilding I-93 site said it’s the widening of a 20 mile segment between Exits 1 and 5 from the Massachusetts Stateline to Manchester, New Hampshire (NH); the overall goal is to make the I-93 corridor safer and improve mobility. I-93 is one of the state's (NH’s) principal arterials and is critical to the economic vitality of the state, region and local communities. The Northern Pass transmission project is said to create a new connection between Hydro-Québec's world-class hydroelectric resources and the New England "power pool" that supplies electricity to all customers in the region. The heart of this project is the construction of a direct current (DC) transmission line that will bring up to 1,200 megawatts of hydroelectric power into the region, providing much-needed fuel diversity, lowering energy costs and lessening our reliance on fossil fuels. Along with the construction of the DC line, the project will include the construction of a converter terminal in Franklin, NH to convert the electricity from direct current to alternating current (AC), as well as the construction of a new AC transmission line from the converter terminal to an existing substation in Deerfield, NH. According to Wikipedia, ISO New England Inc. (ISO-NE) is an independent, non-profit Regional Transmission Organization serving Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and New York state when the need arises. ISO-NE was created in 1997 by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as a replacement for the NE Power Pool of 1971; the Board of Directors and over 400 employees have no financial interest or ties to any company doing business in the region's wholesale electricity marketplace. One of its major duties is to provide tariffs for the prices, terms, and conditions of the energy supply in NE. It is responsible for reliably operating New England's 32,000 megawatt bulk electric power generation and transmission system of its member utilities, as well as Hydro-Québec, NB Power, and the New York Power Authority. I didn’t feel Romney answered the question at all and Gingrich gave a better answer. After reading about the Northern Pass project, I’m not sure it should be buried as Gingrich suggests.
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