Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann said Perry supported the vaccine as a political favor to a pharmaceutical company, Merck, which donated to his campaigns.
Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor and Rick Perry’s main rival, was polite and more fluent, especially as the debate wore on, although he avoided making detailed responses.
The Texas governor also saw his once immaculate conservative credentials come under fire when Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum pointed out a 2001 law signed by Perry that gave higher education tuition breaks to the children of illegal immigrants.
Perry hit back hard and questioned whether Santorum had even been to the border before. He hotly defended the policy, accusing critics of seeking to punish children for the sins of their parents.
“If you say that we should not educate children that have come into our state for no other reason than they’ve been brought here by no fault of their own, I don’t think you have a heart”
“The fact of the matter is this: There is nobody on this stage who has spent more time working on border security than I have. For a decade, I’ve been the governor of a state with a 1,200-mile border with Mexico. We put $400 million of our taxpayer money into securing that border. We’ve got our Texas Ranger recon teams there now. I supported Arizona’s immigration law by joining in that lawsuit to defend it.”
Romney questioned Perry’s commitment to protecting Social Security in a state with nearly 4 million citizens who depend on the entitlement program.
“It’s not the first time that Mitt has been wrong on some issues so far,” Perry said. “The bottom line is, we never said we would move that back to the states.”
Perry swore a “solemn oath” to protect the program and said states, as a cost-saving measure, should allow Social Security recipients to opt out of the program if they choose.
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When the video ended a handful of very loud boos erupted in the debate hall. Otherwise there was silence – not one cheer for an active duty soldier asking the candidates if they’d let him continue serving his country without lying. No other voter-submitted question all night elicited such a harsh response.
The question was addressed to Rick Santorum, who made things worse by not offering any words of appreciation for Hill’s service. Instead, he declared that “any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military,” that gays and lesbians have been given “a special privilege” by the repeal of DADT, and that the basic function of the military has been undermined because of it. This response produced loud applause and cheers.
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