GOP Debate: Republican Presidential Candidates Face Off In Las Vegas Amid Controversy (VIDEO)

LAS VEGAS -- The two Republican front-runners set the stage for Tuesday evening's presidential debate by alternately proposing that Americans behind on their mortgages be pushed out of their homes faster, and by defending an exotic tax reform proposal that hews closely to one first enacted in the fantasy world video game "SimCity." Where the debate goes from here will unfold on CNN at 8 p.m. Eastern.

"Don’t try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom," Romney said when asked by the Las Vegas Review-Journal what he would do to jump-start the floundering housing market. "Allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up and let it turn around and come back up."

The administration, Romney said, "has slow walked the foreclosure process ... that has long existed and as a result we still have a foreclosure overhang." Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto sued Bank of America in August, accusing it of foreclosing on homes without proper authority. Nevada is beset by economic turmoil and foreclosures. Last year, one in nine Las Vegas homes received a foreclosure notice.

Former Godfather Pizza CEO Herman Cain, meanwhile, has been vaulted into front-runner status and is battling the increased focus that comes with his new position. The nine in his 999 plan that is garnering the most scrutiny is a nine percent national sales tax that would be applied to all "new goods," he said, and would land atop state sales taxes.

Tuesday's debate will be Cain's first as a full-blown front-runner. Jon Huntsman, meanwhile, is boycotting the debate, attempting to punish the state for threatening to move its vote ahead of New Hampshire's primary.

 

 

Comments

[leajazz]

04:14 AM on 10/20/2011

Romney's idea of the American dream: rent a fixed up house? He said put "renters in them" not people or families.

[cutglass]

02:02 PM on 10/19/2011

I am waiting for one of the Evangelicals in this conga line to cry out,"May God strike any one of us dead who is not a True Believer, and who is not telling the real truth." Talk about thinning the herd, the questioners would be addressing a smoking crater.

[arizonabay]

10:15 AM on 10/19/2011

Does any one know why such " God fearing people" where having a debate in the one city in the country that is diametrically opposed (fun) to every thing they supposedly believe in.

[cutglass]

02:05 PM on 10/19/2011

All work and no play is not the GOP standard. Headlines to follow.

[Rooster Coburn]

09:45 AM on 10/19/2011

Watching the Republican debate was like being on Mount Olympus watching the gods of old battle each other.

[OneLiberalLady]

01:52 AM on 10/19/2011

The rent isi too damn high!

[Wild Thang]

11:07 PM on 10/18/2011

Compassionate Conservatism on Separation of Church and State

As to the perplexing comment about religion, Newt-the-P­ompous
waxed so philosophi­cally that I wouldn't even attempt to paraphrase
him, but it has something to do with 'what you do is between you and God'.

(Question to self: Is this how Gingrich obtained secret permission to do
the extramarital thing x2-3, while conducting a public lynching of former
President Clinton about Monica Lewinsky?)

[Rooster Coburn]

09:41 AM on 10/19/2011

It was about the POTUS lying to the people about it, not the act itself.

[justalurker]

11:06 PM on 10/18/2011

Shouldn't we investigate and expose the pastors of each of the candidates? They may have said something offensive in recent decades! After all, wasn't that the new standard set in the 2008 race?

[duzacm]

11:09 PM on 10/18/2011

2008 race ? No, the leveling feild was not allowed to surface. Not one liberal media source made the slightest comment concerning Obama's Muslim faith. Oh,,,oh and he is a Christian too. lol,,,rotf...

[morganlady]

11:46 PM on 10/18/2011

Obama is not a Muslim. He grew up in Hawaii. His mother raised him with The Christian Beliefs. Every single station covered the attacks on his religion. Were were you? If you are laughing about condemning a Christian....shame you. Why are you on the floor laughing at your prejudice.

[OneLiberalLady]

01:39 AM on 10/19/2011

You can put money on it.

[Wild Thang]

11:00 PM on 10/18/2011

Who Should Be President?

Herman Cain doesn't blink as he says with candor, "I should be President !"

He dismisses Romney's private sector experience as "Wall Street-oriented
whereas his own experience has been totally "Main Street-ori­ented."

He adds proudly that he, Herman Cain, will be the President who "fixes stuff".

[duzacm]

11:13 PM on 10/18/2011

Lol,,,Dosen't he know that we have one that dose the same thing ? Obama has fixed unemployment at an all time high and further insist that the military should go into Africa to '"Help" (lol) rebel forces achieve freedom. What freedom ? The freedom they never had !

[LarrBerr]

04:15 AM on 10/19/2011

"What freedom ? The freedom they never had !"

So if they never had freedom, they don't have a right to it? Or, if they never had freedom they can't achieve freedom? Are you confusing the word "achieve" with the word "regain"?

[Wild Thang]

10:57 PM on 10/18/2011

Famous Last Words

Bachmann summarizes­, "I am the most different candiate from
Barack Obama than anyone on this stage." Naw, it can't be true?!

[duzacm]

11:16 PM on 10/18/2011

Obama has to go. So if Michelle is the one to do it,so be it.

[Joseph Glackin]

10:53 PM on 10/18/2011

"Don’t try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom," Romney said when asked by the Las Vegas Review-Journal what he would do to jump-start the floundering housing market. "Allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up and let it turn around and come back up."

LADIES! GENTLEMEN! ATTENTION, ONE AND ALL!
THIS IS the Greedy One Percent's plan for YOUR FUTURE!

1) You will lose your home. Be it loss of job, rising costs, shrinking buying power.
2) A financial "speculator" will assume your mortgage. The one that was bundled and sold.
3) You MAY be allowed to rent your home, giving money to the bandits who destroyed the market.
4) Your rent is not deductible, the mortgage they get will be.
5) You NEVER should have trusted those Realtors, Bankers, Pols and Presidents who urged you to buy that house.
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/10/president-bush.html
ANY QUESTIONS?

[lesslibsforme]

11:04 PM on 10/18/2011

Everyone should own a home was a dem thing

[Joseph Glackin]

11:39 PM on 10/18/2011

http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/affordablehousing/programs/home/addi/
http://www.americandreamdownpaymentassistance.com/whsp12162003.cfm

Bush was Pres. The Greedy One Percent ruled BOTH HOUSES.

FACE REALITY.

[AJP2565]

11:56 PM on 10/18/2011

See I told you Joe I'll bet lesslibs didn't even watch his fearless leader saying everyone whould own a nice home with a low down payment.

[AJP2565]

11:54 PM on 10/18/2011

I wish duzacm would watch these videos, but it's more convenient to blame Clinton, Dodd, and Franks!

[Joseph Glackin]

12:25 AM on 10/19/2011

I just wish HP would allow us to push a button that says 'LIES!"
I'll bet over 50% of my comments, and yours, are wasted trying to correct "factual inaccuracies", A/K/A "LIES!"

[joynerz]

10:52 PM on 10/18/2011

Cain is claiming Godfather's Pizza turnaround on his own smarts. His 999 causes me to seriously doubt that. Even very stupid people step into a situation at the right time and end up looking pretty smart. Timing is like that.

[joynerz]

10:47 PM on 10/18/2011

Simple is too often simplistic. This is not a simple world as Cain evidently thinks.

[justalurker]

10:34 PM on 10/18/2011

I think newt's running to be romney's VP. And bachmann can apparently look in two directions at once.

[sonoitageorge]

10:31 PM on 10/18/2011

Lets forclose on the banks

[georgechevrolet]

10:29 PM on 10/18/2011

Better ditch the 999 Herman.....or else.......