During debate, GOP candidates talked about foreign policy for 18 minutes, the economy for 4

The Republican presidential candidates at the Fox Business Network main debate.
(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The numbers are in, and the Republican presidential candidates at the prime-time Fox Business debate spent the most amount of time — 26 minutes and 16 seconds — discussing taxes, the deficit, budgets, and debt. Income inequality received just one minute and 58 seconds worth of attention, all of it coming from Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.).

National security and foreign policy came in second with 18 minutes and 4 seconds, NPR calculated, and bank bailouts followed with 14 minutes and 38 seconds. General politics — including Hillary Clinton and Ben Carson's biography — took up 9 minute and 52 seconds, and immigration (by just Jeb Bush, Donald Trump, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich) covered 6 minutes and 10 seconds. Medicare, trade, ObamaCare, the economy, minimum wage, and energy all came in under 5 minutes.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.