During debate, GOP candidates talked about foreign policy for 18 minutes, the economy for 4
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.
Unlike after the previous GOP debate hosted by CNBC, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus was happy with the outcome, saying in a statement: "Debates need to focus on the issues, and that goal was accomplished tonight. Our candidates, not the moderators, were at the center of tonight's debate, and they were all treated with fairness and respect."
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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.
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