GOP Candidates Run Against Regulation

Republican presidential hopefuls pressed for the dismantling of government regulations drawn up over 40 years, using a candidates' debate here to call for the scaling back or elimination of environmental, labor, financial and health-care rules.

The seven candidates on stage at Saint Anselm College avoided challenging each other, a benefit for front-runner Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts. It was the second debate of the 2012 election season, but the first to include Romney, who leads in national polls and in New Hampshire and Iowa, the first states in the nominating process. A Boston Globe poll released Sunday gave him a 32-point lead over other GOP candidates in New Hampshire, with no other candidate breaking out of single digits. Standing next to Romney, the other contenders sought to raise their stature and establish themselves as plausible alternatives to the front-runner, who despite his poll numbers is seen by many analysts as having liabilities. In so doing, each pressed for dramatic change to what Rep Ron Paul (R-TX) called "a Keynesian bubble that's been going on for 70 years." Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who announced her presidential candidacy as the debate began, called for rolling back the Environmental Protection Agency, which she said should be renamed "the job killing organization of America." Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) called for de-funding the National Labor Relations Board. Romney suggested the functions of agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency be handed to state governments, or if possible, the private sector.