Visit to Davenport: Giuliani pleases crowd with his views on Iraq, taxes, health care

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By Thomas Geyer | Thursday, October 25, 2007 | 3 comment(s)

GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor, speaks to a group of supporters Wednesday night at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds in Davenport. Buy this Photo!

Joyce Williamson of Davenport went to see former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani more at the behest of her husband, David.

She had no doubt she’d never vote for the man. That is, until she, and about 200 other people, got to hear him speak Wednesday at the Starlite Ballroom at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds in Davenport.

“I’d vote for him now,” Joyce Williamson said. “The only other time I voted Republican was when Ronald Reagan was president. He was the greatest.”

Giuliani arrived about an hour late due to bad flying weather east of the Quad-Cities. But he still spent a good 90 minutes talking to the audience and answering questions.

Topics ranged from health care to the Iraq war to terrorism, and he addressed immigration, energy independence and establishing fiscal responsibility in government.

Giuliani said he wants to “take the offense” against terrorism and achieve energy independence, pointing to Iowa as a leader in ethanol production. He also made reference to hydropower, wind energy, biofuels, solar power and hybrid vehicles.

He did not omit nuclear energy, suggesting that fears have been exaggerated long after the disaster at Three Mile Island in 1979. “Nuclear energy is an integral part of our energy independence,” he said. “No one in the U.S. has lost their life to a nuclear accident.”

France, he added, does just fine with nuclear energy.

Illegal immigration under a Giuliani presidency will be handled in much the same way the former mayor dealt with crime in New York City, using advances in technology and adding manpower to the borders.

He suggests building a fence along the Mexican border, putting up cameras that will show where people are trying to cross, and placing agents 50 miles from one another along the fence.

“When we get control of illegal immigration, we could expand legal immigration,” he said.

Giuliani said he trusts people to make decisions about their lives without having to depend upon direction from the government. That is why he wants to lower taxes.

“If you can lower taxes, you stimulate job growth and business investment,” he said.

That will put more people to work who will be paying taxes, he said, albeit lower ones.

Lower taxes smartly, he said, and the government can “make more money from the lower tax.”

Lowering taxes returns power to the people, he said. “The reality is, it makes sense; it works.”

Giuliani also said he would like to give young people the option of taking what they would pay in social security taxes and allowing them to invest it themselves for retirement. He also would like health care to be market-based.

Other countries talk about the U.S. not having universal health care, but Giuliani claimed the care in America is so good that other people come here for life-saving surgeries.

He pointed out that women with breast cancer in the U.S. have a greater chance of survival than those in France, Britain and Canada.

Government control of health care, he said, would be a disaster.

The room was filled with Rudy supporters, but there were some who came just to hear him speak.

Jordan Tisue of Davenport said Giuliani “has his head on his shoulders regarding the war,” although he wanted to hear more about immigration.

Thomas Geyer can be contacted at (563) 383-2328 or tgeyer@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.