Former Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush spoke to a crowded room, including between 40 and 50 Dartmouth students, at the Grafton County Senior Citizens Council in Lebanon on Tuesday night.
Bush began by speaking about international affairs, calling for military action against the Islamic State and re-establishing America’s leadership in the world by building its military power.
Bush criticized Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s remarks made in New Hampshire last week about Syrian refugees. Bush said these refugees should not be sent back “to their slaughter” but supported by the United States. He cited America’s “inventive spirit” and tradition of “embracing the unknown.”
He went on to speak about his economic record as governor of Florida, where he said he cut a total of $19 billion in taxes and reduced the size of the state government by 11 percent. As president he said he would hope to make similar reforms in the government as a whole.
“In Florida, you can fire a government worker for incompetence,” Bush said. “Now, I know that sounds like a radical idea, but imagine if we brought that idea to D.C.”
His ideas included lobbying reform and a deduction of pay for public officials who no longer work. Bush described the Affordable Care Act as a “monstrosity” and announced that he had a plan to repeal the law and create his own health care plan from scratch.
“This whole deal has been a depressing example of trying to force ideas down the throats of people who didn’t want it,” he said. “If we’re serious about leading the world, then it’s time for us to pause and say, ‘What could we do if we started from scratch?’” he said.
His attitude of tenacity and innovation was what made him such a successful governor in Florida, he said.
“Florida was a better place because I asked the ‘Why not?’ question,” he said. “Should I be elected president, I will be a disruptor.”
Bush concluded his speech with anecdotes from his time in state office. The first described meeting a woman — a mother with a developmentally disabled daughter — who had accused Bush of not caring. Bush said that, from this experience, he took the time to listen and learn about the issue before making decisions and spoke to his commitment to improving the lives of disabled Americans.
Bush used a second anecdote, about a low-income elementary school student in Florida, to demonstrate his history with education reform. Bush said his successes in the realm of education included taking on teachers’ unions to make change, creating voucher programs to encourage school choice for low-income students and raising literacy numbers by 250,000 students per year.
The forum was then opened for audience questions about 30 minutes into the event.
Prompted by a question regarding climate change, Bush said the climate is changing and humans are a part of this process. He said the problem should be solved with a high-growth strategy where the government researches and identifies technologies that can be applied in the market to accelerate changes, while keeping a free, competition-based market.
Questions also touched on health care and veterans affairs, both of which led Bush to emphasize the need to shrink government and encourage competition for health care providers.
When an audience member said he had recently started a small business, Bush responded that he hoped to lower the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, which would be among the lowest corporate tax rates in the world, to reward businesses.
The question session ended with an individual asking which public relations firm Bush had hired to control his image and how that industry keeps him from being authentic. Bush responded that, unlike President Barack Obama, he does not have a David Axelrod type of person on his team and tries to be authentic and genuine. He pledged not to disparage people to make himself look good and acknowledged the distrust that many Americans have in the government.
Dartmouth College Republicans president Michelle Knesbach ’17 said she was impressed with the talk, and that Bush performed better in a smaller forums than he had in the past in larger venues. She added that she was particularly impressed with his response to the climate change question, which pointed to the scientific evidence behind the issue.
Jeremy Lewin ’19 agreed that Bush performed better in a smaller setting, and said he thought Bush had struggled to get his message across with inadequate airtime in previous events.
“Obviously candidates have their talking points, and those are made by staffers, but he was pretty dexterous and he did well getting his message across,” he said. “He seems more genuine than I think he comes across in the debates and other forums.”
Lewin said the event had a strong showing of Dartmouth students, and as a member of The Dartmouth Review and the College Republicans he hoped to get more candidates to campus, though it would be difficult after the events that occurred when former Texas governor Rick Perry spoke at Dartmouth last year. Several students who attended Perry’s speech asked him explicit questions regarding his stance on homosexuality and gay marriage.
