Gingrich Interview

Three Republican presidential candidates have shown an openness to handing over control of drugs and medical marijuana to the states. Would you continue the current federal policy making marijuana illegal in all cases or give the states more control?
I would continue current federal policy, largely because of the confusing signal that steps towards legalization sends to harder drugs.
I think the California experience is that medical marijuana becomes a joke. It becomes marijuana for any use. You find local doctors who will prescribe it for anybody that walks in.

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Do you support "wet-foot-dry-foot," the policy that allows Cubans to stay in the United States, but only if they can reach land?
No, I think we ought to have some rule that says if you get far enough away from Cuba you've made it. I think it's a terrible thing to say to somebody that you can be within sight of land and that if we intercept you, we're sending you back. Cuba is the last authoritarian dictatorship in the Western Hemisphere, so it's a unique case.

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On Medicare, in your plan you say that seniors could opt out of the current program and select their own private health insurance provider, with the government helping to cover the cost of the premiums. Is your ultimate goal to migrate seniors out of Medicare entirely?
Well no, there would be multiple versions of Medicare. You could have a Medicare version which pays a premium support, you could have a Medicare version which is the current system, you could have Medicare Plus--you could have 12 different versions within Medicare and increase both the competition and the creativity and the innovation, but they'd all be Medicare.

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AdamT said:

Regarding Cuba, I do not think does he makes a good point. Nowadays most Cuban immigrants come here for economic rather than political reasons. A Cuban who washes up on our shores is automatically entitled to legal status and social security benefits, whereas a Haitian who comes here fleeing worse economic conditions is jailed and deported. That, to me, is what's unfair.

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AdamT said:

Regarding Cuba, I do not think does he makes a good point. Nowadays most Cuban immigrants come here for economic rather than political reasons. A Cuban who washes up on our shores is automatically entitled to legal status and social security benefits, whereas a Haitian who comes here fleeing worse economic conditions is jailed and deported. That, to me, is what's unfair.

Click to expand...