At Republican Forum, McDonald Promises to Make the Economy His Focus

Michael Appleton for The New York Times George McDonald

George T. McDonald, a Republican candidate for mayor, can be an uneven performer in public. He likes to explain his economic plan by arguing that the Bronx should produce more applesauce, and he sometimes jokes about commuting by skateboard.

But at a forum in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday night, Mr. McDonald, 68, sought to use his quirky manner to his advantage as he portrayed his two Republican opponents as out-of-touch plutocrats.

Calling himself the “poorest guy sitting here,” Mr. McDonald, who lives in a $1.6 million apartment on the Upper East Side, said he would make reviving the economy a centerpiece of his administration.

“The recession didn’t pass over New York City,” said Mr. McDonald, who runs the Doe Fund, a nonprofit job-training program for the homeless. “It may have passed over your friends.”

Mr. McDonald then turned to a Republican rival, John A. Catsimatidis, the billionaire owner of the Gristedes grocery chain. “If you think that money alone is going to win an election,” he said, “go to Connecticut.”

Mr. Catsimatidis grinned, reaching for the microphone. “I’m a man of all the people,” he said. “I’ve been to the South Bronx. I never saw you there.”

It was a striking back-and-forth at a forum largely free of disagreement. Nearly 100 people attended the event, which was sponsored by the New York Young Republican Club.

The other Republican contender, Joseph J. Lhota, former chief of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, largely stayed out of the fray. While he praised Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s handling of city affairs, he sought to distance himself from some of the mayor’s policies, saying he did not support the emphasis on standardized testing.

Near the end of the forum, in fielding a question on how to reduce poverty in New York, Mr. Catsimatidis said he would put Mr. McDonald in charge of homeless programs.

He looked to Mr. McDonald, who was staring into the distance, seemingly unaware of what had been said.

“George, I complimented you,” Mr. Catsimatidis said. “You’re very capable.”

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Republican Candidates on the Economy (ContributorNetwork)

According to the most recent Gallup poll, when Americans were asked what the most important problem facing the nation was, 76 percent responded the economy. As such, the next president will be forced to manage some of the toughest economic times the U.S. has had to endure.

The candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination have discussed what they felt were the most important economic problems in America and their solutions during the recent GOP debates.

Here are some quotes on the economy taken from major candidates running for the Republican presidential nomination:

* Herman Cain: "First, we must grow this economy. We are the biggest economy in the world and as long as we are stagnant in terms of growth in GDP, we impact the rest of the world. … We must put fuel the engine that drives economic growth: the business sector. … We must assure that our currency is sound. Just like sixty minutes is in an hour, a dollar must be a dollar. If we are growing this economy the way it has the ability to do and at the same time we are cutting spending seriously, we will have the ability to survive. ... Focus on the domestic economy or we will fail."

* Mitt Romney: "If we stay on the course we're on, with the level of borrowing this administration is carrying out, if we don't get serious about cutting and capping our spending and balancing our budget, you're going to find America in the same position Italy is in four or five years from now."

* Ron Paul: "We took 40 years to build up this worldwide debt. We're in a debt crisis never before seen in our history … if you prop it up, you'll do exactly what we did in the Depression, prolong the agony … you want to liquidate the debt. The debt is unsustainable and this bubble was predictable because 40 years ago we had no restraints whatsoever on the monetary authorities and we piled debt on debt… and if you keep bailing people out and prop it up, you just prolong the agony as you're doing in the housing bubble. Right now, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are demanding more money because we don't allow the market to determine what these mortgages are worth. If you don't liquidate this and clear the market, believe me, you're going to perpetuate this for a decade or two more and that is very, very dangerous."

* Jon Huntsman: "We have a huge problem called too big to fail this country. We have six banks in this country that combined have assets worth 66 percent of our GDP, $9.4 trillion. These institutions get hit and they have an implied bailout by the taxpayers in this country and that means we're setting ourselves up for disaster again. … We've got to get back to a day and age where we have properly-sized banks."

* Rick Perry: "We're not going to pick winners and losers from Washington D.C. … We're going trust the capital markets in the private sector to make the decisions and let the consumers pick winners and losers. And it doesn't make any difference whether it's Wall Street or some corporate entity or some European country, if you are too big to fail, you are too big."

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