Yahoo Finance A big night in Iowa offers a closing economic message from the top GOP contenders
Trade with China. Government spending. Social Security.
These were the economic issues that took center stage Wednesday evening amid a range of topics as the three leading GOP contenders for 2024 made their final pitches just days before Republicans begin to pick their nominee.
The evening featured the last debate before the Iowa caucuses, a one-on-one showdown on CNN between former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Former President Donald Trump skipped those proceedings but nevertheless turned up on a cold night in Des Moines to appear at a simultaneous Fox News town hall event just a few miles away.
Economics was a topic that was returned to again and again throughout the night. Stocks even earned a mention as Trump defended his recent comments wishing for an economic crash by offering an evidence-free claim about recent market highs.
"I believe the stock market goes up because I'm leading," he said, adding a prediction that if he's defeated, "I think the stock market would crash."
It was reminiscent of similar claims Trump made during the 2020 campaign about a crash that would follow a Biden victory, which proved false.
Iowans will gather across the state in just four days to caucus and kick off the GOP's long delegate selection process. New Hampshire will follow shortly thereafter with its primary on Jan. 23.
Trump has maintained a commanding lead in most polls. But there is also a recent surge of support for Haley, especially in New Hampshire, where one recent CNN poll found Trump's lead there is in the single digits.
As for other candidates, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy was excluded from the debate stage due to his poor polling numbers but chimed in with a campaign ad to protest his exclusion. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie suspended his campaign a few hours before the candidates took the stage.
A wide array of other issues — from immigration to foreign policy to abortion to accusations of lying — were also discussed at length Wednesday night.
Here's a closer look at some of the key economic themes that came up:
China, China, China
At the CNN debate between DeSantis and Haley, the world's second-largest economy earned a mention from both candidates within the first five minutes. Then China came up again and again.
There was also some insight on policy, with the candidates being pressed by moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash on how they would navigate trade issues.
"I was very attached to China in terms of trade, and the one thing we'll do is we won't wait for China to pull the rug out from under Iowans," Haley said of how she would approach the issue.
Without commenting on how she would approach Trump-era tariffs, Haley said she would focus her energy on trade deals with allies like India, Japan, and Israel.
"When I'm president, we will sell and export everything that's being made in Iowa to those that are our friends, not our enemies," she said.
Her stance was a contrast to both DeSantis and Trump. For his part, the Florida governor touted a plan to cut off China and "decouple our economy, particularly things that are significant to our national survival."
The approach echoed Trump's own plan, with the former president promising another round of trade wars if he returns to office, including new global tariffs and a four-year effort to "phase out all Chinese imports of essential goods."
At his town hall, Trump brought up China but was also forced to defend his record after a recent report from House Democrats found that Trump's businesses profited over $8 million from foreign governments like China while he was president.
Trump defended the inflows, saying it was a small amount of money and "I was doing services for that ... I don't get $8 million for doing nothing."
The continual anti-China focus from the campaign trail comes after weeks where seemingly every past positive comment on China by any candidate has become a liability in 2024.
Most notably, allies of both Haley and DeSantis have bought television time recently for ads that accuse the other of being too open to investment from China in their states.
"Tricky Nikki pretends she's tough on China, but as governor, she promised to do 'whatever it takes'" was the refrain from one such ad funded by a DeSantis-supporting super PAC.
Government debt and whether to 'inject this country with money'
Wednesday night's back and forth also offered some insights into how the candidates might approach government spending issues, including the debate currently consuming Washington.
At his town hall, Trump defended the $8 trillion increase in debt that was seen during his time in office. He elided over how his 2017 tax cuts contributed mightily to the red ink and focused on COVID-era programs, saying, "That was a very good investment."
"If I didn't inject this country with money, you would have had a depression," he added.
Both DeSantis and Haley attacked Trump for those debt increases, with Haley saying she would take a more critical approach as president.
We "need an accountant in the White House," she said, nodding to her degree in accounting and finance from Clemson University in the 1990s.
But she also promised a balanced budget without offering details on the steep cuts that such a move would entail and repeatedly criticized DeSantis for a vote he took in Congress that raised the debt limit.
At issue for Haley is DeSantis's past support for the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 that passed overwhelmingly (and was signed by then-President Trump) to avert that year's potentially economically calamitous debt ceiling fight.
One area of agreement across all three candidates was a pledge that no tax increases would be on the table. DeSantis and Haley often sniped about the other's past record on the issue.
"I want people paying less taxes," said DeSantis.
Social Security
Another economic issue that earned significant airtime was Social Security, with exchanges that served to further highlight the different approaches to the issue.
Haley has been the candidate most in the spotlight given her propensity to discuss reforming Social Security in the years ahead for younger Americans — a contrast to her main opponents.
That didn't change Wednesday, with the candidate bluntly saying that Americans currently in their 20s "should plan on their retirement age being increased, yes. We're going to change it to reflect more of what life expectancy should be."
DeSantis pushed back on that idea, noting that life expectancy has been on the decline in recent years and offering a qualified pledge to "never raise the retirement age in the face of declining life expectancy."
Read more: How to find out your 2024 Social Security COLA increase
Trump also brought up Social Security at his competing event, but, as he often does, he focused mostly on using the issue as a political weapon — again saying both DeSantis and Haley would offer cuts.
Trump often claims that he alone "will always protect Social Security and Medicare," but the former president has avoided laying out exactly what that would look like.
A recent government report found that Social Security's main trust fund is challenged and only has the funds to continue paying out 100% of benefits through 2034.
Ben Werschkul is Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
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