Tim Scott in Second GOP presidential debate

On Drugs: Freeze the accounts of the Mexican drug cartels

On Energy & Oil: Unleash our energy resources; no gas tax increase

Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC): He's increased the national debt. He voted for the spending for 12 years.

SCOTT: You actually asked for a gas tax increase in South Carolina. I voted no.

On Families & Children: Protect HeadStart and let parents choose childcare

SCOTT: One of the things I did as a member of the Congress was to make sure that we protected the Head Start programs around the country, giving people the opportunity to pick and choose the place that they send their children. The challenges that we see today under the Biden administration is that the cost for daycare has gone over $15,000 per child.

Q: How do we fix that problem?

SCOTT: We actually cut taxes and give more Americans their money back. When I helped write the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, we actually lowered a single mother's taxes by 70%, for dual-income households by 60%. Then we doubled the child tax credit and made it refundable. By doing that, more parents had more resources to make the decisions how to take care of their family.

On Immigration: Close the border to fentanyl; reinstate Title 42

On Jobs: Unions can't get more benefits with fewer hours

SEN. TIM SCOTT: Obviously the President cannot fire anybody in the private sector. One of the challenges that we have with the current negotiations is that they want four-day French workweeks, but more money. They want more benefits working fewer hours. That is simply not going to stand. I sat in a Finance Committee hearing when a widow came before the committee whose promised pensions from the unions, $4,000 a month. Unfortunately it had been cut to $1,000 a month. We must make sure that we honor the commitments that we make. And one of the ways we do that, do not over-promise and then under-deliver and leave the taxpayers on the hook.

On Jobs: Made in America plan: create 10 million jobs

SCOTT: If you look at our national debt of $33 trillion, I would love to have this country pass a balanced budget amendment. That would constrain the spending in Washington, number one. Number two, if you want to actually reduce our national debt, you have to grow our economy. In order to grow our economy, you need to create about 10 million jobs to grow our economy at 5 percent.

You can do that in three specific sectors. Number one, the energy sector. Number two, we've lost 100,000 factories in the last 25 years. If we continue with my Made in America plan, we could bring jobs back to America in a similar fashion that we did when I wrote the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

We actually lowered the corporate tax from 35 percent to 21 percent. Reshore or repatriated $1.7 trillion. We brought the unemployment rates for African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians to the lowest level in the history of the country.

On War & Peace: Our national interest is to degrade the Russian military

Gov. Ron DESANTIS (R-FL): We are not going to have a blank check. We will not have U.S. troops. We are going to make the Europeans do what they need to do.

SCOTT: 90% of the resources that we send to Ukraine is guaranteed as a loan--

DESANTIS: We're not going to get it back.

SCOTT: It's not actually going to be paid by Ukraine. It's paid our NATO allies. Our national vital interests is in degrading the Russian military. By degrading the Russian military, we actually keep our homeland safer, we keep our troops at home, and we all understand Article Five of NATO. If you want to keep American troops at home, the attack on NATO territory would bring us and our troops in. By degrading the Russian military, we reduce if not eliminate an attack on NATO territories.

Vivek RAMASWAMY (R-OH): China is the real enemy. And we're driving Russia further into China's arms.