Ronald Reagan in Reagan-Carter Presidential Debate

On Immigration: 1980: Illegal aliens attend public schools like citizens do

BUSH: Today, I would reluctantly say they would get whatever it is, what society is giving their neighbors. But the problem has to be solved.

REAGAN: I think the time has come that the United States and our neighbors--particularly our neighbor to the south--should have a better understanding and a better relationship than we've ever had. They have a problem of 40% to 50% unemployment. Now this cannot continue without the possibility arising of Cuba stirring up trouble below the border. And we could have a very hostile and strange neighbor on our border."

On Immigration: 1980: Work permits instead of a Mexico border fence

Work visas? Open borders? Understanding that migrant workers are responding to larger economic forces that play a defining role in where prosperity--or even a steady job--can be found? This is the kind of talk you'd expect from someone who'd grant amnesty to illegal immigrants already in the U.S., which, of course, Reagan did.

On Budget & Economy: Inflation doesn't come upon us like plague; it's government

CARTER: It's important to put the situation into perspective. In 1974 we had a so-called oil shock. We had an even worse oil shock in 1979. In 1974 we had the deepest and most penetrating recession since WWII. The recession that resulted this time was the briefest we've had since WWII. In addition, we've brought down inflation. Earlier this year, it averaged about 18%.

REAGAN: This idea that has been spawned, that inflation somehow came upon us like a plague and therefore it's uncontrollable, is entirely spurious, and it's dangerous to say this to the people. Mr. Carter has blamed inflation on OPEC, he's blamed the Federal Reserve System, he has blamed the lack of productivity of the American people, he has then accused the people of living too well. We don't have inflation because the people are living too well. We have inflation because the Government is living too well.

On Energy & Oil: Lower regulations on coal; explore for oil offshore in OCS

CARTER: We will drill more oil and gas wells this year than any year in history. We'll export more coal this year than any year in history.

REAGAN: This Nation has been portrayed for too long a time to the people as being energy-poor when it is energy-rich. The coal that the President mentioned: Yes, we have it, and yet 1/8 of our total coal resources is not being utilized at all right now. The mines are closed down. Most of this is due to regulations which either interfere with the mining of it or prevent the burning of it. With our modern technology, yes, we can burn our coal within the limits of the Clean Air Act. The other thing is that we have only leased out and begun to explore 2% of our Outer Continental Shelf for oil, where it is believed by everyone familiar with that fuel and that source of energy that there are vast supplies yet to be found.

On Environment: CA established CWA and OSHA, but over Reagan's objections

REAGAN: That is a misstatement of my position. For Mr. Carter to suggest that I want to do away with the safety laws and with the laws that pertain to clean water and clean air, and so forth: as Governor of California, I took charge of passing the strictest air quality law that has ever been adopted in the US. And we created an OSHA, an occupational safety and health agency, for the protection of employees before the Federal Government had one in place. I am suggesting that there are literally thousands of unnecessary regulations.

CARTER: The air pollution standard laws that were passed in California were passed over the objections of Governor Reagan. Also, recently, when someone suggested that OSHA should be abolished, Governor Reagan responded, "Amen."

On Homeland Security: America has never gotten in a war because we were too strong

REAGAN: I believe with all my heart that our first priority must be world peace, and that use of force is always and only a last resort, when everything else has failed, and then only with regard to our national security. Now, I believe, also that this responsibility for preserving the peace, which I believe is a responsibility peculiar to our country, that we cannot shirk our responsibility as the leader of the Free World, because we're the only one that can do it. And therefore, the burden of maintaining the peace falls on us. And to maintain that peace requires strength. America has never gotten in a war because we were too strong. We can get into a war by letting events get out of hand, as they have in the years under the foreign policies of Mr. Carter's, until we're faced each time with a crisis.

On Homeland Security: Scrap SALT II treaty; too many unilateral concessions

REAGAN: I think I'm right, because I believe that we must have a consistent foreign policy, a strong America, and a strong economy. The SALT II treaty was the result of negotiations that Mr. Carter's team entered into on the Soviet Union's terms, because Mr. Carter had canceled the B-1 bomber, delayed the Trident submarine, shut down the Minuteman missile production line, and whatever other things that might have been done. The Soviet Union knew that we had gone forward with unilateral concessions without any reciprocation from them whatsoever. I have not blocked the SALT II treaty, as Mr. Carter suggests--it has been blocked by a Democratic Senate.

On Jobs: Minimum wage does away with jobs, especially for black youth

REAGAN: The President says that I was against the minimum wage. I wish he could have been with me when I sat with a group of teenagers who were black and who were telling me about their unemployment problems, and that it was the minimum wage that had done away with the jobs that they once could get. And indeed, every time it has increased you will find there is an increase in minority unemployment among young people. And therefore, I have been in favor of a separate minimum for them.

On Social Security: Social security system was based on a false premise

REAGAN: The social security system was based on a false premise, with regard to how fast the number of workers would increase and how fast the number of retirees would increase. It is actuarially out of balance, and this first became evident about 16 years ago, and some of us were voicing warnings then. Now, it is trillions of dollars out of balance, and the only answer that has come so far is the biggest single tax increase in our Nation's history, the payroll tax increase for social security, which will only put a band-aid on this and postpone the day of reckoning by a few years at most.

CARTER: As long as there's a Democratic President, we will have a strong and viable social security system. Although Gov. Reagan has changed his position lately, on four different occasions he has advocated making social security a voluntary system, which would, in effect, very quickly bankrupt it.

On Welfare & Poverty: Development zones to reverse decline of our cities

REAGAN: In the inner-city areas, that in cooperation with local government and with National Government, and using tax incentives and with cooperation with the private sector, that we have development zones. Let the local entity, the city, declare this particular area, based on the standards of the percentage of people on welfare, unemployed, and so forth, in that area. And then, through tax incentives, induce the creation of businesses providing jobs and so forth in those areas. Through these tax incentives, a business that would not have, for a period of time, an increase in the property tax reflecting its development of the unused property that it was making wouldn't be any loss to the city, because the city isn't getting any tax from that now.