Jill Lawrence

USA TODAY Opinion

Like Woody Allen’s joke about a place that has terrible food “and such small portions,” Republican discussion of a top issue on American minds is often strangely removed from the real lives of real people -- and the portions are tiny.

What do Republicans talk about when they talk about money?

It isn’t tuition, that's for sure. That word appears exactly once in all seven Republican debate transcripts, including the one from Thursday night in Des Moines. John Kasich almost got there in the last five minutes when he mentioned decent jobs for children so they could “pay down their college debt,” and the topic was briefly addressed in October in Boulder, Colo., when Kasich received a direct question on college costs. But the actual word “tuition” has been spoken one time by one candidate – Jeb Bush, also in Boulder.

The Democrats have a field a fraction the size of the GOP free-for-all and they’ve only held four debates. Yet the word tuition appears 33 times in the transcripts, between four and 11 times per debate.

That is an admittedly rough indicator, but it does reflect the disparate economic fixations of the two parties. Democrats are granular almost to a fault, with their multi-point proposals to address high tuition, low wages, unequal pay for women, and the like. Most of the Republican candidates are in a totally different head space -- less kitchen table, more business lunch or constitutional seminar or camp meeting for true believers.

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They talk in general terms about growing the economy and shrinking the government, about balancing the federal budget and slashing waste, fraud and abuse (although “that really doesn't ever materialize. We all know that,” as moderator Bret Baier said this week). Chris Christie talks about “entitlement reform,” also known as cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits. Ben Carson talks about “the evil government that is putting all these regulations on us so that we can’t survive.” Rand Paul says he’s worried about “how much debt we’re adding.”

Ted Cruz rails about the “disastrous” impact of Obamacare – “Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, have been forced into part-time work, have lost their health insurance, have lost their doctors, have seen their premiums skyrocket.” But fact-checkers have debunked most of these claims, and, in any case, only a small fraction of the country buys insurance through the law's exchanges (for instance, the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 10 million buy private insurance via Obamacare marketplaces, compared with 149 million who have insurance through their employers).

Republicans also talk a lot about cutting taxes for business. How many normal Americans know what VAT means? I’m guessing hardly any. That didn’t stop Marco Rubio from budgeoning Cruz with phrases like “your VAT tax” in last month’s debate. Did either of them explain what it was? Well, sort of, if you count Cruz’s description of the VAT or value-added tax as a sales tax, and not at all like his proposal for a business flat tax, which by the way he said would allow elimination of the corporate income tax and “the death tax,” also known as the inheritance tax, which would help farmers, ranchers and business owners.

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Yet only about one in 10 to 15 Americans owns a business, so the great majority aren’t all that interested in what a VAT tax would do for business owners. As for the rank and file, Donald Trump reflected a typical view when he said he would not raise the minimum wage. “Taxes too high, wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete against the world. I hate to say it, but we have to leave it the way it is,” he said at a debate.

That was mild. At a Pensacola, Fla. rally this month, exasperated by a microphone that wasn’t working right, he sounded about as sympathetic toward the working stiff as Mitt “I like being able to fire people” Romney. "Whoever the hell brought this mic system, don't pay the son of a bitch," Trump said. "This mic is terrible. Stupid mic keeps popping. Do you hear that George? Don't pay him! Don't pay him. You know, I believe in paying, but when somebody does a bad job like this stupid mic, you shouldn't pay the bastard. Terrible. Terrible. It's true." He added: "So we're not going to pay. I guarantee you I'm not paying for this mic.” Meanwhile, over at CNN, Trump’s former butler was being interviewed.

Look, it’s not that these issues aren’t important, and these topics are proven winners with the Republicans most likely to turn out during primary season. But the debates are great showcases that are going to waste. And surely even GOP primary voters are concerned about college costs. More than 68% of high school graduates go to college, which means that many, many families are paying tuition or worrying about future payments for their fifth-graders, and 40 million people have tuition debts.

You don’t have to be a Democrat to show you care. Rick Perry, the former 14-year Texas governor and two-time presidential campaign dropout, pioneered the $10,000 college degree. He also argued at the National Press Club last year that “the high cost of everyday life” in places like Baltimore or Detroit means minority families can have better lives in Dallas or Houston. I’m not sure I’d want to get rid of strict zoning laws and environmental regulations, two of the reasons Perry says it’s cheaper to live in Texas than in coastal cities, but he makes an interesting case.

Republicans have faced an idiosyncratic array of debate questioners, and a mix of questions heavier on personality conflicts than policy ideas. That’s inevitable, given Trump’s outsized, outrageous presence, even when he’s absent. But all of these candidates learned in Politics 101 that whatever you’re asked, you pivot to the topic you want to discuss. If they wanted to talk about concrete ways to solve concrete economic problems in debates watched by many millions of people, they’d find a way.

Jill Lawrence is the commentary editor of USA TODAY. Follow her on Twitter @JillDLawrence.

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