Matthews asks whether Huckabee’s national sales tax would reduce spending.

Huckabee incredulously asks if Matthews has been near a mall on a Saturday.

“For a lot of Americans, the economy isn’t doing so well. The people who handle the bags, and make the beds, and make our food, many of them are having to work two jobs, and that’s barely paying the rent.”

Hunter laments jobs going to China. Man, I like Duncan Hunter, but he’s just such an asterisk in this race.

Hunter says every Senator on the stage voted for Most Favored Nation status for China.

Thompson: Free and fair trade has been good for America. Hits China on devaluing their currency. “In terms of turning our back on free trade, that’s not the direction we need to go in. Every country that has done that has suffered for it.”

Oh, Sam Brownback, you’re still here? He says he wouldn’t raise taxes. He wants an optional flat tax. Brownback wants to apply the BRAC for base closures to the rest of government.

Let me be the jerk saying get rid of Tom Tancredo, Sam Brownback, and everybody else under three? Four? Five percent from these debates. Their answers feel like they go on for days, and

Fred Thompson sounds a little phlegm-y. Maybe he needs to hock a loogie in the direction of Chris Matthews.

Aw, cripes, Matthews encourages Rudy and Romney to go at each other on tax cuts. Here we go.

Rudy: I cut taxes $9 billion. I cutted as many taxes as I could. Cites praise from George Will.

Romney: We both agree on the need to cut taxes. The best tool is the line-item veto. Points out that Rudy fought line-item veto, and points out effort to raise commuter tax.

Rudy emphasizes that the line-item veto was unconstitutional, and notes, “I took Bill Clinton to the Supreme Court and I beat him.” Hits Romney for raising taxes, and for increasing spending.

Romney: It’s baloney. Mr. Mayor, you have to check your facts. I do not believe the line-item veto is unconstitutional.

If my eyes are right, Thompson is smiling as Romney and Rudy go at it.

Rudy: You don’t get to have an opinion on whether it’s constitutional, the Supreme Court already ruled it was unconstutional. I went to the Supreme Court and beat Bill Clinton. I think it’s good to have a Republican candidate who actually beat Bill Clinton at something.

Thompson: Free-market has made us most prosperous nation in the history of the world… Manufacturers get hit with costs domestically. We can do a lot about their taxes and regulation.

Not an answer dripping with specifics.

Hunter says he intends to take a tough line on China.

Matthews asks if we’ll ever have a world of single-earner families again.

McCain: “I’d like to say yes, but I think we’re in the middle of a revolution that we haven’t seen since the industrial revolution… 50,000 Americans now make their living on E-Bay… In Detroit, automakers, before they turn a wrench, it’s a $1700 cost in legacy health care. For Toyota, its $200.

McCain uses his line about wasteful spending, studying the DNA of bears in Montana. “I don’t know if that’s a paternity issue or a criminal issue.”

Tancredo hits him on illegal immigration. Says every illegal immigrant family costs government $20,000.

Like those in the Corner, I’m getting irritated with CNBC’s three scrolls at the top and bottom, along with “THE REPUBLICANS, THE ECONOMY, AND YOU.”