During CNN's Republican Presidential Town Hall on Tuesday, Donald Trump was asked what the three most important roles of the federal government were. His answer: security, health care and education.
"In your opinion, what are the top three functions of the United States government?" asked Robert Kitelinger, an Army veteran.
"Well, the greatest function of all by far is security for our nation. I would also say health care, I would also say education," Trump said. "I mean there are many, many things, but I would say the top three are security, security, security. We have to have security for our country so that we can continue to exist as a country."
"So, top three, you're saying, security-" host Anderson Cooper said.
"Security. I would say, I say all top three are security. But, health care, education would be probably three that would be top, and then you can go on from there," Trump said.
"So in terms of federal government role, you're saying security, but you also say health care and education should be provided by the federal government," Cooper said.
"Well those are two of the things, yeah, sure," Trump said. "There are, I mean there are obviously many things: housing, providing great neighborhoods and safe neighborhoods."
"Because aren't you against the federal government's involvement in education? Don't you want it to devolve to states?" Cooper said.
"No, I want it to go to states, yeah, absolutely. I want, right now--" Trump said.
"So, that's not part of what the federal government's role should be?" Cooper said.
"No, the federal government, but the concept of the country is, is the concept that we have to have education within the country. And we have to get rid of Common Core and it should be brought to the state level," Trump said.
"And federal health care, run by the federal government?" Cooper said.
"Uh, health care. We need health care for our people. We need a good--Obamacare is a disaster. It's proven to be--" Trump said.
"But is that something the federal government should be doing?" Cooper said.
"The government can lead it, but it should be privately done. It should be privately done. So that health care, in my opinion, we should probably have--we have to have private health care. We don't have competition in health care," Trump said.