Giuliani: Technology as a multipurpose tool

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani knew he was talking to a technology savvy crowd and wasted little time in putting tech issues at the center of his speech this morning in Northern Virginia.

America's future is tied to technology, the former New York mayor and presidential hopeful told the packed crowd at a Northern Virginia Technology Council breakfast today.

Technology is at the heart of the fight against terrorism. "It can keep us safe," he said. Later in his speech he credited the creation of a digital map of New York City with helping lower the crime rate while he was mayor.

The map allowed the layering of crime statistics with the deployment of police officers and other information. It was a tool for spotting troubled areas quickly and making decisions about how to deploy resources, he said.

Similar technologies should be used to collect information along U.S. borders to better manage the fight against illegal immigration, Giuliani said. He supports both a physical fence and a virtual fence of sensors and cameras as well as more border patrol substations to close the border.

The transformation of government also relies on technology. Giuliani said he envisions an information-based government workforce that can be smaller in number, but more effective and efficient.

"Technology is also about you, the entrepreneur ? business is the American story," he said.

American prosperity has been fueled by technological advances. He talked about the explosion of personal computers, the Internet and cell phones that has occurred since 1984.

"The question is: How do we not put a lid on that growth," he said. "Government needs to get out of the way of private enterprise."

His speech was interrupted by applause for the first time when he advocated making the Internet tax moratorium permanent. Such a tax is an example of a lid on growth, he said.

Giuliani won additional applause when he advocated opening up more visas for foreign workers. The crowd also responded positively when he said that the capital gains tax should remain at 15 percent and that the inheritance tax should be eliminated.