NEIL CAVUTO, HOST OF, "YOUR WORLD": In the meantime, on the hunt for votes, Republican presidential Jon Huntsman just announcing a very big money team in South Carolina.

The former governor with me right now.

Governor, good to have you.

JON HUNTSMAN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Neil, great to be with you.

CAVUTO: Planning any Manhattan fund-raisers in the next couple of days? You might want to get them out of the way.

HUNTSMAN: Funny you would ask. Funny you would ask. It better not be Saturday night, which ours is, so...

CAVUTO: Is it really?

HUNTSMAN: ... we hope everybody is still going to show up.

CAVUTO: Where exactly?

HUNTSMAN: Oh, it’s somewhere on Long Island.

CAVUTO: Oh, nothing to worry about there.

(LAUGHTER) CAVUTO: All right.

We talked a little in the last segment, Governor, about this Gallup poll. You did not fare well in that one. It's a national survey, but you were dead last in that.

HUNTSMAN: Yes.

CAVUTO: You getting nervous?

HUNTSMAN: Can I say, Neil, I like my chances? If this had been the reality last go-around in 2008, Fred Thompson would be president if you kind of read the polls then. Howard Dean would have been president in 2004. How many front-runners have we had in this race already in several months? Probably four or five.

Nobody's paying attention; nobody is tuned in, with the exception of the insider crowd. I like our chances because our message is straightforward, it’s honest, it's based on my record, and it’s based on a commonsense conversation with the people who are facing a Category 5 economic storm in this country.

And it’s almost like people don't want to face reality. And that is, we’ve hit the wall. We are bankrupting the next generation because of the debt that we are carrying. And we are trying to pretend like we are going to compete against the 21st century players across the Pacific Ocean.

I've lived in those countries. I've seen how they are prepared to deal with the 21st century. And, Neil, we've got a lot of work ahead of us if we are going to maintain our position of preeminence in this world.

CAVUTO: You raised eyebrows, Governor, then, as you did last night on PBS, when you talked about this share sacrifice issue. You said, "As president, I wouldn’t hesitate to call on a sacrifice from all of our people, even those at the very highest end of the income spectrum."

A lot of Tea Partiers read that, sir, to say, well, maybe they should pay more in taxes.

HUNTSMAN: I don't believe in more taxes at this time in our nation’s history. It's the worst thing we could do when we have got to get back on our feet.

But are we all going to have to step up and recognize the reality of where we are? And that is, entitlements cannot continue as they are today. It will bankrupt our future generation. We’ve got to change Medicare. We've got to change Social Security. We’ve got to revamp defense.

CAVUTO: Then why mention that the upper income have to do their part? Were you saying that they’re not as...?

HUNTSMAN: That was in response to a question. You have got to be careful about that.

CAVUTO: Right.

HUNTSMAN: All I saying is, everyone in this country is going to have to recognize the new reality. And that is we have got to fundamentally change the way we do business.

(CROSSTALK) CAVUTO: Does that include paying more to the government, if there are only so many cuts you can get?

HUNTSMAN: Well, it means reforming our tax code. We have a broken, dilapidated tax code that’s got to be completely revamped for the 21st century.

Do we need to phase out loopholes and deductions and get rid of corporate welfare? Absolutely we do. And you raise that and you reinvest it back in the tax code. That's exactly what I would do. We did that in the state of Utah, creating effectively a flat tax. And you buy down the rate. You broaden the base, buy down the rate.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Well, what of the Tea Partiers, then, Governor, or the more conservative members of Congress who say, no, you don’t do that, or even address subsidies or special allowances at this time, because that is subsequent to a tax increase -- tantamount to a to a tax increase, so, by hook or crook, they don’t entertain it, don't even put it out there, don’t even issue it?

HUNTSMAN: May I say that I live in the real world? In the real world, you’ve got to get things done.

CAVUTO: Are you saying the Tea Partiers do not?

HUNTSMAN: I'm just saying let's recognize the reality of a situation.

We're now at extreme ends of politics. The president's on one extreme. We have got people on another extreme, and they are kind of shouting past one another. At the end of the day, we've got to make this country work. We have got to get a tax code that actually is 21st century competitive. You can't bark at each other and expect to get results. You've got to deal realistically with how it is broken. And it is broken because we have got corporate welfare. We have subsidies to the tune of $90 billion in this country. We have got loopholes and deductions that have created huge disequilibrium’s economically speaking. They have got to be phased out. You’ve to buy down the rate. You've got to make a 21st century...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: So, do you think that some of the more conservative members in the party -- we always tend to call them Tea Partiers, maybe just a general -- extreme conservative part of the party, Governor, doesn't see that, because this "not in the real world thing" echoes a comment you had made about Michele Bachmann and her idea that maybe she could force $2 -- or under-$2 gas.

You had responded at the time, "I just don't know what world that comment would come from."