PS. Let my people go... Let PISSANT be free!
Posted on 11/18/2007 10:05:17 AM PST by dit_xi
In 2000, after several years of annually renewing China on our country’s Most Favored Nation trade partner list, the Clinton Administration decided to propose making that status permanent. Permanent Most Favored Nation status (also called Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR)) was supported by most of the Republicans in the House and the Senate. They largely kowtowed to the big business and China lobbies running through the halls of Congress. Duncan Hunter had been sounding the alarm bells about communist China for many years. He illustrated example after example of China’s corruption, underhanded tactics, military buildup and its treatment of the United States as a foe. Yet the dollar signs carried the day, despite the overwhelming evidence of China’s robust espionage in the US, saber rattling over Taiwan, and its abysmal treatment of political and religious ‘dissidents’. The GOP leaders simply downplayed its military and technological gains and insisted that trade would open the dialog with the communists and foment reform. They largely sided with Clinton, and it became law. Cold water was quickly tossed on the notion of reform in 2001 with the downing of a US reconnaissance plane and the subsequent hostage situation.
In 2007, it is glaringly obvious that the China appeasers were dead wrong, and that Hunter was right. From the $233 billion trade surplus with the US in 2006, to the relentless pirating of US software and other intellectual property, to the purchase of cutting edge Soviet made weapons systems, to its arming of terrorists in Iraq, to its most recent wave of persecution of Christians, China has proven to be the unworthy and untrustworthy adversary that Hunter has claimed all along. Hunter’s rivals for the GOP nomination, John McCain, Sam Brownback and Fred Thompson all ignored Hunter’s warnings and signed on with the Clinton machine.
When it comes to the protection of US sovereignty, no one has been as stalwart as Duncan Hunter. Most of the GOP has followed the path of ‘free trade’, as delineated by organizations such as the Wall Street Journal and the CATO Institute. Congressman Hunter saw the problem with this notion many years ago. Prior to the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) morphing into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, GATT was a system of negotiations between countries, often led by the US, to reduce tariffs, fostering freer trade amongst member nations. Something Adam Smith (and Duncan Hunter) could generally agree with. Nations could and did opt out of GATT agreements when it went against their national interest, and later sign on when they felt it was in their interests. GATT was non binding, other than the pressure member nations brought to bear for ‘violations’. The creation of the WTO changed the game. Now, negotiations and enforcement were handed over to a new supra-national entity. No longer did the US have the ability to lock horns directly with a trade partner over a particular issue. Instead, the mechanisms and personnel for trade disputes were handed over to the WTO bureaucracy. Aside from the absolute fact that international bureaucracies seldom favor the United State’s position, making our entry into the WTO absurd on its face, the surrender of sovereignty over our international commerce is anathema to Duncan Hunter’s view of our constitution.
The WTO rejected President Bush’s 2001 corporate tax cuts for US exporters and forced the US government to rescind them, calling them an unfair subsidy! Hunter told Human Events in a 2006:
“We have the right in our nation’s interest, to abandon WTO in whole or in part, just as any nation has a right to abandon its international agreements. I think it’s intolerable to allow the world trading system to have voted in essentially a subsidy directed at one nation-the United States-a subsidy on their end and a tariff on American exports to those nations, to lock that in as being allowed under WTO, and to not allow us under our system of taxation to effect reciprocity.” Once again, the rest of the GOP is slowly catching on, that surrender of our national sovereignty to any world body is not only stupid, but unconstitutional. Whether it’s called the UN, the International Criminal Court, or the WTO, Hunter asserts that America must retain its ultimate authority to make decisions regarding American interests. As Ronald Reagan stated, “We are always willing to be trade partners but never trade patsies.”
They’ve got others that say Paul is the only one who has ever done anything to secure the borders or stop illegal immigration. I contacted the outfit that ran them and they responded. Basically, oh, well! Paul has done nothing to secure the border on his own. Remember he’s never had a piece of legislation that ever went anywhere and has made some quetionable votes on immigration. He sure never led the way to fix the mess.
Ron Paul has done nothing, but Duncan Hunter is THE ONLY politician that actually had a fence built in San Diego which tremendously cut down drug trafficking and crime in San Diego, and, of course, illegal immigration in general.
PS. Let my people go... Let PISSANT be free!
“I’ve been emailing the White House about pardoning R and C for several years now.
What great news that Duncan Duane will be home with his family for Thanksgiving! A true day of thanks for his entire family! God bless them all.”
I pray every day for our troops, and I mention four by name, one of them being Duncan Hunter’s son.
Glad you’ve been keeping the pressure on to help free our border agents.
I e-mailed the president and called the comment line to pardon Ramos and Compean, and I actually got to talk to a real person, after an only couple of minutes wait.
I voted Duncan Hunter.
Thank you for the ping.
Thank you for voting!
Free Republic Opinion Poll: (11/19) Final in the series: Which candidate should pro-life conservatives rally behind to defeat the liberal abortionists Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton?
Composite Opinion
Fred Thompson 51.7% 976
Duncan Hunter 48.3% 910
100.0% 1,886
Member Opinion
Fred Thompson 54.5% 624
Duncan Hunter 45.5% 520
100.0% 1,144
Non-Member Opinion
Duncan Hunter 52.6% 390
Fred Thompson 47.4% 352
100.0% 742
I’m impressed with the poll thusfar.
Hunter doing so well! Thanks for that.
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