Posted on 03/09/2007 6:44:43 PM PST by LdSentinal
Periodically, I get e-mails from supporters of the presidential candidacy of Alpine Rep. Duncan Hunter who express disbelief, befuddlement or fury, or a mix of all three, at my flat contention that he is a populist demagogue and anything but a principled conservative. These folks cannot fathom any talk that he's not free-trade, small-government Ronald Reagan reincarnated.
Here's a typical example of Hunterista reaction to my comment that he's been against trade deals that have been important boons to our economy:
You're supposed to be a columnist, an informed person. This is not an informed statement.
OK. If you don't believe me about Duncan Hunter's RRRINOitis, here's what the influential, admired-and-respected-in-conservative-circles Club for Growth has to say about him:
Like most Republicans, he's strong on tax cuts, but he's been part of the big government spending spree of the last 6 years. He also has a protectionist streak in him. Here are some of the more troubling votes:
NO on NAFTA YES on No Child Left Behind YES on Sarbanes-Oxley YES on the 2003 Medicare Drug Benefit NO on CAFTA YES on 2005 Highway Bill YES on the 527 bill (like most Republicans, he flip-flopped, having first voted NO on McCain-Feingold) Hunter also went 0 for 19 on the Flake anti-pork amendments.
Despite being a member of the Republican Study Committee, Hunter frequently votes NO on their fiscally conservative annual budgets (2006, 2005, 2003...)
We gave him a 49% on the 2005 Club for Growth scorecard. That places him 187th within the House GOP conference, out of roughly 230 members.
National Taxpayers Union shows a more telling trend. He was strong in the early 1990s, getting "B's" and one "A", but as time went by, like most politicians, his score dropped. For the past few years, he's been getting "C's".
Those Cs are incredibly generous. As CATO noted last year, with Duncan Hunter cheering him on ...
... President Bush has presided over the largest overall increase in inflation-adjusted federal spending since Lyndon B. Johnson. Even after excluding spending on defense and homeland security, Bush is still the biggest-spending president in 30 years. His 2006 budget doesn't cut enough spending to change his place in history, either.
Total government spending grew by 33 percent during Bush's first term. The federal budget as a share of the economy grew from 18.5 percent of GDP on Clinton's last day in office to 20.3 percent by the end of Bush's first term.
The Republican Congress has enthusiastically assisted the budget bloat. Inflation-adjusted spending on the combined budgets of the 101 largest programs they vowed to eliminate in 1995 has grown by 27 percent.
The GOP was once effective at controlling nondefense spending. The final nondefense budgets under Clinton were a combined $57 billion smaller than what he proposed from 1996 to 2001. Under Bush, Congress passed budgets that spent a total of $91 billion more than the president requested for domestic programs.
And as bad as things are on the budget front, they're about to get a whole lot worse because of a pending nightmare that Duncan Hunter -- supposed tough guy, supposed truth-teller, supposed fiscal conservative -- has chosen to ignore. To borrow from what I wrote last year ...
... the single worst problem facing this country in coming years, with the possible exception of nuclear terrorism, is dealing with the massive fiscal impact of baby boomers retiring. As we slowly transition from a nation where there are 4 working adults for every adult getting Social Security and Medicare to a nation where that ratio is 2 to 1, we will face an incredible fiscal squeeze.
As a veteran member of Congress, Duncan Hunter knows this. He's heard the warnings, seen the bipartisan studies. So what did this self-declared fiscal conservative do in 2003? He voted to make the problem much, much, much worse by extending prescription drug benefits to seniors, three-quarters of whom already have coverage. The money that was saved by all the triumphant stands he claims to have taken is infinitesimal compared to the staggering long-term national debt he helped add with this one vote, which was tantamount to civic arson.
Yeah, right, our Duncan's a fiscal conservative. ... He loves spending your grandkids' money, and by the truckload.
Duncan Hunter is no Ronald Reagan. To those who say Ronald Reagan really wasn't Ronald Reagan -- that government didn't get smaller when he was president -- well, he tried harder than any president in modern times to get Congress to control spending and wipe out whole government agencies. By contrast, Hunter and the GOP Congress of 2001-2006 kept the national credit cards hanging on a string around their necks for easy and constant use.
Well of course I meant "None of them will be" a new Ronald Reagan...I must be more careful with the editing, lol!
His record on free trade agreements is horrible, and we don't have a free trade agreement with China.
He's a protectionist and that can't be denied. The unions love that.
You know, if your intention in posting this article was to change the minds of Hunter supporters - I think you missed your mark. I know it hasn't changed my mind a bit. I still like him! Like I said, he's not perfect - but he's way ahead of the 3 frontrunners in my book.
It's good to hear both sides of an issue - I've heard your side, given it a lot of thought, & I'll still stick with my candidate.
You have yours & I have mine - may the best man win.
GO DUNCAN HUNTER!!!
The fact that he has talked to the unions is why I will not support him....
"Majumder admitted giving illegal contributions to Kerry and Reps. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-San Diego), Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon), John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) and former Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.), totaling more than $95,000. To settle a civil suit, Majumder has agreed to repay $3 million to the federal government."
You thought incorrectly.
I think what he meant was
"Not Rudy, who dodged the draft, and not Mitt, who like his five sons never served."
Then you haven't been on many of the rudy threads where there's just crickets when we ask questions of substance. Notice no one says anything about the video I posted?
This is a social conservative website, and the rudophiles are pushing a social liberal on us. It's especially bad manners to be asking a false dilemma question like "who would you vote for, rudy or Hildebeast" AND they don't answer the questions we put forth. Why don't they go & start their own social liberal website where they can feel like they're under attack from socons who go over & argue with them? It reminds me of people who immigrate to this country and then denigrate it, saying how great their old country was. If it was so great, they wouldn't be here, that says volumes. So where is this great RINO rudy website in the sky that we can send the kool-aid drinkers to? Oh, I know, I'm getting used to the answer... crickets.
He cut 23 taxes - returning over $2 billion to taxpayers.
He shrunk the welfare rolls by 600,000.
He reduced the number of murders from over 2000 when he took office, to just over 600 when he left.
I'm looking to vote for a candidate to head my government, not to head my church.
I'm glad this article was posted. I have to admit Duncan Hunter hadn't really caught my attention (other then his fans being all over every other candidate's threads) but I'm discovering he's a very interesting fellow.
It can't be.. Duncan is a "True Conservative". A "True Conservative" never excepts kickbacks (unless it is for the working man)....
Like NAFTA and CAFTA you mean? I'd say his record is pretty dog gone good ;-)
Quick question.
Was Hunter weak on defense at all before these contracts, as you say?
"He has always been strong on defense starting with his father being a Marine and duncan being in the Viet nam war and his son 2 tours in Iraq.
His record has always been strong, not bought.
Not like draft dodger Rudy and Mitt and his 5 sons who never served."
What a wonderful family, and I'd feel safe having a man such as Duncan Hunter as POTUS. The country needs him.
One of the two tours his son did in Iraq, included going to Fallujah.
Hunter must be gaining support and name recognition, the Rudy supporters are turning their guns on the legitimate conservative in the race.
That would explain such lukewarm support for a long-standing republican.
We kind of go around in circles, don't we!lol I guess time will tell!
Heck no. He's one of the strongest Congressmen on defense issues that money can buy.
I'd love to hang around and what this boondoogle but I have an early morning. I'll leave you with this happy thought though. Anyone can find all kinds of interesting contribution entanglements for Hunter in no time. If for some reason he became the GOP candidate (meteorites take out the other candidates, black death, etc) the press would have a field day with him and his history.
"I put in an additional 10 million dollars for jammers to defeat road-side bombs, portable jammers. The Pentagon didn't have any jammers that could be carried by infantrymen. That meant they had nothing for the troops. I put in 10 million dollars and we built and deployed jammers for our dismounted troops within 70 days. We did 10,000 of them in 70 days.
Armored vests, additional humvees, a ship, the X-Craft which goes 60 miles an hour, which is manned by a crew of only 26 people, which is truly transformational of the US Navy, and which has been given glowing marks by former Secretaries of the Navy - that was added.
Let me give you other things that have been added by Congress - an aircraft carrier when Jimmy Carter didn't want to put it in the budget, the B-1 bomber and the President didn't want to put it in the budget, so the point is that Congress is supposed to, and is charged, and the Constitution says Congress shall provide for the Navies, the equipping of the Navies, the Army, and by implication, the Air Force. It's our Constitutional duty..."
http://www.rightnation.us/forums/index.php?showtopic=114155
I'm sure glad that Duncan Hunter spent money for our defense and to protect our troops.
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