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.
Paula T is a lonely old girl.
Have pity on her.
The apostrophe is all she's got to add to the debate.
That, and probably a house full of cats.
Hmmmm... NEXT!
He made a mistake if he voted yes to Sarbanes-Oxley, but so did many others on this complicated legislation, and the law has since been changed to give some relief to small businesses.
Many Republicans were convinced to vote for Part D of Medicare because it included private health savings accounts--that may have been the reason for Hunter.
OK, now I'll read the thread : )
AuntB just refuted you! LMAO.
Well, this is disheartening. But, since I read Newt's interview with Dr. Dobson and he said he has sought God's forgiveness for his past moral failures; that's good enough for me.
I think I'm leaning toward the Newtster.
~ thank you ~
Thanks. Keep up the good work.
Very interesting...
Thanks, Coleus!
Really? Worked real well for Tom McClintock, didn't it? (is that the guy's name who ran against Ahhnold in the primaries?). If McClintock had been the Republican nominee, say "Hola, Governor Bustamente."
thanks for the link.
I find hypocrisy with some on FR who claim to like the U.S. But aid or support illegals who are destroying our country.
Europe is being ate up and taken over by the Muslims
and the U.S. the same by the illegals.
Please, please tell me you forgot the /sarcasm tag. Assuming you're serious (which I'm not sure you are, LOL) I'd rather a Rudy who owns up to it and doesn't excuse it than someone coming clean just in time to run for the election.
Actually, I refuted her.
AH
Odd, the purists cheering for a big spending RINO. Duncan Hunter isn't the answer, he's part of the problem.
Keep them coming! Hehehe.
Is it perfect? Definitely not. Is it better than your strategy of hiding in a hole and hoping the terrorist world forgets about us? Yep.
At least you admit it. Most of the cheerleaders for this operation say something like "better to fight them over there than here" and leave it at that, as if it were truly that simple.
Conservatism can't be redefined to mean social issues only. Otherwise, it becomes a sectarian movement largely comprised of very religious folks that cannot get to 51% in any election.I think there are some Freepers who would prefer conservatism to equal religious issues plus national security. That totally misunderstands the rich intellectual history of conservatism, both the Tory strain in the UK and the modern movement here started by, quite frankly, a bunch of New Yorkers! Buckley, the Kristols, Will, etc.
Political conservatism is a movement open to both religious and irreligious and is based on how one views the role of government more than anything. Economic freedom is one of its central tenets, as is taming the federal leviathan, and Duncan Hunter misses the mark on both counts.
I never disputed that Duncan Hunter is a social conservative. Reread my original post and observe the implicit distinction I make between "conservative" and "conservative who has the credentials, record, image and charisma to make a good dark horse conservative candidate." But this is all academic. He cannot win the nomination. He doesn't even have the stature to influence, or "hold their feet to the fire," the candidates who can win the nomination.
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