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.
I'll take that offer. Sounds like fun.
bump for later reference, someone who agrees to pay my salary on the Duncan Hunter team
No, but a moose bit my sister once. And I like cheese. And the Viking Kitties. If you don't know the inside joke on those, you'll want to read up on the freeper lexicon.
- Congressman Hunter used is committee position to help kill an amendment sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that would have required a Department of Defense spending bill report card revealing to the public all pork barrel spending in Congressional bills, along with the names of their sponsors. Why? His website brags about "helping local companies obtain defense contracts." One such company received a $9,000,000 contract to convert old Amry records regarding the Panama Canal to digitial archives. They Army did not want it, the GAO said it took money away from important programs.
- He voted for the largest expansion of Medicare since its creation, and voted to support a 2005 highway bill which was filled with tens of thousands of earmarks for Congressional spending projects, many unrelated to highways or even roads.
- He voted for No Child Left Behind.
- He voted to impose Sarbanes-Oxley accounting regulations on American businesses, making it diffciult for many small businesses to cope with the new red tape.
- He voted to support restrictions on free speech in political campaigns (McCain-Feingold) after first voting against it. In the 2000 election cycle he received $197,000 from defense industries. In 2005 he fell to second place with just $118,000.
- The Club for Growth says "he's been part of the big government spending spree of the last six years," and gave Hunter a 49% rating on its 2005 scorecard, that's 187th out of 230 Republicans in the House GOP Conference.
- While he had higher ratings from the National Taxpayers Union earlier in his career, the group now routinely gives Hunter "C" ratings.
Thank you for the good discussion and all I can say is from you keyboard to God's ear! I enjoyed the time.
I said that pharse to another poster
***Exactly. And it was in the response thread to that post that I was posting. You can't tell me that that isn't what was in my mind when I posted.
Here, do yourself a favor. Where you see on my post,
"Interesting you should be on the same side as them."
Insert this statement:
"How telling that you side with them."
If you have a problem with that statement, it's in your own words. Tell us why you have a problem with it.
That's how I learn as well.
I'm working on that civility thing. Eventually I'll get used to the fact that this socon forum is being inundated with candidates and nonsense that are not socon. And defending the socon candidate in a socon forum against a solib democrat in republican sheepskin is the right thing to do, even if it tries my patience and civility. Best of luck to you.
Thanks for the post of substance. I'll need to defer to some Hunter fans who might have more time and knowledge than I do at this present stage.
antoninus; pissant; seanmerc; flashbunny
What do you guys think? Most of this has been covered in other threads, but I'm running out of time.
Your time ran out a long time ago.
"I said that pharse to another poster" ***Exactly. And it was in the response thread to that post that I was posting. You can't tell me that that isn't what was in my mind when I posted.
What a deceptive, classless poster you are. I tell you that I said that to a poster because that poster said it to me. I then tell you that you should withdraw your complaint to me and post it to the original poster.
So what do you do? Instead of doing the classy appropriate thing, you intead remove the second part of my statement in your cut and past and ignore what I just told you was the origins of that statement.
You've now put your stupid foot in your mouth two times. Keep digging dope.
Last I checked, this is a "conservative" forum. That would include all things conservative such standing up against big government spending, and 1A encroachments.
Most of the comments on this thread about Hunter and his spending and 1A problems are appropriate.
A stack up Hunter's voting record against Rudy's "record" would work for me. I still don't see any substance when I post the rudy video, in his own words.
Feel free to post substantive responses on the thread set up for this video.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1793570/posts
Will the real Rudy show up at CPAC?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVBtPIrEleM
Transcript:
Culture of life:
ABC clip:
George Will: "Do you think Roe v Wade was good constitutional law?"
Rudy Giuliani: "Yes I believe, I believe it is."
Cnn Clip December 2, 1999:
Announcer: "Giuliani was then asked whether he supports a ban on what critics call partial birth abortions, something Bush strongly supports."
Rudy Giuliani : "No, I have not supported that, and I don't see my position on that changing."
Immigration
CNN clip:
Announcer: "Back in 1996, mayor Giuliani went to federal court to challenge new federal laws requiring the city to inform the federal government about illegal immigrants."
Rudy Giuliani: "There isn't a mayor or a public official in this country that's more strongly pro immigrant than I am. Including disagreeing with President Clinton when he signed an anti-immigration legislation about two or three years ago."
Gun control:
CNN clip
Rudy Giuliani: "I'm in favor of gun control"
Meet The Press:
Tim Russert: "How about registration of all handguns?"
Rudy Giuliani: "You know I'm in favor of that. I've been on your show many times."
Gay Rights:
CNN Clip:
Announcer: "As mayor he supported civil unions, and extending health and other benefits to gay couples."
ABC Clip: "I supported domestic partnership legislation and signed it"
Meet The Press:
Tim Russert: "So should gay people be openly allowed to serve?"
Rudy Giuliani: "I think people should be judged on the merits. And there should not be a specific focus on someone's sexual orientation."
First Amendment:
ABC Clip
Cokie Roberts: "Would you vote in the senate in favor of Mccain / Feingold?"
Rudy Giuliani: "Yes, I'm a big supporter of Mccain / Feingold. I have been for a long time."
Party Loyalty:
ABC Clip:
Rudy Giuliani: "Frankly George, I'd like to run on all the lines. I'd like to run on the liberal line, the conservative line, I'd like to run on the democratic line if I could figure out how to do it."
Conservative Values:
Meet The Press:
Tim Russert: "Whether it's gays in the military, gun control, campaign finance, late term abortion - you and Hillary Clinton are in sync on those issues."
Rudy Giuliani: "Well then maybe the other side should stop the 'He's part of the vast right wing conspiracy'."
Welcome To CPAC, Rudy!
End clip.
Oh, so profound.
From Free Reign: How telling that you side with them.
#430 on this thread.
To: AuntB
BTW, criticism of the Rudy charity speech is featured prominately at the the Democrat website.
Link
How telling that you side with them.
430 posted on 03/10/2007 11:11:37 AM PST by FreeReign (Still looking for the best conservative candidate.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 392 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]
Sigh. You should check. Today. You should have checked when you signed on. It is a social conservative forum. Duncan Hunter fits the socon template better than any other declared candidate. And you are showing incredibly bad manners.
From Jim Robinson, comment starting on the front page:
As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-Constitution, pro-Bill of Rights, pro-gun, pro-limited government, pro-private property rights, pro-limited taxes, pro-capitalism, pro-national defense, pro-freedom, and-pro America. We oppose all forms of liberalism, socialism, fascism, pacifism, totalitarianism, anarchism, government enforced atheism, abortionism, feminism, homosexualism, racism, wacko environmentalism, judicial activism, etc.
I'm out of time. Will check back later some time.
I'll wait right here.
It is a social conservative forum. Duncan Hunter fits the socon template better than any other declared candidate. And you are showing incredibly bad manners. As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-Constitution, pro-Bill of Rights, pro-gun, pro-limited government, pro-private property rights, pro-limited taxes, pro-capitalism, pro-national defense, pro-freedom, and-pro America. We oppose all forms of liberalism, socialism, fascism, pacifism, totalitarianism, anarchism, government enforced atheism, abortionism, feminism, homosexualism, racism, wacko environmentalism, judicial activism, etc.
Posting against big government spending and 1A encroachments seem to fit right in with the description. Perhaps you should read the description again and ask for help with some of the big words, o-k-a-y?
A real deep thinker.
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