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.
Ha! I was waiting for you to show up.
Go here. Listen to "A Time for Choosing." It'll blow you away.
"I don't understand the hype about this guy Hunter here on FR. Granted, I'm a Rudy guy myself BUT (unlike some on the fringe right here who won't vote for Rudy if he wins) I will vote for Hunter in the general election if he wins the primaries. I am petrified of the Hildebeast. "
First of all, what is the fringe right?
Secondly, if you are petrified of the Hildebeast(and I think that drives a lot of the Rudy support), do you not see that so many are against rudy that he would lose to hillary?
..it sounded to me like those low ratings were payback for something...
Hi, hon!! About to toodle off, tho'. We're up at 5 a.m. to go skiing! It's so fun to see the little ones!
***YES on the 527 bill (like most Republicans, he flip-flopped, having first voted NO on McCain-Feingold)***
I'm going to go through all of these, but I'll start with this one. Hunter voted a solid NO on McCain-Feingold because it was a BAD law. The 527 bill attempted to clean up that BAD law by making 527 orginazations identify all of their contributors.
I urge you all to read this article -
http://thehill.com/business--lobby/527-bill-splits-republicans-2006-04-05.html
You will see that the Club for Growth which is a 527 organization has an ax to grind with Duncan Hunter and any one that voted for this bill.
Leftists piss in toilets. So do I. Does that make me a leftist?
The elections Iraq has had have elected a government largely incapable of governing. It is not sovereign. The people of Iraq are blowing themselves up along sectarian lines, and our soldiers are in the crossfire.
In any case, there'll be a presidential debate on Wednesday, so we'll see how his communication skills hold up.
"But at the same time, none of the other GOP Presidential candidates are talking about entitlement reform or reigning in the size of the federal government either."
That is why I am holding out for someone liker Fred Thompson. None of the current crop excite me much. After eight years of Bush there is NO WAY I want to see another big government Republican in the White House.
I have several relatives who have done tours in Iraq, they hold a different view.
You hate people who support the military and the war because you don't have the balls to serve.
I was under 10 years old for most of the '80's and I do not remember much politically from that era, but I'll always remember Reagan. He was like a wise grandfather on TV to me.
The Challenger speech, when I was 8 (which most public school students were compelled to watch live due to America's first teacher going to space) was my favorite memory as I was just devastated and Reagan made it better.
When do we start campaigning for the next election? "Today President Nader was sworn in. In related news, former speaker Newt Gingrich has turned around his six month slide in the polls for the 2022 election."
NO on NAFTA NO on CAFTA
I am not a fan of globalism one worldism let's let giant coroporations rule the world and erase the borders-ism.
Thank you for saying what I've been thinking for months, but have been unable to articulate.
Whenever a Freeper attacks another for supporting a "RINO", I'm always confused about what the new definition of "conservative" is.
Would you rather have us pull out and remove the big red bullfighter's cape that we're waving around at the terrorists over there? We do that and the terrorists will follow us here, putting our women and children in the crossfire. If you advocate pulling out, you are advocating sacrificing the lives of American women and children to save the lives of American soldiers, and that's absolutely backwards, not to mention despicable.
Sobering.
Thx.
I'll also add that Duncan Hunter has been very strong on increasing the military spending that was decimated during the Clinton years. By voting for bills that increase the military spending it overall makes him look like a big spender.
I counted my balls just yesterday. I counted two. How many do you have?
How am I supposed to respond to such an asinine and juvenile claim? I expect a higher level of discourse from someone who calls himself a conservative.
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