Duncan Hunter in 2007 Des Moines Register Republican debate
On Budget & Economy:
Budget deficit & trade deficit to China create security risk
Q: Does our country’s financial situation creates a security risk?A: There are two debts that are a threat to the national security. One is the budget deficit, which is going to be about $161 billion this year, but the real deficit, the real loss that
we have right now that is a threat to national security is a trade loss. The trade loss this year is going to be $800 billion. It’s going to be $200 billion to communist China, which is rapidly becoming our banker, and there’s an old saying, “You don’t
want to have a banker who doesn’t have your best interests at heart.“ We should level the playing field. We should stop China from cheating on trade, bring back a lot of those high-paying manufacturing jobs to this country that we pushed off-shore.
That means bigger paychecks. That means more money going into the Federal Treasury and to Social Security and to Medicare, eliminate those twin deficits, and we’ll be on the right track.
Source: 2007 Des Moines Register Republican debate
Dec 12, 2007
On Education:
Unions and status quo run good teachers out of teaching
Jaime Escalante was a great math teacher who in the barrio of Los Angeles taught young kids Calculus, and he taught them so well that the school district called up and said, “We got a problem. We think your kids are cheating on the tests.” He said, “Test
them again.” He established this incredible system in the school district by inspiring young people. The post-mortem on Escalante is that the unions ran him out of the school district, and that goes right to one of the big problems that we have.
Source: 2007 Des Moines Register Republican Debate
Dec 12, 2007
On Energy & Oil:
Give incentives in R&D to find new energy sources
I’d say instead of mandates, incentives. The problem with mandating only biofuels is that you use a lot of energy to create ethanol, and there’s other biofuels out there--biodiesel, etc. By giving incentives in R&D and bringing government laboratories
together with business & educational institutions, the US can become the center with a new industry of energy innovation. We should take the alternative energy sources and give incentives to private enterprise to get involved to deliver a great product.
Source: 2007 Des Moines Register Republican Debate
Dec 12, 2007
On Free Trade:
NAFTA is a bad business deal
When we had a $3 billion trade surplus with Mexico when we passed NAFTA, and the advocates said we’re going to build on that surplus. Today we have a massive trade loss. We went immediately to a $15 billion trade loss. If you take your product made in
Iowa down to the Mexican border right now and tried to get it across, you will pay a 15 percent tariff, which they moved into place after we passed NAFTA. We haven’t made good business deals between nations. NAFTA is a bad business deal.
Source: 2007 Des Moines Register Republican Debate
Dec 12, 2007
On Government Reform:
Focus on the military, immigration, & the industrial base
I will focus on strengthening the military & meeting horizon threats; strengthening & enforcing the US border. That means building the border fence & making sure we know who is coming into this country, what they’re bringing with them. Bringing back the
industrial base of the US that is fragmenting and being sent off to China and to other places around the world, which also is a security threat; bringing back high-paying manufacturing jobs to this country that will serve this next generation well.
Source: 2007 Des Moines Register Republican Debate
Dec 12, 2007
On Tax Reform:
The IRS and current tax system cost too much
The tax that we’re all paying that doesn’t help anything--it doesn’t go to defense, the roads, medical care--is the $250 billion-plus that we pay each year not to the federal government, to the Treasury, but to prepare our taxes, defend our taxes, and
for the massive cost of the IRS. What we ought to do is have a system--the fair tax system is a good one, or a flatter tax or a simpler tax, because that young couple that pays 1,450 bucks in taxes may pay $450 to their tax preparer. That’s a second tax.
Source: 2007 Des Moines Register Republican Debate
Dec 12, 2007
On Tax Reform:
FactCheck: Cost of IRS compliance is $150B,not $250B
Hunter overstated the compliance burden of the federal tax system, saying we pay “$250 billion-plus each year not to the federal government or the Treasury, but to prepare our taxes, defend our taxes, and for the massive cost of the IRS.
That’s all overhead--250 billion-plus dollars.”We’re not sure where Hunter gets that figure. The President’s Advisory Panel on Tax Reform puts total compliance costs at around
$140 billion per year, a figure that includes the value of individual taxpayer’s time spent filling out forms, which strictly speaking is not money “that we pay.” Add to that the “more than
$10 billion” that the government spends to administer the tax system, and the figure comes to $150 billion, not $250 billion. The advisory panel report says other estimates of compliance costs fall between $100 billion and $200 billion.
Source: FactCheck on 2007 Des Moines Register Republican debate
Dec 12, 2007
Page last updated: Nov 30, 2018