As usual, Duncan Hunter was terrific on the damage Communist China is doing to the American economy:
. . . let me tell you, Chris, what is missing from this economy: 1.8 million jobs that have moved to communist China from the United States . . . what I would do is pass the Hunter-Ryan bill which would put countervailing duties on the Chinese when they cheat. They are cheating on trade right now . . . when Communist China devalues their currency by 40 percent, they undercut American products around the world . . .That said - and remember, I say this as a Hunter guy - I would have preferred he focus a little more on the national security threat of the Communist regime. As it was, that issue was taken up by two other candidates, Tom Tancredo . . .
But if they wanted to buy something else that would have, in this case, certainly, more of an impact on our national security interests, I'd say, no, we'd have to think about that in a totally different way. It is exactly the same with regard to China. There are things that we should have thought of in the first place, when we passed the PNTR, which I voted against, along with Duncan Hunter. And I absolutely agree that trade is a great idea in many respects. But when you trade with people who are your potential enemy, and they have shown a willingness to use that economic opportunity to actually increase their threats to the United States, I'm not for trading with them at all.. . . and Fred Thompson:
I was one of the strictest advocates of imposing restrictions on the Chinese for their behavior in terms of exporting dangerous materials to other countries and tying some of trade policies to what they did in that regard. They have still not done enough. They have devalued their currency which puts them in a favored position as far as our manufacturers are concerned.FYI and for the record, Fred Thompson did indeed push hard for those curbs, but he still voted for PNTR with Communist China after the curbs were voted down. As for Tancredo, again, but for the presence of Hunter in the race, he'd be my favorite.
However, the last candidate who had previously won my conditional approval, Rudy Giuliani, lost it with a slew of terrible answers:
We're a country that should think about all these people that are coming out of poverty in China and India and elsewhere -- we should think of them as newThis is utterly wrong on so many levels that I can't get into all of them, but I can remind everyone that "China and India" is just about the most ignorant geopolitical pairing imaginable. No one who falls into that trap can be expected to steer the ship of state thoughtfully enough, in my humble opinion.
customers . . . What are China and India trying to do? China and India are trying to develop themselves to be like us, which is why we got a heck of a lot we can sell to them . . .
As for the rest, John McCain was terrible ("It sounds like a lot of fun to bash Chinese and others, but . . .) - trust me, Senator, if it were that much fun, we would have a lot more company over here - while Messrs. Romney and Brownback made some minor comments.
The main thing, however, is this: Giuliani is off the "list," while Thompson stays on. As the year comes to a close, those of us in the anti-Communist community (at least those of us who are Republicans) need to remember the need to prevent the anti-Communist vote from splitting, and ask ourselves if a Thompson in the hand is worth Tancredo and Hunter in the bush.
For now, though, I'm still holding out hope for Hunter.
Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal
1 comment:
I could have sworn the only thing "communist" about China was the name "Communist Party".
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