Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

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2008 Elections

Duncan Hunter on the Issues

 

(Editor's Note: Hunter dropped out of the presidential race for the Republican nomination on Jan. 20, 2008, after a poor showing (2 percent of the vote) on Jan. 19, 2008, in the Nevada caucuses. See a statement on his campaign Web site.)


Abortion
Hunter is pro-life and would amend the U.S. Constitution "to protect all unborn children from the moment of conception by prohibiting any state or federal law that denies the person hood of the unborn." He would support strict constructionist judges and would not appoint judges "who do not believe that the unborn are precious and should be protected." He has voted no on human embryonic stem cell research ... more.

 

Environment and Energy
He believes it is important that Congress protect the property rights of private landowners and curb the government from excessive regulatory takings. He voted against barring the use of federal dollars for the Energy Department's Web site to promote the use of Yucca Mountain as a federal nuclear waste dump. In terms of alternative energy, he thinks the country's colleges, the private sector and government laboratories should work toward developing alternative fuels to end reliance on the Middle East oil and also help the climate. He wants to reduce taxes to zero for alternative energy sources ... more.

 

Foreclosures
Duncan Hunter has not spoken extensively on the mortgage crisis and his campaign Web site does not specifically mention what he might do to curtail the problems of people who face impending foreclosures. However, Hunter has voted against a congressional resolution to regulate the subprime mortgage industry. That resolution was passsed by the House on a 291-127 vote ... more.

 

Health Care
Hunter believes health care should be reformed so that consumers are in control. The three proponents to Hunter's health care reform inlcude: freedom to purchase health care across state lines, freedom to make informed health care choices, and freedom for the medical field to make innovations that will cut costs and improve overall health ... more.

 

Immigration
He supports building 854 miles of double-border fence across the Mexican border with California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. He is a steadfast opponent of amnesty for illegal immigrants who are here. Amnesty "encourages a whole new wave of illegal immigrants who seek to catch the next amnesty." Illegal immigrants who are here need to leave because they are causing higher levels of unemployment, especially in the construction trades, by working for less than the going construction wages. He wants to change the law so that children of illegal immigrants who are born here do not automatically become citizens. He wants a nationwide employment verification system, with consequences placed on employers who hire illegal immigrants ... more.

 

Iraq
He says the U.S. should give the second phase of the military operation in Iraq - the troop surge - a chance to work. He believes the key to winning in Iraq is to get all 129 Iraqi military battalions operational so they can eventually move into the combat field. When that is done, they can begin replacing American heavy combat troops and those U.S. troops can rotate out ... more.

 

Taxes
Hunter believes that increasing taxes only leads to an an increase in poverty. In order to combat this, Hunter supports cutting taxes for all Americans and not just those that are sectioned off based on their income and deemed worthy. Hunter has refused to sign the “no new tax” pledge on the grounds that there could be an emergency that would warrant tax increases. He is in favor of simplifying the tax system with either a fair tax or a flatter, simpler tax system. Although he has not devoted his entire tax reform policy to support the FairTax, Hunter has publicly sponsored it. At an Iowa debate, Hunter pointed out that the worst kind of tax-related spending was one that touched all Americans regardless of their income bracket, money spent toward tax preparation, and would move to rid the country of this financial burden ... more

 

Yucca Mountain
In May 2006, Duncan Hunter voted against prohibiting the funding of “Yucca Mountain Youth Zone.” The pro-Yucca Mountain Web site claimed that children would access the website in order to find information for term papers and other classroom papers regarding nuclear power. Those against the Yucca Mountain Youth Zone claimed the Web site was nothing more than Bush administration propaganda attempting to make high level nuclear waste fun with games and activities that ignored potential accidents. Voting “no” on the proposal has been seen as a pro-Yucca Mountain stance... more

 

— Las Vegas Sun new media managing editor Dave Toplikar and new media intern April Corbin compiled this report.

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