In the hunt for a Red November, one may ask the question, "Where do the Republican Presidential Candidates truly stand?" The facts may surprise you:
Rudy Giuliani:
Rudy Giuliani has made it apparent that he believes that when it comes to the war on terror, he is behind the effort 100%. In May, 2007 on Fox News Sunday he said, "I've never heard of an army in the history of the world being required, if it's going to retreat, to give its enemy a timetable of that retreat." He has been a continued supporter of the notion that the U.S. forces also need to stay in Iraq for as long as it takes for Iraqi forces to take over. However, Rudy is neutral on the issue regarding the development of a Missile Defense System (Star Wars).
When it comes to the issue of illegal immigration in the United States, though Rudy claims that he believes that we should tighten security first, he also believes that the U.S. should provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who are already here. In May 2007 in the New York Sun he is quoted as saying, "If they're working, and they're complying with the law, and they're making a contribution, then let's sign them up, let's register them, let's collect their taxes, and let's let them pay their fair share." In last November 2007 during the GOP debate in Florida Romney accused Rudy of allowing New York to be a sanctuary city. Rudy denied such, stating that it was not a sanctuary city, but "New York City had a policy of allowing people who are illegal immigrants to report crime and to put their children in school. Otherwise, we reported every single illegal immigrant that committed a crime. The results were pretty darn good. I brought down crime by over 60%. I brought down homicide by 67%. I had the most legal city in the country. And I took the crime capital of America and I turned it into the safest large city in the country." In fact, Giuliani's policy as mayor was not so simple as he claims. New York didn't describe itself as a "sanctuary city" for aliens. However, Giuliani told the New York Times early in 1994 that "Some of the hardest-working and most productive people in this city are undocumented aliens. If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you're one of the people who we want in this city. You're somebody that we want to protect, and we want you to get out from under what is often a life of being like a fugitive." The Times said back then that the mayor was "virtually urging illegal immigrants to settle in NYC."
Rudy believes the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts should be made permanent, and is widely known to be fairly conservative fiscally, though there are some bumps on his fiscal record. Though Rudy opposes affirmative action (the requirement to hire more women and minorities to meet some kind of quota), and supports the decrease in overall taxation of the wealthy, he has been neutral on the issue of more federal funding for health coverage, neutral on privatizing social security (he has not endorsed legislation or offered a detailed proposal, but he has voiced support for personal accounts and contends that people should have some choice in the way the system is handled), neutral on the issue of free trade, and neutral on linking human rights to trade with China. However, he has indicated, in regards to universal health care in America, on July 7, 2007, that he opposes the idea - but does support using a tax deduction for families to buy private health insurance, getting rid of insurance through employers. Leftover funds would be rolled over year to year for medical expenses.
When it comes to the sanctity of life Giuliani is quite wishy washy. On May 3, 2007 when asked on the MSNBC GOP presidential debate whether expansion of federal funding of embryonic stem cell research would progress under his administration, Rudy replied, "As long as we're not creating life in order to destroy it, as long as we're not having human cloning, and we limit it to that, and there is plenty of opportunity to then use federal funds in those situations where you have limitations. In other words, he favors federal funding for embryonic stem cell research as long as the embryo is on its way to being killed anyway. As for the abortion issue, he favors legalized abortion in the U.S., but in an attempt to appeal to the pro-life movement, states he hates abortion. At the Fox News GOP presidential debate in South Carolina on May 15, 2007 he explained that "There are people, millions and millions of Americans, who are of good conscience as we are, who make a different choice about abortion. And I think in a country where you want to keep government out of people's lives, or government out of people's lives from the point of view of coercion, you have to respect that."
Rudy Guiliani opposes giving the president a "line-item" veto. In an interview with Chris Wallace May 2007 Rudy said that the line-item veto is unconstitutional. He stated that it fundamentally alters the separation of powers.
Rudy supports federal assistance for the production of alternative fuels. On CNBC Kudlow and Company he said, "We've got to get serious about ethanol because Brazil is way ahead on ethanol."
Rudy opposes a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman, even though he has stated that a marriage should be between a man and a woman (once again trying to appeal to both sides).
Rudy favors the use of the death penalty for certain crimes, especially advocating for capital punishment for those who commit treason against the United States. He testified in convicted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui's death penalty trial, and urged prosecutors to pursue the death penalty against American Taliban fighter John Walker Linkh.
Mike Huckabee:
Regarding the war in Iraq Huckabee believes that we "broke Iraq" (stated we broke Iraq in the Fox Republican Debate last September), and believes there should be a timetable for the removal of U.S. troops from Iraq. On ABC This Week last year he stated "We have to tell them, 'Look, we're not going to be here indefinitely. . . you're going to have to get control of this sectarian violence, this civil war is ripping this whole thing apart." However, he has also stated that setting timetables cannot be definite dates given because then the enemy will take advantage of that information and adjust there warfare accordingly. Sounds like he's trying to appeal to both sides on that one, in my opinion.
Regarding illegal immigration Huckabee believes that we should tighten border security, but also provide a pathway to citizenship for illegals already here. In an interview on ABC in February 2007 Mike Huckabee said, "We shouldn't have amnesty where we say, 'Fine, everyone's good.' We should have a process where people can pay the penalties, step up and accept responsibility for not being here legally. . . the objective is not to be punitive, but to make things right. Right for us. Right for them. What I object to is punishing the children for the laws that maybe their parents have broken." Huckabee is also known for passing legislation in Arkansas when he was governor granting the children of illegals financial aid for education.
Huckabee opposes universal health, is strongly pro-life, and opposes federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. May 3, 2007 MSNBC GOP presidential debate he said he was opposed to expanded funding for embryonic stem cell research.
Huckabee favors privatizing Social Security, and was a defender of Bush's 2005 plan for partial privatization of the system.
Mike favors giving the president a "line-item" veto (removing parts of a spending bill without needing to veto the entire bill), and voiced his support for a line-item veto on February 9, 2007.
He favors a constitutional amendment defining marriage between one man and one woman, saying in an interview with Right Wing News that marriage has always meant but one thing. In Arkansas he supported and helped lead an effort to pass a Constitutional Amendment that does define marriage in that way, which passed by 70% of the vote.
Huckabee favors the use of the death penalty for certain crimes, saying in his book "Hope to Higher Ground" that it is a tough issue, but he believes some crimes deserve such a penalty. In a December 2005 interview on PBS he said, "I've had to carry out the death penalty more than any governor in the history of my state."
Huckabee favors a Fair Tax which is a national sales tax that would replace the current income tax system, and eliminate the need for the IRS. Huckabee, however, in Arkansas, raised taxes, and was known as a big spender.
Duncan Hunter:
Hunter believes that U.S. forces need to remain in Iraq for as long as it takes for Iraqi forces to take over. The key, he stated in a debate on May 3, 2007, is standing up the Iraqi army, ensuring that they are fully operational, and can move into the combat field effectively, displacing American units.
Duncan Hunter, when it comes to illegal immigration, believes that we must build a double fence along the border, and opposes granting legal status to illegal immigrants already here in the country. In a news release in May 2007 he said, "It's all too obvious that America is under threat because its land borders are largely porous and unprotected. . . Despite legislation calling for 854 miles of border fencing along the U.S. - Mexico border, the Department of Homeland Security recently announced its intention to build only 370 miles of the fencing, and none of that has been built yet. This directive, despite its clarity, appears to have been interpreted as a suggestion. It is not: it's the law, and the border fence must be built"
Hunter, as a Representative in the U.S. Congress voted to extend the tax cuts through 2010, and believes they should be made permanent.
He believes that federal funding of embryonic stem cell research should not be expanded, voting "no" on a bill in January 2007 that would have expanded research on embryonic stem cell lines.
He is pro-life, saying at the March for Life rally in Washington in January 2007, "Who can look at a sonogram of an unborn child and not see the value of human life?"
He favors the privatization of the Social Security System.
Hunter favors giving the President a line-item veto, voting in favor of a bill on June 22, 2006 that gave the President the power to propose a veto of any provision of a bill that results in an increase in budget authority and establishes requirements and creates procedures for congressional consideration of the proposed vetoes.
He supports federal assistance for the production of alternative fuels.
Hunter favors a constitutional amendment defining marriage between one man and one woman. On July 18, 2006 Hunter voted "yes" on a House resolution calling for such an amendment.
Death Penalty? In April 1994, Hunter voted against a bill to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment, giving evidence that Hunter favors the death penalty for certain crimes.
John McCain:
McCain has stated over and over that U.S. forces need to stay in Iraq for as long as it takes for Iraqi forces to take over. "Ultimately, Iraq's future lies in the hands of its people, government, and armed forces, and strengthening them is an essential requirement for bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq. Until Iraqi forces are ready, however, a precipitous U.S. withdrawal would condemn Iraq to civil war and intervention by its neighbors, and energize al-Qaeda and other jihadists around the globe. This would gravely jeopardize American security." However: I will never forget when he said, "We've wasted a lot of our precious treasure, which are American lives, over there," essentially saying that our American troops lost in this war effort were "wasted." That comment continues to burn in my brain to this day.
McCain is the only major Republican candidate proclaiming that he's on board with the belief in man-made Global Warming - reiterating his support of man-made Global Warming in the recent debate in South Carolina, January 2008.
Regarding illegal immigration, McCain supports a temporary guest worker program, and "specific enforcement and security triggers." And none of us can forget the Kennedy-McCain Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005, whose highlights were:
• The USA would accept at least 400,000 foreign workers each year. Their visas would last three years.
• Illegal aliens already in the U.S.A., and they number more than 10 million, would have to register, pay a $2,000 fine, clear a criminal background check, and pass an English language exam. If they did that and had a job, they could stay in this country and apply for citizenship in six years.
• The act would also increase fines for employers who hire illegals and strengthen border security.
Good attempt, but too much allowance for illegals already here.
McCain supports making the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent, saying, "If I didn't vote to make those tax cuts permanent, it would have the effect of a tax increase."
McCain opposes federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, is consistently pro-life, and opposes universal health care. On ABC's This Week in June 2007 he said, "I think we can make health care affordable and available without a mandate."
John favors the concept of privatization of Social Security. He said in a speech in 1999 that the only solution was to allow workers to invest some of their Social Security savings privately in higher yielding accounts. He also stated that the idea is not solely Republican, that Senators Bob Kerrey and Pat Moynihan have also endorsed the idea, recognizing it as the only way to save Social Security without raising taxes or cutting benefits.
McCain favors a "line-item" veto, authoring the Line Item Veto Act of 2006 which was crafted to ensure its constitutionality.
He does not support federal assistance for the production of alternative ethanol and/or biofuel alternatives to oil. However, in the past he has been all over the map on this issue. On May 12, 2007 he said he supports ethanol, but opposes subsidies. Previously he had said that ethanol was not worth it. He voted against the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Voted "no" for the Environmental Effects Caused by Ethanol Amendment, and voted "no" for the Energy Omnibus Bill in 2003.
He opposes a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, saying in 2004 that "The constitutional amendment we're debating today strikes me as antithetical in every way to the core philosophy of Republicans." He believes the issue should be up to the states.
McCain favors the death penalty for federal crimes, but is against the use of racial statistics in death penalty appeals, and voted to ban the death penalty for minors. He supported legislation to allow the death penalty for acts of terrorism and has said he would consider further expansion of capital punishment laws for other crimes. However, he has recently determined that water boarding is "torture" and should not be used on captured enemy combatants in an attempt to withdraw information from them.
Ron Paul:
Ron Paul is known for his position that supports the immediate and orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, and other theaters of war. He believes a military victory in Iraq is unattainable.
Regarding illegal immigration, Ron Paul supports building a fence along the border, and opposes granting legal status to illegal immigrants in this country. On April 4, 2006 he said, "We must reject amnesty for illegal immigrants in any form. We cannot continue to reward lawbreakers and expect things to get better. If we reward millions who come here illegally, surely millions more will follow suit. Ten years from now we will be in the same position, with a whole generation of lawbreakers seeking amnesty."
Ron Paul supports making the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent, and was named the House's "top tax cutter" by conservative Human Events magazine.
He opposes federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. He voted against a bill expanding stem cell research on June 7, 2007.
Ron Paul opposes the concept of universal health care in America. In an online column he wrote, "When government and other third parties get involved, health care costs spiral. The answer is not a system of outright socialized medicine, but rather a system that encourages everyone to keep costs down. As long as somebody else is paying the bill, the bill will be too high."
Ron Paul opposes legalized abortion in the United States, but does say that the issue should be left up to the states.
He does not favor the concept of privatization of Social Security to any degree. He contends that Congress must stop spending in order to fix the problem of insolvency. He opposes personal accounts because he believes that Social Security is unconstitutional in the first place. Instead, he believes individuals should have total control over how to invest their money and is in favor of cutting payroll taxes to allow this to happen.
Ron Paul opposes giving the president a "line-item" veto, voting against a bill in June 2006 that would give the president the power to propose a veto of any provision in a bill that results in an increase in budget authority and establishes requirements and creates procedures for congressional consideration of the proposed vetoes. Ron Paul has stated that the line-item veto is unconstitutional.
Ron Paul does not support federal assistance in funding the production of alternative fuels to oil.
He opposes a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman, voting "no" on July 18, 2006 on a House resolution calling for such an amendment.
Ron Paul opposes the death penalty.
Mitt Romney:
Concerning Iraq, Romney's opinion is that the U.S. forces need to stay in Iraq for as long as it takes for Iraqi forces to take over. He has stated, ". . . so long as there is a reasonable prospect for success, our wisest course is to seek stability in Iraq, with additional troops endeavoring to secure the civilian population."
Romney has indicated that he believes the U.S. should build a fence along the border, and that he opposes granting legal status to illegal immigrants. He disagrees with McCain's immigration bill, and has said that strengthening the border must be our first priority, followed by an employee verification policy. His website says, "No Special Privilege Or Special Pathway to Citizenship For Those Here Illegally." He also voiced the opinion that we can't give illegals special privilege of being able to stay here illegally on the Mike Gallagher Show on May 21, 2007.
He supports making the tax cuts permanent, and opposes the concept of universal health care in America. However, the health care question is sometimes difficult to determine with Romney because his website says, "The health of our nation can be improved by extending health insurance to all Americans, not through a government program or through new taxes, but through market reforms." Yet, when he was governor of Massachusetts, he supported and signed a bill providing health care insurance to every resident with significant state investment.
He states he is pro-life, but was once pro-choice. Did he truly see the light? Or did he change his position just in time for his candidacy? When asked that question last November in CNN's You Tube Debate he said he was wrong in originally favoring a woman's right to choose -- his position when he was elected governor of Massachusetts.
He has no position regarding the privatization of Social Security.
Mitt Romney favors giving the president the line-item veto. In an interview with Sean Hannity on April 4, 2007 he said that a line-item veto, ". . . allows you to pick out the pork and pick out the waste and to zero in on it. And then the legislature can overturn it, if they want to. If you waste money, if you put in place earmarks or pork spending, then somebody is going to say no and point it out to the American people."
He supports federal assistance for the production of alternative fuels.
He claims he favors a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. He has said, "I have always been somebody who opposes discrimination, but I also consistently feel that it's critical to have marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman." (Romney said that at the Fox News GOP presidential debate in South Carolina on May 15, 2007)
Mitt favors the death penalty for certain crimes, specifically for deadly acts of terrorism, killing sprees, murders involving torture and the killing of law enforcement authorities. As governor he filed a bill to reinstate the death penalty in Massachusetts that required verifiable scientific evidence such as DNA in order to impose the death penalty.
Fred Thompson:
Thompson has consistently supported the war effort against the Islamic Jihad, having the opinion that U.S. forces need to stay in Iraq for as long as it takes for Iraqi forces to take over. He has said, "We need to do everything possible to avoid the appearance of weakness."
Fred Thompson has indicated that his position regarding illegal immigration in the United States is that we must build a fence along the border, and he is opposed to granting legal status to illegal immigrants.
Thompson supports making the tax cuts permanent, saying that "Lower marginal tax rates have proven to be a key to prosperity by Kennedy, Reagan, and Bush."
He opposes universal health care saying on the ABC Radio Network in June 2007 that, ". . . there's nothing about Americans that would make us any better able to run a government health care bureaucracy than the Canadians or the British. In fact, we've got less practice at that sort of thing than they do, and we might be a lot worse at it. His voting record shows that he bounced back and forth on issues regarding government paid medicine:
Voted NO on allowing reimportation of Rx drugs from Canada. (Jul 2002)
Voted NO on allowing patients to sue HMOs & collect punitive damages. (Jun 2001)
Voted YES on funding GOP version of Medicare prescription drug benefit. (Apr 2001)
Voted NO on including prescription drugs under Medicare. (Jun 2000)
Voted YES on limiting self-employment health deduction. (Jul 1999)
Voted NO on increasing tobacco restrictions. (Jun 1998)
Voted YES on Medicare means-testing. (Jun 1997)
Voted NO on medical savings accounts. (Apr 1996)
Thompson favors a limited privatization approach to Social Security. Favors the line-item veto, voting in favor of granting the president such authority in 1996. He opposes federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, telling the National Right To Life Conference in June 2007 that he supports adult stem-cell research, but not "stem-cell research where embryos of unborn children are destroyed."
June 3, 2007 Thompson said he thought Roe v. Wade was a bad law and bad medical science.
He favors an amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.
He favors the death penalty, and while in the Senate voted in favor of a bill limiting death penalty appeals.
In November 2007's CNN You Tube Debate all of the candidates indicated they supported the private ownership of guns, though three admitted they did not own guns. Those three were: McCain, Giuliani, and Romney.
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