Porkbusters is pleased to present the following guest post from Congressman Duncan Hunter.

I'd like to thank NZ Bear for giving me the opportunity to address the readers here at Porkbusters. I really appreciate that because Porkbusters, the Club for Growth, and the rest of the blogosphere have provided an invaluable service for American taxpayers by highlighting wasteful spending and working to get it cut out of the budget. There have been a few Republican politicians who seem to have a problem with that, but I'm not one of them.

That being said, I'm sure we do have a few areas of disagreement. There will be programs that Porkbusters opposed that I supported, differences in opinion over some issues, and policies that we don't see eye to eye on. However, I've found that we conservatives, especially over the last couple of years, have spent too much time looking for ways to split ourselves apart and not enough time talking about where we agree.

So, since that's the case, let's talk about the considerable number of areas where we're on the same page.

First of all, I think Ronald Reagan spoke for all of us in the conservative movement when he said,

"We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much."

With that in mind, I want to let you know that I supported George Bush's tax cuts, voted for them, and strongly believe that they should be made permanent. Additionally, I support reform of the alternative minimum tax, believe that it's vitally important that we simplify our tax code, and think it should require a 2/3rds majority in Congress to raise taxes. If you leave money in the pockets of American businesses and taxpayers, the tax base will increase and it will bring in more revenue for the government. That's exactly what happened with the Bush tax cuts, which proved to be extremely beneficial to the economy.

Next, let me talk about area that I think we conservatives often overlook; that's trade. We simply should not stand by and take it when nations like China place a 17% penalty on our imports and de-value their currency by 40%, through currency manipulation, in order to take jobs from American workers. How fair is it for Americans to work hard, play by the rules, be considerably more efficient than workers overseas, and then be put out of a job because their government won't stand up demand that the products they produce be given a fair chance to compete in foreign markets? As President of the United States, I would do something about that.

In terms of spending, I support a multi-faceted approach to eliminating wasteful government spending. First and foremost, we must completely remove outdated and duplicative government programs that only promote bureaucracy and waste taxpayer dollars. The federal government funds hundreds of offices all tasked with the same objective. Is there really a need for over 300 economic development programs or 70 different programs all responsible to ensure safe water? Additionally, federal funding provided to dubious programs like the National Endowment for the Arts whose public financing of objectionable and inappropriate material in the name of artistic education can be better spent on improving conditions for military families.

Also, we must move those federal programs that are better suited to be run locally to state and local governments which best know how to meet the needs of the community. Handing federal programs involving housing, economic development, job training, law enforcement and education back to the states promotes greater accountability, flexibility, and local control. At the same time, this eliminates many of the unnecessary mandates the federal government places on how state and local governments address their own issues.

In addition, I believe we must make a stronger effort to identify and privatize those activities that could be performed better by the private sector. Federal support for programs like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which can remain fully operational with the substantial donations it receives from the private sector, could better be spent on reducing the tax burden on America’s working families.

However, we must make sure that we don’t follow in the footsteps of President Clinton
and balance the budget on the backs of our men and women in uniform. Part of the reason we’ve had trouble balancing the budget over the last few years is because we’ve had to compensate for the neglect of our military during the late nineties. Additionally, because of the war on terror, we can expect increased spending beyond traditional levels in the coming years as our servicemen and women continue fighting the war against terrorism.

Greater defense and homeland spending, however, does not excuse our obligation as elected officials to appropriately spend taxpayer dollars, eliminate unnecessary and duplicative government spending and streamline federal entitlement programs.

We can balance the budget in this country and start paying off the debt, but to do that, we need to get back to basics and understand that the government that governs best is the government that governs least. Towards that end, we must cut government waste, hold new spending down, and make the tax cuts permanent to keep our economy strong.