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HUNTSMAN

Huntsman to GOP: 'Balance the Budgets, Get Out of People's Lives'

Avoid 'fringe issues,' he warns

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by Dain Fitzgerald

Staff Writer t

Image: ksl.com

Former GOP presidential contender Jon Huntsman has some words for the wise among his party, with his core message being that unless Republicans back away from the edge of politics, they're likely to fall permanently by the wayside.

Huntsman suggested to CNN viewers that his party stick to fine tuning regulation and taxation in a more limited government direction, and avoid "fringe issues." Such as? Unfortunately, the man once described as a "a conservative technocrat-optimist" by The Huffington Post failed to give any details on that score, only telling Republicans to "balance the budgets and get out of people's lives."

Huntsman said lawmakers on the right "ought to build the party around...strong libertarian roots that go back to the early days of the Republican Party," Politico

Via Politico and The Huffington Post
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Do you agree with Huntsman's analysis of the GOP?

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Comments (view in Forum)

  • u
    Libertyiskey
    !
    @LEC Justin is a Michigan congressman. I know Rand endorsed Romney an all but I really think he's just trying to position himself to get votes from the brainwashed who vote for people because of the R behind their name not knowing a thing about their views. Why don't you like him maybe there's something I'm missing?
  • LEC
    !
    @Libertyiskey I like to look past the R or the D or the L or the I. I just didn't like a lot of what Rand or his Father stand for. You see, I don't think that any one governmental system or economic system can be viable for any length of time. We need to utilize them all and we do. Social Security is socialist, FEMA is communist. But Libertarians are still small enough to remain idealistic and can stick with their ideal. But if that were applied to a nation in total, it would be a disaster.

    What we need is to realize that we need a Serenity prayer for Government and economics..

    Grant me the ability to know which form of government and which economic system to apply to each economic sector and governmental problem and the wisdom to not think that ONE SIZE FITS ALL.

  • View all 8 replies >

  • Russell797
    !
    When he says "Get out of people's lives", he is in effect advocating lessening the strangle hold the religious right has on the party platform. This country needs to become more secular and science based in it's thinking if we are to advance into the future, and all political parties should reflect that shift.
  • DogLady_1
    !
    Our politicians need to get their religiosity out of their politics... but the "country" can be as religious as they want to be... and political parties should not have this much power in a republican form of government.
  • DogLady_1
    !
    Too bad so many people were swayed by the media and the pundits to reject Ron Paul as their nominee... things would be very different today if Dr. Paul was POTUS. But no, we want more of same... we are not tired of the status quo in DC yet. Too many people still believe that if we do the same thing over and over, we will eventually get different results...
  • o
    woodtick57
    !
    @DogLady_1

    isolationism does not work. proven.

    getting rid of our federal monetary policy body doesnt work. look at the huge number of market and banking failures before we made the FED. for a more current example, look to the EU. one of their greatest mistakes was creating a common currency wit no common monetary policy body. a mistake they have admitted and are working to correct.
  • DogLady_1
    !
    @woodtick57 - Ron Paul is not an isolationist.... that was something the pundits said... when you look at Paul's foreign policy platform, it has nothing to do with isolationism... our country's current policies isolate us... alienate us... and this causes hardships to our trade with other nations. There is a big difference between being an isolationist and a noninterventionist. Isolationism means we will not make treaties, do trade with other countries, participate in international causes, allow Americans to get an education or a job abroad, and we close our embassies... Ron Paul has never supported such actions... As for money... Article I, section 8 of our Constitution states: "Congress shall have the power... To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;"
    There is no mention of fiat money in the Constitution, nor does it give the power of valuation to the banks... the Fed is not a branch of gov't... "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." --Thomas Jefferson

  • View all 8 replies >

  • FollowTheMoney
    !
    @harold Good link. This is what I've been talking about for years. Legislation and Litigation for profit. The legal system has been transformed in to the legal industry. The law is now a commodity bought, sold and traded. Term limits, Flat tax ,Tort reform and a ban on lobbyist need to be the first measures taken. Then we can start striping down all the unnecessary legislation crippling our nation.
  • harold
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    @FollowTheMoney If you want that to happen, you'll have to stop wasting so much time here and start writing your elected official as well as your local newspaper. Try not to sound like a crazy person, but cite specific problems and ask for specific solutions.
    Start by asking your senators and congresspersons who are they affiliated with and for what purposes..

  • View all 6 replies >

  • u
    Cheenoguy
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    Explain how gay marriage would harm the economy? How has abortion harmed the economy?(The argument can be made that it has helped the economy.) How does contraception hurt the economy?(Once again it actually helps.) These are all social issues that members of the Republican Party have taken stands against the past few years.
  • FollowTheMoney
    !
    Neo, your barking up the wrong tree. While Congress legislating morality defiantly muddies the water. Legislation for profit is the real problem.
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
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    Okay, so we want to get government out of people's lives, but we don't want to talk about any social issues. I don't see how that's possible.

    Here, let's look at this then.

    Government should never ever under any circumstance pay for an abortion
    Government should not pay people to breed
    Government should not pay people to be unemployed
    Government should not pay for your bad health decisions by providing you free healthcare
    Government should not restrict the 2nd Amendment
    Government should not indoctrinate children through the education system
    Government should not steal from the productive to pay the unproductive

    I could go on and on about social issues that are driving our government to fiscal insolvency. The issue is, if we can't talk about social issues, how do we deal with the fiscal issues?

    I've said it time and time again, a mother and a father are more likely to raise productive members of society that don't need government assistance more so than a welfare check and a baby momma can. If conservatives neglect their duty to talk about social issues then our fiscal issues will only mushroom. The biggest driver of our debt is Social Security. SOCIAL Security. Our social problems are bankrupting us. It's time someone speaks the truth about it.
  • Copenhagun
    !
    I like this guy. He's a pretty damn smart man, and very moderate. I'd like to see him and Gov. Christie on a ticket next time around. I'm a liberal, but if you put those two together, you'd have me second guessing my Democratic vote for this ticket as long as they don't pander to the extreme right wing and use common sense. Maybe they should both create a "Moderate" party and run against both Republicans and Democrats.
  • kathyparsell
    !
    I'm with you on that ticket! We need for moderate fisical conseratives with hearts as well as brains, that will stand up for their beliefs while allowing others to have them too!
  • DogLady_1
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    @classychazy - How about we make it a law that the moment a person is elected to office, they can no longer be affiliated with any party... that way, they can work on representing ALL of their constituents and not just be party-pleasers...? Justa thought..
  • u
    Libertyiskey
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    I'd like to know what fringe issues he was talking about but I agree the Republican Party should go back to its roots which would be strong libertarian ideas, like sound money, ending the monopoly on money from the Federal Reserve, ending wars on ideas especially drugs, and repealing big government acts like the doublespeak bill "patriot act."
  • kathyparsell
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    Amen, if I want someone to advise me on how to live my life it sure won't be from a politician. I want them all to get to work doing what they were elected to office to do, balance the budget, fix the economy and get their constitutents back to work in a stable job market.
  • MRMacrum
    !
    Yes I do. Huntsman is not afraid to speak his truth to his own party. Of the original GOP candidates, Huntsman and Roemer were the only two I might have voted for had either, against all odds, won the GOP nomination. Liked them both because they were not afraid to stand up to their own party.
  • u
    S-N-A-F-U
    !
    Krauthammer:'Huntsman is a liberal's idea of what a Republican ought to be" ... Another RINO. Sorry, he has never spoke for the GOP, and never will in spite of the phony, liberal complicit media.

    I guess Huntsman wasn't aware the house sent a budget up to the Senate twice, only to have them sit on it. What's new, the Dems have failed for over four years to offer up a Balanced budget, especially when they controlled both houses and the presidency....They don't want to bring down that 16 + TRILLION dollar debt, they want to encrease their spending of other peoples money until we go bankrupt. Can you spell: Socialist oligarchy?
  • DogLady_1
    !
    Can you spell: Factious Hegemony? "Partisanship is our great curse. We too readily assume that everything has two sides and that it is our duty to be on one or the other." -James Harvey Robinson
  • u
    S-N-A-F-U
    !
    @DogLady_1

    Our founders warned us of Big and intrusive government.....taking from one and giving to another who hasn't earned it, and of course, Public Debt in a spiral under this mis-administration that they won't even address....

    Two sides alright.....Right and Left!....

    " The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left. 3 Even as he walks along the road, the fool lacks sense and shows everyone how stupid he is." Eccl. 10:2,3.

    The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those
    who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
    Thomas Jefferson

    Allow a government to decline paying its debts and you overthrow all public morality — you unhinge all the principles that preserve the limits of free constitutions.Nothing can more affect national prosperity than a constant and systematic attention to extinguish the present debt and to avoid as much as possibly the incurring of any new debt.-Alexander Hamilton

    A government big enough to give you everything you want,

    is strong enough to take everything you have..Thomas Jefferson (1743 -1826

    I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the
    government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.-Thomas Jefferson

    My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.- Thomas Jefferson

    I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse, and in a Republican Government a greater curse than any other - James Madison

    When you run in debt; you give to another power over your liberty- Benjamin Franklin

    I think, myself, that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. I believe it might be much simplified to the relief of those who maintain it." - Thomas Jefferson

    Nothing is so well calculated to produce a death-like torpor in the country as an extended system of taxation and a great national debt.- William Cobbett

    'Nuff said!

  •
    DogLady_1
    !
    @S-N-A-F-U - I agree with every one of those quotes.... Thanks for sharing them... Since the achievement of our founding principles is as flexible as those who live by them, there is never a reason to believe that there are only two sides to anything in a free republic. There are as many ways to live in liberty as there are people. While we share the same founding principles, we all have our own unique take on how to mainain liberty... some not as good as others, but none are perfect...

    "The unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion." -John Fitzgerald Kennedy

    "There seems no reason why patriotism and narrowmindedness should go together, or why intellectual fairmindedness should be confounded with political trimming, or why serviceable truth should keep cloistered because not partisan." -Herman Melville

    "Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." -Henry Ford

    "All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people." - James A. Garfield
  • FollowTheMoney
    !
    "Balance the budget and get out of peoples life's" This is exactly what I want. All these social issues bantered around by congress interferes with the basic role of the federal government.
  • DARSB
    !
    I liked Ambassador Huntsman a lot. The fact that he was forced out of the GOP primaries before such unelectable lightweights as Herman Cain and Rick Santorum days a lot, none of it good, about the Republican candidate pool.
  • Keyjo
    !
    Huntsman was the ONE legitimate chance the G.O.P. had to defeat Obama and the Republicans rejected their savior. He was certainly the only Republican candidate that I could have seriously considered. Level headed, cool under fire, even handed. He has a truely proven track record.
  • PNWest
    !
    Notice how highly all of the liberal posters speak of Mr. Huntsman. Think about it. Do you really want ANOTHER moderate RINO? How well did that work out with Maverick McCain or Mitt Romneycare? Both of those tickets would have done better upside down. Next time - Santorum! or Bachmann or Palin.
  • PNWest
    !
    @Cheenoguy I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'd like to see Santorum over all of the potential GOP candidates.
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