John Block Reports from Washington

Hello everybody out there in farm country. This is Rick Frank sitting in for John Block who is on vacation. This radio commentary is brought to you by the Renewable Fuels Association, Wal-Mart Stores, Monsanto, and John Deere. They are all friends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you.

And now for today’s commentary—

With only about 6 months to go before we vote in November, we have a two-man race for the White House. Mitt Romney appears to be the Republican candidate and it looks like it could be a close race. Of course, six months is a long time.

Here is where I stand. I think Mitt Romney is right on most issues. We do need to cut spending and shrink government. Our debt is growing by a trillion dollars every year. Every time our government spends 1 dollar, we have to borrow 40 cents of that dollar. Republicans are the party of smaller government, less spending, less regulation, and less taxes.

President Obama wants to raise taxes.

I think in the end we will raise more tax money by closing loopholes and simplifying our Tax Code. Having just filed my taxes, I hope we do that.

The place where Republicans need to change their policy is on defense. How can you be for cutting spending but say no to cutting the defense budget? We already spend more money on defense than all the rest of the countries in the world put together. We don’t want to be the “war party.” Nation building costs too much, and we don’t have the money.

It makes me want to cry when I see our wounded warriors on TV with missing arms and legs. They are our children. Has the injury and loss of life of our young people been worth it? The countries we are trying to help don’t even like us. Sixty percent of our citizens want us to stop fighting wars. The Republican party’s “military hawk” position is not a winner. I would add that President Obama can’t capitalize on this because he is the one that pushed for the surge in Afghanistan. He should have brought the troops home. But, NO, he didn’t.

He sent special forces into Sudan, Uganda, Central African Republic, and the Congo. Of course, there are terrorists in these countries, but we can’t be fighting all over the world. We can’t force every country to democratize.

The Constitution says that our military is to provide for “the common defense” of the United States. That’s all.

There are a lot of issues that will influence the Presidential race. I haven’t even talked about immigration. Save that for another day.

In closing, I would encourage you to access my website which archives my radio commentaries dating back 10 years and will go back 20 years when complete. Check on what I said back then. Go to www.johnblockreports.com .

Until next week, I am John Block in Washington.