Giuliani pledges reforms against overtaxing and overspending

~ He spoke of programs allowing for more individual choice.

ST. CHARLES, Mo. -- Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said Monday that if elected, he will fix the systems that allow the government to overspend, overtax and overregulate.

He proposed reforms as well for a country that "oversues," or allows too many frivolous lawsuits.

The former New York City mayor spoke in front of hundreds at town hall meetings in St. Charles in suburban St. Louis and in rural Mount Vernon.

He drew on his accomplishments in New York at the morning event, saying he asked agencies there to seek out areas where they were overspending and become more efficient.

He advocated a similar approach at the federal level, where he would ask civilian government agencies to try to reach targets to cut a percentage of their spending.

Giuliani said Democrats running for president are promising new spending. "The higher they can increase taxes, the prouder they are of their programs," he said.

Missouri Democratic Party spokesman Jack Cardetti said by telephone that the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton, left President Bush with a "huge surplus" that became deficits under Bush's leadership and policies.

"Rudy Giuliani wants to continue those failed economic policies," he said.

Giuliani said America needs to make sure it's not imposing excessive regulations. "We can't become a nanny government. The government can't watch everything. The government can't control everything."

He spoke of programs allowing for more individual choice, including reforms that would allow more people to get health insurance privately. He also said he would seek a cap on non-economic damages in lawsuits.

Giuliani was introduced at the Missouri events by Sen. Kit Bond, a four-term Republican and former Missouri governor. Bond endorsed Giuliani earlier this month, a significant development in a state where former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has strong support, including an endorsement from Missouri's current Republican Gov. Matt Blunt.

Bond said Giuliani had successfully fought crime and urban decay in New York, and praised his leadership in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"Nobody responded better to a crisis than Rudy Giuliani," Bond said.

At his second appearance, Giuliani stressed security, defense and immigration issues when he spoke to about 200 people in Mount Vernon, a southwest Missouri town about 30 miles west of Springfield.

"The challenge of Islamic terrorism and what they want to do to us is a big challenge," Giuliani said.

He said the U.S. has prevented a repeat of the Sept. 11 attacks because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the U.S. Patriot Act, electronic surveillance and what he called "questioning so that we get information from people."

"All of that I believe the Democrats want to take a step back on," he said. Giuliani reserved his criticism for his potential Democratic opponents Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, without attacking his Republican rivals.

Cardetti said the Democratic candidates believe, instead, that changing the course in Iraq from current strategies will keep the nation from being bogged down there, in order to better fight terrorism at home and abroad.

Giuliani said he favors increasing the size of the military, in part to counter terrorists and also to deter nations including China and Russia from contemplating "challenges" to the U.S. in the future.

"This would be a very helpful thing to do when you think about Russia and China in the long-term," he said. "The best thing we can do to make sure that China's rise is a peaceful rise, as we hope it is, is to be militarily so strong that it doesn't make sense, like it didn't make sense in the day of Ronald Reagan, to challenge us."

Randy Barke, 48, who works at a food plant in Mount Vernon, said he plans to vote for Giuliani because he believes the New Yorker is the Republican candidate who can beat Clinton. Barke expects Clinton will win the Democratic nod.

"No more Clintons. We had enough of them for 8 years, that's too much," he said.

Missouri is among more than 20 states holding primaries or caucuses on Feb. 5.