[nhwingut]

Bingo. Huck likes to package himself now as some tea party founder. BS. He was a big government compasssionate conservative type (i.e. Social Con/Fical Lib) when he first came on to the scene.

Here's a piece from Club for Growth:

During Huckabee’s tenure as governor, the average Arkansan’s tax burden increased 47 percent, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. A dyed-in-blue tax hiker, Huckabee supported raising sales taxes, gas taxes, grocery taxes, even nursing home bed taxes. He virulently opposed a congressional moratorium on taxing Internet access, and sat on the sidelines while his Democratic legislature pushed the largest tax hike in Arkansas history into law. What’s more, on his watch, and frequently at his behest, state spending increased by 50 percent, more than double the rate of inflation, and the number of state government workers rose by 20 percent. Yes, as a presidential candidate, Huckabee has signed on as a supporter of the Fair Tax and pledged against raising taxes, but when a candidate’s long and clear record flies in the face of his election-year symbolism, you can chalk it up to politics every time.

[muawiyah]

He did bring Arkansas' taxes up pretty much to the levels of the surrounding states. Eastern state voters would be relieved to have taxes only double those of Arkansas, and the folks in California would go apoplectic if they could have that kind of relief.

Some of this is a relative values thing and there's no doubt many of Arkansas' hillbillies are still angry that they now have roads and schools, if not shoes and britches without drop panels in the rear.