Posted on 12/01/2007 8:30:01 AM PST by dano1
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee defended Friday his tax and spending record while governor of Arkansas as his surging candidacy brings fresh attacks from primary rivals.
"These are the same critics who if they were around and influential back then, Ronald Reagan would never have been elected president,'' Huckabee told reporters after speaking to the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce at the Holiday Inn here.
"Ronald Reagan got elected governor of California in 1966 by pledging not to raise taxes and in 1967, to balance the budget, he had to approve a tax increase.''
While governor for 10-1/2 years, Huckabee cut taxes several dozen times during the booming economy of the 1990s.
But from 2000-02, Huckabee signed or allowed to become law more than $500 million in tax increases that included a 17 percent jump in the sales tax rate and a gas tax increase tied to highway improvements.
"We had some tax increases due to court mandates or necessitated by deficits which we had to deal with,'' Huckabee explained.
He claimed the rate of state spending over the 11-year period in his state was less than half the national average of a 98 percent jump.
"In the spending and tax side, I have a conservative fiscal record,'' Huckabee said.
Earlier this week, Huckabee's bid moved into a flat-footed tie with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in Iowa polls.
The sudden boost has brought both wanted and unwanted attention.
The desirable notice came from more than a dozen television cameras and every major network that chronicled his every move during this one-hour stop, which opened with a flattering introduction by New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch, a two-term Democrat.
"Gov. Huckabee was very gracious to me as a new governor,'' Lynch recalled.
Huckabee quipped that Lynch might regret having been the opening act for a socially conservative Republican like himself.
"I have a feeling that Governor Lynch will be in a lot of trouble for having done that today,'' Huckabee said, smiling.
"It sure did me some good but it probably did him some serious harm.''
The unwanted attention is from envious primary opponents like ex-Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who aired before a national debate audience a Huckabee speech to the Arkansas Legislature in which he said he could accept increases in state income or sales taxes to solve a budget crisis.
On Friday, Romney's campaign distributed a list of stinging attacks from Arkansas media and GOP critics in his home state.
"Fact: Newspapers have lambasted Gov. Huckabee and his liberal, fiscal record,'' the Romney release said.
As in all campaign speeches, Huckabee pressed for replacing the federal income tax with the Fair Tax, a 23 percent levy on consumption at all stages of production.
Huckabee insisted he can sell this reform in New Hampshire even though the state has neither a sales nor income tax.
"The average family pays 33 percent of their income in taxes and with this would be paying far less than that, more like 23 percent at the retail side,'' Huckabee told reporters.
"The best thing is it would un-tax the poor and un-tax those on fixed income and give everyone at all levels of the economy benefit.
"You lose the carrying charges of the IRS and the beauty is you don't have an underground economy so you spread that tax burden among all wage earners.''
A poll released Friday by the American Research Group put Huckabee (13 percent) slightly ahead but essentially tied here with John McCain (11 percent) for third place among likely GOP primary voters.
The survey of 600 voters by telephone Nov. 26-29 had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.
The improvement comes even though not a single Huckabee television or radio ad has ever aired in the state on the three leading candidates, Romney, Rudy Giuliani and McCain.
"All polls show us on one solid trajectory and it's going up. If you look at every other campaign, no other campaign has had one direction and that is of going up,'' Huckabee said.
"I said from the beginning this was a campaign that was going to be like a marathon. Don't worry about what is going on the first few miles. The race is won at the 26.2 mark, not the 2.6 mark.''
Huckabee is the most liberal Republican of all time.
Lowell Wicker is second.
Send the Huck to the Rat party where he belongs.
Huck is an honorable guy, but I’m sorry: What he means here by “fiscal conservative” is someone who’ll avoid running deficits (by raising taxes, primarily, in his case), not necessarily someone who keeps spending and taxes low relative to where they began. To me and most Republicans, the latter is a “fiscal conservative,” and although Huck may not be an “F” grade in that regard, he’s probably about a D or C-.
bump
Yeah, and Huckabee also says he’s tough on illegal immigration.
Mike Huckabee seems to say a lot of stuff that isn’t supported by the facts.
He is no rat traitor. He is not a strong conservative either even though he is trying to make us believe that he is a strong conservative. He has little chance to win the general election if nominated. All of the other major candidates are more electable. I am still strongly behind Thompson. He has made the strongest statements on taxes, immigration, entitlements, and military spending.
“’We had some tax increases due to court mandates or necessitated by deficits which we had to deal with,’ Huckabee explained.”
Uh, Mr. Huckabee, the US govenrment has mandates and deficits, too.
Now we know what his excuse will be to raise taxes as President. Coincidentally, the deficit was exactly the same excuse Clinton used for raising taxes in ‘92. Must be something in the water in Arkansas.
There are at least 15 Rat congressman who are to the right of Huckabee.
Yep - fiscal conservatives beg for any tax increase his legislature will give him, pushes for income tax surcharges (and later resists eliminating it when the budget is back in line), promotes the largest increase in public spending in his state’s history, refuses to consider cutting or eliminating the sales tax on groceries (which his successor - a liberal Democrat signed).
He also gets credit for a balanced budget in the state (Arkansas)... um - a balanced budget is required by the Arkansas Constitution. Further - Billions of dollars in bonds to finance his spending is an “end-run” around the balanced budget requirement.
Higher gas taxes, higher income taxes, hugely increased government health care system - yep, sounds like a fiscal conservative to me....(/sarcasm)
HUCKAEE 2003: “WHATEVER TAX YOU PASS, YOU WILL HAVE NOTHING BUT MY PROFOUND THANKS”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pLOC4krZI4
He may be a social conservative but a fiscal conservative is not one that merely raises taxes less than Democrats. Huckabee doesn’t seem to have a clear fiscal conservative philosophy. He in the past has demonstrated a government bureaucratic fiscal model where government funding is cast as satisfying public need which is not always the case. A true fiscal conservative knows that just because there is public “need” does not mean that the government is the best place to manage or address that need. Actually a true fiscal conservative would always as a first choice choose private sector solutions first even if it requires some government oversight or regulation. Huckabee doesn’t seem to understand this. He talks like a liberal on Global Warming and Health Care. As for being a social conservative he is not very strong in holding the tide against homosexual activists so that leaves him being pro-life as his primary redeeming value.
I’d vote for Rudy first.
Where have I heard that? Gee that sounds familiar! I know I have heard that before...
Sorry. His record speaks for itself. He’s as much a fiscal conservative as Giuliani is a defender of the 2nd amendment.
Not to mention that just saying the words “President Huckabee” makes me giggle uncontrollably.
Seems like the Huckster is very used to these "pay to play" arrangements.
"In addition, Corsi also exposed the fact that Mike Huckabee worked with Mexican President Vicente Fox to help provide cheap Mexican labor for Tyson Foods and other large Arkansas corporations. According to Corsi, "Trevino confirmed he was state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, also known as LULAC, an activist group strongly advocating for the rights of Hispanic immigrants in the U.S., when on Oct. 3, 2003, he accompanied Huckabee in a state airplane to visit [President Vicente] Fox in Mexico.""
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