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Huckabee is Fiscal Conservative Says Dick Morris

Discussion in 'Political Debate & Discussion' started by leesw, Nov 29, 2007.

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  1. leesw

    leesw Member

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    MIKE HUCKABEE IS A FISCAL CONSERVATIVE

    By DICK MORRIS

    Published on TheHill.com on November 28, 2007.

    As Mike Huckabee rises in the polls, an inevitable process of vetting him for conservative credentials is under way in which people who know nothing of Arkansas or of the circumstances of his governorship weigh in knowingly about his record. As his political consultant in the early ’90s and one who has been following Arkansas politics for 30 years, let me clue you in: Mike Huckabee is a fiscal conservative.

    A recent column by Bob Novak excoriated Huckabee for a “47 percent increase in state tax burden.” But during Huckabee’s years in office, total state tax burden — all 50 states combined — rose by twice as much: 98 percent, increasing from $743 billion in 1993 to $1.47 trillion in 2005.

    In Arkansas, the income tax when he took office was 1 percent for the poorest taxpayers and 7 percent for the richest, exactly where it stood when he left the statehouse 11 years later. But, in the interim, he doubled the standard deduction and the child care credit, repealed capital gains taxes for home sales, lowered the capital gains rate, expanded the homestead exemption and set up tax-free savings accounts for medical care and college tuition.

    Most impressively, when he had to pass an income tax surcharge amid the drop in revenues after Sept. 11, 2001, he repealed it three years later when he didn’t need it any longer.

    He raised the sales tax one cent in 11 years and did that only after the courts ordered him to do so. (He also got voter approval for a one-eighth-of-one-cent hike for parks and recreation.)

    He wants to repeal the income tax, abolish the IRS and institute a “fair tax” based on consumption, and opposes any tax increase for Social Security.

    And he can win in Iowa.

    When voters who have decided not to back Rudy Giuliani because of his social positions consider the contest between Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, they will have no difficulty choosing between a real social conservative and an ersatz one.

    Romney, who began as a pro-lifer and switched in order to win in Massachusetts, and then flipped back again, cannot compete with a lifelong pro-lifer, Huckabee.

    But Huckabee’s strength is not just his orthodoxy on gay marriage, abortion, gun control and the usual litany. It is his opening of the religious right to a host of new issues. He speaks firmly for the right to life, but then notes that our responsibility for children does not end with childbirth. His answer to the rise of medical costs is novel and exciting. “Eighty percent of all medical spending,” he says, “is for chronic diseases.” So he urges an all-out attack on teen smoking and overeating and a push for exercise not as the policies of a big-government liberal but as the requisites of a fiscal conservative anxious to save tax money.

    So what happens if Huckabee wins in Iowa? With New Hampshire only five days later, his momentum will be formidable. The key may boil down to how Hillary does in Iowa.

    Hillary? Yes. If she loses in Iowa, most of the independents in New Hampshire will flock to the Democratic primary to vote for her or against her. That will move the Republican electorate to the right in New Hampshire — bad news for Rudy, good news for Huckabee. But if she wins in Iowa, there will be no point in voting in the Democratic primary and a goodly number will enter the GOP contest, giving Rudy a big boost.

    And afterward? If Romney wins Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and South Carolina, sweeping the early primaries, Giuliani will have a very tough task to bring him down in Florida or on Super Tuesday. It can be done, but it’s tough. But if Romney loses in Iowa (likely to Huckabee) then Rudy can survive the loss of Iowa and even New Hampshire without surrendering irresistible momentum to Romney.

    In any event, neither Hillary nor Giuliani will be knocked out by defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire. Their 50-state organizations, their national base and their massive war chests will permit them to fight it out all over the United States. Even if they lose the first two contests, they will remain in the race and could well come back to win.
     
    #1 leesw, Nov 29, 2007
  2. KenH

    KenH Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, let's just all ignore Huckabee's record as governor of being soft on crime, raising taxes, and being quite lenient toward illegal aliens.

    Now that he is running for president he is flip flopping as much as any candidate on these issues.
     
    #2 KenH, Nov 29, 2007
  3. steaver

    steaver Well-Known Member
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    Ken, you keep saying this and I asked you to give an example. You told me to do a google on it and see for myself. I did and I can't find anything that supports the "soft on crime" label.

    As far as raising taxes, it is only a negative if 1) wasteful spending is out of control already and they just want more to waste 2) the increase is going for grant money to some stupid research like a study on the stress global warming is putting on the box turtles or something.

    If the tax improves the state and it's quality of living there then it is a good thing.

    And the whole country has been "quite lenient toward illegal aliens".

    Do you have anything at all concrete you can really stick on Huckabee as a flaw in leadership?


    God Bless! :thumbs:
     
    #3 steaver, Nov 30, 2007
  4. KenH

    KenH Well-Known Member

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    I provided a link about the Wayne Dumond story in an earlier thread.
     
    #4 KenH, Nov 30, 2007
  5. steaver

    steaver Well-Known Member
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    And I read that article and gave my analysis of it. It was not convincing that Huckabee was to blame for the unfortunate outcome.

    Even so, you would want me to take one murkey incident and proclaim the man soft on crime. I would need to see a pattern of sorts.

    Honestly, I don't think you really have anything on the man except a personal gruge for some reason.

    God Bless! :thumbs:
     
    #5 steaver, Dec 1, 2007
  6. KenH

    KenH Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, I don't take kindly to a politician that pushed for raising my taxes and spending my taxes for the benefit of illegal aliens.
     
    #6 KenH, Dec 1, 2007
  7. steaver

    steaver Well-Known Member
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    Ok, this is understandable. So did he create a new tax just for the benefit of illegals, or was it lumped together with other projects? What was the tax increase said to be used for and what then was it actually used for? I don't know these things, I am just trying to decide whether or not to support the man.

    God Bless! :thumbs:
     
    #7 steaver, Dec 2, 2007
  8. saturneptune

    saturneptune New Member

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    You, being from PA, a state that has done us the great favor of granting electoral votes to every nutcase Democrat to come along for decades, would do well to listen to someone from Arkansas, who has lived through the Administration.

    Huckabee is no doubt better than Romney or Giuliani, but to dismiss someone who has lived through his term is not wise.
     
    #8 saturneptune, Dec 2, 2007
  9. faithcontender

    faithcontender New Member

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    Some fair assessment of Mike Huckabee on raising taxes:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/us...gewanted=print

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...&feed=rss.news
     
    #9 faithcontender, Dec 2, 2007
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 2, 2007
  10. KenH

    KenH Well-Known Member

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    A typical politician attempting to justify his actions. :laugh:

    Kind of like saying, "The devil made me do it."
     
    #10 KenH, Dec 2, 2007
  11. faithcontender

    faithcontender New Member

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    And what you are saying is that you can do better than what most of your public officials did during that situation.

    Maybe i should vote for you if you intend to run for public office. It seems that you have all the answers and solutions for all the government troubles. :laugh:
     
    #11 faithcontender, Dec 2, 2007
  12. KenH

    KenH Well-Known Member

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    If I was independently wealthy, you bet, I would be deeply involved in politics. :)
     
    #12 KenH, Dec 2, 2007
  13. steaver

    steaver Well-Known Member
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    Not sure what PA voting domocrat has to do with the debate. Have I dismissed brother Ken or have I engaged him trying to get some information from a "lived through" source?

    Rather than dismissing Ken I have persued him hoping to get insight into Huckabee, what better a source since he lives there? But what I have found so far is a personal opinion unsupported by the record. I only pressed for some facts, Ken has every right to his opinion.

    God Bless! :thumbs:
     
    #13 steaver, Dec 3, 2007
  14. saturneptune

    saturneptune New Member

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    It could be that I end up voting for Huckabee because of the sad choices like Romney and Giulilani, despite his Arkansas record. The things Ken is telling you are facts. You reaction to them has been to make excuses for the actions, instead of trying to get a total picture of what Huckabee is all about.
     
    #14 saturneptune, Dec 3, 2007
  15. steaver

    steaver Well-Known Member
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    The only "fact" Ken gave me was the Dumond case. #1 it is not a slam dunk that Huckabee was to blame. #2 One case does not justify a "soft on crime" conclusion.

    I have gotten nothing from Ken nor you that I can place in front of my face and read that declares Huckabee soft on crime, a needless tax raiser, or any softer on illegal aliens than any other governer of any state.

    So far the "total picture" on Huck is beginning to look better and better to me from what a few others here have provided for me in a "fair and balanced" report.

    God Bless! :thumbs:
     
    #15 steaver, Dec 3, 2007
  16. saturneptune

    saturneptune New Member

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    Do you ever read other posts? It was stated quite clearly to you that chances are that I would vote for Huckabee if faced with choosing him over Giuliani or Romney. It really does not matter though, in your case, for under the electoral college, PA's electoral votes will go to the democrat.
     
    #16 saturneptune, Dec 3, 2007
  17. steaver

    steaver Well-Known Member
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    Ahhhh....but it DOES matter indeed.......

    2Cr 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things [done] in [his] body, according to that he hath done, whether [it be] good or bad.

    Col 3:17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, [do] all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him

    Col 3:23 And whatsoever ye do, do [it] heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;

    Rom 14:12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

    God will see my vote and know if i supported His Word on matters such as murder for example.

    God will place into power whom He pleases with or without PA.

    God Bless! :thumbs:
     
    #17 steaver, Dec 3, 2007
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