It actually could be worse…

Anyone who reads my blogs obviously knows my strong conservative stances especially on economic issues.  I truly do believe that without economic prosperity the rest doesn’t matter because we will not have the resources to fight for what we believe otherwise.  Case in point we won the Cold War because of our economic prosperity in the 1980’s led by the greatest President of our time Ronald Reagan.  I know this blog is going to make some Huckabee supporters angry and possibly some McCain supporters will be happy I wrote this piece.  Who knows?  But I’ve come to the conclusion that Mike Huckabee actually makes John McCain look like Ronald Reagan reincarnated politically.

Ok before I go further I want to note that no John McCain is not and never will be utterly close to the smell of Ronald Reagan’s feet let alone his reincarnate politically.  Nor is John McCain an actual conservative.  I’m just comparing him to Mike Huckabee.  First of all Mike is good on pro life issues.  He’s also good on the protection of marriage.  He’s not a bad culture conservative.  However, he’s a big government tax increasing democrat as far as I’m concerned based on his record.  

As Governor of Arkansas early on in his tenure he actually did do some good things.  He fought for an 80 million dollar tax cut package in 1997.  He cut the state capital gains tax in 1999.  Then it pretty much all goes south and no I don’t mean south as in tax cuts.  He has supported a MULTITUDE of tax hikes throughout his tenure that includes: sales tax hike in 1996; an Internet sales tax in 2001; he opposed the repeal of sales tax on groceries and medicine; signed bills raising gasoline, cigarette, and beds for nursing home patients tax hikes; proposed another sales tax hike in 2002; he opposed a measure to ban the Internet taxes; and allowed a 17% increase in sales tax to become law in 2004.  Make up all the excuses you want this is not conservatism at work.  The wonderful Cato Institute gave Mike Huckabee a D grade on taxes.

Mike Huckabee had a net gain of 500 million in tax hikes.  I’ve seen him refuse to answer this directly when questioned about it.  He claims he cut taxes 94 times as Governor, but in actuallity they were minor tweaks in tax law.  The fact still remains a 500 million dollar net increase.  He not only not opposed many tax hikes he CAMPAIGNED for them.  I’m sorry, but where is Ronald Reagan Conservatism in all of this?  You know that fuel and gas tax hike he says the Arkansas people approved?  Well actually that part of it wasn’t subject to voter approval.  It was actually a bond issue that voters approved and the tax increases would have remained whether the bond issue was approved or not.  Also the Arkansas Supreme Court did not mandate for Mike Huckabee to raise taxes.  It mandated that Governor Huckabee spend more money on state education.  Instead of cutting government waste and finding the funds already in the budget Governor Huckabee’s first answer was to raise taxes.  Again I don’t see that as Reaganesque, but what do I know?

I understand he supports the FairTax now, but what people must not know is that he has only supported that since he got on the campaign trail for the Presidency.  Where in his history does he indicate by his record that he is for this reform?   Also while Huckabee criticizes Romney for “flip flopping” on signing the Americans for Tax Reforms anti-tax pledge Huckabee himself didn’t sign this pledge until after January of 2007. 

This is where I get the most angry.  It’s his record on spending in Arkansas.  From 1996-2004 government spending under Mike Huckabee increased 65%.  That was almost triple that of inflation.  The number of state workers increased 20% under Governor Huckabee’s watch as well.  The state’s obligational debt(money already spent for future years) shot up to a billion dollars.  Huckabee put together a number of Government programs which helps explains the massive increase in spending. 

I’m going to finish with regulation which is another pet peeve of mine as I’ve said in other blogs.  Not only is Huckabee a tax hiker, a big government republican, but also is bad on regulation.  He raised the states minimum wage from $5.15 to 6.25 an hour(to put this in perspective as Governor Mitt Romney only gave up a 25 cent increase in minimum wage to a liberal legislature that was demanding $1.75 increase).  On a state level this bad enough, but he then went on to propose that congress do the same thing on a national level.  Thankfully President Bush and the GOP congress apposed this measure.  He threatened to investigate “price-gouging” after 9/11 if gas prices went too high.  Oh, so he’s also for artificial price control in a price-coordinated economy.  This is further proven by the fact he signed a bill into law that would prevent companies from raising their prices 10% ahead of natural disasters.  Mike you should learn about supply and demand.  Demand goes up(which it would for those kinds of items before a natural disaster) then the price goes up.  He uses liberal rhetoric by saying “the line between capitalism and greed has to be very clearly delineated”.  That’s called class warfare, Mike.  It’s also a form of fascism(no I’m not calling Mike a fascist). 

I could easily go on about this guy’s record, but since he hasn’t a chance in the world to be the nominee I’ll stop here.  I do believe John McCain and Mike Huckabee are the two worst republican candidates we had running this year.  I’ve asked Huckabee supporters repeatedly to discuss his record with me.  No one stepped up to the plate.  I understand Huckabee supporters will be angry with this piece, but I welcome all of you to the table of discussion.  This is, after-all, a free country and debate is welcome.  However, given the choice between the two I have to say I am happy that it’s John McCain.  Ok I’m not “happy” per-say, but as Huckabee’s record indicates yes it indeed could be worse for us conservatives.