Huck Iowa Evangelicals and Potential Party Failure

The Huckster last week won the Iowa Caucuses due to a very large voting block in that state, Evangelicals. Evangelicals make up an estimated 60% of the Republican voters in Iowa but yet the Huckster only garnered 34% of the vote in last week’s Caucuses. That means that about half of Iowa’s Evangelicals did not fall for the Huckster’s song and dance. They see him for the flim-flam man that he is.

The Huckster claims to be a fiscal Conservative but yet he raised taxes on Arkansans more than Billy Bob Bubba did when he infested the Statehouse.

* Immediately upon taking office, Governor Huckabee signed a sales tax hike in 1996 to fund the Games and Fishing Commission and the Department of Parks and Tourism (Cato Policy Analysis No. 315, 09/03/98).
* He supported an internet sales tax in 2001 (Americans for Tax Reform 01/07/07).
* He publicly opposed the repeal of a sales tax on groceries and medicine in 2002 (Arkansas News Bureau 08/30/02).
* He signed bills raising taxes on gasoline (1999), cigarettes (2003) (Americans for Tax Reform 01/07/07), and a $5.25 per day bed-tax on private nursing home patients in 2001 (Arkansas New Bureau 03/01/01).
* He proposed another sales take hike in 2002 to fund education improvements (Arkansas News Bureau 12/05/02).
* He opposed a congressional measure to ban internet taxes in 2003 (Arkansas News Bureau 11/21/03).
* In 2004, he allowed a 17% sales tax increase to become law (The Gurdon Times 03/02/04).

By the end of his ten-year tenure, Governor Huckabee was responsible for a 37% higher sales tax in Arkansas, 16% higher motor fuel taxes, and 103% higher cigarette taxes according to Americans for Tax Reform (01/07/07), garnering a lifetime grade of D from the free-market Cato Institute. While he is on record supporting making the Bush tax cuts permanent, he joined Democrats in criticizing the Republican Party for tilting its tax policies “toward the people at the top end of the economic scale” (Washington Examiner 09/13/06), even though objective evidence demonstrates that the Bush tax cuts have actually shifted the tax burden to higher income taxpayers.

Finally, Governor Huckabee opposed further tax cuts at a 2005 gathering of Iowa conservatives (AP 09/17/05). On January 28, 2007, Governor Huckabee refused to pledge not to raise taxes if elected President, first on Meet the Press and then at the National Review Conservative Summit. The evidence suggests that his commitment to protecting taxpayers evidenced in his early gubernatorial years may be a thing of the past. SOURCE

Huckster, you cannot raise taxes and then claim that you are a Conservative. He recently came out publicly as favoring The Fair Tax but his record as Governor of Arkansas contradicts that claim. Should we trust him on his word as to how he WILL be or should we judge him based upon what he’s done? Anyone can say they’ll do something in particular if you vote for them and then do another once they’ve got your vote. And that is Huckster.

Huckster also out spent Billy Bob Bubba…

Under Governor Huckabee’s watch, state spending increased a whopping 65.3% from 1996 to 2004, three times the rate of inflation (Americans for Tax Reform 01/07/07). The number of state government workers rose 20% during his tenure (Arkansas Leader 04/15/06), and the state’s general obligation debt shot up by almost $1 billion, according to Americans for Tax Reform. The massive increase in government spending is due in part to the number of new programs and expansion of already existing programs initiated by Governor Huckabee, including ARKids First, a multimillion-dollar government program to provide health coverage for thousands of Arkansas’ children (Arkansas News Bureau 04/13/06). SOURCE

Taxing and spending is NOT the Conservative way Huckster. You cannot lay claim to fiscal responsibility as you did on FoxNews today with a history of taxing and spending. Here’s your problem, you believe we are all stupid. We’re not. You snowed 34% of Evangelicals in Iowa but you won’t snow anyone else.

If you are thinking of voting for the Huckster, think twice if you consider yourself Conservative. Because I know Conservative and He’s no Conservative.

Should the Huckster gain the GOP Nomination, it would be a failure for the GOP. If we want a tax and spend President we might as well vote for the Democrat. The same goes for social liberals. Are you listening Rudy?

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