Mike Huckabee-A True Conservative
Josh Harding
January 06, 2008
With success comes scrutiny, as Mike Huckabee is finding out.
Ever since he started polling high in Iowa in December, commentators have been assessing whether or not Governor Huckabee is the authentic conservative he says he is. Rush Limbaugh said point blank that despite Huck’s stances on abortion and gay marriage, the former Arkansas is not a true conservative due to his fiscal record in the Razorback state.
If conservatism is defined as adhering to free-market principles, then Huckabee is no conservative, nor does he intend to be. The Cato Institute gave Huckabee an ‘D’ grade during his tenure as governor, citing that he increased his state’s debt reserves by $1 billion, and his increases in the state’s income, gas, and cigarette taxes led to a 47 percent increase in the average Arkansan’s tax burden (1). His regulatory record isn’t any better. For example, the Club for Growth lists, among Huckabee’s regulatory activities, investigating so-called price-gouging at the gas pumps and nursing homes, and preventing companies from raising prices 10 percent ahead of a natural disaster (2), thus enabling over-consumption of essential materials needed for recovery from disasters. One letter to the editor in an Arkansas newspaper compares Huckabee unfavorably to the right wing’s favorite tax-and-spender, Bill Clinton (3). Furthermore, the Baptist minister has made it clear he is a “different kind of Republican,” who is more than willing to denounce corporate greed (4). With his pedigree, rest assured a Mike Huckabee presidency will use taxes and regulations to combat that greed, regardless of likely consequences.
But do conservatives have any merit in denouncing Huckabee as not being a true conservative?
Former House Majority Leader, conservative champion and alleged lawbreaker Tom DeLay famously quipped in 2005 there was no fat to trim from a budget running a $331 billion deficit (5). The architect of the Republican takeover of Congress in the 90s, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who believes FDR’s New Deal saved America from the Depression (6), has stated his philosophy includes “very activist government” and that the unadulterated free market represents “greed as the ultimate cultural value (7).” As for the Babe Ruth of conservatism, Ronald Reagan raised taxes on businesses (after initially cutting them), gasoline, Social Security, and created withholding on interest and dividend payments (8).
Bottom line, Governor Huckabee is as authentic of a conservative as there is. After all, the heart of authentic conservatism is reneging on the principles of limited government.
1. http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8838
2. http://www.clubforgrowth.com/2007/11/updated_huckabee_white_paper.php
3. http://www.arkansasleader.com/2007/11/editorialswhos-biggest-tax-raiser.html
4. http://wbztv.com/politics/Mike.Huckabee.2008.2.287441.html
5. http://www.qando.net/details.aspx?entry=2573
6. http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=111
7. http://www.reason.com/news/show/30149.html
8. http://www.mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=488
Ever since he started polling high in Iowa in December, commentators have been assessing whether or not Governor Huckabee is the authentic conservative he says he is. Rush Limbaugh said point blank that despite Huck’s stances on abortion and gay marriage, the former Arkansas is not a true conservative due to his fiscal record in the Razorback state.
If conservatism is defined as adhering to free-market principles, then Huckabee is no conservative, nor does he intend to be. The Cato Institute gave Huckabee an ‘D’ grade during his tenure as governor, citing that he increased his state’s debt reserves by $1 billion, and his increases in the state’s income, gas, and cigarette taxes led to a 47 percent increase in the average Arkansan’s tax burden (1). His regulatory record isn’t any better. For example, the Club for Growth lists, among Huckabee’s regulatory activities, investigating so-called price-gouging at the gas pumps and nursing homes, and preventing companies from raising prices 10 percent ahead of a natural disaster (2), thus enabling over-consumption of essential materials needed for recovery from disasters. One letter to the editor in an Arkansas newspaper compares Huckabee unfavorably to the right wing’s favorite tax-and-spender, Bill Clinton (3). Furthermore, the Baptist minister has made it clear he is a “different kind of Republican,” who is more than willing to denounce corporate greed (4). With his pedigree, rest assured a Mike Huckabee presidency will use taxes and regulations to combat that greed, regardless of likely consequences.
But do conservatives have any merit in denouncing Huckabee as not being a true conservative?
Former House Majority Leader, conservative champion and alleged lawbreaker Tom DeLay famously quipped in 2005 there was no fat to trim from a budget running a $331 billion deficit (5). The architect of the Republican takeover of Congress in the 90s, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who believes FDR’s New Deal saved America from the Depression (6), has stated his philosophy includes “very activist government” and that the unadulterated free market represents “greed as the ultimate cultural value (7).” As for the Babe Ruth of conservatism, Ronald Reagan raised taxes on businesses (after initially cutting them), gasoline, Social Security, and created withholding on interest and dividend payments (8).
Bottom line, Governor Huckabee is as authentic of a conservative as there is. After all, the heart of authentic conservatism is reneging on the principles of limited government.
1. http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8838
2. http://www.clubforgrowth.com/2007/11/updated_huckabee_white_paper.php
3. http://www.arkansasleader.com/2007/11/editorialswhos-biggest-tax-raiser.html
4. http://wbztv.com/politics/Mike.Huckabee.2008.2.287441.html
5. http://www.qando.net/details.aspx?entry=2573
6. http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=111
7. http://www.reason.com/news/show/30149.html
8. http://www.mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=488
Print
Email
