Huckabee Q and A

[Dos Equis]

Long read, but great insight on Huckabee.  Note that they had a large budget when he took office and a budget surplus when he left office.  That's the same thing Governor Lingle did in Hawaii. 

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MikeHuckabee/2008/01/17/governor_huckabee_responds_to_frank_pastore%e2%80%99s_%e2%80%9cdear_huck%e2%80%9d_letter

[Straw Man]

During Huck's tenure there were NET tax increases of just over a half billion dollars. 

[Dos Equis]

Excerpt from the link:

Governor Mike Huckabee: First, I am a fiscal conservative. I have signed Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform “no tax” pledge. When I was Governor of Arkansas, I cut taxes 94 times, including the largest broad-based tax cut in the history of my state. I doubled the standard deduction and the child care credit, eliminated the marriage penalty, indexed tax brackets to prevent bracket creep, reduced the capital gains tax for both businesses and individuals, and eliminated the capital gains tax on the sale of a home. I reduced welfare rolls by almost 50 percent.

When I left office, the tax rates remained exactly the same as when I began almost 11 years earlier: the tax rate was 1 percent for the poorest taxpayers and 7 percent for the richest. Having inherited a $200 million budget shortfall from my Democrat predecessor, I left office with an $844 million surplus, letting my successor follow my lead to get the sales tax on food eliminated.

[Straw Man]

The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration found that 90 tax cuts were enacted in legislative sessions from 1997 through 2005, while Huckabee was governor, and those cuts reduced tax revenues by $378 million. But Huckabee fails to mention the 21 tax increases that occurred under his watch and that raised revenues by substantially more. The total net tax increase under Huckabee's tenure was an estimated $505.1 million, says the Department of Finance and Administration's Whitney McLaughlin, adding that the figure has been adjusted for inflation.

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/huckabees_fiscal_record.html

[Straw Man]

Bueller Bueller?

Bum?

[Dos Equis]

 

[Straw Man]

Huck is a LIAR or at best misrepresents his fiscal history while governor of AK

BTW - the scumbags who run the Republican party know this to be true and that's one of the reasons why he's persona non grata

They don't mind his lies but they do have a problem with the truth

[Dos Equis]

What exactly did he lie about?

[Straw Man]

read the link from factcheck.org and figure it out for yourself

[Dos Equis]

Nah.  I read the link I posted.

[Straw Man]

Nah.  I read the link I posted.

that's exactly why you're so stupid

[Dos Equis]

that's exactly why you're so stupid

Hahahaha!     Okay Bob Marley.  lol . . . .  I can see you're hitting the bong tonight.  I'm off to a Martin Luther King dinner.  Enjoy the ganja. 

[Straw Man]

Hahahaha!     Okay Bob Marley.  lol . . . .  I can see you're hitting the bong tonight.  I'm off to a Martin Luther King dinner.  Enjoy the ganja. 

Bum - I don't need to be stoned to see that you're an idiot or that you're trying to change the subject

back to the topic (I know you'd like to avoid it).

You seem to prefer listening to the candidate tell you what he did rather than looking at the actual facts of what he did.

Only a moron would refuse to look at the facts and use that as a basis of their discussion but then again
I know you're most comfortable with your head up your ass and you're certainly free to make that choice.

If you were an honest person you would look at the facts and discuss them rather than avoiding them.

[OzmO]

The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration found that 90 tax cuts were enacted in legislative sessions from 1997 through 2005, while Huckabee was governor, and those cuts reduced tax revenues by $378 million. But Huckabee fails to mention the 21 tax increases that occurred under his watch and that raised revenues by substantially more. The total net tax increase under Huckabee's tenure was an estimated $505.1 million, says the Department of Finance and Administration's Whitney McLaughlin, adding that the figure has been adjusted for inflation.

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/huckabees_fiscal_record.html

Vs.

Excerpt from the link:

Governor Mike Huckabee: First, I am a fiscal conservative. I have signed Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform “no tax” pledge. When I was Governor of Arkansas, I cut taxes 94 times, including the largest broad-based tax cut in the history of my state. I doubled the standard deduction and the child care credit, eliminated the marriage penalty, indexed tax brackets to prevent bracket creep, reduced the capital gains tax for both businesses and individuals, and eliminated the capital gains tax on the sale of a home. I reduced welfare rolls by almost 50 percent.

When I left office, the tax rates remained exactly the same as when I began almost 11 years earlier: the tax rate was 1 percent for the poorest taxpayers and 7 percent for the richest. Having inherited a $200 million budget shortfall from my Democrat predecessor, I left office with an $844 million surplus, letting my successor follow my lead to get the sales tax on food eliminated.

So which is it?

[Dos Equis]

Bum - I don't need to be stoned to see that you're an idiot or that you're trying to change the subject

back to the topic (I know you'd like to avoid it).

You seem to prefer listening to the candidate tell you what he did rather than looking at the actual facts of what he did.

Only a moron would refuse to look at the facts and use that as a basis of their discussion but then again
I know you're most comfortable with your head up your ass and you're certainly free to make that choice.

If you were an honest person you would look at the facts and discuss them rather than avoiding them.

[Dos Equis]

Vs.

So which is it?

I don't think the two passages are inconsistent with each other.  One talks about total increase from all sources.  Huckabee was talking about tax rates for individuals and how he turned a budget deficit into a budget surplus. 

[Straw Man]

Huck is spinning his record to make it sound more appealing to Republicans while omitting the fact that he actually presided over NET TAX INCREASES.   Given his career choice, this is hardly a mortal sin

The link goes into more detail about Huck's habit of re-writing his personal history and his numerous lies of ommission.

Bum, of course hasn't actually read the link in it's entirety (at least according to his own words) so he, as usual has an incomplete picture.

Bum would rather believe the candidates spin than look at the facts.  If he had any intellectual honesty he would debate the facts rather than being proud of his refusal to even look at them.