Choose Cruz: Mike Huckabee backed the wrong candidate

What was Mike Huckabee thinking when he endorsed David Dewhurst for Texas Senate? When you look across the country at the recent additions to the Senate and the House, you see bold freshmen who have a history and philosophy of fiscal restraint, limited government, and protecting the Constitution. You do not see a lot of 3 term Lt. Governors with a history of blocking conservative bills, being endorsed to go to Washington DC. Perhaps the Dewhurst endorsement was due to a longtime friendship.

As someone who has a lot of respect for Mike Huckabee and made thousands of phone calls for Huckabee for President in 2008 and for some HuckPAC candidates, I have not always agreed with who Huckabee endorses. Take Donald Young in Alaska, Andre Bauer in South Carolina and now David Dewhurst in Texas. Mike Huckabee was against candidates who could bankroll their own campaigns and instead felt that campaigns should be funded by people who trusted in the candidate. Then why not choose Cruz? Ted Cruz has an enormous level of grassroots support: 48,000 donations under $250 compared to Dewhurst's 4,000. Independently wealthy David Dewhurst has donated $11 million dollars to his own campaign. Ted Cruz has donated $800,000.  I was one of those grassroots supporters who donated under $250 hoping to make a difference. Thousands like me were successful in helping Ted Cruz, who has now raised more money than Dewhurst. All of these numbers add up to show that Huckabee miscalculated and backed the wrong guy.

In the 2008 GOP Presidential race, Mike Huckabee championed the FairTax, but in our Texas Senate race, Huckabee endorsed Dewhurst who does NOT support the FairTax. Huckabee's belief in the FairTax should have led him to endorse Cruz who stated that he will co-sponsor the FairTax. In a 2011 blogger conference call that I participated in, Huckabee talked about building support for the FairTax by taking the concept directly to the people who would in turn create a groundswell of support and ask their representatives to bring forth a FairTax bill. How can that be achieved with Dewhurst who was head of the Texas Senate? He never discussed the FairTax with the voters nor did he encourage it to be brought to the senate floor.  Last year Huckabee went before the House Ways and Means Committee stating: "we must work together to elect another record number of candidates to Congress (House and Senate) next year who support the Fair Tax or who are willing to learn more about it and a Republican President who will sign this legislation." Looks like Huckabee forgot about his FairTax call to arms. Texas already has supporters who co-sponsored FairTax Bill H.R.25: Senator John Cornyn and Texas House members: John Carter, Michael Conaway, John Culberson, Blake Farenthood, Michael McCaul, Randy Neugebauer, Pete Olson, Ted Poe, and Mac Thornberry. Ted Cruz as a Senator, would be standing alongside these FairTax fighters. Dewhurst would not.

Mike Huckabee is a religious guy who believes America was founded on Judeo-Christian values. Those values and our rights to Freedom of Religion have been trampled on by a secular society who wants to remove God from the public square. The atheists will continue to wage war on those who hold biblical beliefs; we need a fighter in the US Senate who has a proven track record of winning to counter these atheist attacks. Ted Cruz successfully took up the cause of over 3 million Veterans in defending their right to honor those who had fallen in combat with the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial which is in the shape of a Cross. Ted Cruz successfully defended the words “under God” in the Texas Pledge of Allegiance, and effectively defended the constitutionality of the Texas Ten Commandments monument. With those successes, we need Ted Cruz to fight for our Religious Liberty.

In 2008, Mike Huckabee got slack from conservatives for his approach to illegal immigration. While Huckabee is a strong supporter of border security and Legal immigration, he was honest with voters about how we should treat children of illegals and even illegals themselves, stating that they should not be made to feel like they have to hide in the shadows. With Huckabee’s courage to stand by his convictions, why would he support David Dewhurst who supports amnesty and recently scrubbed a 2007 speech he gave from his official Lt. Governor website?  Ted Cruz, on the other hand, is against amnesty, has fought to strengthen and secure our borders, and championed efforts to enforce laws punishing illegal felons. Seems like Huckabee would like Ted Cruz's honest, forthright approach instead .

Ted Cruz is a fresh voice that voters can trust to stand up for Liberty, defend the Constitution, support the FairTax and work to reform and enact a Legal immigration program. Ted Cruz is a solid, conservative who stands by his convictions despite the costs, and will not compromise once inside Washington.

So once again, I am putting on my campaign volunteer hat and helping elect a candidate that will make for a better America. I hope you will vote for Ted Cruz in the July 31st run-off. Wish Huckabee would admit he backed the wrong candidate, and get on the Cruz bandwagon.

Visit TedCruz.org or click to learn more about Ted Cruz's position on these issues:

Pro-Life

Pro-Traditional Marriage

For 2nd Amendment Rights

Against Obamacare

For a Balanced Budget Amendment

Mike Huckabee's Window of Opportunity

The level of GOP dissatisfaction with the current crop of presidential candidates has created a window of opportunity for Mike Huckabee to enter the race for the Republican nomination.

If he chooses to do so:

Will opponents and their surrogates balk at Huckabee's change of heart?  ("All the factors say go, but my heart says no.")  Probably, but Mike Huckabee can turn it around by stating that their constant fighting on the debate stage and their lack of focus on reforms has given him heartburn.

Will pundits frame the entrance as too late citing Rick Perry's recent example of imploding on the debate stage? They will try but Mike Huckabee is best known for being an articulate, quick witted debater. While he has not been on the current debate stage, he has been on the hot seat-the HotSeat segment of his show-where he has debated liberals on economic, social, and foreign policy related issues. In addition, Huckabee has hosted conservative guests highlighting topics such as the debt ceiling, healthcare reform, job creation, Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and the FairTax.

Will his opponents place a target on his back like they did with Rick Perry in the last three debates? Hard to say. But given that Mike Huckabee had most of them on his show where they could highlight their platforms and set their records straight, it is highly unlikely that they would attack him right away.

Is there enough time for Huckabee to frame the debate? Yes, Mike Huckabee wrote in his book A Simple Government 12 chapters showcasing underlying principles and solutions to make America strong. All Huckabee has to do is provide additional detail on his reforms. That will allow voters to see that Huckabee's 10 1/2 years of managing a microcosm of the federal government has left him best prepared to take on the challenge.

Is there room for another GOP candidate-a late entry? Yes, the straw poll conducted in Florida is one such poll that shows dissatisfaction with Mitt Romney and Rick Perry--71% of the ballots cast were against the two front runners. Herman Cain won the straw poll earning more than Mitt Romney and Rick Perry combined.

Recent polling continues to show that undecided and not sure is still a preferred option amongst the voters.

McClatchy-Marist 2012 Republican Nomination Survey

Undecided 14%

Mitt Romney 13%
Not Romney or Perry 33%

Rasmussen 2012 Republican Nomination Survey

Not Sure 11%
Not Romney or Perry 36%

CBS News/New York Times 2012 Republican Nomination Survey

Someone else 7%

Undecided (vol.) 12%

No one 2%

Don't know 10%
Not Romney or Perry 25%

Bloomberg/Selzer & Co. 2012 Presidential Survey

None of these 6%

Not sure 10%
Not Romney or Perry 36%

PPP 2012 GOP Nomination Survey

Someone else/Not sure 8%
Not Romney or Perry 42%

Economist/YouGov 2012 Presidential Survey

Other 6%

No preference 8%
Not Romney or Perry 44%

POLITICO/George Washington University 2012 Battleground Poll

Unsure 11%
Not Romney or Perry 35%

Fox News 2012 Republican Nomination Survey

Too soon to say 9%

Don’t know 4%
Not Romney or Perry 36%

As Huckabee supporters continue to pray that their candidate enters the race, the question remains:

Will Mike Huckabee throw his hat into the ring?

H/T The Argo Journal for Survey Data and Compilation

Mike Huckabee headed to Congress in Support of the Fair Tax

Even though Mike Huckabee is not in the GOP race for 2012, he is still standing firm and leading on the issues that were part of his 2008 platform.  On July 26th, Mike Huckabee heads to Congress to address the House Committee of Ways and Means on the Fair Tax.

Mike Huckabee conveyed this message via HuckPAC:

"Now is the time! As Americans give an unfair and growing amount of their paychecks to the Federal Government, our mission is clearer now more than ever:

Folks, it is time we put the IRS out of business.

Together we can accomplish this goal if we work hard to show to the Republican controlled House of Representatives during next week's hearing that an overwhelming number of Americans are behind the FairTax.

Then we must work together to elect another record number of candidates to Congress (House and Senate) next year who support the Fair Tax or who are willing to learn more about it and a Republican President who will sign this legislation.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Fair Tax – let me briefly explain how it works.

You get rid of income tax.

You get rid of all the withholding.

You get rid of corporate taxes completely, totally. After all – those taxes are not really paid by the corporations. They're passed on to the customer with a 22 percent embedded tax in the system.

You eliminate that, which means the prices of what you purchase will go down.

You replace it with a 23 percent consumption tax. Now, that sounds expensive, but you only pay when you purchase something new, whether it's a product or a service.

Also, It's a completely transparent tax system.

It doesn't increase taxes. It's revenue neutral. It will bring business back to the United States that is leaving our shores – our current, complicated, unfair tax laws make it impossible for an American-based business to compete with lower tax structures in other countries.

Don’t tell me something this “sweeping” can’t be passed. With your help . . . it can – and it will.

I urge you to sign my petition of support for a FairTax Congress. Help us reach 100,000 signatures by July 25th at midnight. Why? So I can say when I testify about the FairTax before Congress, that over 100,000 Americans are standing with me today."

Back in January of this year, Mike Huckabee was on Follow the Money with Eric Bolling and addressed the concept of the Fair Tax:

January 26, 2011, the Fair Tax Bill H.R. 25 was introduced to congress. These House Representatives support the bill:

Sponsor: Robert Woodall, [GA] Tom Price, [GA] Dan Boren, [OK]

Steve King, [IA] Todd Akin, [MO] Brian Bilbray, [CA]

John Carter, [TX] Michael Conaway, [TX] John Duncan, [TN]

Virginia Foxx, [NC] Michael McCaul, [TX] Pete Olson, [TX]

Mac Thornberry,[TX] Tom Sullivan, [OK] Tom Gingrey, [GA]

Roscoe Bartlett, [MD] Don Young, [AK] Ander Crenshaw, [FL]

Lynn Westmoreland, [GA] Gus Bilirakis, [F]L Ted Poe, [TX]

Tom Graves, [GA] Jeff Miller, [FL] Randy Neugebauer, [TX]

Robert Wittman, [VA] Jack Kingston, [GA] Marlin Stutzman, [IN]

Jeff Flake, [AZ] Billy Long, [MO] Cliff Stearns, [FL]

Tim Walberg, [MI] Dennis Ross, [FL] Darrell Issa, [CA]

Mo Brooks, [AL] Richard. Nugent, [FL] Tim Scott, [SC]

Blake Farenthood, [TX] Jeff Duncan, [SC] Rob Bishop, [UT]

Mike Pence, [IN] Sandy Adams, [FL] John Mica, [FL]

Sue Myrick, [NC] Dan Burton, [IN] John Culberson, [TX]

James Lankford, [OK] Mike Pompeo, [KS] Gary G. Miller, [CA]

Paul Broun, [GA] Trent Franks, [AZ] Bob Gibbs, [OH]

Sam Graves, [MO] Lynn Jenkins, [KS] Frank Lucas, [OK]

Scott Rigell, [VA] David Roe, [TN]

The Fair Tax Act was also introduced in the senate as S 13

The Senators who support the bill are:

Sponsor: Saxby Chambliss, [GA] Richard Burr, [NC] Tom Coburn, [OK]

John Cornyn, [TX] Jim DeMint, [SC] James Inhofe, [OK]

Johnny Isakson, [GA] Richard Lugar, [IN] Jerry Moran, [KS]

If you are a supporter of the Fair Tax, I hope you will sign Mike Huckabee's Fair Tax petition.

Insight into a President Mike Huckabee

Today I had the opportunity to be part of a blogger conference call with Mike Huckabee for his new book, A Simple Government. 

One of the answers that leapt out at me was when Mike Huckabee answered the questions from Tony of Ohio:  What would be the best way to convince the house and senate to take up the measure to implement the FairTax compared to how President Obama went about it with the healthcare system?  "If you were President in 2013, how would you handle that differently?" 

The FairTax in itself is not what struck me in the conversation, it was how Huckabee's strength of experience and his governing instincts shine through when it comes to the American people.  He saw how President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid shoved the new healthcare system down the American peoples' throats.  He knew it was not the way to go about making national reforms because he had learned from his 10 1/2 years of executive experience as Governor of Arkansas how to enact reform the right way.

Rather than impose the Fair Tax from the top down, Governor Huckabee suggested creating pressure from the bottom up.  As governor, Mike Huckabee had a legislature that was 90% Democrat.  "I learned quickly not to go in and tell them what they were going to do."  Instead Huckabee would take his message directly to the people.  "That would in turn create a groundswell of support for things I wanted to get done. The legislature felt they were responding to their constituents not capitulating to the governor of the other party.  The voters would then pressure the legislature to put forth a bill."   Huckabee emphasized building your case with the American people. "Ask them to contact their Senators and Representatives. Let them know it is their expectation of their representatives to change the tax code."

Mike Huckabee did admit that this takes much longer, but that it is worth the effort.  Huckabee stated that this is how he worked with the Democrat legislature in Arkansas that was overwhelmingly disproportionate.  And he was highly successful in getting effective changes made.

In regards to the FairTax, Huckabee stated that "both Democrats and Republicans acknowledge that we need a simplified tax code, we need a different tax structure, we need less dealing with the complexities of the tax code."   The American people have complained about various aspects of the tax code.  So the key here would be to take the message directly to the people.  Show them how they can achieve it.  Huckabee said, "The Fair Tax handles all of those things and more."

America is at a crossroad, it has very hard choices ahead.  Do we keep on spending like we have been doing and end up completely broke?  Or do we start reforming entitlements such as Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security?  Mike Huckabee, as President in 2013, would tackle those issues from the bottom up, taking the honest, somber message to the American people, and encouraging a groundswell of support for entitlement reform to be taken directly to the senate and the house by the people, for the people.

Bottom Up, Take your Message Directly to the People, Create Groundswell of Support, Get the people to Act, We can Achieve it!

Not only does that look exactly like what Mike Huckabee has done for the last two years bringing his message to the people through his books and TV/Radio shows, but it would be one Huckuva campaign strategy.

Mike Huckabee and FBN's Follow the Money Panel: Analysis of the Fair Tax

Fox Business Network's Follow the Money Panel analyzed the Fair Tax. The panel included: Eric Bolling, Steve Adubato, Mike Gallagher, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and David Webb.

Back in September of 2010, Mike Huckabee highlighted the Fair Tax in a response to an editorial attack in the Arkansas Gazette against he and John Boozman, the newly elected Senator of Arkansas: 

Facts and the Fair Tax
"The Fair Tax is hardly a “half-baked” idea. It is the result of over $22 million dollars of scholarly research involving economists from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, University of Chicago, Boston University, and other prestigious universities.

In a nutshell, the Fair Tax is a flat tax, but instead of taxing our productivity (income, investment, savings, capital gains, or inheritance), we are taxed at the point of consumption at the retail level on new items. It is flat, fair, finite, and family friendly. It is totally transparent, unlike the hideous tax structure we currently have and is not a VAT that assesses taxes at production points, but remains largely hidden to the consumer.

The criticism that it would “hurt the poor” is the surest evidence that the critic is ignorant of the pre-bate built into the fair tax, which un-taxes consumption of our basic necessities, and which the studies show actually creates the greatest benefit to those in the lower third of the economy, significant benefit to the middle third of the economy, and some benefit, but less to those in the top third of the economy.

Here’s what the Fair Tax will do:
1. Eliminate the IRS and its indecipherable 67,000 pages of tax code so complex that even Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and 41 members of the White House staff seem unable to understand it (or else simply unwilling to comply with it.)
2. Release $13 TRILLION of U. S. capital back into our economy that is presently legally, but unfortunately parked offshore to protect it from the ravenous tax rates.
3. End the nightmarish accounting and legal nightmare for small business operators (and large ones) and allow them to actually make BUSINESS decisions instead of TAX decisions.
4. Eliminate an estimated $500 Billion of expenses related to compliance with the complicated tax code that produces nothing but government paperwork.
5. Virtually eliminate the underground economy by making taxpayers out of illegals, prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers, gamblers, and others who work “off the books.”
6. Restore a person’s full paycheck—one will receive in many cases his or her first full paycheck with no deductions taken out.
7. Eliminate the hidden and embedded tax on all the things we purchase, which is approximately 22%.

Unfortunate and misguided or perhaps dishonest statements have been made about the Fair Tax, some of which stems from the utterly nutty critique some years ago by Robert Bartley of the Wall Street Journal who went so far as to try and allege that the Fair Tax was a secret plot of the Church of Scientology. Some point to a supposed study of the Fair Tax by the Bush administration, which was a consumption tax, but not one that involved the all critical pre-bate. Some simply fail to understand the power of the pre-bate for low income earners or have failed to recognize how significantly the political dynamics of Washington would change if Congress were no longer able to manipulate the tax code so as to create winners and losers according to the whims of Congress rather than to the free marketplace.

The so-called “sticker shock” of a 23% tax rate seems ominous until one realizes that with the various payroll taxes, hidden taxes in our purchases, etc., the average American already pays almost 33% in taxes now at the federal level.

The Fair Tax would be a legitimate economic stimulus package by creating a level playing field for manufacturing. When U. S. companies are having to factor in the embedded taxes on our side, but our competitors in China don’t, we have a hard time keeping our manufacturing and our jobs here.

I recommend that one read The Fair Tax by Congressman John Linder and Neal Boortz or the follow-up book by the same authors, The Fair Tax Answers, or go to FairTax.org and then at least base whatever criticism on something other than internet chatter and less than complete understanding of the facts of the Fair Tax."

On January 5, 2011, the Fair Tax Bill, H.R. 25, was introduced in Congress. There are 48 co-sponsors of the bill.  You can use the Fair Tax Calculator to assess the impact on your own finances.

President Obama was asked the question: If the Fair Tax were passed by Congress and you were President, would you sign the bill into law?  President Barack Obama has no answer.

FairTax.org has briefed Obama's staff about the Fair Tax Act. When asked about the Fair Tax, Mr. Obama has said he believes it needs more study. His office has not issued a public position statement on the Fair Tax.

Race42012's own Adam Graham has a post highlighted on the Fair Tax website, We call it the Fair Tax -- not the Perfect Tax,  where he states: 

It's time for opponents of the Fair Tax to explain how to fix the problems with our current tax code without fundamental change rather than trying to find some group of people that may not do as well under a Fair Tax. Consider this, the government pays out $64 billion in Home Mortgage Deductions. Without taking anything else on my list into consideration, is $64 billion in Mortgage Deductions worth $350 billion in tax compliance costs? If not, then this piecemeal selective attack on the Fair Tax is irrelevant. And it's time to have a serious debate.

Mike Huckabee supports the Fair Tax

Mike Huckabee was recently a guest on Fox Business Network's Follow the Money with Eric Bolling and they discussed attributes of the Fair Tax.

The Fair Tax Bill, H R 25, was presented to Congress on January 5, 2011. You can track the progress of the bill  here.  Those Representatives in the House who introduced the bill include:

Robert  Woodall, GA (Sponsor)

Tom Price, GA

 Dan Boren, OK

Steve King, IA

Todd Akin, MO

Brian Bilbray, CA

John Carter, TX

Michael Conaway, TX

John Duncan, TN

Virginia Foxx, NC

Michael McCaul, TX

Pete Olson, TX

Mac Thornberry,TX

Tom Sullivan, OK

Tom Gingrey, GA,

Roscoe Bartlett, MD

Don Young, AK

Ander Crenshaw, FL

Lynn Westmoreland, GA

Gus Bilirakis, FL

Ted Poe, TX

Tom Graves, GA

Randy Neugebauer, TX

Jeff Miller, FL

Robert Wittman, VA

Jack Kingston, GA

Marlin Stutzman, IN

Jeff Flake, AZ

Billy Long, MO

Cliff Stearns, FL

Tim Walberg, MI

Dennis Ross, FL

Darrell Issa, CA

Mo Brooks, AL

Richard. Nugent, FL

Tim Scott, SC

Blake Farenthood, TX

Jeff  Duncan, SC

Rob Bishop, UT

Mike Pence, IN

Sandy Adams, FL

John Mica, FL

Sue Myrick, NC

Dan Burton, IN

John Culberson, TX

James Lankford, OK

Mike Pompeo, KS

Gary G. Miller, CA