Huckabee Alert: There He Goes Again
Washington – Another day, another falsehood from Mike Huckabee.
Facing heightened criticism of his economic record in Arkansas, Governor Huckabee has a habit of falsely blaming his 1999 gas and fuel diesel tax hikes on Arkansas voters. Last night, Huckabee peddled the same fib during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes:
HANNITY: Now, Alan talked about the Club for Growth. You talked about cutting taxes and balancing budgets. You know, what was the net result? You did support some tax increases, but some tax cuts. Can you explain that?
HUCKABEE: Yes, I did. Certainly, there was an issue that involved road building and infrastructure on roads and bridges, and I did support that. We added $1 billion to our economy, 40,000 jobs, went from having the worst to the best roads. When we put that out there for the people to decide whether they wanted to affirm it, they did by an 80 percent vote, I would call that leadership.
“Actually, we would call that dissembling,” said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. “By the Club for Growth PAC’s count, this is at least the sixth time Huckabee has blamed the people of Arkansas on national television for a gas tax hike he himself signed into law. (Fibs #1-5 can be viewed here) The truth is, the gas and diesel fuel tax hikes were never on the ballot, and the people of Arkansas never had a say in whether to raise them.”
Instead, Huckabee signed the gas and diesel fuel tax hikes into law on April 1, 1999, and the tax hikes began taking effect that very day. After the tax cuts were enacted, Arkansas voters voted on whether to issue a bond for the purpose of funding transportation improvements. The Arkansas-Democrat Gazette made this clear when it wrote, “The tax increases will stay whether voters approve the bond issue or not” (04/25/99).
“Governor Huckabee needs to stop making excuses and take responsibility for the taxes he raised,” Mr. Toomey continued. “Then, American taxpayers will see that Mike Huckabee is not the economic conservative he claims to be.”
See the UTube video at:
clubforgrowth.com |
