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Mike Huckabee on Corporations

Former Republican AR Governor; possible draft candidate

 


Stop punishing manufacturing; stop punishing work

We'd get rid of taxes on people's work, so, we wouldn't punish people for working anymore. We've lost five million manufacturing jobs since 2000. The jobs are in Mexico, they're in China, they're in Indonesia. Bring the jobs back. And with the FairTax, you do that, because you don't tax capital and labor. And here's the best part. We don't reduce the IRS, we get rid of the IRS.
Source: Fox Business/WSJ Second Tier debate , Nov 10, 2015

Wall Street executives should have gone to jail in 2008

Q: You have railed against income inequality. You've said that some Wall Street executives should have gone to jail over the roles that they played during the financial crisis. Are there specific steps you would require from corporate America to try and reduce the income inequality.

HUCKABEE: Look, corporations ought to exercise some responsibility. When CEO income has risen 90% above the average worker, when the bottom 90% of this country's economy has had stagnant wages for the past 40 years, somebody is taking it in the teeth. And it's not the folks on Wall Street. I'm not anti-Wall Street, but I don't believe the government ought to wear a team jersey, pick winners and losers. The government ought to wear a striped shirt and just make sure the game is played fairly.

Source: GOP `Your Money/Your Vote` 2015 CNBC 1st-tier debate , Oct 28, 2015

Fight the Wall-Street-to-Washington axis of power

Q: Decade after decade, there are promises from Republicans to shrink government. But it gets bigger, even under Republican politicians. So is the government simply too big to shrink?

HUCKABEE: It's not too big to shrink. But the problem is we have a Wall Street-to-Washington axis of power that has controlled the political climate. The donor class feeds the political class who does the dance that the donor class wants. And the result is federal government keeps getting bigger. Every person on this stage who has been a governor will tell that you the biggest fight they had was not the other party. Wasn't even the legislature. It was the federal government, who continually put mandates on the states that we had to suck up and pay for. There are a lot of things happening at the federal level that are absolutely beyond the jurisdiction of the Constitution. This is power that should be shifted back to the states, whether it's the EPA or the Department of Education.

Source: Fox News/Facebook Top Ten First Tier debate transcript , Aug 6, 2015

Axis of evil exists between Washington and Wall Street

Q: You said recently at an event. "We devalue people sometimes who are poor. We do not deem them worthy of the same level of treatment we give those who are connected to the real axis of evil in this country, the axis of evil that exists between Washington and Wall Street." Your comment?

HUCKABEE: There is such a collusion between what happens in the financial world and what happens in the political world. One hand washes another and one feeds another. And who takes it in the teeth? It's most of the working class people of America. Big banks & big insurance companies get bailed out. Why? Because there are campaign contributions that come along with the bailout. I hear politicians that will resent the fact that some single mom is getting some assistance to put food on the table for her three children, and those same people say it's perfectly OK to bail out to the tune of billions big banks who are run by Ivy League people who should have known better how to recklessly mismanaged.

Source: Fox News Sunday 2013 series of 2016 presidential hopefuls , Dec 22, 2013

Corporate taxes are stupid; they just get embedded in prices

A standard battle cry among liberals is that we need to hit corporations harder & make them pay higher taxes on corporate income. Sounds smart, but it's actually an utterly stupid plan. In reality, corporations don't pay taxes. That's right, not really. They collect taxes for the government and help the government deceive you into thinking that they are paying. But corporations and businesses simply do what they have to--pass the cost on to you, the unsuspecting consumer. It is for them the simple cost of doing business. For you, it's another way in which your government has collected taxes from you that you weren't even aware of.

The average embedded tax on what we buy in this country is 22%. That means that when you purchase something and pay $100, the provider got $78 and the government took $22. If you want Congress to put a greater tax burden on businesses, they certainly can do it, but don't think that makes you better off. It means the cost of the product you buy will be higher.

Source: Do The Right Thing, by Mike Huckabee, p.158 , Nov 18, 2008

Regulations burden small business more than large companies

The cost of regulatory burden is enormous but also felt unequally. As governor, I could see that small employers were generally ill-equipped to handle a visit from an inspector. Mom-and-Pop outfits didn't have lawyers and lobbyists running interference for them, so they just had to take the hit and pay the fine--only big companies could afford to take the government to court. For firms with more than 500 employees, the annual cost per employee for compliance with environmental law was $717 annually. For companies with fewer than 20 employees, the annual compliance cost was $3,228.

In fact, some big companies have figured out that regulation provides them with an opportunity to "game the system." That is, a large corporation can hire Washington reps who will help create the rigmarole that disproportionately hurts its smaller rivals. That's one reason why big government and big business usually get along so well together.

Source: Do The Right Thing, by Mike Huckabee, p. 69 , Nov 18, 2008

80% of all jobs in this country come from small business

Q: You are talking somewhat less about faith here in New Hampshire and more about economic populism, looking out for the little guy. In a sense, are you trying to rebuild the Republican Party?

A: I think the Republican Party needs some repair. The Republican Party needs to remember that its strength was being the champion for small business. 80% of all jobs in this country come from small business. If we become the party that forgets that, if we become the party that does not empower the individual who wants to struggle from his place at the lower end of the economic spectrum up the ladder, then we’re going to lose a lot of the base that gave us great strength, that helped us to become the majority party, that built the Reagan coalition, that also helped elect both George Bush 41 and George Bush 43.

Source: 2008 Fox News interview: “Choosing the President” series , Jan 6, 2008

Wal-Mart is case study in genius of American marketplace

Though often demonized because of its immense size and extraordinary growth, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart is a case study in the genius of the American marketplace. As governor of the state that Wal-Mart calls home, I often found myself in the position of defending it against uninformed and often ill-willed critics.

Wal-Mart has become the largest private sector employer in approximately 49 of our 50 states. And somebody apparently likes this company, since 150 million people a week enter its door.

Labor unions in particular have sought to disparage Wal-Mart as a workplace, despite the fact that the average wage paid to its 46,000-strong Arkansas workforce is some $4.50 higher per hour than the minimum wage. A new store in Chicago scheduled to employ 325 people watched as 25,000 applied.

    Allow me to list three reasons for this retailing behemoths extraordinary success:
  1. Wal-Mart empowers the consumer
  2. An efficient cost structure
  3. An exemplary corporate structure.
Source: From Hope to Higher Ground, by Mike Huckabee, p.166-167 , Jan 4, 2007

Consumerism is addictive but tranquility is immaterial

Some people preach that having too much is a sin, but that is not what the Bible teaches. The issue of wealth is not how much you have but how you got it.

One of the great challenges of life is determining that our pleasure shouldn’t be based on the amount of our treasure. When life and its enjoyment are defined by what we have accumulated, we’re to be pitied rather than envied. Our treasure should never become our job, home, car, property, or any other “toys.” Consumerism can be intoxicating and addictive. Those who are swept up in its power find their occasional moments of ecstasy tied to the purchase of something.

A sense of real peace is achieved only when you can say that material things are genuinely immaterial. It’s not so much what we have but what has us that will determine our inner tranquility. There’s no prohibition in God’s Word to having much, but there’s a strong admonition not to allow even a little to possess us.

Source: Living Beyond Your Lifetime, by Mike Huckabee, p.159-160 , Oct 1, 2000

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Page last updated: Jun 15, 2016