Huckabee's Wanna-be-Revolution
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Submitted by: Kelly Halldorson  Subscribe to this Author Paste this code into your site to promote this story! |
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/will-mari/huckabee-on-the-next-repu_b_103556.html
Type of Content: Article Huckabee is interviewed about his new book. Check out what he says about "Libertarian Republicans" Republicans need to be Republicans. The greatest threat to classic Republicanism is not liberalism; it's this new brand of libertarianism, which is social liberalism and economic conservatism, but it's a heartless, callous, soulless type of economic conservatism because it says "look, we want to cut taxes and eliminate government. If it means that elderly people don't get their Medicare drugs, so be it. If it means little kids go without education and healthcare, so be it." Well, that might be a quote pure economic conservative message, but it's not an American message. It doesn't fly. People aren't going to buy that, because that's not the way we are as a people. That's not historic Republicanism. Historic Republicanism does not hate government; it's just there to be as little of it as there can be. But they also recognize that government has to be paid for. If you have a breakdown in the social structure of a community, it's going to result in a more costly government ... police on the streets, prison beds, court costs, alcohol abuse centers, domestic violence shelters, all are very expensive. What's the answer to that? Cut them out? Well, the libertarians say "yes, we shouldn't be funding that stuff." But what you've done then is exacerbate a serious problem in your community. You can take the cops off the streets and just quit funding prison beds. Are your neighborhoods safer? Is it a better place to live? The net result is you have now a bigger problem than you had before. Apparently, we are heartless, callous, soulless.... Grrrr.... Read »
Created 11 weeks 3 days ago
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I put the quote from the article in italics but it didn't take...oops
If you want to get grumpy, go to the Huffington Post and read the whole interview....grrr!!
Peace,
Kelly Halldorson
kelly@halldorson.com
"No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path."
-Buddha
I swear I just posted this comment in response to the overstock.com challenge against out of state sales tax about 1 minute before you posted this story. Since my comment is even MORE relevant to your post, indulge me while I post this again:
I worked as a project manager for a county government in New York for a couple of years, and I can tell you that they are desperate to find revenue for one thing and one thing only - Medicaid. New York is one of a few states that requires their local governments to pay 1/2 of the state share of Medicaid - or 25% of the overall cost of the respective county. As far as the county budget goes, in my last year, 128% of the property tax was taken up by Medicaid. In other words, ALL of the property tax and 40 million more of the sales tax (the only two county revenues) were going just to pay the county share of Medicaid. The state was in similar straits. There were articles about corruption, nepotism, etc. to explain why the county was in financial trouble, but this was the reason nobody wanted to talk about. It was kind of ludicrous when you were actually in meetings talking about trying to save a million here or there when this grossly unjust program was growing by 10% per year - and without it there would be no need for a sales tax.
It is the same thing when you look at the federal budget. For all of the controversy about Iraq, it costs about $160 billion per year. Medicaid and Medicare are over $600 billion per year - and that is with the states paying half of the Medicaid bill. I sometimes feel that the majority of people on this site either don't have their hands around those numbers or deep down don't want to face the fact that it is entitlement programs - Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and Welfare - that are really bankrupting us (to the tune of $1.5 trillion per year altogether).
The programs are immoral and financially lethal - and they should top our list of things to fight against.
Tom Mullen
www.tommullen.net
www.myspace.com/skepticsongs