By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
On Thursday, October 1, former Arkansas Governor and GOP Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee campaigned across Alabama with stops in Florence, Sylacauga, Selma, and Dothan.
The Alabama Political Reporter (APR) spoke with Governor Huckabee in Sylacauga.
APR: Russia is bombing targets in Syria and has warned that they might shoot down American planes, is this time for us to pull out of Syria and let Putin and Assad takeover or do we need to get serious and step up our effort possibly even to include ground troops?
Huckabee: What has happened in Syria is due to the disastrous failed policies of President Obama, whom Huckabee called a, ‘Completely inept President.’ Huckabee said that the situation was sad but the best thing we could do right now is just hold fast and wait for a competent President to get in there who means what he says and says what he means. Someone who has the respect of the world.
APR: President Obama has stated that he doesn’t want to put boots on the ground over and over again. Not just in Syria; but also in Libya, Iraq, and the Ukraine. Does saying that publicly telegraph to our enemies that they can do anything that they want to do; because he isn’t going to go but so far?
Huckabee: You never tell your enemy what you are not willing to do. The surest way to be defeated is to telegraph what you are or are not going to do.
APR: Driving up here today, I probably passed six factories in Sylacauga, in Rockford, in Wetumpka that have been idled due to foreign competition and excessive government regulation. How do we get America back to working again?
Huckabee: One of the reasons he supports a consumption tax, the Fair Tax, instead of the complicated system we have now, is that all of those imbedded taxes effectively mean that anything made in the United States has a 22 percent imbedded tax in it on top of what it cost. This means that China and our other trading partners goods are cheaper both here and on world markets. “You are not going to see America working again unless you do something about the tax code and about excessive regulations.”
APR: The demands of Medicaid and other federal state partnerships are really starting to put a strain on state budgets. Here in Alabama the state’s costs for Medicaid alone have doubled since 2008. What can the federal government do to give the states some flexibility to programs that are administered in Washington but which require the states to provide enormous matching funds to implement?
Huckabee: First of all the states ought to be running their own Medicaid Systems. When I was Governor I took a delegation of 31 states to Washington. We offered to take less money if they would just give us the money in block grants, but Congress said, “NO” they want to control it. Our states are drowning in red ink. The money and the control needs to be at the local level, not with bureaucrats in Washington.
Following the tragic school shooting in Oregon, Gov. Huckabee forwarded APR a written statement in response to President Obama’s White House address using today’s Oregon community college shooting, that left 10 people dead and seven injured, as a pretext for new gun control restrictions: “We hardly know any of the details about this horrific tragedy – What kind of gun was used? How did the shooter obtain it? What is the motive? Does the shooter have a history of mental illness? Was this an act of terror? With few facts, Obama is quick to admittedly politicize this tragedy to advance his liberal, anti-gun agenda. For this president to make a political pronouncement is at best premature and at worst ignorantly inflammatory.”
Huckabee said, “Obama can shamelessly try and exploit any tragedy he wants, but it’s clear that gun free zones are sitting duck zones. His passion is grossly misplaced into destroying the Second Amendment. There were 50 shootings in Chicago the past two weekends and this administration failed to utter a word. Gun violence is a problem in this country, but it’s not the fault of the Second Amendment it’s the fault of evil people doing evil things.”
Huckabee served as Governor of Arkansas, was a 2008 GOP Presidential Candidate (he carried both Iowa and Alabama), hosted his own TV show on Fox News, is an accomplished author, and is a former Baptist minister.
The Alabama Presidential Primary is March 1.
