Huckabee says Washington, D.C. corruption is ruining the country

BY BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee told about 50 people Thursday at Miss K?s Homemade Delectables, in Mt. Pleasant, that he thought the most qualifying criteria to be elected president is to be unqualified.

Of course, Huckabee did not mean Americans should elect an unqualified person to be president. Rather, he was playing on the ?outsider? theme being used by a number of candidates this election cycle.

He quickly added that he thought all the Republican candidates were more qualified than ?the five on stage the other night,? he said referring to the first Democratic Presidential debate.

?I?ve never had a paycheck from Washington, D.C., I have never worked there and I have never lived there,? he continued, expanding on his view that someone not entwined in Washington, D.C., politics would be better suited to the presidency.

A two-term governor of Arkansas (1999-2007), he said he felt a former governor could better serve the country. ?If you were a governor, you basically ran a microcosm of the federal government. You understand how these federal agencies work. I think governors are better prepared to be president.?

Continuing to list his perceived strengths, he noted that he followed Bill Clinton as governor of Arkansas and is the only Republican candidate experienced in dealing with the ?Clinton machine.?

?Let?s face it, Hillary (Clinton) is going to be the Democratic nominee,? he predicted. ?Is any GOP candidate equipped to take on the Clinton machine? It will be a tough battle. I am the only GOP candidate who has taken on the Clinton machine and lived to talk about it.?

Billed as the ?Huckabee Huddle ? The Huck Stops Here,? the candidate touched on a myriad of topics during his stop.

The Hope, Ark., native is well-known in Iowa, having won the 2008 Republican Presidential Caucus with the most votes in the history of the caucuses.

During his campaign stop here, he said he is running to rebuild the country and restore integrity in Washington, D.C.

?I have five grandchildren and I don?t want them to walk in the charred remains of a great country,? he began. ?Will our kids and grandchildren be okay? Without changes they will not be okay.

?There is an enormous amount of corruption in Washington, D.C.,? he continued. ?There will be no cost-of-living increases for Social Security or Medicare recipients next year, but there will be cost-of-living increases for members of Congress. We have to stop corruption in the country because the people with deep pockets get what they want in Washington, D.C.?

Corruption, however, is not confined to one particular party, he said, noting that both parties are guilty and corruption happens at the expense of the taxpayer.

Possibly because he was speaking during the grand opening of Miss K?s Homemade Delectables, the candidate claimed government regulations were not only killing businesses, but also dashing the American dream for many workers.

?It is terrific to support a new business in Mt. Pleasant and Henry County, but it is a tough environment to open a new business,? Huckabee claimed. ?It is not so much the competition from other businesses, but government that makes it difficult for businesses because of all the regulations.?

Noting that the country has lost five million manufacturing jobs since 2000, Huckabee said the economy is far from everything you hear from economists and political leaders.

?If you listen to the ?talking heads,? you will hear that the economy is doing great. That simply is not true. We are in a tough environment for business,? Huckabee said.

In other topics, he expressed concern of the diminishing of the military, ISIS Iran and Common Core, a national educational initiative.

He said the last B-52 bomber was built in 1962 and troops in all branches of military service are decreasing to the lowest levels in decades.

?I would build the strongest and best-equipped military in the history of the country,? he pledged. ?The purpose of the military is to build strength. It is like when you were in school, the bully never picked on the strongest guy, he picked on the weakest one. We need a kind of military everybody in the world is scared to death to challenge and, hopefully, we will never have to use it.?

The goal of ISIS, Huckabee said, ?is to kill everybody who does not believe in the religion they do. If we don?t kill them, they will kill us.?

Regarding Iran, he said the country has threatened for nearly four decades to bring death to America. He strongly opposes the treaty worked out with Iran in late summer.

?We should have left the table and said the deal was off,? he remarked, referring to the treaty. ?Why are we even negotiating with them? Giving them 24 hours notice before inspections allows them plenty of time to hide their (nuclear) materials.?

The candidate said he doesn?t mean to imply he opposes diplomacy, ?but diplomacy works better when you are carrying the biggest stick.?

On education, he said the federal government must be removed from the playbook. He claimed there is no constitutional authority for the federal government to be involved in state education.

?Common core needs to die,? Huckabee said. ?It is disastrous. It started out with standards in math and language arts, and I agree with the need for standards. However, once the federal government got involved, it has evolved into something that has nothing to do with improving education. We should leave education up to the local people because they can make better decisions for their school than people in Washington, D.C.?

While the next presidential election is important to Huckabee, he said he is not going to reinvent himself to appeal to certain groups of voters.

?I don?t want to win the world at the expense of my own soul,? he concluded.