Club for Growth Refuses to Endorse Romney

Mitt Romney’s faltering campaign was hit by more bad news on Thursday when one of the most reliably conservative groups on the political stage — The Club For Growth — made it clear it would not endorse him.

“He’s our only choice for the Republicans now, so we’re not going to criticize him,” Club president Chris Chocola said. “We’re going to hope he exceeds our expectations.”

Instead, Chocola told reporters during a breakfast meeting hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, his group will concentrate on helping Republican Senate candidates get elected.

Chocola pointed out that the Club had not endorsed anyone in the GOP presidential primaries, saying it was “not because we didn’t want to, but because there wasn’t a candidate that we thought we could recommend to our members.”

Read the rest of this entry at Newsmax >>

Mike Huckabee, Phyllis Schlafly, and the Conservative Movement

I have been wanting to write a post on the conservatism of Mike Huckabee for some time. As should be obvious to readers of this blog, I truly believe he is a very important and articulate leader of the conservative movement in this country, and will be more so in years to come.

Unfortunately, he has been the victim of calumny by a rich, ambitious charlatan who, when preparing his business plan for capturing the White House, determined that espousing conservative positions contradicting everything he previously stood for, would be the surest route to capturing the Republican nomination for President. In this pursuit, he was backed by the White House and his friends at the Club for Growth, the very people that have done the most damage to working American families through international trade agreements, the export of American jobs, open borders, and the failure to enforce US immigration laws.

The following reflection from the Catholics for Huckabee blog affirms that Mike Huckabee is the authentic conservative, standing on the shoulders of conservative pillars like Russell Kirk, Phyllis Schlafly, Pat Buchanan and Ronald Reagan.

When the debacle of the 2008 presidential election is over, authetic conservatives will begin the task of rebuilding the party and the conservative movement that this President and the internationalists at the Club for Growth have done so much to destroy.

The Schlafly Connection

Huckabee's CPAC speech last Saturday was clearly a watershed moment, revealing Huckabee as an authentic, old-school conservative. It was a crucial speech which managed to hit all the right buttons with his conservative audience, and finally connected the rest of the dots around this most intriguing candidate.

In a brief summary of the various factors forming his political conservatism, the former Arkansas governor mentioned his humble working-class background, his staunch Republican employer as a teen (a rare commodity in Arkansas), his desire for order amidst the growing mayhem of the '60's, and his struggle to implement conservative policies in his gubernatorial career.

Along with his personal experiences, Huckabee included some serious discussions of political issues, displaying a wide-ranging and well-developed political philosophy in the process.

Particularly comforting and a personal highlight of his speech for me, was Huckabee's reference to Phyllis Schlafly's 1964 book, A Choice, Not An Echo, which he read as a teenager. A bestseller at the time, this groundbreaking book called for the unification of the conservative movement under the leadership of Barry Goldwater, against the liberal Eastern Establishment wing of the Republican Party, whose wealth and media influence had controlled the presidential elections for years.

Phyllis Schlafly has always been a heroine of mine. A lawyer with a Master's in Political Science from Harvard, this Catholic mother of six became famous for her articulate and impassioned opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment and the feminist movement in the '70's.

It was truly heartwarming to hear Mike mention the name of this gracious and eloquent defender of traditional values, still writing columns and speaking on the radio today, at the age of 81. Her name brought back memories of all the conservative Catholic giants of two decades ago: James Likoudis, Frank Morriss, Jean Kirkpatrick, Russell Kirk, and a young Joe Sobran and Pat Buchanan. It also reminded me of pro-life Marches to our Denver capital building on windy January days, of the Eagle Forum, Gloria Steinem, Pat Schroeder, Richard Nixon and ERA bumper stickers.

Recalling the name of Phyllis Schlafly and her example of courage and resistance against the popular liberal tide was no accident. Curiously enough, Huckabee did not mention the other conservative hero whose name has been on everyone's lips these past few weeks. Instead he chose a leader whose legacy is very close to Reagan's, and who is really his feminine counterpart. A significant choice in more ways than one, perhaps.

In this momentous speech, Mike boldly planted his own conservative banner on the hilltop, an invitation for traditional conservatives to rally around. His speech is a declaration of war against the secular liberalism of McCain and a call for true conservatives to unite.

The classic conservative positions Huckabee outlined in his speech, as well as the name of Phyllis Schlafly, signalled his personal connection to the same well-grounded, consistent conservatism which has been tested and proven over the last few decades and which lives on in many corners of this nation. This kind of conservatism may not be exactly thriving in country clubs, corporate offices and the halls of Congress, but it is alive and well in the middle and working classes, in labor unions, volunteer fire departments, middle-class neighborhoods, farms, small businesses, churches and in homeschooling families and small private colleges and schools.

In other words, the conservatism of Phyllis Schlafly et al., has been kept alive by all of us who have been busy making hard choices, going against the grain, and not merely echoing the lies and empty promises that have been thrust upon us from almost every side for all these years.

THE CLUB FOR GROWTH'S DESPERATE SMEAR CAMPAIGN

The Club for Growth, a cheerleader for NAFTA and GATT and other globalist schemes that have destroyed the “arsenal of democracy” and undermined U.S sovereignty, is attacking Mike Huckabee again.

The Club’s fat-cat multi-nationalists aren’t bothered that the most self-sufficient nation in history has seen its automobile industry so reduced that Mexico now exports more cars to the United States than the United States exports to the world. They aren’t bothered that textile, steel making, apparel and electronics industries have all been exported overseas. Nor does it concern them that a flood of illegal cheap labor has been allowed to invade the United States to compete with U.S citizens for what few jobs are left. But what really has them concerned about their overseas investments and offshore assets is that an economic nationalist like Mike Huckabee will stand up for America’s interests and reverse the trends that have made them super rich, while giving American workers in Detroit and Flint a taste of 1933.

In their desperate attempt to salvage the status quo, they have launched an all out attack of lies and distortion. Governor Huckabee’s Truth Squad has issued the following response:

Governor Huckabee's record on taxes as a steward of the public’s money has been CLEAR and consistent as a conservative with strong pro-growth.policies. The Club for Growth misrepresents this record.

Governor Huckabee is a fiscal conservative who cut taxes almost 100 times in the state of Arkansas. He doubled the standard deduction and the child care credit, eliminated the marriage penalty, repealed capital gains taxes for home sales, lowered the capital gains rate, expanded the homestead exemption and set up tax-free savings accounts for medical care and college tuition.

The fact is that when Governor Huckabee began in office, the tax rate was 1% for the poorest taxpayers and 7 percent for the richest – the tax rates remained exactly the same when he left the governor’s office 11 years later. The sales tax only went up 1 penny in 10 ½ years and the gas tax 3 cents per gallon.

The Governor believes differently than the Club for Growth – there are many in that group who believe that public FUNDING should never be considered to pay for such things as highways, prisons, schools and Medicare.

About the Video Clip

In 2003 the state's chief financial officer projected a $62.3 million revenue shortfall that would result in cuts in state services, possible layoffs, tax increases or the possible repeal of late 1990s tax cuts.

Governor Huckabee told the Legislature that he would accept any recommendation they could agree on in order to meet the law's requirement to balance the budget. The Legislature was presented a series of options and chose to increase the tax on tobacco.

About the Club for Growth's Attack Ad

The attack ad was financed by Steve Stephens, the chairman of ClubforGrowth.net and a wealthy political rival from Little Rock.

Because Governor Huckabee supports earmark reform, Stephens stands to lose millions of dollars in pork for his businesses when the Governor is elected President.

(“Earmarks” is the term used to refer to a provision in legislation that directs funds to be spent on specific projects. Typically, legislators use earmarks to direct money to a particular organization or project in his/her home state or district. These mandates circumvent the merit-based or competitive allocation process.)

Even the liberal New York Times said that the Club for Growth was distorting Governor Huckabee's record. Last week they wrote an article explaining how the tax increases were used to improve education and infrastructure in Arkansas.

The link to the NYT article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/us/politics/02huckabee.html
Why the Governor Raised Taxes

The Arkansas constitution, in a measure that should be lauded by all fiscal conservatives, requires that the state budget be balanced.

More than 90% of the state's budget is spent on education, Medicare, prisons, and human services.

Naturally, cutting spending is always the first response of conservatives, as it was for Governor Huckabee. But that solution is inadequate when there is very little discretionary spending available in the budget.

Unable to resort to deficit spending (as other candidates are able to do), the Arkansas Legislature was forced to raise taxes to pay for infrastructure repair, conservation efforts, court-mandated education expenditures, and unfunded federal mandates.

Governor Huckabee returned almost $400 million to Arkansas taxpayers. He believes it is immoral to take more money from taxpayers than is needed to run the government, and if a surplus occurs because of growth in the economy and good fiscal policy, it should be returned to the people.

He was the first Governor of Arkansas to pass a broad-based tax cut in the history of the state.

He also doubled the standard deduction to $2,000 for individuals and to $4,000 for married couples, as well as the childcare tax credit and eliminated the marriage penalty.

He eliminated the capital gains tax on the sale of a home. He eliminated the state income tax for families below the poverty line.

He reduced the capital gains tax for businesses and individuals.

He indexed the income tax to protect people from paying higher taxes because of "bracket creep."
Governor Huckabee left the state with almost a $1 billion surplus- a state record, setting the stage for further tax reductions. The “Huckabee Surplus” enabled his successor to follow Huckabee’s lead to begin the elimination of the state sales tax on food.

He urged that the surplus should go back to the taxpayers in the form of a rebate or tax cut.

He cut welfare rolls by almost 50 percent.

With respect to the tax and spending that he had under his control, spending rose about six-tenths of one percent a year during his ten-and-a-half year tenure.

Specific Taxes Mentioned in the Attack Ad

Sales Tax Hike (1996): Voters approved 1/8 cent sales tax increase to fund conservation and park services to preserve Arkansas natural and cultural heritage.

Gas and Diesel Fuel Tax Hike (1999): Arkansans supported a 3 cent per gallon fuel tax increase that allowed Arkansas to completely rehabilitate the interstate highway system, changing the interstate system from one of the worst in the country to the best according to Truckers Magazine.

Cigarette Tax Hike (2001): The cigarette tax increase of 25 cents per pack was used to fund state healthcare obligations. Arkansas tobacco taxes are still low, 33rd in the U. S.

Nursing Home Bed Tax (2001): The bed-tax on private nursing home patients was instituted to generate revenue for a nearly 3-to-1 match in federal Medicaid funds. Without this revenue low-income patients would not be able to find beds in nursing homes.

Grocery Tax: Huckabee opposed repeal (2002): This was actually a soft drink tax that Governor Huckabee opposed abolishing because it would drain $168 million from the state's Medicaid budget.

Income Surcharge Tax (2003) – In 2003 there was a temporary increase in the income tax to offset the economic recession our country was facing in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. They were needed for one year, and unlike most “temporary taxes,” Governor Huckabee made sure that the legislature kept its promise to the people that it was eliminated after two years.

Tobacco Tax Hike (2003) – This is the tax from the video clip that the Club for Growth uses in their attack ad. In 2003 the state's chief financial officer projected a $62.3 million revenue shortfall that would result in cuts in state services, possible layoffs, tax increases or the possible repeal of late 1990s tax cuts. The Legislature was presented a series of options and chose to increase the tax on tobacco.

Taxes on Internet Access – Governor Huckabee has always been staunchly opposed to any tax on Internet access.

Beer Tax: Huckabee opposed letting the tax expire (2006) – The tax was used to fund programs for abused and neglected children. Without the tax there would be no funds for those programs.