GOP Nominee
Former Candidates
Mike has been constantly belittled as a one trick pony that owes all he has to evangelicals and how he can only offer solutions to that same group. During the last debate Mike brought up his answer to the stimulus package which really raised some eyebrows and made some pundits (that don’t necessarily like Mike) state for the record that Mike’s plan makes sense. People from all walks of life thought that his solution makes the most sense. See here, here, here, here, and here for examples. Read below for the full plan Mike offers up.
This is from the Mike Huckabee website:
The Huckabee Plan:
Four Guiding Principles for
Strengthening America’s Infrastructure
If we’re going to spend $150 billion, I’d like to suggest that maybe we add two lanes of highway from Bangor all the way to Miami on I-95. A third of the United States population lives within 100 miles of that.This nation’s infrastructure is falling apart. And if we built those lanes of highways — with American labor, American steel, American concrete - I believe it would do more to stimulate the economy.
And the reason I say that is because when we were going through a recession in my state, we were in the middle of a billion-dollar highway construction program that brought about 40,000 jobs and brought a billion dollars of capital into the economy.
That’s a long-term stimulus package that I think would have more impact on the American long-term future. And it would keep social capital from being wasted, fuel wasted. A lot of people in Florida sit around in traffic every day, never getting to their kids’ dance recitals or soccer games because they’re stuck in traffic, and we’ve done nothing about it.
–Governor Mike Huckabee
Florida Atlantic University Debate
January 24, 2008
My four guiding principles can be summed up simply: Stimulus, Safety, Security, and Sustainability.
When I took office as Governor of Arkansas in 1996, I faced a highway system which was among the worst in the country. The road conditions were harming our economy and had reached the point of becoming an actual safety risk. With overwhelming voter approval, we launched a highway bonds project that generated a billion dollars of highway construction, created some 40,000 new jobs, and created new movement for our economy. Our roads were then called the “most improved” according to Overdrive magazine. We need to do the same for this country.
Stimulus
- President Bush and Congress have come together to create a short-term economic stimulus package, which I commend and support as a valuable first step.
- However, we must also look to the next century, not just to the next few quarters.
- So we must also look at longer-term ways to grow local economies and our national economy by: first, easing congestion by emphasizing road expansion and mass-transit investment; second, funding strategic capital improvement projects to make more localities attractive to new businesses and workers; and third, rebuilding the infrastructure of our “tools for trade” such as improvements to and expansions of our seaports and airports.
- This past fall, Texas A&M released a report on the price of congestion in time and money-we now spend 4.2 billion hours each year in our cars, and spend an extra 38 hours per urban driver. That’s nearly the length of a workweek-time taken away from our families, missing kids’ soccer games, dance recitals, and school plays. According to the Texas A&M study, we waste 2.9 billion gallons of gasoline during this lost time; the total cost to our economy is $78 billion every year.
- In Florida, the Sunshine State is currently working on a project on I-75 in Collier and Lee counties to add an additional lane in each direction. The cost of that project is $430 million. Now not only will that construction mean the creation of over 20,000 jobs, it also means that Florida will be reducing congestion, reducing wasted productivity and gasoline, reducing wear on your vehicles, and speeding up the state economy.
- Infrastructure reform enhances productivity and eliminates waste, but it also generates new jobs and revenue. The U.S. Department of Transportation tells us that every $1 billion invested in federal highway and transit infrastructure results in the creation of some 47,500 jobs, and every $1 spent on infrastructure investment results in an estimated $5.70 in economy activity. Now that is a stimulus package.
- Florida’s economic engine rests on moving people and freight. It has the longest coastline in the continental U.S. and many vital ports. A strong highway system is integral to moving tourists through the state in a timely manner and taking freight across the country.
- There is an immediate need to expand the ports of Miami, Tampa, and Jacksonville, which are enormous economic engines not only for Florida but for the entire country. Yet there are challenges ahead:
Safety
- Such infrastructure-based economic development is not just about giving our economy a shot in the arm-it is also about protecting and preserving what we have already developed. In decades past, our predecessors built canals, then railroads, and then the interstate highway system. And yet now we can’t even keep these vital projects adequately maintained - our bridges are sometimes reinforced with wood, our pavements are crumbling. These are not just economic challenges; they are safety hazards.
- Our interstate highway system covers 47,000 miles. Before it was built, motorists could only drive 250 miles a day dawn-to-dark, but after it was built, drivers could cover twice that distance. There’s enormous economic potential in dramatically improving transportation productivity.
- The American Society of Civil Engineers gave our infrastructure a “D” and said that we will need $1.6 trillion in the next five years, and that’s not even including our national security needs. We need this amount just to deal with our “congested highways, overflowing sewers, and corroded bridges”. Poor roads cost Americans $54 billion each year in repairs and operating costs - an average of $275 for each driver.
- All of our infrastructure is suffering from a lack of maintenance and expansion - we have seen this in the collapse of the Minneapolis bridge on August 1, 2007, the steam pipe explosion in New York City on July 18, 2007, and a year of frustration with air travel, with almost 30% of flights delayed. Antiquated infrastructure and overcrowded airports are inherently dangerous.
” In 2006, 73,764 American bridges were rated “structurally deficient” by the U.S. Department of Transportation. We need to take a hard look at our bridges and make sure they are safe and secure.
- Bridges and air travel are an issue throughout Florida:
- We must do a better job of setting priorities. Much of our federal funding is still apportioned to the states under mechanisms established 50 years ago when we created the interstates. As President, I will make sure that our prioritization system responds adequately to our most urgent needs.
- We need an Asset Management System. As President, I will instruct my Secretary of Transportation to develop a comprehensive database that assesses the existing condition of infrastructure and then provides options for the funding - including creative private-sector options - to maintain each asset in the condition it needs to be. This makes funding decisions data-driven, rather than political, so that we can remove the excuse for Congressional earmarks.
Security
- Moreover, allowing these weaknesses to continue provides openings for the terrorists to exploit. I will address the many security issues still unresolved after 9/11, such as the security of our ports and our chemical plants.
- For all our effort, we still have far to go in ensuring that our planes are secure and our passengers not overly inconvenienced. DHS’ Transportation Security Lab is researching new technologies to update and secure our air travel.
- For Miami, this includes a $20 million request for changes made in the terminal to install a baggage explosives detection system.
- In Orlando, the airport is already taking advantage of new technologies such as the “Clear” card, a voluntary ID system, which will be available in Orlando International Airport starting this June.
- If states choose even tougher standards to protect their people, I will respect their authority and not allow the federal government to pre-empt those standards. When New Jersey passed standards for its chemical plants, lobbyists for the chemical companies tried to get Congress to pass weak federal legislation for these plants and to pre-empt New Jersey from enforcing its stricter standards. I will always fight for you, not the lobbyists.
-I will reassess, tighten, and strengthen the focus and mission of the Department of Homeland Security. When the Department was formed, it brought together 180,000 people from 22 agencies, combining tasks as diverse and unrelated as the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service from the Agriculture Department to the Nuclear Incident Response Team from the Department of Energy. Its size and structure have proven to be unwieldy and inefficient. We must reform and restructure DHS so that it is even more effective at identifying threats and foiling attacks.
- For example, at the Port of Miami, divers search for contraband at the Coast Guard’s request, but since DHS is not reimbursing them, the Miami Dade Police Department is picking up that tab. DHS should provide the funding to conduct hull searches as ships enter the port.
- I also support Miami’s request for DHS to open a regional office in Miami-Dade County. This will make sure that Florida’s largest metropolitan area has the resources to work with state and federal officials in case of a terror attack or other emergency.
- We need better radiation detection devices to screen cargo in our ports. The current generation has technology limitations. I support DHS’ pilot program called SETCP (Southeast Transportation Corridor Pilot), which Florida participates in, for using mobile radiation detection devices.
- Miami has also requested $6 million to improve communications between police and firefighters. This sort of interoperability is key to our ability to respond to a national disaster or terrorist attack.
- When Congress put FEMA in the Department of Homeland Security, they moved its director too far down the food chain. I will restore FEMA to cabinet status, so that the Director reports directly to me. My FEMA director will have sterling credentials, leadership and management skills, including extensive, hands-on experience in disaster response.
- During the massive emergency of Hurricane Katrina, when local, state, and federal governments were in melt-down, I stepped forward and directed the rescue and relief of 75,000 victims. Our success amidst so much failure was one of the reasons Time magazine named me one of America’s five best governors.
- A sound infrastructure is also the key to developing our energy security, and our energy independence. As President, I will work to make sure that we have a comprehensive and balanced approach to the enormous challenge of strengthening America’s energy independence from unstable and sometimes hostile foreign governments. If we could put a man on the moon four decades ago, we can accomplish this mission in the coming decade.
Sustainability
- I have always been a conservationist. Stewardship of the air and land and soil is very important to me. I will follow the principle I learned from the Boy Scouts: Always leave the land better than when you found it. I am proud of my record in Arkansas, building constructive consensus on key issues. I look forward to bringing the same leadership to America.
- We need to move toward long-term solutions, bringing a comprehensive vision, combining economic development and environmental protection. We can have both.
- We must link land use and transportation planning. It is folly, for example, to provide rail service to places that don’t have the density to make it work.
- We keeping building schools and post offices outside of town centers, so that everyone has to drive. Our children don’t walk to school or to the playground anymore, which is not only a transportation issue, but causes childhood obesity as well. So transportation becomes a health issue, a lifestyle issue, which shapes the future of our children and our county. We need to trim the fat and produce an efficient, sustainable plan for the future.
- We must also consider sustainability relating to water, of particular importance to Floridians.
- Properly used, public transportation can reduce congestion and emissions, lower our demand for oil, and improve accessibility.
- We should use the new technology and markets available to us to encourage the next generation of sustainable infrastructure. The US Green Building Council has created the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating Systems, which cover everything from homes and offices to schools and hospitals, even neighborhood development. LEED is the nationally and internationally accepted benchmark for designing, building, and running green structures. We should consider offering personal and corporate tax benefits for LEED Certified buildings.
Conclusion
- These improvements are vital to our economic prosperity, but they also define our quality of life. We’ve spent decades ignoring the issue, and we no longer have a national transportation or infrastructure vision like the one that built the interstate highway system in the 1950’s or sent us to the moon in the 1960’s. The Huckabee administration would restore and act on that national vision.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Huckabee= big government spender
January 28th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
#1
Maybe that’s why Brett puts these big/bloated posts up…To illustrate Huckabee’s governing styles.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Uh, no thank you! You have to realize Huckabee is just staying in to help McCain at this point, because he thinks he has the VP slot, but guess what, Gov. Crist was probably promised that slot. McCain is just playing Huckabee for a fool.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
I missed the part where Huckabee details the impact of how aggressive China is in buying steel, concrete, and the corresponding impact of their demand on both US supply and pricing.
A five minute search finds ample supporting evidence that Huckabee’s ‘Road to Nowhere’ scheme would run overbudget before the first worker showed up on site.
40,000 jobs? Wow - so lets see, we’re at a net negative of 260,000 jobs lost thanks to McCain-Leiberman.
I think Huckabee needs to spend less time on Easter egg hunts and less time focusing on his man crush with McCain, and more time understanding economics and the impending economic threat posed by China.
Just my 2 cents of course… Then again, what do I know.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
At least this isn’t a Romney smear piece. This is what you need to do more of Brett. Try and convince me to vote FOR your guy, and not AGAINST mine. While you didn’t convince me with this post, this is a step up from the last thread you put up today.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
So with all these big government projects, is Huckabee campaigning on the “New Deal” platform?
January 28th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
huckabee brought the “one trick pony” stuff on himself. he wants to be the christian leader, he campaigned as the christian leader, and now you’re pissed that he is being called the christian leader?
January 28th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Why do we have to keep hearing so much Huckabee stuff? Anyone who doesn’t realize he won’t be prez has lost it. It’s a two man show now. To his credit, Huckabee recognizes he may become the decider in a brokered convention, but that’s it, so please quit posting lenghty things about how voting for Mitt instead of Huck is akin to Judas’ betrayal and his “stimulus” plan which is big spending gov’t.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
I just think we need about 20 or 30 more lanes-of-freeway added to I-80 in Wyoming………….
Think of the Jobs!!!!!
Think of the reduction in Traffic!!!!!!
We need you MIKE!!!!!!
January 28th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
OMG, Huckabee is advocating ONE GIANT EARMARK!!!
January 28th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
What is he, FDR? Is this the WPA again?
http://www.political-buzz.com/
January 28th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I too am impressed that Huck is finally actively using something from his own record other than his religion to promote his candidacy. His immigration and fair tax positions have been constructed whole cloth just for this campaign. He did, however, have a real record in Arkansas of significantly improving infrastructure. However, I think it’s the wrong position as a solution for our economic woes, and not a conservative one. It smacks way too much of the New Deal - a big government work project band-aid to make it seem like something is being done but having no real impact.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
As I posted on a previous thread, Huckabee and McCain revealed during last week’s debate that they are clueless about the economy. Should they be tapped for the Republican ticket, they will look like dumb and dumber going head to head against Obama and Clinton. Fiscal conservatives want an executive who understands how to run things, facilitate economic growth, and scale back the size of government — NOT someone who thinks that building a road to Florida or being on a first-name basis with Jack Kemp is going to pull us out of a substantial economic downturn.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Are we sure this is Huckabee’s own work and not another cut and paste of someone else’s work without attribution?
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/huckabees_cutandpaste_job.html
January 28th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
I just dream about the day that Nutscabee drop out, hopefully that day is very close.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I noticed nobody really attacked the premise of Huckabee’s plan, that this country needs infrastructure improvement. That rush hour traffic stinks for a lot of people. These are quality of life issues as well folks.
If Romney had proposed this plan, it would be hailed as “visionary,” and the sort of “cando leadership from the guy who ’saved the Oympics’.” People here would breathlessly declare it a product of Romney’s unmatched economic genius. The women here would be leaving their husbands for Romney (he sleds with his kids).
BUT since Huck proposed it, it is just “New Deal” and bloated government.
Why does a proposal to build and improve roads automatically mean “big government” and New Deal? I assume none of the Huck haters above drive on roads built by the “big government?” Perhaps we should tear up all those monuments to the New Deal and rid ourselves of such bloated spending? Then Romney can carry us around the country on his big broad sholders and magic carpet.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
NAFTA SUPERHIGHWAY!!!!
rEVOLution!!!
January 28th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
#13 - KL - “Dumb and Dumber” LOL! That’s great!
January 28th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Hey guys, come on. Don’t shoot the messenger. Let’s give credit where credit is due. I don’t much care for Huckabee, the man, or his tactics, but a good idea is still a good idea no matter who comes up with it.
What is wrong with investing money instead of just doling it out? Wasn’t it Romney who promised $40 billion investment in the auto industy? Now personally I think the 2-lane highway from Maine to Florida is a crock. It would certainly help the east coast, but would do little to help other areas. One big, giant earmark. But the basic idea is sound.
So good for Gov. Huckabee. He still sucks as a Presidential candidate, but there is nothing wrong with his basic idea.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
The huckabee plan - Kiss john mccain’s ass and beg him to be veep
January 28th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
As for the substance and premise of Huckabee’s plan, does everyone here think that the country is better served by everyone taking their $300 bucks and buying a new made-in-China iPod, or would we better better served spending that money on infrastructure?
How about infrastructure towards energy independence? How about spending the money on American jobs? How about keeping the money here in the country? Or is everyone here happy with Merrill Lynch and Co. having to go to Southeast Asia and the Saudi penninsula for capital?
Nah, just give us all a new iPod.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
marK,
First congratulations with your post #19 not spewing vitriol and actually being rational. It’s nice.
Agreed–our nation faces large infrastructure challenges. I’m not so sure I like the heavy role national money plays into this right now. Ideally these issues would be dealt with in state governments so as to minimize the influence of certain powerful national politicians spending the rest of the nation’s money on earmarks. When Alaska gets a nice new expensive bridge at the expense of everyone else in the nation because of the power of a certain senator, you know something’s wrong. Everyone wants to take some out of the national pot of money.
If it’s a choice between doling out money and spending on infrastructure, I’d take infrastructure any day. (It would be better still to cut more spending altogether and let state governments handle it). But something tells me a President Huckabee would not cut entitlements in order to spend on infrastructure, but rather, he would increase spending and pay for it with more debt or more taxes.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
#16: Because when the prophet Romney secures power he will convert all the ICBM’s to interplanetary space craft for the elect. That will leave all of us non-Mormons with the broken roads and no nuclear deterrent. Global nuclear conflict will destroy the earth and all the Mormons will be laughing at us as they fly away (until they realize they are just adrift in space with no new planets to populate).
January 28th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
#16
It’s not that Highways are bad. It’s that it is all he has offered as a strategy to stimulate the economy short term.
What else has he offered?
Now don’t start claiming that a 30% sales tax will increase spending and stimulate the economy.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
fran,
“Now don’t start claiming that a 30% sales tax will increase spending and stimulate the economy.”
If capital gains, dividend, and corporate tax cuts stimulate investment, what do you think would happen if these taxes were taken to zero? If cuts in income and payroll taxes stimulate spending, what do you think happens if we take those taxes to zero? If cutting the inheritance taxes helps keep family farms and small businesses intact, what do you think eliminating it would do?
January 28th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
#25
Why would people invest in companies whose bottom line is eroded because people have less incentive to spend.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
#25, fran is not interested in facts. But thanks for posting.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
“Why would people invest in companies whose bottom line is eroded because people have less incentive to spend.”
With a negative savings rate, I don’t think our trouble as a country is consumers’ not spending enough. But eliminating payroll and income taxes gives everyone a raise and allows them to do as they see fit- spend, save, or invest. The real power of the Fair tax is that it makes US an incredibly attractive place for business and manufacturing. If we are ever going to see the three million manufacturing jobs lost under Bush again, we need to give companies a reason for investing in this country. Eliminating corporate taxes and payroll taxes, inheritance taxes, capital gains, and dividend taxes goes a long way towards that.
The fundamental problem with our economy is not that consumers aren’t incented enough to spend. The problem is years of stagnant real wages among working class people, and an industrial base which has been hollowed out and shipped overseas.
The government doesn’t need to give consumers money so they can spend more. That’s not the problem. Our economy needs fixing so companies will come back to America so workers can earn more. If the private sector has a spending problem, it is that it spends too much (that is more than it can afford). The private sector has an earnings and wages problem.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
The biggest, most serious problem with this plan, Huckaboppers, was recently spelled out by Megan McCardle. The EISs she mentions in her post are Environmental Impact Statements, mandated, if I’m not mistaken, by the Endangered Species Act and Environmental Protection Act or so.
I’m not a Huck-a-hater, but many of his policy proposals strike me as revolutionary, or put differently, pie-in-the-sky as are the ideas of Ron Paul.
Unfortunately, our nation has already made serious progress down the road of constructing a horny Leviathan of a state seeking new people to screw each day.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
#25 What happens to all of the Americans that have managed to save money (i.e. Roth IRAs, bank accounts, etc.) under the Fair Tax proposal? Are they supposed to be taxed again when they make purchases? If so, why should people who have exercised fiscal restraint to set aside savings be forced to pay perhaps in excess of a 50% tax on that money? What about the millions of retirees who have prepared to live on their savings that have already been taxed?
January 28th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
KL,
If you think all that Roth money (which gave the government an upfront windfall in the 90s) is going to truly come out tax free for everybody, you don’t understand the government.
Also, the notion of a 50% sales tax is absurd, and as far as I can tell, completely made up.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
KL,
I’m not going to pretend that the Fair Tax will be the best thing that ever happened to every one of 300 million tax payers. But do you feel better with the current system of pampered congressmen and their lobbyist masters picking winners and losers? Because that’s what they do every year.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
The Huckabee Plan — Become more of an attention hog by becoming Vice President!
January 28th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
MWS,
I did not suggest a 50% sales tax. Rather, I suggested that individuals who have already paid taxes on their savings and who are then required to pay an additional 23% on all purchases may have an effective tax rate in excess of 50%. I do not think that is an outlandish figure. As I stated on a previous thread, the fact that Huckabee managed to garner the support he has within the Republican party makes me think the party is moving away from fiscal conservatism.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
#28
Both things you mention can be addressed much easier by simply reducing capital gains tax and corporate taxes. I really can’t see away that this will increase consumer spending (My original point was that it wouldn’t be a short term stimulus).
I wouldn’t mind going there gradually, but I find that federal sales taxes are political suicide. Just look at the Canadian GST
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goods_and_Services_Tax_%28Canada%29
They actually lowered taxes, but people hated it because it was visible. It destroyed the Canadian Conservative Party.
January 28th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Fran,
That’s Canada. It’s 1/4 American. 1/4 French Jacobin, and 1/2 British Labour.
(apologies to our friends to the north. I just couldn’t help it)
January 28th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
I don’t disagree that we need infrastructure investment. I just don’t think a massive road-building project is the economic stimulus we really need. Problems I see:
(1) What is the projected cost of this big, big road? $150 billion? That’s . . . taxpayer money. At a minimum, I suppose. Has Huckabee ever heard of Boston’s Big Dig? My fear is that the eventual cost would FAR, FAR exceed this amount. My guess is that it would eventually be $450-500 billion.
(2) With EIS statements, rights-of-way, state and local government pork additions - I see this taking twice as long, at least, as scheduled.
(3) Cost would massively increase due to scarcity of steel and other road-building materials - China and India infrastructure projects are sucking it all up. American steel plants are already on the edge due to this.
(4) Population is not moving east - it is moving west and south.
(5) This would be a job creator - for illegal aliens in particular, perhaps. It would be a huge magnet.
That is the tip edge of about 15 more concerns.
Infrastructure investment? Yes.
This solution? No.
January 28th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
KL,
“I did not suggest a 50% sales tax. Rather, I suggested that individuals who have already paid taxes on their savings and who are then required to pay an additional 23% on all purchases may have an effective tax rate in excess of 50%.”
Gotcha. It wasn’t clear to me before what you were driving at with 50%. The truth is, with ANY tax reform there will be “losers” to a greater or lesser degree. Currently, Congress is picking winners and losers in every budget they write. The fair tax creates an awful lot of winners, and has the added bonus of stimulating (and rebuilding) America’s industrial base.
As for retirees, they are taxed ordinary income on their 401(k)s, IRA, SEP, SIMPLES, etc… Some are facing taxes on their Social Security. Taxable accounts are also subject to well, taxes- capital gains, dividend, and income (on top of the corporate taxes which depress profits and/or raise prices). The only certain “loser” regarding retirement accounts is the Roth of course, assuming the government keeps its promise. Whether there is a way to make that transition more equitable for Roth owners I don’t know.
But retirees are already paying an awful lot in taxes now.
January 28th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
I live near Boston. I have seen the Big Dig fiasco expose everything that is wrong with the liberal approach to infrastructure and economic stimulus. Huckabee’s plan looks like the Big Dig on steriods. No thanks!
January 28th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Not to mention that the Big Dig project was for over a decade an absolutely bottomless cesspool of fraud, corruption, waste and cronyism, wasting millions, if not billions, in taxpayer dollars. Plus the transportation system there has had poll takers raking in salaries of $60-120,000 a year - on the public dole! Who was handed this mess? Mitt Romney. Somebody should really write the whole story of Romney and the transportation system of MA and his dealings with it - it’s a doozy. Now, that would be quite a story - like to read Huck’s too on AR.
January 28th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
If steel costs too much because China is aggressively buying our steel, Huckabee can just use all the illegals he’s attracting with his other favors. They can do the work, and we’ll stay under budget.
January 28th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Everyone has pet pork and the infrastructure is mine. I’m tired of candidates saying they want to be “The Environment President” or “The Education President”. I want “The Transportation President”!!! Its in my blood. My dad worked on the railroad for 30 years. So maybe you can understand why I care about this. I want this country to make the best planes, trains, and automobiles with the best roads, bridges, airports, and railstations in the world. If I were POTUS, War on Traffic would be a domestic priority. We can do this with existing funds thats going to other things instead. There, I have just exposed my populist streak.
Hickabee still sucks! GO MITT!!!!