Free Republic's (1/9) poll on Republican candidates' liberal positions that would be deal killers

Free Republic Poll ^ | 1/9/2008 | Jim Robinson

[Jim Robinson]

(1/9) If the eventual Republican presidential nominee has a record including one or more of the following non-conservative positions, would you vote for him anyway or which item specifically would most likely be a deal killer?

• Abortion/gay rights

• Open borders/amnesty

• Gun grabber

• Tax & Spender

• Nanny stater

• Untrustworthy/flip flopper

• Anti-free speech

• Two or more could kill deal

• Three or more definitely kill deal

• I'll vote "R" regardless

Click on source link above to respond to the poll.

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Three or more liberal positions on critical issues would definitely kill the deal in my book.

The way I see it:

X = Candidate holds or has record of non-conservative position. W = Weak or mixed positions.

Candidate	Abortion/ Gay Rights	Open Borders/ Amnesty	Gun Control	Tax and Spend	Nanny Stater	Untrustworthy Spinner Flip flopper	Campaign Finance Reform
Giuliani	X	X	X	-	-	X	X
Huckabee	-	X	-	X	X	X	W
Hunter	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
McCain	W	X	W	W	W	X	X
Romney	X	X	W	W	X	X	X
Thompson	-	-	-	-	-	-	X

Thompson and Hunter are most conservative, but I prefer Thompson because Hunter's going to have a tough time making himself known and jumping from the House to the Presidency.

Please correct me where I'm wrong.

[org.whodat]

I know the poll has just been put up, but I’m shocked at the number that will vote ‘R’ no matter what.

Me to, but for some it is just an attempt to force you to vote for their man.

[nicmarlo]

That snake oil don’t sell!

Well, to conservatives it won't. But, obviously, there's lots out there were are buying this.

[unspun]

calling any of his opponents on these issues racist and unchristian - believing that he all of the sudden wants to crack down on illegal immigration is preposterous!

He has gone on record saying that he believed the measures attempted in Arkansas were redundant to laws already on the books; therefore, he believed them to be inflammatory.

[Jim Robinson]

Uh, the party IS fractured. It’s falling apart at the seams. When the party no longer respects its own vaunted principles and or no longer represents the views of the majority of its base, then it’s all over but the crying. So I guess we agree on that. Either the members select a conservative nominee or forget about claiming to be a conservative party supporting life and liberty. Also forget about ever winning another election. That’s been my point for some time.

[LibLieSlayer]

“How come they don’t get the benefit of the doubt?”

Because they have a track record that has caused them not to earn that trust. They have changed stances on many of the bellweather Conservative issues... with one changing almost 180 degress on all of them. Fred is a man of his word... and one of only a few Senators that promised to serve two terms and leave. He did just that... and that along with a lifetime of telling things like they truly are and letting the pieces fall where they may... takes his credibility over the top.

LLS

[Bob]

There is a reason that Thompson will be supporting McCain after he drops out and that should be a factor in calculating his conservatism.

And you know this for a fact?

If Thompson publicly proclaimed that he’d never support John McCain, I’d have to support him if Hunter was no longer in the race.

If FDT proclaimed that and got the nomination, that would preclude McCain as his VP (not that that's necessarily a bad thing).

[Eric Blair 2084]

Nice tagline.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Again, he did not leave for Hollywood or “lobbying,” he left because he served his two terms and he had had enough. His daughter died and he was not interested in dealing with the day-to-day bull$hit in DC anymore. He didn’t have the “option” of running for Senate leader. He wasn’t interested in it then, anyhow.

Thanks to his wife and children, he has a new lease on life and reinvigorated spirit and believes he can return to that corrupt place and actually do something about it from the highest office. Not for ego, but for his children’s future.

[Rosemont]

JR-

McCain has to answer for CFR, amnesty, and grandstanding on Club Gitmo. However, there is nothing as revolting as Obama and Clinton pandering to their Lib base to be the candidate that is the most abortion loving...disgusting

[LibLieSlayer]

“How many of you agree with unspun that Huckabee is NOT a tax and spend nanny stater?”

I would believe OJ did NOT do it before I’d buy that crapola!

LLS

[processing please hold]

Mccain as VP? Heaven help us then.

[unspun]

Excerpt from Medved: According to figures from the non-partisan Tax Foundation (based on data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Department of Commerce), Huckabee’s term as governor (1996-2007) led to a modest increase in the overall State-Local tax burden for Arkansas: from 10.1% in the year he became governor to 11.1% the last year he served. In terms of overall tax burden (state-local-federal) Arkansas remained virtually unchanged--- from 30.3% (39th among the 50 states) to 30.5% (32nd place). That is a difference of 1%*

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*Huckabee left a record $844.5 million surplus in Arkansas. He recommended that it be returned to the taxpayer in rebates or tax cuts. (The next governor and legislature have been working at eliminating the tax on food.) That is not taken into account in the criticizms of Huckabee's financial record.

It is not even taken into account in this measurement of an otherwise 1% increase -- during a time when the federal government was dumping the "social safety net" load, sometimes with unfunded mandates, upon the states. I have lived in Illinois and Wisconsin during these times. Their GOP legislatures and Governerships utterly blew out their budgets and were kicked out of office.

Credits to Huckabee for navigating those treacherous times much better.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Jim, I have no interest in being a brown noser (shoot me first), I’ll tell you if I think you are being silly...but this is a great poll and a great question.

This will do more to tell the world what Conservatives want and where we want to head than any goofy “poll” by retards at Zogby or Rasmussen.

[LordBridey]

By your criteria, Paul would be an acceptable candidate. Why did you exclude him?

[RebekahT]

Calling a law redundant isn’t the same as saying “He and I don’t drink the same Jesus Juice”.

[Jet Jaguar]

EDITORIALS>>Who’s biggest tax raiser?
Ernie Dumas writes: Mike Huckabee raised more taxes in 10 years in office than Bill Clinton did in his 12 years.
Clinton tax increases

- Increased the general sales tax from 3 percent to 4 per- cent (Act 63 of special session of 1983)

- Increased sales tax by half of 1 percent and extended the tax to used vehicles (Act 3 of 1991)

- Increased the corporate income tax from 6 to 6.5 percent for corporations with net incomes greater than $100,000 (Act 1052 of 1991)

- Levied a 16 percent tax on snuff (yes, there are a few people who still dip snuff) (Act 628 of 1987)

- Levied a 25-cent tax on each pack of cigarette papers (yes, there are people who still roll their own) (Act 1045 of 1987)

- Increased the cigarette tax from 17.75 cents a pack to 21 cents a pack (Act 399 of 1983)

- Increased the cigarette tax by a penny a pack (Act 1211 of 1991)

- Levied a 2 percent tax on certain tourism items like admission to theme parks (Act 38 of 1989)

- Increased excise taxes on mixed drinks sold for on-premises consumption (not wine or beer) (Act 844 of 1983 and Act 908 of 1989)

- Increased motor fuel taxes by 1 cent a gallon (1979)

- Increased motor fuel taxes by 4 cents a gallon (Act 456 of 1985) (Clinton vetoed the bill but the legislature overrode his veto.)

- Increased the tax on motor fuels by 5 cents a gallon

- Increased motor vehicle registration fees, 1979 (subsequently repealed)
Huckabee tax increases

- Imposed an income tax surcharge of 3 percent on tax liabilities of individuals and domestic and foreign corporations (Act 38, 1st special session of 2003). (It was temporary until revenues improved. The legislature repealed it in 2005.)

- Increased the sales tax by 1/8 of one percent by initiated act (but it was a personal campaign by Huckabee, who campaigned across the state for it and took a celebrated bass boat trip for 4 days down the Arkansas River holding press conferences in each river city to urge passage of the act)

- Increased the sales tax by one-half of 1 percent (Act 1492 of 1999)

- Increased the sales tax by 7/8ths of 1 percent and expand the sales tax to many services previously exempt from the tax (Act 107, 2nd special session of 2003)

- Collected a 2 percent tax on chewing tobacco, cigars, package tobacco, cigarette papers and snuff (Act 434 of 1997)

- Levied an additional excise tax of 7 percent on tobacco (Act 38 of 1st special session of 2003)

- Increased the tax on cigarette and tobacco permits (Act 1337 of 1997)

- Increased the tax on cigarette and tobacco – cigarettes by $1.25 per thousand cigarettes and 2 percent of the manufacturers’ selling price on tobacco products (Act 434 of 1997)

- Increased the tax on cigarettes by 25 cents a pack (Act 38, 1st special session of 2003)

- Levied a 3 percent excise tax on all retail sales of beer (Act 1841 of 2001 and extended by Act 272 of 2003 and Act 2188 of 2005)

- Revived the 4 percent mixed drink tax of 1989 and added a 4 percent tax on private clubs (Act 1274 of 2005)

- Increased the tax on gasoline by 3 cents a gallon (Act 1028 of 1999)

- Increased the tax on diesel by 4 cents a gallon (Act 1028 of 1999) Note: Contrary to what Huckabee has said repeatedly in debates, speeches and TV shows, the 1999 gasoline and diesel taxes were not submitted to the voters and approved by 80 per cent of them. It was never submitted to a vote. It was the governor’s bill and it became law without a vote of the people. What the voters did approve in 1999 was a bond issue for interstate highway reconstruction but it did not involve a tax increase. Existing taxes and federal receipts were pledged to retire the bonds.

- Increased the driver’s license by $6 a person, from $14 to $20 (Act 1500 of 2001)
So which raised taxes more? It is hard to quantify. If you measured the increases in the revenue stream, the Huckabee tax cuts far exceeded Clinton’s but that would be unfair because the economy had grown and the same penny of tax would produce far more under Huckabee.

But if you look at the major taxes, I see the aggregate Huckabee taxes as greater, especially if you deduct the 4 cent gasoline and diesel taxes that Clinton vetoed in 1985 and that the legislature enacted over his veto.

Anyway, the sales tax is the big revenue producer. Both raised it by 1.5 cents on the dollar and both expanded it to cover a myriad of services. Clinton raised motor fuel taxes a little more, Huckabee cigarette taxes a lot more.

A further note: Huckabee claims credit for a major tax cut in 1997, saying it was the first tax cut in Arkansas history (there had been many prior to that) and that he forced the Democratic legislature to curtail its impulse to always raise taxes.

The facts: The omnibus income tax cut bill of 1997 was proposed by Gov. Jim Guy Tucker in the spring of 1996. It had multiple (7) features, all aimed at relief for middle-class families or the elderly. He asked interim legislative committees to expand on his plan. Tucker then resigned before the legislature convened after his conviction on Whitewater-related charges, and Huckabee took office.

At the legislative session that followed, the Democratic caucus of the House (88 of the 100 members) made the Tucker tax cuts its chief program. The bill was introduced with 83 sponsors (all Democrats) and all Democrats voted for it. It was unopposed. Huckabee’s tax cut was to give each taxpayer a check for $25 each fall, saying it would help offset the burden of sales taxes on groceries (the repeal of which he repeatedly opposed). The legislature rejected Huckabee’s plan and passed the Tucker bill. Huckabee signed it into law.

The 94 tax cuts that he said he fathered are similarly misleading. The vast majority of those were the usual exemptions and modifications of various taxes and fees that the legislature enacts every time it meets. They were not a part of Huckabee’s program with a few exceptions. Rather, Democratic legislators sponsored them, usually at the behest of whatever special interest benefited, and Huckabee signed them when they hit his desk. If you did a similar summary of Clinton’s years he could claim probably well over 100 tax cuts. Every Arkansas governor since World War II could claim dozens each.

If you counted all the tax benefits extended to corporations under the incentives enacted by the legislature under Clinton — and they were part of his programs, especially in 1983, 1985 and 1989 — the tax cuts would dwarf those under Huckabee.

posted by THE LEADER at 7:51 PM

http://www.arkansasleader.com/2007/11/editorialswhos-biggest-tax-raiser.html

[Kevmo]

Here’s one suggestion that I’ve floated:

When all the smoke clears, if Hunter doesn’t get the nomination, I have one more suggestion for all of us remaining conservative freepers. It would make sense for us to have an idealogy score, a set of questions with rankings of how important the issue is and how strongly a freeper agrees/disagrees with it. We could all put these results on our home pages, so that when another freeper is debating with us (or us with them) we could just go to their home page, check their score on that issue & others, and realize “Ohhh, this is a Ron Paul supporter” or “ohh, this guy is a small l libertarian” or “ohh, this guy is a Big F FISCAL Conservative and a small l social liberal.”

[mission9]

Get a grip Jim, we are always one heartbeat from anarchy, but as Reagan said, the best days of America lie ahead, you ain’t seen nothing yet. When Reagan took office, the state of the Republic was much worse than today. Remember?
Reagan took a bullet for us all in more ways than one. But he compromised too. Mark him out on your scoresheet. Reagan never put in a Supreme court nominee of the quality of Alito or Roberts.

[LibLieSlayer]

I think that Hunter supporters and Fred supporters are aligned in their beliefs and love of Reagan’s America. We had better unite in cause... if not in candidates at this time... because the battle has been joined. We may not even be large in numbers if the media is to be believed... and they are not... but even if we battle against horrible odds... look what King Leonidas and 300 Spartans did to Xerxes and a million and a half persians.

LLS

[Eric Blair 2084]

1% increase -- during a time when the federal government was dumping the "social safety net" load, sometimes with unfunded mandates, upon the states. I have lived in Illinois and Wisconsin during these times. Their GOP legislatures and Governerships utterly blew out their budgets and were kicked out of office. Credits to Huckabee for navigating those treacherous times much better.

Substitute the name Huckabee for Rudy or Mitt, your point would be the same....they had no choice but to ________ (fill in the blank with liberal agenda), they were stuck in a liberal state/city.