Some of Gov. Mike Huckabee's Political Experience...
Governor of Arkansas from 1996-2007.
Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas from 1993-1996.Re-elected in Arkansas four times.Chairman of the National Governors Association from 2005-2006.Chairman of the Education Committee of the States from 2004-2006.More leadership experience and accomplishments than any other candidate running, Republican or Democrat.Some of Gov. Mike Huckabee's Awards...
Named one of the five best governors in America by Time Magazine, 2005.
Named a "Distinguished Public Health Legislator of the Year" in 2005.
Named a top "Doer, Dreamer & Driver" by Government Technology magazine, after leading AR to a top 10 finish in the 2004 Digital States Survey.
American Association of Retired Person's Impact Award, 2005.
Music for Life Award by the National Association of Music Merchant, 2007.
Southern Region Runner of the Year, Road Runners Club of America, 2005.
Arkansas Outdoor Hall of Fame, 2000.
Athlete of the Week, United States of America Track and Field.
American Sportfishing Association's Man of the Year, 1997.
Gov. Mike Huckabee on the Issues...
Sanctity of Life:
Supports the passage of a constitutional amendment to protect the right to life.
Roe v. Wade should be over-turned.
Helped pass Arkansas' Unborn Child Amendment, which requires the state to do whatever it legally can to protect life.
As Governor of Arkansas, Mike banned partial birth abortion, required parental notification, required that a woman give informed consent before having an abortion, allowed a woman to have her baby and leave the child safely at a hospital, and made it a crime for an unborn child to be injured or murdered during an attack on his mother.
Attended the Arkansas March for Life every year while he was governor.
Opposes research on embryonic stem cells. Supports adult stem cell research.
Every child deserves a quality education, first-rate health care, decent housing in a safe neighborhood, and clean air and drinking water.
Taxes/Economy:
Mike cut taxes and fees almost 100 times in Arkansas, saving the taxpayers almost $380 million. He left a surplus of nearly $850 million, which he urged should go back to the people in the form of either a tax rebate or tax cut.
Mike grew the Arkansas economy at a rate higher than the national average.
Roads in Arkansas were ranked as some of the nation's worst before Mike took office. Roads in Arkansas are now ranked as some of the nation's most improved.
Our massive deficit is not due to Americans' being under-taxed, but to the government's over-spending.
Achieving and maintaining a balanced federal budget is an important and worthy goal necessary to our long-term economic well-being.
To control spending, Mike believes that the President should have the line-item veto.
We need to completely eliminate ALL federal income and payroll taxes.
Supports the Fair Tax. Expert analyses have shown that the FairTax lowers the lifetime tax burden of all of us: single or married; working or retired; rich, poor or middle class. The FairTax will instantly make American products 12 to 25% more competitive because the cost of those goods will no longer be inflated by corporate taxes, costs of tax compliance, and Social Security matching payments.
Education and the Arts:
Music and the arts are not extraneous, extra-curricular, or expendable - they are essential. It is crucial that children flex both the left and right sides of the brain.
Art and music are as important as math and science because our future economy depends on a creative generation.
Music has always been an important part of Mike's life. He still plays bass guitar in his band, Capitol Offense.
The study of music improves math scores, spatial reasoning and abstract thinking.
As Chairman of the Education and Arts Commission of the States, Mike created a two-year initiative called "The Arts - A Lifetime of Learning," which promotes the benefits of arts education to all fifty states.
As Governor of Arkansas, Mike passed landmark legislation to provide music and art instruction by certified teachers for all Arkansas children in grades one through six.
We need to judge the success of our schools by the results we obtain, not by the revenue we spend.
Test scores rose dramatically in Arkansas thanks to Mike's education reforms.
Before Mike was Governor, Arkansas' education quality was ranked 48th in the nation. Arkansas' overall education quality is now ranked 8th best in the nation thanks to Mike's education reforms. The number of students taking advanced placement classes grew by leaps and bounds.
To attract top talent, Mike raised teachers' salaries from among the lowest in the nation to among the most competitive.
Strong supporter of the rights of parents to home school their children, of creating more charter schools, and of public school choice.
Mike is proud that his three children attended public schools from K through twelve, as did he and his wife.
We should provide bonuses and forgive student loans for high-performing teachers to work in low-performing schools.
In addition to his gubernatorial experience, Mike has significant national experience in education policy. He was Chairman of the National Governors Association from 2005-2006 and also Chairman of the Education Committee of the States from 2004-2006, working with governors, legislators, and education chiefs from all fifty states to advance education policy and conduct research on effective trends in education.
Regarding "No Child Left Behind," Mike believes that states must be allowed to develop their own benchmarks.
Energy Independence:
The first thing Mike will do as President is send Congress his comprehensive plan for energy independence. We will achieve energy independence by the end of Mike's second term. The Huckabee Administration will be remembered as the time when we finally, finally achieved energy independence.
Achieving energy independence is vital to achieving success both in the war on terror and in globalization. Energy independence will help guarantee both our safety and our prosperity.
We have to explore, we have to conserve, and we have to pursue all avenues of alternative energy: nuclear, wind, solar, hydrogen, clean coal, biodiesel, and biomass.
We are so pathetically behind the curve right now that federal spending for energy research and development is only 40% of what it was in 1979. Our efforts are haphazard and often pointless: today we have six million flex-fuel vehicles built to run on biodiesel or on E85, which is 85% ethanol, but only 1,413 pumps for those fuels in a country with 170,000 gas stations.
Oil addiction is killing us. None of us would write a check to Osama bin Laden, slip it in a Hallmark card and send it off to him. But that's what we're doing every time we pull into a gas station. We're paying for both sides in the war on terror - our side with our tax dollars, the terrorists' side with our gas dollars.
Our dependence on foreign oil has forced us to support repressive regimes, to conduct our foreign policy with one hand tied behind our back. It's time, it's past time, to untie that hand and reach out to moderate Muslims with both hands. Oil has not just shaped our foreign policy, it has deformed it. When Mike makes foreign policy, he wants to treat Saudi Arabia the same way he'll treat Sweden, and that requires us to be energy independent.
If we are energy independent, we will be able not just to take care of our own needs and protect our economy, we will also create jobs and grow our economy by developing technologies that we can sell to the rest of the world to meet their needs.
Achieving energy independence will make us safer and more prosperous, and is yet another way that Mike intends to lift America up.
Health Care:
Helped 70,000 uninsured children in Arkansas receive health care coverage.
The health care system in this country is irrevocably broken, in part because it is only a "health care" system, not a "health" system.
We don't need universal health care mandated by federal edict.
We do need to get serious about preventive health care.
Advocates policies that will encourage the private sector to seek innovative ways to bring down costs.
When Mike's President, Americans will have more control of their health care options, not less.
Crisis Management:
During the massive emergency of Hurricane Katrina, when local, state, and federal governments were in melt-down, Mike stepped forward and directed the rescue and relief of 75,000 victims.
Mike will remove FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security and restore it to Cabinet status, so that the Director reports directly to him. Mike's FEMA Director will have sterling credentials, including extensive, hands-on experience in disaster response.
As Governor, Mike has dealt with severe ice storms and tornadoes and other emergencies.
Mike's crisis management ability is one of the reasons Time magazine named him one of America's five best governors.
Some of Gov. Mike Huckabee's Endorsements...
Chuck Norris (movie star, conservative writer, and martial arts expert)
Jerry Ross (Pro-Life Catholic Congress)
Scott Brannan (Christian Homseschool Network)
Millie Rice (Washington Republican National Hispanic Assembly)
Florida State Speaker of the House Marco Rubio
Florida State Representative David Rivera
Florida State Majority Leader Daniel Webster
Florida Senator Alex Diaz de la Protilla
Former South Carolina Governor David Beasley
Arkansas Minority Leader Michael Lamoureux
Arkansas Republican Party Chairman Dennis Milligan
Arkansas Republican National Committewoman Reta Hamilton
Virginia House Speaker William J. Howell
Former Wyoming Governor Jim Geringer
Hall of Fame baseball player Mr. Bob Feller
Ric Flair (professional wrestler)
New Hampshire National Education Association
Home School Legal Defense Association PAC
Georgia Right to Life PAC
Michigan Chooses Life PAC
Montana Right to Life PAC
Dallas Morning News
Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union
Republican Sportshooters Association
Click here for full list of endorsements.
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