In 2005, a Republican state senator named Jim Holt introduced a bill to deny public benefits to Arkansas’ soaring population of illegal immigrants. Holt, a Southern Baptist minister, figured it was a rock-solid conservative idea — a matter, he said, “of right and wrong.”
Arkansas’ governor at the time was also a professed conservative, and also a Southern Baptist minister. But Mike Huckabee had only scorn for his fellow Republican’s proposal.
Huckabee called the bill “race-baiting” and “demagoguery,” and argued that the denial of health services could harm innocent children. The bill, Huckabee said, did not conform with his take on Christian values.
“I drink a different kind of Jesus juice,” Huckabee said.
Today, Huckabee is seeking the Republican nomination for president, and voters nationwide are getting to know a different kind of candidate: He is the Southern preacher who favors droll wit over brimstone sermonizing, a rock ‘n’ roll bass player who believes in creationism, with an Oprah-ready story about a 110-pound weight loss that probably saved his life.
Huckabee’s an interesting character, hangin’ out with [url=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EjYv2YW6azE&feature=related]Chuck Norris[/url] and all.
Personally, I’m more likely to vote for Huckabee than Clinton
So we give tuition breaks to people who are not able to legally attend an educational institution in this country. Do we hand out hospital staff privileges to people who are not legally able to practice medicine? It’s not Jesus juice he’s drinking, it’s liberal Kool-Aid.
The Governor’s view confuses church and state. Let Christians, by all means, give to funds which will pay for health care for the needy. Even better, let them give to help improve conditions in the countries the illegals come from; there’s a root cause for you. But it’s an entirely different matter to take tax money from all, which is extracted by force (no tax return, jail for you!) to “give” according to someone’s religious convictions.
Great to see Huck & Obama get the attention they sorely deserve. The most hopeful voices often win out against machines & fear.
Katherine – so what of abortion?
How do we afford a legal system that protects the unfairly accused? Or the police? Or the firemen?
You forget that people are irrational. Let’s take an example: school taxes. When taxes pay for good schools, property values go down. The childless and elderly hate school taxes. What they don’t realize is that the community is better off for them.
You need someone to watch over the sinners who exploit individuals (that’s called regulation). You need to fund regulators enough so they won’t be tempted by bribery. Taxes aren’t robbery. They are dues for living in a country that is safe, has rights, schools, and a good public health system.
Further, the free market is clumsy in some things. That’s is evident. If only we were as rational as the market says we are. If we were, perhaps we wouldn’t have the economic morass we currently have, which happened precisely because there was no regulation.
Huckabee did a great job. He attached taxes to particular things that were good for the entire state, Christians and non-Christians. He decided that he’d rather live in a first world country than a third world country. The taxes are minimal. And outcomes were positive.