Huckabee's Fiscal Record

Blue State Republican is running what appears to be the primary unofficial site advocating the candidacy of Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas for the presidency in 2008. I've been hearing a lot about Huckabee lately, so I decided to do some research on the fellow. Based on what I've discovered so far, I don't see myself supporting him.

Club for Growth has some pretty damning evidence regarding Huckabee's fiscal record. According to the Club, Huckabee is an outright fiscal liberal who appears to have presided over a massive increase in the size of Arkansas' government and in the level of control the state is able to exercise over the economic lives of Arkansas citizens. The Club's facts seem to speak for themselves:

Huckabee signed a gas tax hike in 1999
He called for a state sales tax hike in 2002
He signed a 25-cent cigarette tax hike in 2003
He publicly opposed the repeal of a sales tax on groceries and medicine in 2002
He increased state spending 65.3% from 1996 to 2004
He allowed a major tax hike package to pass in 2004
He received a "D" grade on fiscal issues from the Cato Institute in 2004
He raised the minimum wage this year
He called No Child Left Behind the greatest education reform effort by the federal government "in my lifetime."
He has actively gone after so-called "price gougers"

That's my emphasis on the spending charge. Look, I'm no fundamentalist libertarian on taxation or spending. I realize that governing requires tough decisions, and the occasional tax increase is often inevitable, especially if the alternative is more debt or fewer necessary services. But Huckabee's fiscal record in the aggregate is the worst of both of our presidents named Bush. Like Bush 41, he raised taxes. Like Bush 43, he allowed spending to skyrocket. Bill Clinton looks fiscally conservative compared to all of these guys.

Huckabee appears to be attracting the support of the fiscally populist, socially conservative wing of the GOP. But after eight years of the same type of governance from our current president, I suspect that the nation will want something a bit different. And I doubt fiscal conservatives will stand for another apostate after eight years of drunken-sailor spending by the Beltway establishment. If the concern is finding a social conservative, there are other social conservatives who are fiscally conservative as well. I realize that a lot of people have probably already invested a lot in a Huckabee run, which is fine, but I won't be joining them, and I doubt the majority of Republicans will either. Just my 2 cents (1.33 cents after taxes).