Barack Obama wants to tax the wealthy, those over $200,000, to help improve Social Security. Sucks for the wealthy – but sure sounds good to the middle class (like myself) or the poor. Other Democratic candidates say they back that idea. But Hillary Clinton won’t address her plans publicly. She said she won’t address or advocate any specific fix until the budget was balanced.
Fred Thompson said he has his own ideas for Social Security, like price indexing. Other GOP candidates want to allow private investment accounts and while NPR didn’t address it, Mike Huckabee (and myself) wants to fund Social Security with the money raised from the FairTax. Abolish the income tax and pay for Medicaid and Social Security with sales tax rather than money from my pay check. When the 78 million baby boomers end up on Social Security, they’ll be paying into the system just like everyone else everytime they go buy a loaf of bread or a new car.
Here’s an interesting stat as to why Social Security is going bankrupt…
The first person to receive a Social Security benefit was Ernest Ackerman, who paid 5 cents into Social Security during one day of work. He retired the next day and was paid 17 cents for his retirement in January 1937. This was a one-time, lump-sum pay-out, which was the only form of benefits paid during the start-up period January 1937 through December 1939. The first person to receive monthly retirement benefits was Ida Mae Fuller of Brattleboro, Vermont. Her first check, dated January 31, 1940 was in the amount of US$22.54.
I think Ackerman got one heck of a deal. That’s more than 3 times the return on an investment. Sign me up -except that the system is going bankrupt any day now.
Tag: Mike Huckabee
Huckabee passes contribution goal
The Mike Huckabee campaign set an online goal for the month of October: to raise $1 more than they did during the last quarter of fundraising. That goal of $1,034,487 was passed early today and the now the campaign has raised over $1,043,322.55 online.
The news keeps getting better and better…
Club for Growth report on Huckabee flawed?
Joe Carter rebuts the Club for Growth’s scrutiny of Gov. Mike Huckabee’s fiscal record as governor.
Well worth a read. (source no longer online)
For several months the Club for Growth has been attacking Huckabee’s bona fides as a fiscal conservative. In the process, they’ve slandered the Governor’s record, deceived numerous trusting conservatives, and cast doubts on the organization’s honesty and trustworthiness. It’s a disgraceful situation made all the more shameful by our continued willingness to be duped.
While Huckabee was in his first term as Governor of Arkansas he:
- Pushed through a Democrat legislature the first, major broad based tax cuts in the state’s history.
- Pushed through a Democrat legislature an $80 million tax cut package.
- Cut the state’s capital gains tax by 25%.
- Established a Property Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights.
- Limited the increase in property taxes to 10% a year for individuals and 5% per taxing unit.
- Eliminated the income tax for families below the poverty line.
- Increased the standard deductions.
- Eliminated the marriage penalty.
- Eliminated bracket creep by indexing the income taxes to inflation, thereby preventing taxpayers from moving into a higher bracket when their paychecks increase due to inflations.
- Doubled the child care tax credit.
- Eliminated capital gains tax on the sale of a home.
Of course Huckabee is the only candidate, that I know of, who has pledged to give his support the FairTax if he’s elected. Sure other candidates have said they’d sign it if it ever comes up, but Huckabee says he’ll work for it, which will lead to a complete overhaul of our current tax system and give you much more money in your pocket as well as completely shut-down the IRS.
Huckabee has best week ever
NPR reports that Mike Huckabee had the best week ever:
Mike Huckabee enjoys the best week of his long-shot bid for the Republican presidential nomination: a bump in poll numbers in Iowa and a big spike in online fundraising.
Listen to the story online, including information on Huckabee’s busy weekend in Iowa.
Huckabee takes the heat
Looks like Romney couldn’t sit quiet knowing someone was snapping at his heals.
From Time Magazine:
That’s why there was special signficance, an arrival of sorts, to Mitt Romney’s seemingly offhand observation Friday in an Iowa Public Television interview that Mike Huckabee had supported “special tuition breaks to the children of illegal immigrants.” It marked the first time that the GOP frontrunner in Iowa had ever singled out Huckabee for an attack.
Gov. Mike Huckabee passed Romney for the first time in a national poll on Friday.
Time reports that while Huckabee is feeling the heat, it’s a good thing.
“I must be doing well,” Huckabee said Saturday morning, when I told him what Romney had said. The former Arkansas Governor had not known about the swipe. Huckabee had spent Friday night, as he put it, “rocking the stage” with his band Capitol Offense before an estimated 650 people at the fabled Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, which was the last place Buddy Holly had played before he died in a plane crash in 1959. On Saturday, Huckabee was to try his hand at pheasant hunting, a popular Iowa sport, which he considered an apt metaphor. “You never put the crosshairs on a dead carcass,” Huckabee said. “Somebody sees me as a real wall mount, and that’s a good thing.”
Read the full story.
HUCKABEE PASSES ROMNEY!
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows—for the first time ever–Mike Huckabee moving into the top four among those seeking the Republican Presidential Nomination.
And just think, I doubt he’s received half the money that the leading candidates have spent.
Rudy Giuliani remains precariously atop the pack with support from 20% of Likely Republican Primary Voters nationwide. Fred Thompson is close behind at 19% while John McCain enjoys a second straight day in third place with 14% of the vote. Huckabee continues to gain ground and is just two points behind McCain at 12%. This is the first time all year that Huckabee has surpassed Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts Governor slipped another point and he is now at just 11% nationally. No other Republican attracts more than 3% support while 18% are undecided.