Huck bluffing about tax past, says FactCheck

Mike Huckabee FactCheck.org SEE RELATED:

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rings hollow

\ FactCheck — a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania — concludes that Huckabee “presided over a net tax increase” and was “misleading” in several of his defenses.\

\ Specifically, they say he:\

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claimed a tax on nursing-home beds was a fee, not a tax. But FactCheck says even Huckabee himself has called it the “bed tax.”\

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defended a gas tax increase as the result of a referendum, but, in fact, the tax had already passed before the referendum.\

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oversaw tax cuts of $378 million, but tax increases of $505.1 million, resulting in a net tax increase for Arkansas residents.\

\ Compounding the campaign’s problem, they didn’t respond to FactCheck.org when it asked for the list of 90 tax cuts Huckabee often touts. And much of the evidence FactCheck relied on is available on the Internet, either in print articles or in video of his speeches.\

\ All of that leads to this damning conclusion from FactCheck: “We take no position on Huckabee’s call for tax increases. But we do suggest that bluffing on a busted hand is a bad move in the YouTube age.”\

\ — Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times