November 1, 2007
Author and talk show host Hugh Hewitt speaks with Presidential contender Mike Huckabee on immigration, poverty programs and his record on tax cuts.
Hugh Hewitt: Joined now by Governor Mike Huckabee, former Governor for more than 10 years, almost 11 years of the State of Arkansas…. Good to have you back. You are doing quite well, but as a result, you’ve got a target on your back now. Lots of people are throwing bricks at you. Just to be expected?
Mike Huckabee: Well, absolutely. It’s Politics 101, and frankly, it’s a good sign. It’s a form of flattery when you’re under assault. You know, a good hunter never puts the beads on a dead carcass. You only aim at something that’s alive that you want to put on the wall as a trophy….
Hewitt: All right, let’s move on to the interview you did with Wolf Blitzer about children in the country illegally, and whether or not they should have equal status with other school kids seeking financial aid and higher ed. What is your view?
Huckabee: First of all, let me make clear, secure the border, no sanctuary cities, and absolutely no amnesty. But when a child has been in the public schools of our state, and has done exceptionally well academically, and has academically and in every other way qualified for what we had in our state, called an academic challenge scholarship, then my proposal was that if those students were willing to apply for and become citizens, we should give them the same scholarships as anybody else, because I’d rather have them as college graduates making a lot more money and being taxpayers, than tax takers, and because I didn’t want to punish the children for the sins of the crimes of the parent.
I think it’s a big difference. You certainly don’t excuse what the parents did, but you don’t punish the child because of what the parents decided to do in breaking the law.
Hewitt: So Governor Huckabee, if you’ve got someone in the country illegally who’s 18, 19, 20, but was brought here by his or her parents when they were 13, 14, 15, should they be allowed to stay in the United States?
Huckabee: Well, if their parents have to go back, they should go with them, unless they have become citizens themselves. I think that’s the key. The biggest mistake this country made is a government that completely dropped the ball 20 years ago by never securing our borders. And this situation is not going to get fixed. The 12 million will become 50 million in another 20 years if we don’t have a system that makes it at least as difficult to get across the border as it is for me to get on an airplane in my hometown, which currently, it’s easier to get across the international border than it is for me to get on a plane.
Hewitt: Well, do you think, though, that the states’ governments ought to be actively cooperating in the identification of people who are not in the country legally, whether they’re minors or adults?
Huckabee: Oh, well sure, absolutely. And one of the provisions in the bill that we did propose was that they would have to be in the process of becoming citizens, or they wouldn’t be able to access the scholarships.
Hewitt: Now as you know, you got hit by [Wall Street Journal writer] John Fund and I want to go over what the Club for Growth accuses you of, especially sales tax increases on gas, smokes, nursing homes, opposing the repeal of sales tax on food and medicine. Are you actually calling the Club for Growth now the Club for Greed?
Huckabee: Yeah, I have, because they’ve been very reckless with the truth as it relates to a record that I have of cutting 94 taxes, including the first ever broad-based tax cut in the history of my state, balancing a budget every year, going from a zero balance to a nearly billion dollar balance that I turned over to the governor that took office this year. My fiscal record is good, and don’t take my word for it, there’s a lot of documentation on my Web site. Or people can contact I think very responsible fiscal conservative Republicans like Asa Hutchinson and people like John Paul Hammerschmidt, who are elected members of Congress, who watched my record as a Republican in the state, going against a strong headwind of the Clinton machine.
