Mike Huckabee on Budget & Economy Republican AR Governor

Do things differently so people need not sacrifice

A: Sometimes it's not so much doing things so that people sacrifice; it's doing them differently. Let me give you an example. A lot of the federal budget goes to health care. We need to do what most American companies are finding works in reducing health care cost. That's moving from the intervention-based health care model to a prevention-based. Our current model is upside-down. We wait until people are catastrophically ill and then we spend the most expensive ways of trying to cure incurable diseases. If we would put the focus on prevention, we would find, like American business is finding, that there really is savings if you kill the snake rather than just treat the snakebites, which is the way our current system is built.

To reduce spending, get rid of IRS & revamp DHS

A: The first thing that I would get rid of would be the Internal Revenue Service. Secondly, I agree we need to revamp [the Department of] Homeland Security. It's a mess, and we have a real problem with the way that it's currently structured.

Rein in out-of-control spending and balance the budget

• HUCKABEE: Yes.
• TANCREDO: Yes.
• COX: Yes.
• BROWNBACK: Yes.
• PAUL: Yes.
• HUNTER: Yes.
• KEYES: Yes.

Created state surplus in AR; cut spending to do same for US

When I left office in early 2007, Arkansas had nearly $850 million in state surplus, which I urged should go back to the people in the form of either a tax rebate or tax cut.

I believe that our massive deficit is not due to Americans' being under-taxed, but due to the federal government's over-spending. Achieving and maintaining a balanced federal budget is an important and worthy goal necessary to our long-term economic well-being. To achieve a balanced federal budget, I believe the President should have the line-item veto.

Bankruptcy reform: limit Chapter 7; protect states' role.

The Governors are particularly concerned that bankruptcy reform legislation address the following issues:
1. Prevent Chapter 7 Use by Those with the Ability to Pay: Present bankruptcy law does not prevent use of Chapter 7 by those with ability to repay, nor does it require that debtors use Chapter 13, which would require them to repay creditors what the debtor can afford. The Governors strongly support federal efforts to prevent debtors from using Chapter 7 when they are financially able to pay some or all of their unsecured debts.
2. Encourage Payment of Domestic Support Obligations: Bankruptcy interferes significantly with states’ ability to assist citizens owed domestic support and to collect unpaid domestic support owed them. The Governors strongly encourage Congress to ensure that any federal bankruptcy reform requires that domestic support obligations have the highest possible repayment priority, that all domestic support obligations be nondischargeable, and that commencement of bankruptcy not prevent the continued collection of child and other support obligations.
3. Give State Claims Parity with Federal Claims in Bankruptcy: Today, bankruptcy rightly gives certain preferences in payment to federal claims against the bankruptcy estate, but similar treatment is not always accorded state claims. The Governors strongly support congressional efforts to reform the treatment of state claims in bankruptcy to provide parity of treatment with federal claims.
4. Protect the State Role: The Governors oppose efforts to preempt state authority to determine exemptions under state bankruptcy law. Currently, debtors have a right to choose between federal and state exemptions. The Governors support efforts to shape bankruptcy reform policy that protects the rights of states to determine their own standards instead of having uniform federal regulations imposed without regard for individual state needs.

Uphold commitments to states before other spending.

The Issue

NGA’s Position

Protect local milk supplies with Southern Dairy Compact.

• Whereas, the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia have all enacted the Southern Dairy Compact as state legislation; and,
• Whereas, these states adopted the Southern Dairy Compact in response to the hemorrhaging loss of the region’s milk supply, whereby every state must now import milk from outside the region to supply at least part of its beverage milk needs, with Alabama and South Carolina supplying less than half their fluid needs; and,
• Whereas, establishment of this form of interstate compact is the formal, constitutionally authorized means for a region to address interstate issues of common concern in the public interest; and,
• Whereas, these states each adopted the Southern Dairy Compact because the Compact strikes the appropriate balance among all the interests involved in the regional dairy marketplace, including those of consumers, processors, retailers and farmers alike; and,
• Whereas, the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact has operated successfully as a pilot project in the six New England states since 1996, stabilizing that region’s dairy industry in the manner anticipated for the south under the Southern Dairy Compact; and,
• Whereas, southern dairy farmers are experiencing particularly dislocating farm price swings and depressed overall pay prices which are expected to continue throughout 2000 and which will certainly result in an even greater loss of the region’s milk supply without response under the Southern Dairy Compact; now, therefore, be it
• Resolved, That the Southern Governors’ Association formally petitions Congress to approve the Southern Dairy Compact.