EPILOGUE
A Simple Election
In February of 1812, a cataclysmic earthquake struck near New Madrid, Missouri, with such seismic force that it caused the Mississippi River to flow backward for a time. Almost two hundred years later, scientists fear that this fault line poses the most significant threat for another massive earthquake, which could potentially devastate St. Louis and Memphis and cut off land transportation between the eastern and western halves of the United States.
On November 2, 2010, I witnessed another major seismic shift, one that spread throughout the country and changed the course of history. As I watched the results of election day come in, I was struck by how dramatically our country had changed in just a couple of years. No longer enamored with Obama’s promise of “hope and change,” voters turned over 63 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives (as of this writing 6 seats are still unconfirmed) and 7 seats in the U.S. Senate to the GOP. At the state level, a stunning 680 seats changed hands, dwarfing the 1994 election upheaval, which saw 472 seats ceded to Republicans.
Just two years ago, the Republican Party was said to be on its last leg, and pundits were not discussing if it would survive but how long before it would shrivel into a small and irrelevant political body. Not only is this a testament to how resilient the GOP has become, but it’s also a testament to how volatile and fluid the political playing field really is. Right now we have reason to celebrate, but Republicans who were dancing into the night and feeling a new “pep in their step” had best be mindful that as easily as they were swept in they can be swept out.
Take a lesson from the Democrats. Their biggest mistake—as exemplified by the actions of Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid—was to misread the election results of 2008 as a mandate to radically “transform” everything in sight—for better or worse. Americans aren’t that keen on abrupt turns and radical overnight changes, and the Founders wisely designed our system to protect it from the whims of the moment or the many. My bass boat is nimble in the water and can turn on a dime even at high speeds, but an aircraft carrier requires miles of planning to make a 180-degree turn.
The 2010 election was a kick in the rear to the arrogant Congress that passed 2,300-page bills they hadn’t read, spent trillions bailing out bad businesses, and threw taxpayer-funded life preservers to government employees and union workers while the economy sank and pulled small businesses down with it.
I spend a lot of time talking to voters—from all over the country and both sides of the fence—and I’ve found that people actually want much less from their government than politicians think. They want the trash picked up on time, smooth roads and safe streets, good schools, a fire truck to show up promptly when needed, and secure borders to keep bad people from getting in and disturbing our peace. They want veterans to be cared for, sick people, children, and old people to be treated decently, and laws to be enforced. That’s about it. They don’t need a “supernanny” telling them what to wear, what to eat, and how many hours of sleep to get each night. They don’t want to work hard and then get penalized for their productivity so that government can reward the slackers and the failures. Americans simply don’t buy the “everyone gets a trophy” socialist nonsense that has become all too pervasive in our culture of political correctness.
As I write this, just a few days after the election, the focus has already turned to 2012. This is the part of politics that I find most irksome—that we never stop playing the “game” of who’s on top, who’s climbing, and who’s falling. The focus will soon be on money raised and machinery employed—instead of on ideas and policy innovations. The pundits will create their own biased and cynical scenarios, in which they will “create” front-runners by their perceptions based on the size of the war chests that candidates amass. They will begin to handicap the possible candidates based on what kinds of negative narratives are likely to be launched by political opponents or, in many cases, the media. I actually dread the process, having been through it before and contemplating whether to enter it again. There will be days on end of breathless news alerts that will “break” some big headline that a candidate made a C in a college math course or that a photo has surfaced showing a candidate in a ridiculous Halloween costume when he was sixteen.
America will be looking for a thoughtful, mature, seasoned, and tempered leader, but that search will likely be lost in a sea of “gotcha” games while political hacks and media hit men look for the slightest aberration in a candidate’s history. It will be like having an extreme close-up in high definition to examine each freckle, while failing to notice whether the person is even wearing pants.
Let’s hope that both political parties will do some serious growing up beyond the towel-popping pranks of legislative maneuvering and attempt to seriously address why we’re losing jobs, slipping behind in world prestige, and having to be electronically strip-searched to get on an airplane because we haven’t figured out how to rid ourselves of jihadism and terrorism.
As you finish this book (and, I hope, share it with others), I’d encourage you not to get too excited about the “hot” issues and potential candidates that are getting all the attention right now. If you think you know who the personalities and issues that will be that decide the 2012 election, just remember that four years ago, the “experts” assumed that Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton would be the nominees for their parties and the deciding issue would be the war in Iraq. Who would have thought that John McCain and a guy with a strange name like Barack Obama would joust for the White House and that the main issue would be the economy?
Instead, focus on how we can genuinely resolve the ongoing challenges of our generation by applying some simple, commonsense principles to the complex and confusing issues that dominate the headlines. When I originally set out to write this book, I didn’t intend for it to be a campaign book or a slam against the Democrats—and I hope you haven’t read it that way. Although I’ve never hidden my political persuasion, I don’t articulate a certain set of beliefs because I’m a party man, have an ax to grind, or want to be a part of the winning team. Of course, I’m as giddy as a schoolboy at the results of the recent election, but the only way to fix our country is to set aside our differences, stop the attack ads, and fully commit to doing what is best for America and the American people.
It’s just that simple.
Acknowledgments
Despite the title of this book, the task of presenting “a simple government” wasn’t so simple! In addition to attempting to distill many of the major issues America faces down to the simple principles that should be applied to confront them, I had to do thorough research to ensure that the book was accurate and sufficiently supported as well as thought provoking.
Thus, I’m indebted to many people without whose assistance I could not have completed the task on time. Janis Cherry, who served as my senior policy adviser during my presidential campaign, remains a trusted adviser and was very helpful in digging up great information for use in the book.
Pat and Laura Reeder work with me on a daily basis to help prepare the Huckabee Report, my radio commentary, which airs on nearly six hundred radio stations three times a day, five days a week, and were crucial in unearthing great stories and adding their unique touch. De-Wayne Hayes worked for me when I held the offices of lieutenant governor and governor before moving to Phoenix for a corporate writing gig and later enrolling in the advanced graduate study program for writers at Dartmouth. He was also vitally helpful in the latter stages of the project. Charles Flowers assisted in making sure the final manuscript was arranged in the most logical way.
I am forever grateful for the team at Sentinel for their support, encouragement, and sometimes gentle prodding to get the project brought in on time. I’m grateful for the very focused marketing team at Premiere Authors, who coordinated the grueling schedule of the book tour, because while utterly exhausting, the tour gives me the wonderful joy of meeting thousands of the good people who buy and
read the book and allows me to say “thank you” in person.
As always, I am eternally grateful to my wife, Janet, my three adult children, and their spouses for their patience while I was out of touch writing and even more out of touch while on the road signing copies of the book. And, of course, I’m grateful for our three dogs, who missed me almost as much as I missed them but always made me laugh and kept my blood pressure normal.
My heartfelt thanks to them, but most of all to you for taking the time to read this book and, I hope, sharing its message with your friends and family.
Notes
CHAPTER ONE: The Most Important Form of Government Is a Father, a Mother, and Children
9 “American innovation”: Barack Obama, “Remarks at West Point Graduation,” West Point, New York (May 22, 2010).
9 “The family has always been the cornerstone”: Ronald Reagan, “Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation,” National Review, spring 1983.
10 the Bolsheviks hated the institution: a woman resident in Russia, “The Russian Effort to Abolish Marriage,” Atlantic Monthly, July 1926.
12 sent home for wearing an American flag T-shirt: Joshua Rhett Miller, “California Students Sent Home for Wearing U.S. Flags on Cinco de Mayo,” www.FOXNews.com, May 6, 2010.
13 results of a CASA report: “The Importance of Family Dinners V,” National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, September 2009.
15 “The disappearance of marriage”: Robert Rector, “Understanding Illegitimacy,” National Review, April 12, 2010.
15 one in three American kids: “The Father Factor,” National Fatherhood Initiative (available at www.fatherhood.org).
15 These kids are five times: http://www.fatherhood.org/Page.aspx?pid=403.
15 “[L]iberal politicians . . . have a vested”: Robert Rector, “Understanding Illegitimacy,” National Review, April 12, 2010.
16 He is clearly dismayed to report: Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action,” Office of Policy Planning and Research, United States Department of Labor, March 1965.
17 As compiled by the Guttmacher Institute: “Data Center,” Guttmacher Institute (available at www.guttmacher.org/datacenter/index.jsp).
18 “Grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure”: William Congreve, The Old Bachelor, 1693.
21 Winston Churchill: http://thinkexist.com/quotation/there_is_no_doubt_that_it_is_around_the_family/161333.html.
22 “Their grief, after nearly a year and a half”: Bob Herbert, “Bloody Urban Landscapes,” New York Times, May 7, 2010.
CHAPTER TWO: The Further You Drift from Shore, the More Likely You Are to Be Lost at Sea
29 “The powers delegated”: James Madison, “Number 45,” The Federalist Papers , 1787–88.
29 “All of us need to be reminded”: Ronald Reagan, “Inaugural Address” (Washington, DC, January 20, 1981).
30 “Our citizens feel they’ve lost control”: Ronald Reagan, “State of the Union Address” (Washington, DC, January 26, 1982).
30 “Joint state-federal spending”: Sven R. Larson, “Federal Funds and State Fiscal Independence,” Heritage Foundation, May 15, 2008.
32 “It is one of the happy”: Louis Brandeis, dissent, New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann , 285 U.S. 262 (1932).
34 “More than five years ago”: Lawrence Wasden, “Federalism and America’s Financial Crisis,” American Thinker, April 3, 2009 (available at www.americanthinker.com/2009/04/federalism_and_americas_finac.html).
37 “spent more time fighting”: Bill Nungesser, quoted by Jim Efstathiou Jr., “Gulf Cleanup of BP Oil Foiled by Leadership Confusion,” Bloomberg BusinessWeek , June 10, 2010.
CHAPTER THREE: You Can’t Spend What You Don’t Have; You Can’t Borrow What You Can’t Pay Back
41 the Web site PageTutor.com: “What Does One TRILLION Dollars Look Like?” PageTutor.com (available at www.pagetutor.comtrillion/index.html).
45 “As we peer into society’s future”: Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Farewell Address to the Nation,” the White House, Washington, DC (January 17, 1961).
46 “The consequences arising”: John Adams, “State of the Union Address,” Philadelphia (November 11, 1797).
47 “The Obama 10-year budget”: Michael Boskin, “When Deficits Become Dangerous,” Wall Street Journal, February 11, 2010.
50 according to an estimate by: “The Long-Term Budget Outlook,” Congressional Budget Office, June 2010.
55 all of the approximately forty million: Robert W. Fiarlie, “The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, 1996–2009,” May 2010, Kaufman Foundation of Entrepreneurship, http://www.kauffman.org/uploadedfiles/kiea_2010_report.pdf.
CHAPTER FOUR: If You Drain the Lake, All the Fish Will Die
63 small businesses will have a 1,250 percent: “New Law Increases Paperwork for Self-Employed Over a Thousand Percent,” National Association for the Self-Employed, May 25, 2010.
63 “Changes in marginal income tax rates”: Veronique de Rugy, “1920s Income Tax Cuts Sparked Economic Growth and Raised Federal Revenues,” CATO Institute, March 4, 2003 (available at www.cato.org).
64 Art Laffer, an economic adviser: Arthur Laffer, “Tax Hikes and the 2011 Economic Collapse,” Wall Street Journal, June 6, 2010.
64 Scott Davis, the CEO of UPS: Scott Davis, “Capital Gains Taxes and the Recovery,” Wall Street Journal, June 4, 2010.
66 Nicole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute notes: Nicole Gelinas, “How ‘Soaking the Rich’ Clobbers You,” New York Post, April 14, 2010.
67 “Reducing or eliminating the corporate tax”: Michael J. Boskin, “Time to Junk the Corporate Tax,” Wall Street Journal, May 6, 2010.
67 The U.S. statutory corporate tax rate: Duanjie Chen and Jack Mintz, “U.S. Effective Corporate Tax Rate on New Investments: Highest in the OECD,” CATO Institute Tax & Budget Bulletin, May 2010.
69 “most harmful for growth”: Asa Johansson, Christopher Heady, Jens Arnold, Bert Brys, and Laura Vartia, “Tax and Economic Growth,” OECD Economics Department Working Papers, July 11, 2008.
70 cost $230 billion in 2009: “Monthly Budget Review, Fiscal Year 2009,” Congressional Budget Office, November 6, 2009.
70 the areas that suffered the least: Richard Florida, “Homeownership Is Overrated,” Wall Street Journal, June 7, 2010.
71 It’s estimated that his estate: Peter Whoriskey, “Steinbrenner Heirs Could Save Millions from the One-Year Gap in Estate Tax,” Washington Post, July 14, 2010.
72 eliminating the estate tax would create: William Beach, “Now Is the Time to Permanently Repeal Federal Death Taxes,” Heritage Foundation, June 16, 2003 (available at www.heritage.org).
CHAPTER FIVE: Once Humpty Dumpty Falls, It’s Hard to Put Him Back Together
75 I know all too well about the dangers: Mike Huckabee, Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork (New York: Center Street, 2005).
76 almost 30 percent of our health-care costs: Larry R. Gettman, “Economic Benefits of Physical Activity,” President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Research Digest, September 1996.
77 “By our calculation, if the nation”: Steven A. Burd, “How Safeway Is Cutting Health-Care Costs,” Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2009.
77 Boeing has reduced: http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2010/04/26/story4.html.
78 Obesity rates: National Governor Association Best Practices Center; http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE56Q36020090727.
78 Obesity-related health-care costs: National Governor Association Best Practices Center; http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE56Q36020090727.
78 on-the-job injuries were seven times higher: “Obesity Increases Workers’ Compensation Costs,” Duke Medicine News and Communications, April 23, 2007 (available at www.DukeHealth.org).
78 In addition to diabetes: “‘Beer Belly’ Linked to Alzheimer’s Disease,” BBC News, May 20, 2010 (available at www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8693947.stm).
78 Obesity is e
specially dangerous: “Growing Obesity Increases Perils of Childbearing,” New York Times, June 5, 2010; Anemona Hartocollis “Mothers’ Obesity Tied to Newborn Heart Defects,” Reuters, April 28, 2010.
79 higher rates of Cesarean births: New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/health/06obese.html.
79 The babies of obese mothers: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63R4NH20100428.
79 an obese woman who had a stroke: Anemona Hartocollis, “Growing Obesity Increases Perils of Childbearing,” New York Times, June 5, 2010.
80 Since 1980: National Governor Association Best Practices Center, http://healthyamericans.org/reports/obesity2009/.
80 over 40 percent of parents with obese children: “Parental Concerns About Childhood Obesity: Time for a Reality Check?” C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health, December 10, 2007.
80 Oregon has the lowest percentage of obese children: Anne Harding, “Mississippi Has Most Obese Kids; Oregon Has the Least,” Reuters, May 3, 2010.
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