In a new opinion piece, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee sounded off on the “political class” as he hammered things like bailing out Wall Street banks at the same time people in Iowa are being “punished” with big taxes and burdensome regulations.
“Critics say I’m a ’populist,’ but the truth is I’m a nationalist,” Mr. Huckabee wrote in a piece for the Des Moines Register. “I put America and its workers first.”
Mr. Huckabee, a potential 2016 GOP presidential contender who won the 2008 Iowa caucuses, goes on to write that Washington’s failure to secure the border has flooded the country with illegal immigrants undercutting American workers and Washington’s attempts to address rising health care and education costs have just made both more expensive.
“Unlike many in the Washington political class, I actually know a thing or two about poverty,” Mr. Huckabee wrote. “I’m a Republican not because I grew up rich. I’m a Republican because I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life poor, waiting for the government to rescue me.”
The allusion to growing up without wealth echoes recent comments from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who said last month at a gathering of National Religious Broadcasters that “unlike some out there, I didn’t inherit fame or fortune from my family.”
For his part, Mr. Walker said the line wasn’t a slight at former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the son and brother of two former U.S. presidents who could be a chief rival of both men in the race for the Republican nomination for president in 2016.
Mr. Huckabee went on to call for abolishing the IRS, securing the border, repealing Obamacare, and championing the country’s “farmers, manufacturers, and energy producers.”
“By giving a hand up rather than a handout, we can help each American earn their maximum wage, put our country on a path to balanced budgets and ensure greater prosperity for all,” Mr. Huckabee wrote.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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