CALLER: Thanks very much, Rush.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: Dittos from an evangelical who supports conservative Mike Huckabee for president, and I really appreciate you being gracious enough to allow some of us on the air today.
RUSH: Absolutely. Go ahead, sir.
CALLER: Well, my point is that you’ve been talking a lot about identity politics, and I do identify with Mike Huckabee as an evangelical, but it is because of his positions on the issues that cause me to agree with him and identify with him. It is not simply because he is a Christian and an evangelical, but because his positions on the issues flow out of that and affect his political worldview in such a way that he is conservative on the full range of issues, when you look at the three pillars of the Republican Party of special conservatism, national defense, and even economic conservatism, I believe he gets certainly high marks with regard to social conservatism, the national defense.
RUSH: You need to help me out here. Maybe I’m misunderstanding. National defense, national security, Governor Huckabee supports open borders and amnesty.
CALLER: I don’t believe that he does. I don’t believe that’s his position at all. If you look at his plan, it’s a very well informed plan to secure our borders, and that national security is what drives his position on doing that.
RUSH: His position allows for all kinds of taxpayer aid to the children of illegals.
CALLER: Well, that’s a far different thing from saying he’s going to open the borders and is for insecure borders and is for amnesty.
RUSH: Well, when you provide an incentive for people to cross the borders illegally because their kids can get all kinds of education, freebies, and goodies, you’re not really closing the borders. He has supported repeated tax increases in Arkansas.
CALLER: But the tax rate was the same when he left as when he got there, and the thing about it is, I allege wholeheartedly that as a rule he is a conservative on economic issues because he is committed not to raising taxes on the federal level, where spending is totally out of control, whereas on the state level, there is nondiscretionary spending that you’re responsible for that has to be something to be able to pay for that, but I think he did that in a very fiscally responsible way and from a perspective of someone who is an economic conservative.
RUSH: He said to the legislature of Arkansas, ‘Send me any tax increase, send it up here.’ Now, you can say that —
CALLER: You have to look at the reason why. Would be the same reason that Ronald Reagan did the same thing raising taxes in California, because there are certain functions that the government is required to provide, and they are required to have a balanced budget. And so I think that that’s the rationale for someone who —
RUSH: Right, but see, see, true conservatism cuts taxes to raise revenue. And you can talk about Governor Huckabee and his national intentions and what he states he’ll do as president, but you’ve gotta balance that with what he’s actually done. What somebody’s done versus what they say they’re going to do, you gotta weight what they’ve done. But, look, I appreciate your trying to make the case for your guy. I understand you feel the need to, and I’m happy that we gave you the opportunity to do so here on the program. I have to run now because of the constraints of time, but, Will, thanks very much, it’s nice to have you on the program, we’ll be back and continue here in just a second.
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RUSH: Conservatism, ladies and gentlemen, true conservatism balances budgets by cutting government, not by raising taxes. Governor Huckabee is opposed to school choice, and he said we should treat dictators and terrorists with the Golden Rule.
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