Thread: Huckabee opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants, defends wor

http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/200 ... 34747.html

Huckabee opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants, defends worker insurance program on radio show
Thursday, Mar 9, 2006

Sent March 8, 2006
rmjj
By Rob Moritz

Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK - Gov. Mike Huckabee on Wednesday questioned pending federal legislation that would grant amnesty to illegal immigrants and fended off criticism that a new state worker insurance program is socialist.

Huckabee, a possible presidential candidate in 2008, also hedged on when he'll make a decision on whether to make a run for the White House during his monthly statewide radio call-in show.

Huckabee has been sympathetic to the plight of undocumented immigrants in Arkansas, supporting unsuccessful legislation last year that would have granted their children college scholarships and condemning a federal raid on an Arkadelphia poultry plant last year that left children stranded when the government deported their families.

But the governor questioned legislation before the U.S. Senate that would allow most illegal immigrants now in the United States to remain in the U.S. indefinitely as long as they stay employed.

"I really have a problem with just some outright amnesty. It's sending the wrong signal," Huckabee said.

The proposal by Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter would give undocumented workers in the United States for more than two years a work visa once they pass a background check. The visas would be renewable every two years indefinitely.

The workers also would receive labor protections, including the legal right to receive a minimum wage, and they would be eligible to switch jobs, travel home and bring their families to the United States.

"A blanket amnesty is really not, I think, the manner in which to handle the influx of immigration, and part of the problem with that you really don't know who is here, why they're here and what their purpose is," Huckabee said.

"Clearly our laws are antiquated - they don't reflect reality anymore," the governor said, suggesting that some kind of alien worker permit process would be more appropriate.

"They need to tell us who they are, where they are and why they're here, and if they are healthy," Huckabee said. "We need to know that for our own security purposes. We need to know that from a standpoint of public health, and know it from a standpoint of making sure that when people do come, that they are taking jobs because we have no one else to fill them."

Carlos Cervantes of Little Rock, state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said he was surprised by the governor's comments but that he understood them and knows that Huckabee means well.

"The governoer's heart is in the right place and he doesn't want what happened last year to happen again," Cervantes said, referring to last year's Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in Arkadelphia.

"There needs to be something corrected, but everything has to be brought to the table for discussion," he said. "The governor is looking for some middle ground that makes everybody happy."

The immigration question was among a wide range of topics that the governor addressed Wednesday in response to callers to his hour-long radio show broadcast live statewide on the Arkansas Radio Network.

A day earlier, the governor announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had approved a Medicaid waiver for the Arkansas Safety Net Benefits Program, a pilot project that eventually could provide basic health insurance for up to 80,000 low-income workers through employers with 50 or fewer employees.

Employers and the state and local governments would share the cost of the program. The state's share, about $18 million over five years, would come from proceeds from the state's $1.6 billion tobacco settlement.

A caller to Huckabee's show Wednesday criticized the health insurance program.

"Where in the Arkansas Constitution does it say that it's the governor's role to be behind something like this?" a woman from Cabot asked. "And ... can you explain to private industry how this isn't a compulsory, socialist program?"

The governor said the program was not mandatory and would help thousands of Arkansas workers keep their jobs.

"The fact is, there are many, many Arkansas workers who are one broken arm away from not being able to pay their rent next month," Huckabee said. "They are literally a case of the flu away from not being able to make ... next month's truck payment. And without that truck, they don't get to work.

"It's not a matter of some socialist program, it's a matter of helping working people keep working."

The program's basic benefit package includes six physician visits a year and two prescriptions a month. Enrollees will be required to pay a $15 monthly premium and 15 percent co-payments, with a maximum out-of-pocket cost of $1,000 per year.

Huckabee, who has gained national notoriety as a healthy living advocate since shedding 110 pounds and heightened his national posture as chairman of the National Governors Association, is flirting with a run for president.

He said Wednesday he has no plans to make a final decision until next year but is praying about the matter and talking with friends, and even critics, to get their opinions and thoughts on what he should do.

Originally Posted by Brian503a

http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2006/03/09/News/334747.html

Huckabee opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants, defends worker insurance program on radio show
Thursday, Mar 9, 2006

Sent March 8, 2006
rmjj
By Rob Moritz

Arkansas News Bureau





"Clearly our laws are antiquated - they don't reflect reality anymore," the governor said, suggesting that some kind of alien worker permit process would be more appropriate.

I really have a problem with this right here. America has been able, to in the past, to allow large groups of Immigrants to enter this country in an orderly fashion. I feel we need to start enforcing laws not making laws. Sure there are a few things that need to be updated but to not handle this as an invasion of the USA and bring it to a halt, I will not support any thing less.

I love how all these open borders puppets for the NWO think they are all presidunce material.

http://www.commercialappeal.com

Huckabee jogging from obscurity into the self-help heart of America
By Oliver Staley
Contact
March 9, 2006
LITTLE ROCK -- Throughout Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's office at the state capital building are pictures of him running and finishing marathons.
Few people look their best after 26.2 miles of running, but Huckabee's display of his triumphs reflects the stubborn pride of a new convert to fitness.

After decades as a self-described "foodaholic" who once tipped the scales at close to 300 pounds, Huckabee, 50, has made fitness a personal passion, a public policy directive and -- if you listen to the pundits -- the basis for a presidential bid.
Huckabee, who is finishing out his second term and prevented by term limits from running again, will be one of several potential White House candidates to appear this week at the


Southern Republican Leadership Conference at The Peabody.

The three-day conference, which opens Friday, will be attended by about 1,800 party stalwarts from 26 states. It includes a straw poll for presidential hopefuls that is considered an early but critical measure of a candidate's viability.

And Huckabee, with his low national profile, is among those who can make the biggest leap with a strong performance in Memphis. He is scheduled to address the delegates Saturday morning. The straw poll will be conducted Saturday.

"If you talk to the Republican national intelligentsia, they're all intrigued by Huckabee," said Chuck Todd, editor-in-chief of The Hotline, an online political journal.

While nominal front-runners like Sens. Bill Frist of Tennessee and John McCain of Arizona are burdened with high expectations, "to me, a guy like Huckabee has a lot to gain and nothing to lose," Todd said.

John Ryder, organizer of the conference, said he expects Huckabee to impress, particularly when the votes he receives for second place are considered.

"He will surprise some people," Ryder said. "He will make inroads among attendees not from Arkansas. The first choice will be for the home state guy. The second choice is someone that they think has potential."

For the record, Huckabee hasn't made his intentions official and he said he's not sure he wants to expose himself and his family to the "brutal" rigors of a presidential campaign.

But with his frequent trips to key primary states like Iowa (six visits so far), South Carolina and New Hampshire, and a glowing profile in the Washington Post, Huckabee gives every appearance that he's aiming at 2008.

And while he may still be considered a long shot -- just as fellow Hope, Ark., native Bill Clinton was when he launched a presidential campaign from Little Rock -- his compelling personal story separates him from the pack.

In losing 120 pounds, and writing a well-received book about how others can do the same, Huckabee has lifted himself from small-state obscurity and into the self-help section of American life. As Oprah and Dr. Phil can testify, that's where a lot of Americans spend their time.

Huckabee discovered fitness after being diagnosed with diabetes but his interest in it goes far beyond his own waistline.

He created Healthy Arkansas, an effort to create a statewide culture of good health by, among other things, banning junk food in schools, encouraging restaurants to offer healthy choices and giving Medicaid recipients incentives to quit smoking.

All this in a state where 61 percent of the citizens are overweight.

"America is a lot like an NFL football game," he said at a recent awards ceremony for healthy restaurants. "There are 22 people on the field desperately needing rest and 70,000 in in the stands desperately needing exercise."

Calling health care an economic issue, Huckabee has one more grand ambition before he leaves office: a statewide ban on smoking in workplaces, including restaurants and bars.

He agrees that such bans are an easier fit in states like California, "but I really believe we will get it passed."

The key is to cast it as a workers' rights issue, he said.

"People have a right to do things I think are stupid (but) I'm not restricting your right to smoke," he said. "I'm restricting your right to blow it on me."

While health is Huckabee's passion, he acknowledges that a weight loss plan isn't in itself a platform for national office.

"That's an issue that gets a lot of attention, it's the cover of the book, but it's not its content," he said.

So Huckabee, engaging and charismatic in person and on the stump, talks about his $1 billion road-building program, his educational initiatives -- Arkansas is one of the few states that mandates music and arts in the schools -- and shoring up the state's finances.

He's also proud to challenge conventional thinking about typical Republican behavior by extending a warm welcome to the many migrant workers who have come to Arkansas in recent years.

Huckabee said he supports President's Bush plan to create a guest worker status for illegal aliens and is dismayed by the hostility he sees aimed at Mexicans, who he said are doing nothing more than trying to make a better life for their families.

He also supports a hike in the minimum wage, saying it's "pretty obvious" that people can't live on $5.15 an hour.

Huckabee tries to stress the "compassionate" in compassionate conservative and it befits his training as a Baptist preacher.

But to his most persistent critic, his background in the ministry -- with its tradition of deference and veneration for leaders -- may be the source of his greatest failings.

"He has a great sense of entitlement, which many people thinks come from his culture of being a preacher," said Max Brantley, editor of the Arkansas Times, an alternative weekly. "If Bill Clinton had a weakness, it was a love of women. If Mike Huckabee had a weakness, it's a love of material things. He's a graspy guy."

While Huckabee dismisses Brantley as a crank with a personal grudge, the governor does seem to have money on his mind. On a recent televised call-in shows, Huckabee defended keeping the income he received from his book, "Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork," and said he looked forward to earning speaking fees after he leaves office.

"I hope it's a handsome (fee)," he said. "It would make up for all these years of being the lowest- paid governor."

Huckabee will earn $80,848 this year.

Huckabee has also had repeated tangles with the state ethics commission over accepting gifts.

He was been fined for accepting a $500 canoe and got a letter of warning for accepting a stadium blanket. He also drew two fines for not reporting a $43,150 payment on his financial disclosure form in 1994.

He's in a feud with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the state's largest newspaper, over reports about his use of state aircraft. The newspaper, which Huckabee refuses to talk to, reported that he has used state planes and helicopters more than 700 times as governor, costing the state $485,062.

Huckabee said his use of the plane is well within the law and his trips are for official business, many of them dealing with his position as chairman of the National Governor's Association.

He speculated that the scrutiny he's receiving is a result of his White House ambitions and a sense among the Little Rock press corps that they didn't scrutinize Clinton closely enough when he was governor, only to be burned when the Whitewater scandal broke.

Despite their squabbles, even his critics give him credit for the state's progress in education, healthcare and race relations. Brantley said Huckabee can defy expectations and has embraced a progressive role of government in the lives of the less fortunate.

"I think at his core he's a socially conservative populist," Brantley said. "He has been a defender of public schools. He sent his kids to public school. He can be fairly characterized as a not a cookie-cutter sort of candidate."

Not a cookie-cutter sort of man, either. He claims he's never drank a beer, but he still plays bass in his rock band "Capital Offense." He's a law-and-order Republican who poses for pictures with noted tax scofflaw Willie Nelson.

"One of the things I've always tried to be is unpredictable," he said with a smile.

-- Oliver Staley: 529-6515