The Huck and his (godly?) standards

Brother Huck was on CNN a little while ago giving a speech promoting his Fair Tax scam. He said a couple of things I didn't recall hearing before. One was he referred to "boobirds" who opposed his plans. I don't think I've ever encountered that particular construction before.

The other thing he said was that he wanted to amend the Constitution to eliminate the ability of the federal government to impose income taxes. I knew he proposed to eliminate income tax as part of his crackpot Fair Tax scheme. But this business about eliminated the Constitutional Amendment that provides for federal income tax is an old favorite cause for the John Birch Society. The crackpotization of the Republican Party proceeds.

Max Brantley at the Arkansas Blog ("Spotted: an issue 01/27/08) updates us about the Huck's contribution to the overwhelming public demand (NOT) for phasing out Social Security:

The LA Times gives us a welcome break from personality politics with a survey of what candidates are saying about retirement savings - and their utter lack among the American electorate. I still think the most pluperfectly nuts idea offered so far is by, who else, Mike Huckabee. He'd give people a lump sum of their Social Security money to spend or invest rather than lifetime monthly payments. Bass Boats R Us. And a whole new burden for the government when the money is gone. Why in the world you'd want to tamper with the essence of the single most successful government program ever - a program that works because it's universal and which has demonstrably lifted millions out of poverty - is beyond me.

Tags: authoritarianism, john birch society, mike huckabee