Huckabee Touts Lower Taxes to Rebuild Illinois, Totally Leaves Out the Fact He Raised Taxes 21 Times

Last night Illinois' Republican Gubnatorial candidate brought big name and former 2008 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee to my hometown to stump the campaign trail.  Unfortunately I was unable to attend.  Fortunately, however, many people were and the tapes were rolling.

Huckabee told the crowd that Bill Brady knows how to rebuild the state's broken economy and fix the massive $13 billion deficit with tried and true conservative principles of lower taxes.  Brady reciprocated the honor by distinguishing the former Arkansas governor as a true fiscal conservative which Brady promised to emulate once in power.  “[Huckabee ]knows how to rebuild an economy, how to lower the burden of taxes on families and businesses, [how] to grow private sector jobs and spend state resources [responsibly]," Brady said.

REALLY??

Label me stupid because in reality, as Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee raised taxes 21 different times.  The non-partisan factcheck.org concludes:

The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration found that 90 tax cuts were enacted in legislative sessions from 1997 through 2005, while Huckabee was governor, and those cuts reduced tax revenues by $378 million. But Huckabee fails to mention the 21 tax increases that occurred under his watch and that raised revenues by substantially more. The total net tax increase under Huckabee's tenure was an estimated $505.1 million, says the Department of Finance and Administration's Whitney McLaughlin, adding that the figure has been adjusted for inflation.

So you raised taxes 21 times and created yourself an overall net tax increase during your tenure as governor and you still get to be labeled as a tax slashing fiscal conservative?  This is awesome news because Brady's opponent, incumbent governor Pat Quinn, has announced numerous times his support for a tax increase to help with budget shortfalls.  That makes him a fiscal conservative too cut from the same mold as other fiscal conservatives like Mike Huckabee.  The same mold Bill Brady wants to emulate.

Literally, Republicans are making stuff up.  They get to run around the country calling themselves tax busting, small government conservatives and there is absolutely nothing to point to in their history of governance to ever suggest they do anything remotely close to what they claim is the bedrock principle of their party.  They rewrite history so they can live in pretend-world while their mindless droves yell and cheer their lies.