A free country must feed, fuel, & fight for itself
Q: Does our country's financial situation creates a security risk?
A: It's most certainly a national security threat because a country can only be free if it can do three things.
It has to be able to feed itself.
It has to be able to put food on the table for its own citizens.
It's got to be able to fuel itself. If it looks to somebody else for its energy needs, it's only as free as those are willing for it to be.
And it also has to be able to fight for itself. It's got to be able to manufacture its own weapons of defense--tanks, airplanes, bullets and bombs.
When we start outsourcing everything and we are in that kind of a trade deficit,
then just remember, who feeds us, who fuels us and who helps us to fight, that's to whom we are enslaved. So if we can't do those three things, our national security is very much at risk.
The fact is, we don't have fair trade. And that's the issue we've got to address. Our real problem continues to be that an American company is having to pay an extraordinarily high tax on everything they produce, but the countries who are exporting to
us don't have the same border adjustability that we do.
And that's why we're losing jobs here, and that's what has to change. This party is going to have to start addressing it, or we're going to get our britches beat next year.
Source: 2007 Republican debate in Dearborn, Michigan
Oct 9, 2007
This country can never yield its sovereignty for any reason
Q: Will you abolish all plans to promote economic integration of the North American Union?
A: I believe with all my heart is that this country can never, ever, ever yield its sovereignty to any other country for any reason, under any circumstance, ever
That's why I would agree that we not only need closed and secure borders, but more importantly, we need a re-understanding that we are a sovereign nation, and we do not yield ourselves over.
Trade sanctions on Saudi Arabia for persecuting Christians
Q: Today, Christians are being beaten, jailed, and expelled throughout the Muslim world. In Saudi Arabia, no church buildings are permitted, yet Saudi extremist Wahhabis have built hundreds of mosques in the US with funding from Saudi Arabia.
If elected, will you take action to protest these gross injustices and persecution by denying visas or imposing trade sanctions?
China trade contingent on human rights & product safety
Q: Sarah Lu was forced to work in labor camps for six years, for the crime of being a Christian house church leader. Thousands of prisoners of conscience are forced to manufacture items that stock our American shelves. Would you make future trade with
China contingent on them measurably improving their record on religious freedom & human rights?
Q: As president, do you support the NAFTA "Superhighway" presently under construction from Mexico to Canada, portions of which shall be under foreign control?
Marketplace pushes innovation to top & prices to bottom
I believe in free trade and allowing the marketplace to push innovative ideas to the top & prices to the bottom. Perhaps the most compelling challenge is ensuring that a free trade correspondingly represents a fair trade.
Three dominant factors in the
American economy make it increasingly difficult for jobs to remain here: excess LITIGATION, excess TAXATION, and excess REGULATION combine to ultimately result in the MIGRATION of American jobs to marketplaces beyond our borders.
Source: From Hope to Higher Ground, by Mike Huckabee, p.161
Jan 4, 2007
Farm subsidies ok because Europe & Asia do same
It has been policy to pay farmers a stipend for their crops to ensure the farmers will receive a guaranteed minimum price. Some conservatives believe that all agricultural subsidies should be discontinued and allow the market to function.
In an ideal world, this would be good practice, but American farmers are competing with subsidized farmers in Europe and Asia, and the fixed costs faced by farmers involving land, equipment, seed, and supplies means that even if they do not sell a single
stalk of corn, they will have significant expenses.
Keeping American farmers in business is also good for the consumer. The theory behind subsidies is that production is maintained at a higher level, driving food costs lower.
This empowers consumers and generates stability in the farming economy so that America remains a producing rather than consuming nation.
Subsidies also help insulate farmers from natural disasters and spikes in the cost of fuel, feed, and fertilizer.
Enforce trade law against subsidized Canadian lumber imports.
Huckabee signed the Southern Governors' Association resolution:
Whereas, the US Department of Commerce has determined that the Canadian provinces subsidize lumber production by selling timber to Canadian lumber companies at non-competitive prices for a fraction of the timber’s market value, and imposed an import duty of 19.3%;
Whereas, artificially low provincial timber prices, minimum harvesting restrictions and other practices encourage over-harvesting and over-production in Canada to the detriment of US industry, forest land owners, workers and the environment;
Whereas, these unfair subsidy practices have helped Canadian imports gain an increasing share of the US softwood lumber market, rising 15% from the first to second quarter of 2001;
Whereas, highly subsidized Canadian lumber imports unfairly compete with US lumber companies and affect thousands of US jobs, and drive down the value of US forest land; Whereas an agreement between the United States and Canada on lumber trade expired in March 2001; now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Southern Governor’s Association urges the Administration to continue to enforce fully the current United States trading laws and to encourage open and competitive sales of timber in Canada.
Source: Resolution of Southern Governor's Assn. on Lumber Subsidies 01-SGA3 on Sep 9, 2001
