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 Richmans' Trade and Taxes Blog

Huckabee campaigning in Iowa: "The last time we fast-tracked something was Obamacare."
Howard Richman, 5/6/2015

Governor Huckabee has been campaigning in Iowa, making Fast Track one of his issues:

After answering a question about how he felt to return to Iowa, Huckabee was asked by NBC News reporter Kasie Hunt whether Congress should approve "fast track" trade authority.

"They should not," he said.

"That puts you to the left of Hillary Clinton," said Hunt.

"You know, I don't care where it puts me on the horizontal scale," said Huckabee. "I think about it on a vertical basis. If we do another trade deal that drives American wages lower, and that isn't monitored, and isn't secured to be completely fair in how it's administered, then that's not free trade. Free trade is about trade going both ways fairly, accurately. Fast track means that nobody's paying attention. The last time that we really fast-tracked something was Obamacare."

Dick Morris wrote today about Huckabee's strategy:

What Huckabee seems determined to do is to explore the fissure in the GOP between the country club and corporation on the one hand and small independent businesses on the other. With the GOP establishment falling all over itself to give President Obama vast new powers over trade deals, it will fall to Huckabee to ask if they are good for U.S. workers.

We could have a candidate in the Republican primaries who will make balanced trade an issue. And he is articulate and an excellent campaigner. Last time he ran he campaigned on a shoe-string and almost defeated Senator McCain. This time he will be much better funded.