As I mention earlier Mike Huckabee is pro-life even when it is tough. Catholics realize that being pro-life is more than just the unborn. It is from the womb to the tomb.
In 2004 George Bush got a majority of the Catholic votes largely because he proclaimed that message. Hispanic Evangelicals , a voting bloc that was crucial last time, also share with their Catholic brothers and sisters this outlook in great numbers. Huckabee is a person that hears and understands that view
Governor Huckabee realizes that a part of this pro-life outlook is access to health care. As Governor he has had to deal with this. On 2004 , Huckabee wary of possible Medicaid cuts said
"I certainly understand the need to balance the federal budget," said Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, a Republican and the vice chairman of the governors association. "But people need to remember that to balance the federal budget off the backs of the poorest people in the country is simply unacceptable. You don't pull feeding tubes from people. You don't pull the wheelchair out from under the child with muscular dystrophy."
With our population growing older by the day this attitude is needed in the White House. In the coming decades we will not only have to deal with making sure health care is affordable and available to our parents and grandparents. We shall also have to deal with a "Right to Die" movement that will use the economics of health care to further their anti life agenda.
Republicans are often unfairly portrayed as not caring about the most vunerable in society. Again, Governor Huckabee knows that what happens in Washington has real effects on people's lives. He is a fiscal conservative Republican who wants to keep taxes low -- BUT NOT at the expense of the most vulnerable members of our society! He knows that those two goals are not antagonistic to each other. Sometimes as Huckabee points out the DC crowd is not aware of the effects of their actions . When there was a proposal to cut in half the provider tax as to nursing homes Huckabee stated these thoughts in this newspaper
But some states argue that cutting the tax will lead to worse care for the most vulnerable, not better. In Arkansas, a provider tax established in 2001 helped many nursing homes survive as well as beef up staffing levels and training, said Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican.“What this provided was the revenues to improve the quality of care those patients were getting,” Huckabee said.A report from a national accounting firm, BDO Seidman, predicts Arkansas will lose $66 million a year in federal funding if the provider tax is halved.Huckabee, who is considering a presidential bid, said he questions the sanity of the proposal to halve the tax. He and other governors wrote Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt in June asking the administration to reconsider the proposed change.“It’s just another way in which there seems to be complete tone deafness in Washington to policies that are having a dramatic effect on the lives of the most vulnerable people we’ve got. It just never ceases to amaze me,” Huckabee said.
If one wants to get a good overview of Huckabee and how his ideals are in the Catholic tradition I suggest you read this article that gives a great overview of the man he really is.
Huckabee stated in that article:
I didn't grow up a child of privilege," he told reporters at an informal lunch gathering last spring. "If you've grown up like more Americans have, you have an understanding that there are some people out there that, at the end of the day, are really wondering how they're gonna pay the rent tomorrow, and for them, it's not a big discussion about marginal tax rates and capital gains reduction."
Is Huckabee anti business? NO!!! IS Huckabee a person that does not realize the crushing aspects of taxation and its affect on families? NO!!!!. His record shows that is not the case. However he does realize up close and personal what peoples lives are like. Being a former pastor and then a Governor of a diverse state like Arkansas probally has something to do with that.
Whether it was for common sense and effective health care for children to supporting public schools, to making the case that the protecting the environment is a Christian issue Huckabee has a very Catholic ethic.
Let me quote this entire article that is no longer online but is still available from this Huckabee blogger. This is from last year and is a interview with an Iowa paper. When I look at the Catechism , the scriptures, Holy tradition and the teachings of the Church as to what Catholics should look at in the political square I see them so well echoed here.
“My faith means I can’t ignore the poorest kid in the community. Sometimes maybe that confuses Republicans who are only concerned about how we preserve wealth, but I’ve also got to be concerned about preserving people at the bottom end of this country.
“Faith makes me think about the young mother who is getting battered. You can’t ignore her. Faith makes me think about that elderly couple that’s deciding how they’re going to cut their medicine in half to make it last all month, or the young couple struggling with debt for things they can’t afford.
”Huckabee adds: “I earn the right to push for a strong pro-life agenda only by making sure I’m concerned about poverty, hunger and homelessness. If I don’t care about those issues, then my faith is incomplete.”
Those aren’t exactly the traditional themes GOP candidates use when they work religious conservatives, but Huckabee said “for me, as a true evangelical, it’s grossly inadequate to say faith is just about abortion and gay marriage.”He gets passionate about it. “Do you care about a kid who is hungry? Do you care about a family that lives in a shack without running water and a sewer that runs out the back of their house? If I don’t care about that, I don’t have the right to care about abortion. I’ve not earned the right to talk about the structure of the family.”
Huckabee admits this concern for economic justice causes him trouble with some Republicans. “At times people in my party scratch their heads and say, 'Why are you dealing with inadequate housing?’ I say, 'How can you ignore that? Can you say as long as a kid didn’t get aborted, heck, we don’t care where he lives? Or as long as a kid didn’t get aborted, we don’t care if he gets an education? As long as we didn’t abort the child, we don’t care if he has access to health care?’”“
I want to push those in the Christian community who are involved in politics to realize their faith has to embrace a great deal more than one or two issues. It really has to cover a much broader spectrum. If it doesn’t, then I understand the resentment of the left” toward religious conservatives.
Let me leave you a few words from the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other Sources of Catholic Teaching.
From the Catechism
2237 Political authorities are obliged to respect the fundamental rights of the human person. They will dispense justice humanely by respecting the rights of everyone, especially of families and the disadvantaged.
The political rights attached to citizenship can and should be granted according to the requirements of the common good. They cannot be suspended by public authorities without legitimate and proportionate reasons.
THE FAMILY AND SOCIETY
2207 The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life. Authority, stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society. The family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society.
2208 The family should live in such a way that its members learn to care and take responsibility for the young, the old, the sick, the handicapped, and the poor. There are many families who are at times incapable of providing this help. It devolves then on other persons, other families, and, in a subsidiary way, society to provide for their needs: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world."12
2209 The family must be helped and defended by appropriate social measures. Where families cannot fulfill their responsibilities, other social bodies have the duty of helping them and of supporting the institution of the family. Following the principle of subsidiarity, larger communities should take care not to usurp the family's prerogatives or interfere in its life.
2210 The importance of the family for the life and well-being of society13 entails a particular responsibility for society to support and strengthen marriage and the family. Civil authority should consider it a grave duty "to acknowledge the true nature of marriage and the family, to protect and foster them, to safeguard public morality, and promote domestic prosperity."14
1931 Respect for the human person proceeds by way of respect for the principle that "everyone should look upon his neighbor (without any exception) as 'another self,' above all bearing in mind his life and the means necessary for living it with dignity."37 No legislation could by itself do away with the fears, prejudices, and attitudes of pride and selfishness which obstruct the establishment of truly fraternal societies. Such behavior will cease only through the charity that finds in every man a "neighbor," a brother.
1932 The duty of making oneself a neighbor to others and actively serving them becomes even more urgent when it involves the disadvantaged, in whatever area this may be. "As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."38
2446 St. John Chrysostom vigorously recalls this: "Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs."239 "The demands of justice must be satisfied first of all; that which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity":240
When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice.241
Respect for health
2288 Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God. We must take reasonable care of them, taking into account the needs of others and the common good.
Concern for the health of its citizens requires that society help in the attainment of living-conditions that allow them to grow and reach maturity: food and clothing, housing, health care, basic education, employment, and social assistance.
These are just a few parts of Catholic teaching I see Governor Mike Huckabee echo in his position. I think out of all the people running he is the most consistent pro-life.
He has been able to do this and hold this stand while not embarking on the folly of past Government failures or programs that promote dependency, or not being a wise guardian of the taxpayer dollar. In the end , he has meshed in many ways the conservative republican view and a consistent pro life ,pro family , and Christian ethic.
Will people and Christians and Catholics of good faith disagree with Mike Huckabee on certain things? Sure they will. But this is a voice that is open to our concerns
I ask that Catholics consider giving Mike Huckabee their vote in the up coming Presidential primaries.
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