Fox News Turns On Mike Huckabee And Tries To Kill His Presidential Campaign

Fox News has decided that Mike Huckabee should not be the Republican nominee, so Chris Wallace went on the attack against Huckabee’s flat tax plan on Fox News Sunday.

Video:

CHRIS WALLACE: You want to abolish the income tax. You want to abolish the IRS and create a fair tax, which as you say is a national sales tax, but critics say the problem with that is that it’s too regressive. The Tax Policy Center said this, that “the average rate for the lowest income group would exceed 33% while the average rate for the top group would fall to less than 16%.” The argument, Governor, is that the rich, who spend less of their income, are going to end up making out pretty well on this, and the poor, who spend almost all of their income, are going to end up paying the most or at least the highest percentage.

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MIKE HUCKABEE: They have it exactly wrong. In fact, it is the bottom third of the economy who benefit the most from the fair tax, and the people at the top third of the economy benefit the least. Although, everybody benefits some. That tax study is one that has been discredited.

WALLACE: Sir, doesn’t it just stand to reason that if I make five thousand dollars, I am going to spend a larger percentage of my income just for the necessities than if I make a million dollars I’m probably not going to spend as much of a percentage of my income because I’ve got more money.

Wallace followed up by going after Huckabee for his suggestion that if he is elected president he would not follow Supreme Court ruling that he disagreed with.

Huckabee’s fair tax argument was completely backward. Repeated studies have shown that the flat tax would only benefit the rich because investment income would be tax-free. Unless the consumptive tax is around 60%-70% the numbers don’t add up, and the pre-bate that Huckabee and other Republicans are so fond of would be bigger than Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Fox News has two different ways that they treat their candidates. Favored presidential candidates get interviews full of open-ended questions that allow the interviewee to look good. Candidates who Fox has decided should be cut off at the knees get more challenging questions, and key parts of their platform criticized.

Chris Wallace didn’t go after Huckabee on the flat tax because Fox suddenly cares about poor people. Wallace was trying to kneecap Huckabee to raise doubts with voters, especially in Iowa, about Huckabee’s electability. Fox News already has their favored Republican presidential candidates in Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, and Marco Rubio.

A recent study by Bruce Bartlett revealed that Fox News is harming the Republican Party by brainwashing their viewers. Fox News is trying to turn their viewers against the flat tax, which is a way of making sure that the presidential campaigns of Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, and Ben Carson go absolutely nowhere.

In other words, Fox News tried to kill Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign today.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association