http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/264096-huckabee-gop-members-are-bolting-for-the-doorDecember 23, 2015, 10:42 am
Huckabee: People who identify as Republican 'are bolting for the door'
By Mark Hensch
The Republican Party is at risk of losing its members if lawmakers continue to make decisions that ignore their values, former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) said Wednesday.
“I do know that voters are very angry,” the presidential hopeful said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe." "You sense it on the campaign trail. One of the things you see is a seething rage.
“This budget vote last week … it put a lot of people over the top because they just feel like the whole purpose of working hard to get Republican majorities in the House and the Senate was to make some significant policy changes,” Huckabee said, citing last week’s $1.8 trillion government funding bill.
“The Republicans folded,” he added. "That’s why people in the Republican Party are just bolting for the door.”
Huckabee argued that Republican lawmakers did not fight hard enough for conservative priorities in the funding package.
“They were given four aces, and they laid their cards down before they even anted up for the game,” he said.
“It was absolutely outrageous to see a whole litany of things [included], whether it was Planned Parenthood funding, funding for Syrian refugee relocation, [a] 400 percent increase in bringing in foreign workers to replace Americans,” Huckabee continued.
"I mean, all the Republicans got was export of oil," he added, referencing the end of a long-time ban on crude oil exports.
“What does that say about Republicans? That the only thing they care about is exporting oil? They don’t care a hoot about rank-and-file Republicans?”
Huckabee said the funding bill is merely the latest in a long line of spending and tax bills that are stunting economic growth.
“Foreign governments are beating the daylights out of us because they don’t tax capital and labor and they import their products, which makes them inherently less expensive than an American-made product,” he said. "That’s just insane for America to keep on that economic path.”
The former Arkansas governor’s remarks comes as he fights for momentum in the GOP’s crowded 2016 presidential field.
Huckabee recently slashed salaries for senior staff members amid anemic polling numbers and low fundraising hauls.
He presently ranks tenth out of 13 Republican White house hopefuls, with 2.1 percent, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of samplings.
