Huckabee: Now not the time for Dems to talk tax hikes

2016 GOP candidate says taxes need to be lowered for everyone amid market turmoil

This is a rush transcript from "Your World," August 24, 2015. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

STUART VARNEY, GUEST HOST: When people see turbulence with their investments like this, is this any time for presidential candidates to be talking tax hikes? Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders want to raise taxes for the wealthy, but Governor Mike Huckabee says big mistake, we need to lower them for everyone.

Governor, first of all, are you blaming the Obama administration to some degree for this huge sell-off on the markets and economic problems?

MIKE HUCKABEE, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, you have to, Stuart, because what has happened overall in the marketplace is that it's very fragile, because businesses are afraid to grow.

Obamacare has busted them. Regulations are killing them. The world's market is not stable. We now seem to be more interested in stabilizing Iran than we are America. Americans have lost jobs, five million foreclosures, five million manufacturing jobs lost since the year 2000.

And this president seems to think that if we just put some more regulations, raise taxes, and make it harder for businesses to succeed, then maybe the economy will get better. Well, Stuart, the economy is not in recovery for many Americans who are out there working every day.

VARNEY: OK.

Now, there's well over $2 trillion owned by American corporations. It's their profits, and it's not in America. It's overseas. If we were to get some of that back, it would be a huge shot in the arm for private enterprise in America. How do you get that money back? What your policy?

HUCKABEE: Well, Stuart, one of the reasons that I am a strong proponent of ditching our entire tax system, getting rid of the IRS, having a flat tax, but a tax on our consumption, rather than income, is that one thing you do is, you bring all that capital back.

And, by the way, the numbers are closer probably to $11 trillion, globally $21 trillion. Do you think it would goose the economy to bring several trillion dollars into the U.S. economy for investment?

VARNEY: Yes, sir, but...

HUCKABEE: It would happen if it wasn't being taxed.

VARNEY: Is it ever so slightly unrealistic to just sweep your hand and say, get rid of the IRS, get rid of all those deductions, just have a fair tax? That's a sweeping change.

HUCKABEE: It's a transformational change.

VARNEY: Yes.

HUCKABEE: No, it isn't easy, but then getting ObamaCare passed wasn't easy.

Here's what it requires. It requires a president who not only is committed to the idea of a tax that actually rewards productivity, rather than punishes it. But then it requires a president who can articulate how that translates into people getting their jobs back, making good wages again, being able to rise up through the ranks of the middle class, pay for their kids' college, add a room to the house, buy a boat, go on vacation, live the American dream, which Americans can't do right now because they're being gut-punched by economic policies that punish them for working hard.

VARNEY: How much blame do you attach to the Federal Reserve for this?

HUCKABEE: Well, I think the Federal Reserve is partly to blame, just mainly because they have manipulated the economy with quantitative easing.

They have made sure that the stock market is really the only place to put an investment. Nobody can put it in bonds. Nobody can put it in C.D.s. And it's artificially sugared it up. This is like giving your grandkids a big, big boost of sugar. And, yes, they have a lot of energy for a while, but when that sugar runs out, they're going to crash.

And we're running the economy on the sugar rush of infused capital, which is really nose going to be sustainable, and so I think the Fed has some responsibility for that.

VARNEY: Governor Huckabee, thanks very much for joining us, sir. We appreciate it. Thank you.

HUCKABEE: Thank you, Stu.

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