If you thought only Donald Trump could say the most ridiculous things that leave you wondering what in the hell he was thinking–provided any thinking at all took place–then you’ll be glad to know that Mike Huckabee has now upped the ante in the GOP race for the White House.

At last night’s Republican debate, Huckabee suggested it would be a good idea to treat taxpayers in what he called a “common sense” manner. His solution: Use the same techniques that are employed to “train dogs.”

Huckabee started with this bit of drivel:

“If you work really hard and you start moving up the economic ladder, you get bumped into a different tax bracket so the government thinks it deserves more of your hard work than you do. It’s time for something big.”

The former Arkansas governor claimed that all Americans would be better off with his flat tax of 10 percent, which he has dubbed his “Fair Tax” plan:

“It’s built on the common sense with which we raised our kids and train dogs. You reward behavior you want more of. And you punish behavior you want less of. That’s how I raise kids, it’s how I trained our dogs. And folks, it’s not that difficult.”

I suppose that would explain why Huckabee has been such a failure as a Presidential candidate each and every time he’s run: He doesn’t see voters as human beings, he sees them as animals.

And there’s a huge flaw in Huckabee’s flat tax proposal, too: the Tax Policy Center has said that Huckabee’s plan would actually punish the poorest Americans, which is in keeping with the GOP way of doing business. The Tax Policy Centernoted:

“The problem is that very high-income households spend only a fraction of their income, while low- and middle-income people spend all or most of what they make. A sales tax, by design, exempts a large share of income at the top. If it includes a prebate to protect people at the bottom and doesn’t add to the deficit, then it must raise taxes on people in the middle.”

Watch Huckabee Talk About Treating People Like Dogs

This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.