Sept. 7, 2007
Rudy's Taxing Problem
National Review Online: Giuliani’s Record On Taxes Isn’t As Conservative As Advertised
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Reporters surround Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, center, during a campaign stop at the Wander In Cafe, in Carson, Iowa, Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2007. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Meanwhile, Giuliani’s backers have launched a misinformation campaign about Mitt Romney’s successful fiscal record in Massachusetts. They have suggested that Mr. Romney raised taxes by allowing fees that were already in place to remain once he became governor.
Here are the facts: When Mitt Romney took office, he inherited at $3 billion budget deficit, which he eliminated primarily through spending cuts and without tax increases. In fact, the Romney consistently proposed reducing the state income-tax rate - from 5.3 percent to 5 percent, but was rebuffed by the Democratic-controlled legislature (Romney did convince the legislature to cut several other taxes, including the capital-gains tax). The fee increases accounted for only ten percent of the deficit reduction.
Governor Romney received high marks for his low-tax, budget-balancing fiscal record from Massachusetts Citizens for Limited Taxation. On the issue of the fees, the anti-tax group’s executive director, Barbara Anderson, told the Associated Press: “To us a fee is what a fee is and a tax is what a tax is. [Romney’s] support for the income tax rollback never wavered.” Further, the Club for Growth recently found that Governor Romney “imposed much-needed fiscal discipline on a very liberal Massachusetts legislature.”
As a long-time member of the supply-side cabal, I’m convinced that Governor Romney is the best candidate to extend the Art Laffer-Jack Kemp-Ronald Reagan supply-side revolution into the 21st century. Unlike the other GOP presidential candidates, Mitt Romney learned about free-market capitalism not from textbooks or Washington policy debates, but by practicing it for 25 years as an entrepreneur in the private sector.
Moreover, Governor Romney was the first 2008 presidential candidate to sign the no-tax-rate-increase pledge. In major speeches earlier this year before the Detroit Economic Club and the Club for Growth, Romney came out for extending the Bush tax cuts, permanently killing the death tax, providing relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax, lowering the corporate tax, and reducing marginal tax rates for all Americans.
And the governor has put a bold new pro-growth tax reform on the table: abolishing taxes on capital gains, dividends, and interest for moderate-income taxpayers earning $200,000 or less annually. This innovative approach would not only boost savings, investment, and economic growth, it would further expand the ownership society to America’s broad middle class.
More important, Governor Romney’s rhetoric about pro-growth tax relief actually matches his record.
By Cesar Conda
Reprinted with permission from National Review Online.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
International Brian online: NRO Endorses Anything Branded With The Label Conservative, Even An Illegal Budget-Busting War.
As do most fake neocons, if infanticide were branded as conservative, the neocons would be in favor.
I was going to say child rape instead of infanticide, but recent events suggest that neocons are already in favor of that.
Yes, it is easy for national leaders to shift tax burdens to the states and say "I cut taxes!"
But the interest on our national debt is ticking like a million dollar VISA card at 29.9% interest.
Bush had never had to account for, or pay for, anything in his life. It''s a shame the U.S. budget became his personal toy.
He also plans on charging a fee for the use of any stalls in men''s rooms both public and private.
Rudy feels that the income from these new fees will more than offset any shortfalls in the income tax and might even reduce the national debt!
Naturally, such measures have drawn "stiff" opposition from most members of Congress, especially Republican neocons who stress "family values"!
SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!
Rudy vs Hillary, I''d rather see Rudy get elected. As many countries do not respect women at all, what use will a woman leader be when trying to convince them to stop killing or anything else unsavory? Besides, Hillary answered her own comment about helping the middle class: By helping more temporary H1B people. In short, she had made two statements completely incompatible with one another and thus lost all credibility.
I should find out what Rudy thinks of the issues, but I definitely don''t trust Hillary right now.
Still, the electioneering cycle is young. Time and candidates'' statements will tell.