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Romney Campaign Press Release - In Case You Missed It: Comparing Pro-Growth Records

September 07, 2007

"Rudy's Taxing Problem – If You Tax Like A Dem?"

By Cesar Conda

National Review Online

September 7, 2007

"Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani was recently in New Hampshire touting the 23 tax cuts he supposedly pushed through as mayor of New York City. He also announced his support for extending the Bush tax cuts and promoted other tax-relief measures he would advocate as president.

"Upon closer inspection, however, Giuliani's record on taxes isn't as conservative as advertised. In fact, a nonpartisan independent organization found that Mayor Giuliani actually opposed significant tax cuts, and would have denied hundreds of millions of dollars in tax relief for New Yorkers had he gotten his way.

"FactCheck.org, which is run by the non-partisan Annenberg School at the University Of Pennsylvania, has pointed out that Mayor Giuliani fought Republican efforts to kill the city's commuter tax, and actually went to court to keep it alive."

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"In another instance, FactCheck.org reported that Giuliani strenuously opposed a personal-income-tax-rate cut amounting to $469 million – but now claims credit for it as one of the 23 taxes he cut."

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"Moreover, [Giuliani's] refusal to sign Americans for Tax Reform's 'Taxpayer Protection Pledge' raises serious doubts among economic conservatives about his commitment to keeping income-tax rates low.

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"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."

- Cesar Conda, formerly assistant for domestic policy under Vice President Cheney (2001-2003), is an advisory board member of The International Economy magazine. He also is a member of the Romney campaign's economic-policy advisory team.


To read the full op-ed, please click here.

Watch Governor Romney Discuss His Tax-Free Savings Plan Today In New Hampshire:

Governor Romney: "With regards to our economy, I think we have to keep our tax burdens down. I want to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. I want to kill the death tax once and for all, and I announced just today and yesterday, a savings plan. You know right now if you want to save your money, there are all sorts of hoops you have to go through and special accounts you have to put your money into and then if you take it out early they're going to give you a tax penalty and so forth.

"I think most of that just doesn't make sense for American families and so for people who are earning $200,000 a year or less, my guess is we have quite a few people in that category, because 95% of Americans earn $200,000 a year or less, so for people – the 95% of Americans – my view is that tax on your interest and your dividends, and your capital gains should have a new tax rate and that tax rate ought to be zero. You ought to be able to save your money for a down payment on a house, for a car, for a boat, for college for your kids – for whatever the heck you want and government shouldn't be telling you that they're going to tax you on your savings. It will also simplify your taxes as well, not to have to be reporting all the interest and all the dividends and all the mutual funds you might have and so forth and that will make life a lot easier for a lot of people in this country."

To watch Governor Romney, please see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ch1HyB38w0

Mitt Romney, Romney Campaign Press Release - In Case You Missed It: Comparing Pro-Growth Records Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/296932

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