CNSNews.com recently asked all the Republican presidential candidates the following question: “Will you pledge as president to oppose all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and businesses?”
Of the top-tier candidates, only Mitt Romney answered with an emphatic “Yes.” He added that he would make the Bush tax cuts permanent, would kill the death tax and cut taxes even more, including corporate tax rates.
Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson and John McCain chose not to respond to the question at all.
Coincidentally, only Romney has signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge promoted by Americans for Tax Reform. The others are hemming and hawing and throwing up one excuse after another for not signing it.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t trust some of the people who HAVE signed the Pledge not to raise my taxes, so I sure as heck won’t trust anyone who hasn’t.
If stopping tax hikes is your top issue, right now Mitt Romney is your only choice among the so-called top-tier candidates. I don’t expect Rudy, Fred and John to sign the Pledge in blood, but I do expect them to sign it. Signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge should be a litmus test for any fiscal conservative.
Posted on October 17th, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National
Here’s what Club For Growth (Club For Greed if you support Governor Huckabee) says about Governor Romney’s record on taxes:
“Governor Romney’s history on tax policy is scattered with inconsistencies. As a candidate for governor, Romney refused to sign an anti-tax pledge distributed by the local Citizens for Limited Taxation. In 2003, the Governor refused to endorse the Bush tax cuts, earning the praise of Massachusetts liberal congressman Barney Frank, and was even open to a federal gas tax hike. His strident opposition to the flat tax is most curious and difficult to explain since Romney wasn’t a political candidate at the time. In
1996, he ran a series of newspaper ads in Boston, New Hampshire, and Iowa denouncing the 17% flat tax proposed by then presidential candidate Steve Forbes as a ‘tax cut for fat cats.’ Even today, Romney continues to oppose the flat tax with harsh language, calling the tax ‘unfair.’”
But now presidential candidate Romney has signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, wants to make the Bush tax cuts, and will oppose all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and businesses.
Presidential candidate Romney’s positions on social issues are much different than Governor Romney’s positions on those issues were. It appears to be the same situation regarding taxation. If he’s elected, how do we know which Romney will show up in the White House on January 20, 2009?