Friday, October 5, 2007
Republicans rail against taxes
By Susan Milligan, Boston Globe Staff
WASHINGTON -- Just in case you missed it, Republicans want to be clear: they really hate taxes.
Corporate taxes? Lower 'em, said former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson. Income taxes? They need to be cut so Americans can have more money in their pockets to spend and invest, said former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
And both of those ideas are too tame for former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who wants to get rid of the income tax and replace it with a consumption tax to fund a pared-down federal government.
In serial pitches to Americans for Prosperity, a group focused on cutting federal spending and taxes, GOP presidential candidates today pledged their commitment to lower taxes and slammed Democrats for what several of the GOP contenders claimed would inevitably take more money from American workers.
Giuliani, in a speech that received numerous standing ovations from the boisterous, 1,500-strong crowd, blamed his fellow Republicans in Congress for expanding government, and said it was a main reason Republicans lost control of the House and Senate in last year's elections. Under GOP control, Congress during the Bush administration has voted to expand Medicare to include prescription drug coverage; approved tens of billions of dollars in earmarks, commonly known as "pork;'' and created an entirely new federal agency.
"Unfortunately, our party in the Congress became just like the Democrats as far as spending money concerned. Shame on us. Shame on us,'' Giuliani said. "When I'm nominated, we'll have this party back as a party clearly rooted in fiscal discipline: restraining spending, no more earmarks, low taxes, a growth party.''
But Democrats, Giuliani insisted, would be worse. "Republicans are amateur spenders and Democrats are professionals,'' he said, drawing laughter from the crowd.
Giuliani has come under attack this week by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who has noted that Giuliani opposed the line-item veto and wanted to keep a commuter tax on people who worked in the city but lived elsewhere.
Romney said spending on government programs has created a "culture of dependency'' that leads to increasingly bigger government. In remarks prepared for a speech to the group tonight,
Romney pledged to veto any appropriations bill that totaled more than current spending, plus the inflation rate minus one percentage point.
Huckabee and Texas Representative Ron Paul -- who is in the single digits in polls but has a loyal following of supporters attracted to his libertarian message -- argued against nearly all taxes. Kansas Senator Sam Brownback lifted two heavy volumes he said contained the IRS code, dropping on the lectern with a heavy thud.
"I think it should be taken behind the barn and hit with a dull axe,'' Brownback said.
