Giuliani Is All About Small Government…
Steve Forbes goes to the WSJ to pimp for Giuliani’s massive tax cuts — including slashing the corporate rate by 10%, scrapping the estate tax, reducing the income tax to three 10%, 15% and 30% brackets and cutting capital gains from 15% to 10%. While it goes without saying that his plan is fiscal lunacy – where exactly will all this money come from? – Forbes manages to make a series of bogus claims.
He goes on a slight rant about how damn complicated the tax plan is and we’re left to assume that Giuliani will “simplify the tax code.” Giuilian’s plan would, according to Forbes, allow someone to fill out a “FAST” form with the three brackets, or to stay with the current tax code. Forbes tries to pull a fast one over us by trying to say that three brackets = simple, but then in the next sentence, Forbes reassures us that “Prized deductions for mortgage payments, state and local taxes, charitable contributions, and child tax credits will all be preserved on the FAST Form.” So, instead of providing a new tax code that is free of all those deductions, Giuliani would just add another layer of complexity to the tax system and encourage people to even spend more time hunting for deductions between the two systems. Forbes provides an anecdote: “Moreover, taxpayers can choose each year which plan works best for them. For instance, a small business owner might take advantage of the deductions in the current tax code one year, but choose the FAST Form the next.” As someone who professes
The second humdinger in Forbes’ piece is that “Rudy Giuliani knows self-government, not centralized government, makes America great. His proposals demonstrate an opposition to centralized power and a commitment to a growth society.” There are two things Forbes refused to acknowledge in his relentless pimping of Rudy: 1. the plan would eviscerate revenue and 2. Giuliani wants to jack up spending. None of these extreme tax cuts make sense in a world where Giuliani wants to increase the end strength of the military by 10 brigades, buy more submarines, do missile defense and stay in Iraq indefinitely. But, as is so typical among conservatives, military spending doesn’t count as “centralized” or “big” government. Again, this combination of profligate war mongering and tax cuts for the rich
