The leading GOP candidates for president have been learning quite a bit about the broad and fervent support that for the FairTax.

First Fred Thompson was quizzed.  He failed, but he’s new to this party so we’ll give him a little more time to flesh out his positions. 

Next Mitt Romney was asked about his position on the FairTax.

Mike Huckabee scored well with the crowd at Saturday’s forum while Mitt Romney, one of the leaders in the GOP race, lost ground when he declined to take a position on whether a national sales tax should replace the income tax. (He said he hasn’t had time to study it. But he’s been saying that for months now and the debate over a national sales tax or a national flat tax is a serious division inside his party.) 

As the author pointed out, he can’t beg for more time.  He’s had time and he should just admit that he simply refuses to endorse real tax reform and that he wants to nibble around the edges of the current system.

Now Rudy Giuliani has been outright “jeered” for refusing to support the FairTax.

Several dozen people jeered when Giuliani, in response to a question, said he would not be in favor of what they call the fair tax.

“I have to study it some more,” the former New York City mayor said. “I don’t think a fair tax is realistic change for America. Our economy is dependent upon the way our tax system operates.”

That last sentence is deeply troubling to me.  He is just as much of a statist as Romney. 

Note to all GOP presidential candidates: your prospective voters want real tax reform.  If you continue to refuse to support the FairTax, then we will continue to refuse to support you.  Ron Paul gets an exemption since his tax policies go well beyond the FairTax, which is a compromise plan aimed at placating a broad swath of people - except politicians who stand to lose power under the FairTax.

Here is a summary of who vocally supports the FairTax among the presidential candidates:

Republicans

  • Mike Huckabee
  • Duncan Hunter
  • Tom Tancredo
  • Tommy Thompson

Democrats

  • Mike Gravel

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This entry was posted by Brian on Monday, July 9th, 2007 at 5:20 am and is filed under FairTax. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.