Fred talks taxes; criticizes FOX
Posted: Sunday, November 25, 2007 3:41 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ’s Adam Aigner-Treworgy
THOMPSON WEEKEND CAMPAIGN NOTEBOOKWASHINGTON DC --
Thompson’s appearance on Fox News Sunday this morning was billed by his campaign as an opportunity to rollout a new tax reform proposal, but after talking about taxes for less than three minutes, Thompson shifted the conversation towards the tax benefits of his Social Security plan. Host Chris Wallace then took that as a cue to discuss various criticisms of Thompson’s campaign made by his rivals and Fox’s own conservative pundits.
In discussing his tax reform proposal, Thompson laid out seven points: (1) making the Bush tax cuts permanent; (2) permanently repealing the death tax; (3) “eventually” repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax; (4) reducing the corporate tax rate to 27%; (5) permanently extending expense allowances for small businesses; (6) updating depreciation schedules to account for rapid improvements in technology; and (7) expanding taxpayer choices to include a simplified “flat tax code” that individuals could opt into.
The first four parts of Thompson’s proposal are pretty much in line with what many of his opponents are saying, but the last proposal is the most interesting of the seven, as it makes Thompson the only candidate to embrace a flat tax.
Huckabee has aligned with “FAIR tax.”
Under Thompson’s proposal, the simplified "flat tax” would be optional, and according to the campaign’s release it “would contain two tax rates: 10% for joint filers on income of up to $100,000 ($50,000 for singles) and 25% on income above these amounts. The standard deduction would be more than doubled to $25,000 for joint filers and $12,500 for singles. The personal exemption amount would be increased to $3,500.”
Wallace asked Thompson to name three specific areas where he would cut government spending to offset what Fox News determined would be a $2.5 trillion cut in government revenue over the next 10 years under his proposal, or roughly 10% of the government’s budget per year. Thompson replied that government savings under his Social Security proposal would offset some of this decrease in revenue, but he also implied that Fox’s math might be inaccurate.
Although the discussion of Thompson’s rivals lasted for the majority of the interview and focused both on Huckabee and
Giuliani, the Thompson campaign seemed much more concerned about the lack of light shed on Huckabee’s record. Following up on a statement Thompson made while on a trip through Iowa early last week -- where he said Iowa voters “don’t know [Huckabee] as well as they know some of the rest of us, but that’s a situation that will be cured shortly,” -- within two hours of Thompson’s television appearance this morning his campaign’s spokeswoman Karen Hanretty fired off three emails trying to help with the cure.
The first addressed Huckabee’s record on abortion, quoting a Washington Times article from 1995 and an interview the governor did with the blog Right Wing News in 2006 to show that he has supported the state’s rights approach to abortion reform in the past. The campaign’s second e-mail argued that Huckabee’s record is weak on illegal immigration, and the third quoted FactCheck.org, arguing that Huckabee has been “misleading” on his tax record.
At the end of his interview, Thompson got a little upset when he was asked to respond to the thoughts of two Fox News commentators who said that he has been running a failing campaign. He said that he had seen the teasers on Fox earlier in the week promoting his appearance this morning and he thought they represented “a constant mantra of Fox” that focuses on his campaign’s struggles.
Thompson then added that by showing two Fox News commentators who have been criticizing him for months, Wallace wasn’t providing a fair interpretation of his campaign: “It, you know, kind of skews things a little bit.”
