Rudy Giuliani: Supply-Sider-in-Chief

Human Events ^ | Feb. 9, 2007 | Deroy Murdock

[FairOpinion]

Republican primary voters should rally around the GOP field's most accomplished supply-sider, the all-but-announced Rudolph W. Giuliani. Having sliced taxes and slashed Gotham's government, New York's former mayor is the leading fiscal conservative among 2008's GOP presidential contenders.

Before Giuliani's January 1, 1994 inauguration, New York's economy was on a stretcher. Amid soaring unemployment, 235 jobs vanished daily. Financier Felix Rohatyn complained: "Virtually all human activities are taxed to the hilt." Punitive taxes helped fuel a $2.3 billion deficit.

Mayor-elect Giuliani sounded Reaganesque when he announced he would "reduce the size and cost of city government" to balance the budget. In his first State of the City address, he said: "We're going to cut taxes to attract jobs so our people can work."

Giuliani spent eight years keeping these promises.

"America's Mayor" cut or killed 23 levies, saving taxpayers $9.8 billion. Giuliani pared Gotham's top income-tax rate by 20.6%. Washington, D.C.'s CFO reported that between 1993 and 2001, local taxes on a family of four New Yorkers earning $50,000 fell 23.7%.

Giuliani cut the commercial-rent tax, curbed sales taxes, and curtailed the marriage penalty on taxpaying couples. Giuliani proudly shaved Gotham's hotel tax from 6% to 5 in 1994. Consequently, that tax's revenues soared from $135 million in Fiscal Year 1995 to $239 million in FY 2001.

Giuliani defends his supply-side instincts with bracing candor. Asked after September 11 if he would hike taxes, Giuliani called that "a dumb, stupid, idiotic, and moronic thing to do."

Giuliani's expenditure growth averaged 2.9% annually, while local inflation between January 1994 and December 2001 averaged 3.6%. His FY 1995 budget decreased outlays by 1.6%, while his post-9/11 FY 2002 plan lowered appropriations by 2.6%.

If President Bush had followed Giuliani's example and limited Washington's spending to 2.9% average, annual growth, the just-unveiled FY 2008 federal budget would cost $2.275 trillion, not $2.9 trillion, saving taxpayers $625 billion, the Cato Institute's Stephen Slivinski estimates. Such Giulianian fiscal discipline would generate a $386 billion surplus, not an anticipated $239 billion deficit.

Giuliani repeatedly privatized municipal assets. Giuliani sold WNYC radio for $20 million, WNYC-TV for $207 million, and Gotham’s share of the U.N. Plaza Hotel for $85 million. Divesting the New York Coliseum excised an eyesore from Columbus Circle and added $345 million to city coffers. Giuliani also let the private Central Park Conservancy manage Manhattan's fabled urban forest.

These eight years of tax reduction and fiscal responsibility helped hammer unemployment from 10.4 percent in 1993 to 5.7 percent in 2001. Simultaneously, personal income advanced 53 percent.

It's hard to compare a two-term ex-mayor, a one-term governor, and a four-term U.S. senator. Nevertheless, Cato's 2006 gubernatorial report card gives former Massachusetts chief executive Mitt Romney a "C." While the top personal tax rate fell 6 percent on his watch, thanks to a referendum voters approved before he arrived, Romney's first budget raised $140 million by closing corporate-tax loopholes. It also featured some $501.5 million in increased fees, including higher marriage licenses (from $4 to $50), pricier gun permits ($25 to $100), a $100 biannual fee for volunteer firefighters (rescinded under pressure), and a $10, previously free, ID card that lets the blind ride Boston public-transit gratis.

Few in Congress expose outrageous federal boondoggles as fervently as does John McCain. However, he is an ambivalent tax fighter. According to Club for Growth research, McCain opposed President Clinton's 1993 tax increases and supported his 1997 capital gains tax cuts. He also voted to extend President Bush's 2003 tax cuts. For 2005, McCain earned a 78% National Taxpayers Union rating -- an "A."

Unfortunately, McCain opposed President Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. McCain voted against repealing the Death Tax in 2002. Also, in 1998, McCain embraced former Sen. Tom Daschle's (D.-S.D.) motion to approve Big Tobacco's Master Settlement Agreement, including a $1.10-per-pack cigarette-tax increase.

"I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues," McCain conceded to Wall Street Journal editorialist Stephen Moore. "I still need to be educated."

Conservatives seeking a proven leader to lasso taxes and rein in runaway spending have a natural choice for President: Rudolph W. Giuliani.

[MichiganConservative]

Are you calling Bush a liberal?

If he won't, I will. Cthulu is a conservative, though. Very soulful guy. Agrees with you on what you care about. Especially your soul.

[EternalVigilance]

The above was a joke.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"No, Bill Simon's worst enemy was Gerry Parsky, who virtually ran Simon's campaign into the ground."

I'd rank Parsky high up there, but Simon is still responsible for his own campaign. He did a marvelous job in the primary, ran a sunny upbeat campaign filled with Reaganesque can-do spirit, then allowed Parsky and pals to jettison the entire primary message, the team, and all the campaign's grassroots foot-soldiers.

I have little respect for chief executives (and chief executive wannabes) who don't accept responsibility for their enterprise's foundering on the shoals of ineptitude. Simon absented himself from the state for a vacation just as Parsky was making his first maneuvers. Bad, bad judgment. Many of us were screaming, but on this just as with the Hindelang problem he didn't want to hear: As an outsider who'd stunned the establishment with an absolute steamroller of electoral support, he needed to quickly move to consolidate his grip on the Party he'd crashed. Instead he went to roast on a beach somewhere. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Fatal tactical error. He returned to the state to find he was now just a hood ornament on Parsky, Inc.

So, I hear what you're saying, but Simon let it happen. Rookie mistake. Reagan would never have let his campaign get away from him like that. That's the difference between a self-made, seasoned union negotiator well-versed in the Machiavellian machinations of Hollywood and a silver-spoon venture capitalist daddy's boy too used to getting what he wants.

I hope someone writes a book about it. "How to Absolutely Pwn the Primary and Then Give Your RINO Enemies the Rope They Need to Hang You (and then Nay-Say Every Subsequent Conservative Who Comes Down the Pike Forevermore, Amen)."

[MichiganConservative]

But I really think he's a liberal. I've been drinking.

[nopardons]

FO certainly is one who can and DOES use his well working brain!

[Redcloak]

We get to choose between sorta liberal, liberal, or liberaler?

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quite sniffing glue.

[nopardons]

A thread containing a news article is NOT SPAM!

OTOH, made up charts, crazy pictures, and the same thing posted many times over to the same thread/many different threads, IS spam and used to be against FR posting rules.

[OMalley]

Hahahah LOL

[Carry_Okie]

I'd rank Parsky high up there, but Simon is still responsible for his own campaign.

Parsky controlled the money. He refused to fund GOTV. He forced Sal Russo into forging Simon's signature on the Log Cabin letter. He specified Wilson/Jones as a campaign consultant, along with Ed Rollins of bogus photo fame.

I have little respect for chief executives (and chief executive wannabes) who don't accept responsibility for their enterprise's foundering on the shoals of ineptitude.

I've never heard Simon complain.

As an outsider who'd stunned the establishment with an absolute steamroller of electoral support, he needed to quickly move to consolidate his grip on the Party he'd crashed. Instead he went to roast on a beach somewhere. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Totally agreed. He had enough of his own cash to keep that steamroller going.

So, I hear what you're saying, but Simon let it happen.

Yup. The mistakes of a neophyte, and too nice a guy.

[nopardons]

Hunter is a TERRIBLE speaker. As awful a debater as Hillary is, she is still better at a primary debate than he is.

Lazio was far better than Hillary, but she and the MSM had him for lunch. Duncan hasn't a chance of winning the GOP primary; let alone the presidency.

[FairOpinion]

"FO certainly is one who can and DOES use his well working brain!"


Thanks, it takes one to know one. :)

[Carry_Okie]

Hunter is a TERRIBLE speaker.

And you make a TERRIBLE pawn.

Grover Norquist should know better.

[NorthEastRepublican]

If Rudy was President it would be no different than today. Rudy is personally a gun control advocate as am I. If you are from the NYC metropolitan area as he and I are, its hard not to be. But his posistion on guns is the same that it should be a state right. States rights! Thats conservative! So unless you lived in a bleeding blue state, your guns won't be affected and if they are, it has nothing to do with the President.

What has President Bush done that has affected gun owners either positively or negatively? Not much because the President in general doesn't really reulate social issues.

[FairOpinion]

Simon is supporting Rudy, did you know that?

[nopardons]

What on earth ARE you talking about?

Dems and GOPers NEVER have debated each other, during the primary season; NEVER! And provide a source that says that Rudy isn't going to Iowa and N.H.!

You appear to know absolutely NOTHING whatsoever about politics, so WHY are you posting?

[FairOpinion]

"In case you didn't notice, this is a conservative website, not a Republican website."


No kidding! Really? And I thought it's Hillary's cheering section, the way people around here keep pushing candidates who will ensure a Hillary victory and a Dem Congress.

But nobody can explain to me how THAT will further the conservative agenda -- all those find judges Hillary will appoint and the Dem Congress will rubberstamp.

[FairOpinion]

"fine judges appointed by Hillary" -- typo.

She will find plenty of socialist activist judges.

[PhiKapMom]

Simon held a fundraiser for Rudy in fact the end of January!

[EternalVigilance]

No kidding! Really? And I thought it's Hillary's cheering section, the way people around here keep pushing candidates who will ensure a Hillary victory and a Dem Congress.

Well, there's the company line from the leftwing of the GOP: to not support the leftist Giuliani is to support the leftist Clinton...even though Rudy admits himself that there is no discernable difference between the two of them on policy.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Rudy is personally a gun control advocate as am I. If you are from the NYC metropolitan area as he and I are, its hard not to be."

Hm, and just a few posts ago my stance on self-defense was being called emotional.

I'd love to know more about your reasoning for supporting victim disarmament. A more nonsensical policy position is hard for me to imagine, nor one more illibertarian. And beyond that, the Constitution isn't something to pick-and-choose from. It's the ultimate law of the land. I'm naturally wary of politicians who treat it like an a la carte menu.

As to Bush, among other things he hired John Ashcroft, who convincingly (and successfully) argued for the individual-right view of the Second Amendment before the Supreme Court. That was a watershed. Bush has been the most pro-self-defense president in memory. There's enormous institutional inertia, of course, and now is not the time to go wobbly with a President who isn't foursquare behind individual gun rights.