The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Tag: jon huntsman

What It Now Means To Be A ‘Moderate Republican’

Jon Huntsman, the former Republican governor of Utah and more recently U. S. ambassador to China, has had his true-believer GOP credentials openly questioned by the Conservative Police.

True, Huntsman believes in evolution and accepts the reality of climate change, while supporting civil unions for gay couples. But what made Huntsman suspect was his statement about Barack Obama, who appointed him ambassador: “I respect the president of the United States. He and I have a difference of opinion on how to help a country we both love. But the question each of us wants the voters to answer is who will be the better president, not who who’s the better American.”

Make no mistake about it: The Republican Party of 2012 is significantly more conservative and less moderate than the Republican Party that, four years ago, nominated John McCain. It’s not that long ago that the Republican Party had real liberal stars such as Nelson Rockefeller, and U.S. Sens. Mark Hatfield of Oregon, Jacob Javits of New York, John Chaffee of Rhode Island and Mac Mathias of Maryland.

Not fully trusted by many liberal Democrats and disliked by many conservative Republicans, these GOP mavericks were taunted: The definition of a liberal Republican is someone who, when you’re drowning some 30 feet offshore, throws you a 20 foot rope and boasts that he “went more than halfway.”

Huntsman’s positions on science, the environment and cultural issues are indeed unorthodox in today’s Republican Party. But where the rubber hits the road — on who pays federal taxes — Jon Huntsman is no flaming moderate. He’s more conservative than Mitt Romney.

This past week, Huntsman gave us his tax plan, which is enough to make Daddy Warbucks do handstands. Huntsman joins fellow GOP presidential candidates Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former CEO Herman Cain in calling for the elimination of any federal tax on capital gains.

According to the best estimate of the respected Tax Policy Center, U.S. households making less than $50,000 a year pay an average of less than $10 a year on investments. Even those earning between $100,000 and $200,000 annually pay just an average of $400 in capital gains taxes.

And the real winners if the capital gains tax is in fact lowered to zero? According to the Tax Policy Center, the top 1 percent of earners with an average pre-tax income of almost $7 million, who under the Huntsman plan would get a windfall tax cut of $350,000 a year. How moderate would you call that?

Not very, by recent Republican standards. During the 1996 GOP presidential campaign, Malcolm “Steve” Forbes advocated a 16 percent “flat tax” plan that excluded interest and dividend income from federal taxation. Forbes was challenged by Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, who argued, “It’s not fair to say that people who work with their head or with their hands ought to pay taxes, but that people who earn their living with capital ought not to.”

Republican candidate Pat Buchanan was more colorful in his criticism, suggesting that Forbes’ plan to exclude dividends from taxation must have been forged “by the boys at the yacht basin” because it would “let some trust-fund baby in Florida clip coupons the rest of his life and pay zero taxes.”

The criticism of Gramm and Buchanan are just as valid today. Why should a firefighter or nurse or a Marine gunnery sergeant pay federal taxes on the wages each earns through blood, sweat and skill, while the lazy heir to a family fortune does not pay a dime to Uncle Sam?

You can call the candidate who wants to completely abolish the capital gains tax a lot of things, but you cannot call him moderate.

To find out more about Mark Shields and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM

COPYRIGHT 2011 MARK SHIELDS

Huntsman Would Ask Wealthy To Sacrifice If Elected

Jon Huntsman 2.0 is continuing his sprint to the center, telling the PBS Newshour on Thursday that wealthy Americans will have to make sacrifices to revive the struggling American economy.

“As president, I wouldn’t hesitate to call on a sacrifice from all of our people, even those at the very highest end of the income spectrum,” Huntsman said. “I’m not saying higher taxes, but there are contributions they can make too.”

Although Huntsman stopped short of saying that he would raise taxes on the wealthy, his comments are sure to distinguish him from fellow candidates such as Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann, who consider calls for greater sacrifice from the rich to be a form of class warfare.

Huntsman also made waves last week when he tweeted, “To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.” This was a clear jab at Perry, who is notoriously skeptical of almost anything that scientists tell him.

The former Utah governor is clearly pinning his hopes for the nomination on capturing moderate voters who aren’t comfortable with supporting a Tea Party candidate. This strategy may pay off in New Hampshire, where the electorate is not extremely conservative and independents are allowed to vote in the Republican primary. It’s worth noting that John Weaver, who is Huntsman’s chief strategist, has pulled off two shocking Granite State upsets in the past while working for John McCain in 2000 and 2008. Still, in a Republican primary dominated by extreme-right politics and overt hostility to the President, Huntsman’s status as a former member of the Obama Administration makes him an extreme long shot to be the Republican candidate for president.

GOP Debate Highlights

On Thursday night, eight Republican presidential candidates (Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum — Rick Perry was noticeably absent) gathered in an auditorium at Iowa State University for a debate sponsored by Fox News and the Washington Examiner. Saturday is the famous Ames straw poll, an essentially meaningless vote that observers tend to think will provide an early clue as to which candidate will win the Iowa caucuses and perhaps the Republican nomination. Here are the highlights from the debate:

Romney, bizarrely indicating his opposition to the debt deal: “Look, I’m not going to eat Barack Obama’s dog food, all right?”

Pawlenty, criticizing Obama and hinting at his next career move: “Where is Barack Obama’s plan on Social Security reform, Medicare reform, Medicaid reform? In fact, I’ll offer a prize tonight to anybody in this auditorium or anyone watching on television: If you can find Barack Obama’s specific plan on any of those items, I will come to your house and cook you dinner. Or, if you prefer, I’ll come to your house and mow your land. But in case Mitt wins, I’m limited to one acre. One acre.”

Pawlenty, on fellow Minnesotan Bachmann: “Look, she has done wonderful things in her life, absolutely wonderful things, but it is an indisputable fact that in Congress her record of accomplishment and results is nonexistent.”

Bachmann, on Pawlenty: “You said the era of small government was over. That sounds more like Barack Obama, if you ask me.”

Pawlenty, on Bachmann: “She’s got a record of misstating and making false statements.”

Pawlenty, on Bachmann: “She fought for less government spending, we got a lot more. She led the effort against ObamaCare, we got ObamaCare… If that’s your view of effective leadership with results, please stop, because you’re killing us.”

The most serious sparring between Pawlenty and Bachmann occurred when they discussed a Minnesota cigarette tax they both voted in favor of, back when Pawlenty was governor of Minnesota and Bachmann was a State Senator. In order to get conservatives to accept the tax — which he felt necessary to balance the budget — Pawlenty bundled it with an anti-abortion provision that forced doctors to scare pregnant women out of abortions by asking whether they wanted to anesthetize the fetus. The anti-abortion measure convinced Bachmann, who said in the debate that she voted in favor of the tax bill because, in her words, “you can get money wrong, but you can’t get life wrong.” Unfortunately, she misspoke during the debate, claiming that the cigarette bill “stripped away” anti-abortion provisions rather than increased them. This upset and confused Pawlenty, who responded to Bachmann’s answer with, “Yeah, what is wrong in the answer is the answer,” and “Her answer is illogical. Her answer is illogical!”

Gingrich, wary of “gotcha questions” from Fox: “I’d love to see the rest of tonight’s debate asking us about what we would do to lead an America whose president has failed to lead, instead of playing Mickey Mouse games.”
Chris Wallace, moderator: “Speaker Gingrich, if you think questions about your records are Mickey Mouse, I’m sorry.”

Gingrich, when asked about his flip-flopping on Libya: “This is a good example of a gotcha question.”
Brett Baier, moderator: “No, it is not.”
Gingrich: “Yes, it is.”
Baier: “But Mr. Speaker, you said these two things.”

Chris Wallace, moderator, to Huntsman: “Some people have suggested that maybe you’re running for president in the wrong party.”

Cain: “America has got to learn how to take a joke.”

Brett Baier, moderator, surprised: “They all raised their hands. They’re all saying that they feel so strongly about not raising taxes that a 10 to one [spending cuts to tax increases] deal, they would walk away from.”

Pawlenty on Romney’s healthcare plan: “I called it Obamneycare, and I think that’s a fair label, and I’m happy to call it that again tonight.”
Romney: “I think I like Tim’s answer at the last debate [when he refused to criticize the plan, despite doing so a day earlier] better.”

Romney tried to defend his health care plan with a federalist “states’ rights” argument based on the 10th Amendment. The problem with Obama’s health care plan, Romney argued, is not that it requires people to buy health insurance if they can afford it (which is why most Republicans dislike it), but because it forces people in all states to buy health insurance. Romney wants to let the states develop their own health care plans. Ron Paul, though he clearly disliked the health care plan, is an adamant supporter of states’ rights, so he reluctantly agreed with Romney.

Romney, supporting states’ right when it comes to health care: “The right answer for every state is to determine what’s right for those states and not to impose Obamacare on the nation.”

Romney, opposing them when it comes to gay marriage: “I believe the issue of marriage should be decided on the federal level… and the reason is because people move from state to state of course.”

Santorum, on hypothetical abuse of the 10th Amendment: “We have Ron Paul saying, oh, what the states want to do — whatever the states want to do under the 10th Amendment’s fine. So if the states want to pass polygamy, that’s fine. If the states want to impose sterilization, that’s fine. No, our country is based on moral laws, ladies and gentlemen.”

Paul, trying to find an even more outrageous example: “That is sort of like asking the question if the states wanted to legalize slavery or something like that. That’s so past reality that no state is going to do that.”

Baier, stalling for time while his assistants find Bachmann: “Are we actually missing a candidate on the stage? We are. She’ll be right back, Congresswoman Bachmann. There she is. That’s OK.”

Paul, on Rick Perry’s entry into the campaign: “I’m very pleased that he’s coming in, because he represents the status quo… He’ll just gather all [my opponents’] votes.”

Huntsman, on why he didn’t hire American workers: “If you want to build a facility in the United States, you can’t because of the EPA’s regulatory reign of terror.”

Bachmann, on her BFF: “I like Sarah Palin a lot. We are very good friends.”

Pawlenty’s foreign policy: “People killed Americans. We needed to go there, find them, bring them to justice or kill them.”

Paul, putting himself in Ayatollah Khamenei’s shoes: “Why wouldn’t it be natural that [Iran] might want a weapon?”

Wallace to Bachmann: “Could you please tell Congressman Paul why he’s wrong?”

Bachmann, secretly: “I sit on the House Select Committee on Intelligence. I can’t reveal classified information.”

Santorum, on Iran: “[The Iranian people] are under a mullah-cracy that tramples the rights of women, tramples the rights of gays.”

Santorum, on gay marriage: “Seven justices forced gay marriages on the people of Iowa. I was the only one on this panel who came to Iowa last year and made sure that those three justices were defeated.”

Bachmann, on another kind of marriage: “I have an absolutely unblemished record when it comes to this issue of man-woman marriage.”

Bachmann, on her own marriage: “What submission means to us, if that’s what your question is, it means respect. I respect my husband.”

Santorum, simultaneously supporting the death penalty and opposing abortion: “The Supreme Court of the United States on a recent case said that a man who committed rape could not be killed, could not be subject to the death penalty, yet the child conceived as a result of that rape could be.”

Cain, on why companies should get tax breaks even if they don’t create jobs: “If a company were to decide that they want to take some of that money and pay a bigger dividend, so what, it is their money. The people receiving the dividends might be happy with that.”

Gingrich, skeptical of the Fed: “I think that it is a scandal that the Federal Reserve is secret.”

Paul, solving the deficit crisis: “We owe the Fed $1.6 trillion in treasury bills. Where’d they get the money to buy it? They created it out of thin air.”

Santorum: “Disagree with most of what Ron Paul said. Just because he’s mostly wrong, doesn’t mean he’s always wrong.”

Romney, praising job holders even though he’s unemployed: “I think in order to create jobs, it’s helpful to have had a job.”

Pawlenty, possibly referencing Spiderman: “With great blessing comes responsibility.”

Huntsman, sounding like an attack ad: “This nation is hurting, it is scared, and it is bankrupt. We have a cancer growing in this country called debt.”

Cain, inadvertently quoting the theme song from Pokemon: the Movie 2000: “A poet once said, life can be a challenge, life can seem impossible, but it’s never easy when there’s so much on the line.”

Poll: Mormonism Might Sink Romney, Huntsman

Many political pundits seemed to hail the end of prejudice when Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, a sweeping contrast with Jim Crow and other discriminatory laws and informal terror that had blocked full-scale political participation for African Americans since slaves gained citizenship in the 1860s. But between 20 and 30 percent of American voters admit to being unwilling to support an otherwise qualified Mormon for the presidency:

With one Mormon leading the pack for the Republican presidential nomination and another scheduled to announce his candidacy on Tuesday, a significant bloc of American voters continues to oppose followers of that religion, according to a Gallup poll released Monday. About one in five Republicans, or 22%, said they would not vote for a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the official name of the Mormon church. About the same proportion of independents said they would oppose a Mormon while a larger number of Democrats, about 27%, said they were opposed, according to the poll.

Like racism, religious prejudice is broadly unacceptable in the United States; John F. Kennedy arguably pigeonholed it as such in a famous speech to Protestant ministers in Texas in 1960 asserting his independence from the Pope, a speach Mitt Romney tried and failed to imitate in 2007. But all this means is that even more voters may be unwilling to back a Mormon for the White House but will not say so to a pollster. Should Romney and Jon Huntsman–and the Republican establishment–be concerned?

They can take comfort that a majority is at least open to the prospect, but that this group of non-haters can be coalesced around an inevitably conservative Republican nominee next fall is a big leap of faith. Then again, Mitt Romney’s general election numbers are far-and-away the strongest of any Republican in the race right now; he even surpassed the president in a recent Washington Post poll. Fears about the economy may trump all, even bigotry, as they arguably did for Obama with skeptical white working class voters last time around. [Los Angeles Times]