GOP gubernatorial candidate Joe Heck joined Gov. Jim Gibbons this week in signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. In doing so, Dr. Heck issued the following statement:
“Some say this pledge ‘ties the hands of the governor,’ rather I have come to believe that it is a way to prevent elected officials from balancing the budget on the backs of hardworking Nevadans and their small businesses.
As I was growing up, my father always told me that the two things a man will always have are his word and his handshake. I have lived by those words as a man of honor and principle. If I say I won’t raise taxes, I won’t. But the current political environment, at all levels of government, has caused constituents to take pause when given such verbal assurances by elected leaders and candidates for office: too many promises have been broken.
I empathize with voters who are tired of hearing one thing on the campaign trail, only to hear something else after the election and it is for this reason that I am signing the pledge – to clearly demonstrate my resolve on holding the line on taxes in Nevada.”
Amen, brother.
THE NON-PLEDGE SIGNERS
GOP gubernatorial candidate Mike Montandon told me Friday evening that his campaign will issue his own “no new taxes” promise to voters. We’ll have to wait and see if it’s as airtight, no loopholes, as the one which has been sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform for the last 25 years or so.
And in a Las Vegas radio interview on Friday, GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval said tax hikes were not an option in the current economy, or even when the economy turns around. Then again, we’ve read lips to that effect before.
Democrat gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid has made no such commitment, verbally or in writing, to the working families and small business owners of Nevada. Then again, Rory Reid hasn’t taken any positions on any of the tough issues yet. Go figure.
SANDOVAL AND THE TAX PLEDGE
Immediately upon announcing as a Republican candidate for governor last week, former federal judge Brian Sandoval declared that the would not sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge promising voters that as governor he would “oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes.”
Warning! Warning! Danger, Will Robinson!
Now, if Sandoval comes up with a legitimate reason for not signing the Pledge even though he has already said in interviews that he will not raise taxes, I’m happy to entertain it. However, here’s what he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on the topic:
“I’ve just never been a believer in signing pledges. I’m more than happy to sit down with everyone who wants to talk about those things and I think anyone who is seeking for me to sign a pledge of any kind once they sit down with me they’ll understand perfectly where I’m coming from when it comes to spending and that I’m very fiscally conservative.”
Hmm. I wonder if he signed a pledge to repay the mortgage on his house. Or the loan his car? Or did his banks grant him those loans on his word and a handshake?
And what about using his credit card when shopping at Wal-Mart. When the clerk hands him the sales slip to sign pledging to pay for the purchase, does Sandoval say “I don’t believe in signing pledges and if you would just sit down with me you’d understand where I’m coming from?”
The problem facing Brian Sandoval and others who “say” they’re not going to raise taxes but don’t think they should put that promise in writing is that so many politicians in the past have broken such verbal promises or found “loopholes” in their campaign commitments once elected.
Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio is a perfect example. In his primary race in 2008, Sen. Raggio declared emphatically, “Well, I’m not going to raise taxes, I can guarantee you that.”
Guar-an-tee.
Yet after safely being re-elected, Sen. Raggio went on to vote for over a billion dollars worth of higher taxes in the 2009 session of the Legislature.
Working families and small businessmen have read candidates’ lips before and got burned. So with all due respect, we prefer to get promises made by politicians in writing. Doing so in blood is still optional. For now.
IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH
When it comes to the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, Jon Ralston at the Las Vegas Sun, Steve Sebelius of CityLife and I aren’t exactly on the same page.
But let me tell you this: The philosophical and intellectual debates I’ve had with Ralston and Sebelius on this subject have been FAR more substantial and rigorous than any discussions on the same topic I’ve had with tax-hiking Republicans such as Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio or Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert.
Indeed, if any Republican candidate were to give me an intellectually and politically inarguable reason for not signing the Pledge which I couldn’t overcome, I’d give ‘em a pass on it. So far, however, none has come close to reaching that point.
That said, in his column today Ralston criticizes candidates for “signing a tax pledge that epitomizes what’s wrong with politics. It is superficial. It ties a politician’s hands….”
Exactly.
It reminds me of another pledge which ties people’s hands. It goes something like this:
“I, ________________, take you, _____________, to be my wife/husband; to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, forsaking all others, till death do we part.”
I’d argue that the allure of raising taxes is far more appealing to politicians than cutting spending, just as “hiking the Appalachian Trail” with a babe from Argentina can tempt a politician to completely destroy his marriage and career.
Meanwhile, in a separate blog post on the Tax Pledge subject last week, Sebelius wrote: “(Gubernatorial candidate Brian) Sandoval, in several media interviews today, said he won’t sign the (tax) pledge because it would make a candidate irrelevant to any debate over whether to raise taxes.”
Well, to a certain extent that’s true. But it’s also the point. Only by taking tax hikes off the table will tax hikes, you know, be taken off the table. Given the choice of raising taxes or cutting a pet project or slaying a governmental sacred cow, lily-livered politicians will raise our taxes every time.
Pledge signers are happy to be irrelevant to any debate over whether or not to raise taxes. They told voters they wouldn’t raise taxes, and the voters elected them knowing that promise. Why in the world SHOULD Pledge signers participate in a debate to break a campaign promise they were given a mandate to keep?
However….
Taking revenue increasing tax hikes off the table by signing the Pledge does NOT preclude a debate over revenue NEUTRAL tax reform which would, arguably, “broaden” the tax base and make our tax structure more “stable.”
For example, if it’s proposed that the sales tax be extended to services such as hair cutting and dry cleaning, it would NOT necessarily be a violation of the Tax Pledge is the sales tax rate were reduced to offset the revenue expected to come in from the new tax hike on services.
The problem is, the Left really isn’t interested in revenue-neutral tax reform; they’re hiding behind the notion of tax “reform” for the sole purpose of raising more money for the government. Period.
If Democrats ever truly want to sit down and discuss “broadening” the tax base to make it more “stable,” there’s no reason in the world why Tax Pledge signers can’t be at that table and totally relevant to the discussion. But if the underlying intent is simply to raise more revenue to grow government, fuggetaboutit.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Republicans who vote for tax increases are like rat heads in Coke bottles. They damage the brand.”
- Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform
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[...] News Sources wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptBy: Chuck Muth Citizen’s Outreach HECK STANDS UP FOR TAXPAYERS GOP gubernatorial candidate Joe Heck joined Gov. Jim Gibbons this week in signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. In doing so, Dr. Heck issued the following statement: “Some say this pledge ‘ties the hands of the governor,’ rather I have come to believe that it is a way to prevent elected officials from balancing the budget on the backs of hardworking Nevadans and their small businesses. As I was growing up, my father [...]
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