Romney’s Mondale Moment
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The Republican candidate rips a page from Walter Mondale’s 1984 campaign playbook
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In 1984, Walter Mondale faced President Reagan in his bid for a second term. In part because of Mr. Reagan’s arms build-up, the deficit had reached (Gasp!) $185.4 Billion ($409.27 Billion in today’s dollars). Mr. Reagan was taken to task by Democrats for “mortgaging our future” (where are those deficit hawks now as we have had 4 straight trillion dollar-plus deficits under President Obama?).
At the height of deficit hysteria that year, Walter Mondale said in his acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination “Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won’t tell you. I just did.” For both his honesty as well as lousy judgement, Mr. Mondale was rewarded that year by the electorate with a landslide loss to Mr. Reagan (Reagan won almost 59% of the popular vote and 97% of the Electoral College votes [a bygone era when people looked at the candidates and just didn’t stampede to the promise of “change” or “hope” only to be disappointed and wonder what happened).
Mitt Romney wants to emulate Walter Mondale’s tax “honesty” that earned the Vice-President a landslide loss in 1984
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Perhaps given a speech by the same person on his campaign staff who slipped him the 47% speech Mickey, Mr. Romney on Wednesday told an Ohio crowd that while he would work to lower tax rates on businesses and individuals, they shouldn’t “be expecting a huge cut in taxes because I’m also going to lower deductions and exemptions.”
This was an emphasis on the deficit resulting from the Romney campaign reaching out to independent voters, who polls say remain deeply concerned about growing levels of government debt.
This position is a perfect strategy on the road to victory, for President Obama. By saying that he will not reduce taxes significantly, Mr. Romney does several things, none of which are good for him.
First, he angers (if not disheartens) the Conservative base that he will need to show up in force on election day. They are rightfully looking for and expecting someone who understands that the taxpayer (outside the 47%) is being soaked at the federal, state and local level. Second, he alienates Independents and even wavering Democrats who also think taxes are too high and who are desperately seeking an alternative to Mr. Obama. In short, Mr. Romney becomes a “tax collector for the welfare state.” If Mr. Romney wants to play President Obama’s game of deficit reduction by focusing on tax revenues and not spending, Mr. Obama will win every time.
Mr. Romney needs to focus his efforts on growing the economy by reducing regulations and taxes, a tried and true formula (see: Ronald Reagan, 1980s).
Governor Romney must not fret over his critics who see the world through static shades. This is the same crew that believes Reagan’s tax cuts will destroy the 1980′s economy despite the fact that we are over 20 years past the ’80s. It has been long shown that permanent marginal rate reductions on all kinds of income (ordinary, capital) allow the growth of a wider tax base resulting in more tax revenue, despite the lower rates. If Mr. Romney is really concerned about the deficit, he’ll “expand the pie” via tax rate cuts and even address spending.
Finally, someone needs to tell Governor Romney that there’s only 6 weeks, not 6 months, to the election. The closer we get to election day, the less likely Mr. Romney will be able to shovel up these messes he habitually deposits on the campaign trail.
-I.M. Windee
