Defending The American Dream Summit: Rudy Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani was the first Presidential candidate to speak at the summit today (McCain addressed summit attendees yesterday in the Hart Senate Office building), and I’ll admit that he impressed me.
He was smooth, engaging and very funny. He got off a great crack about Hillary Clinton and socialized medicine asking where, under a Hillary Clinton administration, would Canadians go for health care.
The main thrust of his address was taxes. He reviewed his record as a tax cutter in New York City, and it is impressive. In fact, his own review of his performance as the mayor of this country’s largest city coupled with analysis from groups like Club For Growth makes me wonder why, outside of his social liberalism, conservatives are so distrusting with him.
He also made a point of talking about the international tax scene. He noted that recently-elected French Prime Minister is talking about cutting taxes in his country, and went on to point out that of all the world’s powers there is really only one country talking about raising taxes right now: America. And that’s a great point.
Giuliani also talked about a lot of things I hadn’t heard him address before. Like reforming our tax code down to the point where Americans could fill out one-page tax returns. That sounds nice, but I think our tax code needs more than reform. It needs to be replaced, and I would have been happier to hear something along those lines come out of his mouth.
Another thing he spoke of, quite bluntly to my distinct pleasure, was the idea that Republicans lost in 2006 because of fiscal issues. Which is something I think needs to be pounded home. Too many Republicans who have abandoned their fiscal principles are being allowed to hide behind the “it was Iraq” excuse for 2006.
To sum up, I’m still a Fred Thompson guy, but I’m a lot more impressed with Rudy Giuliani now than I was. But he’s still wrong on gun control and illegal immigration, and I think those things will eventually do him in.
Update:
Here’s the video of Rudy’s speech:
