Say Anything Blog

Last Saturday, at the WSJ’s Opinion Journal site, former Tennessee Senator and undeclared GOP presidential candidate made a succinct and compelling case that he understands the difference between static and dynamic economic analysis and the need for tax policies that foster continued economic growth.

…Treasury statistics show that tax revenues have soared and the budget deficit has been shrinking faster than even the optimists projected. Since the first tax cuts were passed, when I was in the Senate, the budget deficit has been cut in half.

...The deficit, compared to the entire economy, is well below the average for the last 35 years and, at this rate, the budget will be in surplus by 2010.

Perhaps the most fascinating thing about this success story is where the increased revenues are coming from. Critics claimed that across-the-board tax cuts were some sort of gift to the rich but, on the contrary, the wealthy are paying a greater percentage of the national bill than ever before.

The richest 1% of Americans now pays 35% of all income taxes. The top 10% pay more taxes than the bottom 60%…

Unfortunately, the tax cuts that have produced our record-breaking government revenues and personal incomes will expire soon. Because Congress has failed to make them permanent, we are facing the worst tax hike in our history. Already, worried investors are trying to figure out what the financial landscape will look like in 2011 and beyond.

This issue is particularly important now because massive, unfunded entitlements are coming due as the baby-boom generation retires. We simply cannot afford higher taxes if we want an economy able to bear up under the strain of those obligations.

To face these challenges… we need to maintain economic growth and healthy tax revenues. That is why we need to reject taxes that punish rather than reward success. Those who say they want a “more progressive” tax system should be asked one question:

Are you really interested in tax rates that benefit the economy and raise revenue--or are you interested in redistributing income for political reasons?

I could quibble with Thompson about the rhetorical question he poses for those on the Left who support raising taxes.  They should be forced to justify their policy prescriptions in economic terms and explain why they think that raising taxes is good for economic growth.

(Incidentally, Thompson’s take on investor concerns over future tax policy is more than amply demonstrated by this shrewd post by one of our own reader/commenters, Donny Baseball, titled How You and Me Are Going to Outfox Max Baucus)

But beyond the quibble, it’s clear that Fred Thompson “get’s it” on tax and economic policy.

On the heels of Thompson’s latest OpEd comes a lengthy, in depth examination of Senator Thompson by the brilliant Stephen Hayes as the cover story of the latest edition of The Weekly Standard.  Here are some samples to consider:

There is some discontent among Republicans with the current choices for the party’s nominee in 2008. The complaints are well known: Senator John McCain, the maverick Republican, is too much maverick and not enough Republican. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is thought to be too willful and too liberal: He recently suggested he would allow his new wife to attend cabinet meetings and reaffirmed his support for federal funding of abortion. Mitt Romney seems pleasant and competent, but pleasant and competent doesn’t beat Hillary Clinton. Senator Sam Brownback is unknown and uncharismatic. And former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is from Arkansas…

With that introduction, Hayes serves up the most intriguing, and significant, fact about Fred Thompson… what you see, is what you get.

Over the next two decades, Thompson would appear in dozens of films and television shows as a character actor, often one who personifies government strength. It is a role that seems to fit. “Literally, I don’t think Fred ever acts,” says Tom Ingram, a longtime friend from Tennessee who now serves as chief of staff to Senator Lamar Alexander. “He played himself in Marie, and he’s been playing himself ever since.”

Later, Ingram relates this incident from Thompson’s first senatorial campaign in Tennessee,

… At the low point, Thompson met at a Cracker Barrel with Ingram. Thompson told his friend that he wasn’t having any fun campaigning and was pessimistic about his chances to win. He was considering dropping out. Thompson had had it with the rubber-chicken Republican dinners and the rigors of campaigning across the state. “Fred was beleaguered by the traditional way of running for office,” Ingram remembers. “He was expressing his misery over things.”

Ingram had a question for Thompson: What would you do if you ran the way you wanted to run? Thompson thought for a minute, then said he’d shed as much of the campaign apparatus as possible and drive around the state in a pick-up truck. Ingram suggested he do just that, and Thompson thought it a good recommendation. Thompson would soon be known for his red pick-up truck. Cooper’s campaign complained that it was a Hollywood-style gimmick designed to make Thompson look down to earth, and it surely was that. “But it was more than a device,” Ingram insists. “It made Fred comfortable as a candidate. He felt liberated to just be himself.”

Still more from Hayes on Thompson being Thompson.

His voting record suggests a strong belief in federalism. Thompson was frequently a lonely voice opposing the federalization of what in his view were state issues. His unwillingness to compromise on that principle even put him on the losing end of a 99-to-1 vote on the so-called Good Samaritan law, legislation that protected individuals from being sued if their good faith efforts to help someone in distress were unsuccessful. He thought it should have been left to the states…

As we spoke, I was struck by the fact that Thompson didn’t seem to be calibrating his answers for a presidential run. On issue after contentious issue, I got the sense from both his manner and the answers he gave me that he was just speaking extemporaneously. Many of his answers would drive a poll-watching political consultant nuts.

He believes that elements of the CIA were out to get Scooter Libby and his boss, Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby, though not the original leaker of the identity of CIA employee Valerie Plame, was convicted of lying and obstructing justice. “It makes me mad as the devil just to think about it,” Thompson says. He had never met Libby when he volunteered to serve on the advisory board of the Scooter Libby Legal Defense Trust. Is Libby innocent? Thompson answers with one word. “Yes.”
Do you think there will be negative political fallout from defending the convicted former chief of staff to an unpopular vice president?
“I have no idea. I have a hard time seeing it. If I’m wrong about the temperature of the American people on this, then I’m wrong about a lot of things about the American people. And we might as well find out.”

There is considerable talk among the other Republican campaigns that the Thompson boomlet is driven by little more than celebrity. Maybe. But history suggests that Thompson may actually be underpolling right now.

Underpolling???  Last week’s LA Times poll had Thompson, as yet formally undeclared, in second place!

There has also been talk of Thompson as the next Ronald Reagan.  Fred Thompson himself would be first to point out that there never will be another Ronald Reagan.  But the comparison is telling… and compelling beyond just the two men’s acting careers.  Clearly, like Reagan, what you see with Thompson is what you get.

Anyone seriously interested in the 2008 presidential election has to be aware of Fred Thompson.  And the best starting point to date, is Hayes’ Weekly Standard article.