Mitt Romney Blasts McCain For Opposing Bush Tax Cuts Despite Having Not Supported Them Himself

After falling behind Mike Huckabee in Iowa, the importance of New Hampshire for Mitt Romney only increased. Now, as McCain begins to comeback, Romney ratchets up the attacks on McCain in order to prevent him from taking New Hampshire.

Romney is now taking McCain to task on Bush’s tax cuts, comparing McCain’s rhetoric on the matter to that of Ted Kennedy and John Kerry. Speaking in New Hampshire, Romney said of McCain:

“He [McCain] voted against the Bush tax cuts. That’s failing ‘Reagan-101’ … Reagan taught almost all of us in the Republican party that lowering taxes would grow the economy and was good for the economy and good for the individuals. And I believe the Republicans are going to nominate a tax cutter to become president of the United States.”

Indeed, McCain voted against the tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. He argued that they disproportionately favored the wealthy and therefore wasn’t able to support them. In 2006, he supported tax cuts.

Obviously, the tax issue in New Hampshire is very important, so Romney is trying to us it to his advantage; however, this recent charge against McCain is more of the same double talk and misstatement from Romney. Romney himself in 2003 refused to support Bush’s tax cuts. He cites that as a federal matter, it wasn’t really prudent for him to weigh in on the matter publicly. However, a report tells a slightly different story, one of private opposition to the tax cuts - lauded even by Rep. Barney Frank:

Romney said he had not publicly opposed the cuts, according to one observer at the meeting [of House and Senate members from Massachusetts], prompting Frank to ask, “Will you?” Romney replied that he probably would not. The answer triggered laughter in what both sides described as an otherwise bipartisan session.

“I was very pleased,” Frank said afterward. “Here you have a freshman governor refusing to endorse a tax cut presented by a Republican president at the height of his wartime popularity.”

According to the observer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Romney told the delegation that he “won’t be a cheerleader” for proposals he doesn’t agree with, “but I have to keep a solid relationship with the White House.” [Boston Globe, 4/11/03]

Romney also reportedly expressed support for a tax increase at the meeting:

In addition to refusing to endorse the president’s tax cut, the governor surprised several people at the meeting by saying he is open to a federal increase in gas taxes. “He wants it dedicated to transportation construction,” Capuano said. [Boston Globe, 4/11/03]

Perhaps, instead of lobbing attacks that often lead to charges of hypocrisy, Romney would be better served by cleaning up his own message and preventing the oft misstep (like, the misleading remarks about seeing his father march with MLK Jr., being a lifelong hunter, etc…).

Romney tried a similar desperate and misleading attack against Huckabee on the issue of meth in Iowa and it’s basically only backfired. Romney’s new TV ad criticizing Huckabee’s record on fighting meth, while touting his own. Discussing the issue, Romney said:

“I’m very proud of the fact that we, my state, when I was governor, we made it tougher for people with meth labs.

We cracked down on crime and on meth in particular. It’s a very important topic. I want to make sure we do everything we can to keep our kids off of this terrible, pernicious, captivating drug.”

Yet, the legislation that Romney was referring to never actually became law; actually, it stalled in the Massachusetts legislature. This issue was brought to the attention of the campaign and as usual, Romney had to qualify his remarks. Regarding his statements about cracking down on meth, when in reality there was no crack down, Romney said:

“If I said this morning that we ‘got tough’ on methamphetamines, I proposed we get tough on methamphetamine, and I’ve corrected that right here for all of you.”

Proposing something is very different than actually making it happen. The parsing of the Romney campaign will ultimately be their undoing. Attacking McCain for opposing specific tax cuts that were unpopular within his party because he felt that they were unfair only underscores the fact that McCain seems to be principled. Opposing a specific tax cut is not the same as being opposed to tax cuts generally speaking.