Mitch Perry
With the second Republican Party presidential debate taking place this week at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, we’re hearing more references than ever references by the GOP candidates to the the nation’s 40th president, who remains as powerful an iconic figure as anyone in Republican politics.
That certainly includes Jeb Bush, whose op-ed in today’s Orange County Register is headlined, “A Reagan inspired tax reform plan.”
He begins the piece by celebrating the fact that the debate (to be televised by CNN at 8 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday) takes place in Southern California, “the birthplace of the tax-cut movement in America.”
He’s right about that. It was in 1978 that Californians passed Proposition 13, also known as “Jarvis/Gann.” It was named after two Southern California conservative activists, Howard Jarvis, and Paul Gann, who would end losing to Democrat Alan Cranston in a bid for the U.S. Senate in 1980. Prop 13 was a political earthquake. It put a strict cap on property taxes, which in the 1970s were going through the roof in the Golden State. It was opposed by then Gov. Jerry Brown, who immediately supported it after it won decisively at the polls.
“President Reagan wisely identified that the American people were fed up with paying exorbitant taxes and weary from the failed economic policies of the Jimmy Carter administration,” Bush writes in the piece. “During his run for the presidency in 1980, Reagan put dramatic tax relief at the center of his campaign, calling for an across-the-board reduction in marginal tax rates. As president, Reagan succeeded in ending the Carter malaise by bringing the top marginal tax rate down from 70 percent to 28 percent and, in the process, unleashing a period of economic growth and prosperity that renewed the American Dream.”
Bush then segues to his recently announced tax reform plan, a plan that he says will put the country on a path to 4 percent growth, something that neither his father nor brother was ever able to achieve in their collective 12 years in the White House. “Like President Reagan, I intend to dramatically reform our tax code, consolidating today’s seven brackets to three (28 percent, 25 percent and 10 percent) and eliminating special interest loopholes and carve-outs that disproportionately benefit the wealthy.”
Bush adds that he will “relish” the opportunity to contrast his vision for sparking economic growth with at Wednesday evening’s debate with the likes of Donald Trump, who he accuses of having supporting “the liberal big government, high tax philosophy espoused by Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.”
Here’s the piece in its entirety:
The Republican candidates for president will debate Wednesday at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. It is fitting that this important debate be held in Southern California, the birthplace of the tax-cut movement in America.
Thirty-seven years ago, Howard Jarvis, a Southern California businessman and political activist, spearheaded Proposition 13, a ballot measure to place a strict cap on property taxes. Californians, who had endured massive increases in the taxes on their homes, revolted against the status quo in Sacramento and passed Prop. 13 overwhelmingly, sparking a nationwide movement to cut taxes that Ronald Reagan referred in his autobiography to as a “prairie fire.”
President Reagan wisely identified that the American people were fed up with paying exorbitant taxes and weary from the failed economic policies of the Jimmy Carter administration. During his run for the presidency in 1980, Reagan put dramatic tax relief at the center of his campaign, calling for an across-the-board reduction in marginal tax rates. As president, Reagan succeeded in ending the Carter malaise by bringing the top marginal tax rate down from 70 percent to 28 percent and, in the process, unleashing a period of economic growth and prosperity that renewed the American Dream.
After six and half years of the Obama administration, the nation again finds itself at a critical crossroads. President Obama has increased taxes by nearly $2 trillion and left us with one of the weakest recoveries in our nation’s history, so weak that, for many, the recession never stopped due to the hardships they are personally experiencing.
What these working and middle-class Americans see as a recession, the Democrats and liberal academics call “the new normal.”
I refuse to accept that. That is why I have outlined a bold tax reform plan that will help put us on the path to 4 percent economic growth, 19 million new jobs and rising wages for working families. Like President Reagan, I intend to dramatically reform our tax code, consolidating today’s seven brackets to three (28 percent, 25 percent and 10 percent) and eliminating special interest loopholes and carve-outs that disproportionately benefit the wealthy.
Under my plan, millions of working families will have their income tax liabilities eliminated, and the average middle-class family will receive a tax reduction of approximately $2,000. For a working family earning under $40,000, we’ll eliminate their income tax liability altogether.
I also am proposing major corporate tax reform to make American businesses more competitive. U.S. businesses pay the highest tax rate in the industrialized world. Under my plan, the top rate would fall from 35 percent to 20 percent, five points lower than China’s corporate rate. This tax cut for job providers will turbocharge our economy, lead to productivity gains and make it possible for American businesses to provide higher wages to their workers, something that is critically important since the middle class hasn’t received a pay raise in 15 years.
I relish the opportunity Wednesday to contrast my vision for sparking economic growth and lifting up the middle class with those of other candidates, like Donald Trump, who have supported the liberal big government, high tax philosophy espoused by Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
This issue isn’t just about numbers. It’s the difference between working Americans staying ahead or falling behind. The difference between being stuck in this “new normal” or growing at a pace that lifts up everyone. As president, I will be committed to leading in the Reagan spirit and ensuring that families will no longer struggle to pay their bills to pay for a government that is already overfed.
