The Club For Growth's Itch Has Been Scratched

Though Steve Forbes's letter to the Club for Growth last week was not from the mouth of the horse, the Club's president, Pat Toomey, seems to be satisfied with Rudy Giuliani's committment to oppose tax increases.

Recall that the Club was moved to write about an Associated Press article characterized Rudy Giuliani as "not ruling out" tax increases to restore solvency to the Social Security trust fund. The Giuliani campaign enlisted their chief economics surrogate, Forbes EIC Steve Forbes, to calm the Club down.

Here's Toomey's response:

Dear Steve:



Thank you for your letter on behalf of Mayor Giuliani and your kind words about the Club for Growth. You have been a stalwart defender of American taxpayers throughout your career and your assurances regarding Mayor Giuliani’s position on Social Security go a long way toward alleviating our concerns. We were especially pleased to read your detailed description of the Mayor’s interview with the Associated Press and of the Mayor’s strong opposition to raising taxes, including as part of Social Security reform.



As we pointed out in our white paper on Mayor Giuliani’s fiscal record back in May, we are familiar with his numerous pro-growth accomplishments and his implementation of tax cuts in liberal New York City. We are also pleased that Mayor Giuliani supports additional tax relief.



Social Security is a particularly sensitive area as many Democrats, and even a few liberal Republicans, advocate raising taxes as part of a Social Security reform package. As you know, such a policy is both unnecessary to address Social Security’s solvency and unwise in the damage it would do to the economy. In addition to opposing Social Security taxes, we hope Mayor Giuliani will go one very important step further and offer a detailed free-market proposal for reforming Social Security that includes personal savings accounts and returns choice and freedom to individual taxpayers.



Thank you.