Mitt Romney’s candidacy is something of a miracle. “Miracle Mitt” continues to claim — falsely — that he didn’t seek to raise taxes as Massachusetts Governor. And he appears to be getting away with it, as enough Republican voters remain ignorant of his record for Mitt to retain his “frontrunner” status in the 2012 Republican presidential primary race.
The Cato Institute reported of Romney’s 2003 proposals as Massachusetts Governor:
He scared some conservatives when he said that he was opposed to tax increases but he couldn’t rule them out. His first budget, presented under the cloud of a $2 billion deficit, balanced the budget with some spending cuts, but a $500 million increase in various fees was the largest component of the budget fix.
However, the “fees” were really taxes — i.e., they had nothing to do with actual costs incurred by government services they provided. Romney’s claim of not raising taxes is based upon a simple deception: He called his tax increases “fees.” During the 2008 presidential campaign, NBC’s Meet the Press host, the late Tim Russert, exploded Romney’s claim that he hadn’t proposed tax increases as Governor:
Mr. Russert: The AP says it this way: “When Romney wanted to balance the Massachusetts budget, the blind, mentally retarded and gun owners were asked to help pay. In all, then-Gov. Romney proposed creating 33 new fees,” [and] “increasing 57 others.” The head of the Bay State Council of the Blind said that your name was “Fee-Fee”; that you just raised fee after fee after fee. That’s a tax.... A fee’s not a tax?
Gov. Romney: A fee — well, a fee — if it were a tax, it’d be called — it’d be called a tax. But…
Mr. Russert: Governor, that’s, that’s gimmick.
Gov. Romney: No, it’s, it’s reality. It is. But — and I have no — I’m not trying to hide from the fact we raised fees. We raised fees $240 million.
Romney argued with Russert: “But a fee is different than a tax in that it’s for a particular service.” Of course, Romney increased fees upon gun owners (gun permits) and for people who needed duplicate licenses. Neither of these are “services” that the government provides; they are simply licenses needed to comply with government-established mandates. The independent FactCheck.org noted that “the Massachusetts Department of Administration and Finance says that fee increases during Romney’s tenure added up to $260 million per year, with another $174 million raised from closing some corporate tax ‘loopholes.’ The independent Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation puts the revenue total of fee hikes and tax loophole-closings at between $740 and $750 million a year.”
And Romney continues to defend his biggest tax increase, the Massachusetts’ healthcare reform that has served as the model for the ObamaCare national legislation. The 2006 Massachusetts healthcare law required employers to offer employees health insurance (or face a withering fine) and also set a fine for individuals who did not purchase insurance.
He is hoping that Republican voters notice more than just a change in the weather.
The Mitt Romney who visited Iowa on Wednesday for the first time since beginning his front-running presidential campaign is a different Mitt Romney from the one who left, scorned, in 2008 after exhausting his time and money for a second-place finish.
He is betting that he has learned all the right lessons from 2008 — and not just in Iowa. The retooled Romney is more disciplined, more confident in his policy views and seemingly more relaxed. His focus is nearly always on the economy, and his style tends toward Gap jeans and open-collared shirts with rolled-up sleeves over the starched shirts and neckties of the last go-round.
And here in Iowa, Romney is setting low expectations by skipping Saturday’s straw poll and instead waging a stealth effort designed to campaign enough not to ignore the state while not appearing to be competing too hard.
“There were the inevitable ‘lessons learned,’ ” Romney writes in his book, “No Apology,” of his 2008 run. “My dad, George Romney, used to say of his 1968 presidential campaign that ‘it was like a miniskirt . . . short and revealing.’ Mine was a little longer, but just as revealing.”
The question for Romney is whether what he found revealing about 2008 is on the mark for 2012. Will Republican voters hungry for bold leaders who govern from the gut rally behind a methodical and cautious front-runner?
“Romney clearly has a playbook, and he’s not diverting from the game plan. No audibles at the line of scrimmage this time. And it’s working well so far,” said Mark McKinnon, a longtime GOP presidential strategist who is neutral in the 2012 contest.
“It’s a safe strategy,” he continued. “But it may not be a safe election.”
Even as Romney leads the polls and has monetary and organizational advantages over his opponents, there is little evidence that he has expanded his support base far beyond where he left off in 2008. Early buzz has eluded him, instead centering on other candidates, such as Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a likely contender — and even non-candidates, such as Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels.
As the 2012 contest moves into a new phase this week, Romney, who has avoided direct engagements with his Republican rivals, is preparing to face an aggressive onslaught during a debate Thursday from the likes of Bachmann and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty.
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