Rudy showed why he will be formidable in Florida. If the subject
is economics he’s got an issue he can use to his advantage. This
exchange from This Week shows him both on defense successfully
batting away Romney allegations and on offense making the case for
his superior fiscal record:
“STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, you’re laughing, Mr. Mayor, but you did
sue the state of New York to keep a commuter tax in place, and you
did leave a projected deficit when you left as mayor of New
York.
GIULIANI: Well, the fact is, I’ve had eight balanced budgets,
including that one, which turned out to be balanced. And we took
the actions necessary to do that, including cutting back spending.
And of course, my record in tax cutting is so much better than
anyone else.The reality is, I didn’t cut all taxes. I wasn’t able
to cut all taxes. I recommended, George, 64 tax cuts. We
accomplished 23 of them. Now with my new program in which we’re
recommending tax cuts, it will be the largest tax cut in American
history.But the reality is, you can’t get all those tax cuts
done.And that’s the process I use. I put out a lot of tax cuts, and
then eventually, you get some of them. And some of them you also
have to accept the tax cuts that your opponents may want. In some
cases, I had to accept tax cuts that the Democrats in the city
council thought were better.But on balance, I got the tax cuts that
I wanted, and I did more than anyone else in government to reduce
taxes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You said you balanced eight budgets. But
factcheck.org did a look at your record, and it said that you
inherited a $2.3 billion deficit, but the last budget you
projected, the one you left to your successor, had a $2.8 billion
deficit.And Mayor Bloomberg has complained in the past about the
deficits that he was left with to deal with.
GIULIANI: The reality is, I left in the middle of the fiscal
year. In the middle of every fiscal year for eight years, there’s
always a deficit because you don’t close it until the end of the
year. The last budget that I closed was balanced. The last budget
that I closed after I left was balanced.And that’s the way it works
in New York City. You don’t balance a budget until you get to the
end of the year, when you start recognizing revenues and you get a
better picture of it. That was true in all eight years, George.
And, I mean, George Will said that I ran the most conservative
government in America in the last 50 or 60 years. And I think a
large part of it was, very strong fiscal management. I also turned
around the economy of New York City, and I think I’m the only one
who has an accomplishment like that. I took over a city with 10.5
percent unemployment. I left a city with 5 percent unemployment. I
took over a city that had lost 320,000 jobs. I turned over a city
that had 450,000 new jobs. And we moved 640,000 people off welfare,
many of them to work.I don’t think anyone would dispute that it was
probably the most successful government turnaround in the last 30
or 40 years.”
On the Bush stimulus package he made the case that while so
called short term measures are nice permanent tax cuts are key to
business investment decisions.Once again, Rudy is back in the
picture. UPDATE: On the stump today he makes his pitch,
distinguishing his record from McCain in clear but respectful
tones.
