Steve Forbes's response seems to have alleviated most of the Club for Growth's concerns about Giuliani and Social Security, although the group urges him to go further by offering a detailed free-market reform perposal.

Pat Toomey writes:

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.

Sincerely,

Pat Toomey

President, Club for Growth