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Romney Downplays Scope of His Anti-Tax Pledge

February 18, 2007 11:40 AM

ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: Former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., downplayed the scope of an anti-tax pledge he signed Dec. 31, 2006 in an unaired portion of an interview with ABC News' "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

"But you can read the pledge, if you will," Romney said in his "This Week" interview, "and you can see that it's drawn very narrowly. It's not drawn very broadly. It talks about raising the highest marginal income tax rate. It does not talk about all forms of revenue for the government."

Romney is right when he says that his tax pledge does not talk about "all forms of revenue for the government."

But if you take up his invitation to read the pledge on the web site of Grover Norquist's "Americans for Tax Reform," it is actually quite a bit broader than Romney suggested.

In the pledge, Romney committed himself to oppose increasing the marginal income tax rates for all "individuals and/or businesses" -- not simply to oppose "raising the highest marginal income tax rate," as he said in his interview with Stephanopoulos.

He also pledged to "oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates."

Romney is the only top-tier Republican presidential hopeful to have taken the pledge so far -- other 2008 hopefuls who have signed the pledge are Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and former Gov. Jim Gilmore, R-Va.

February 18, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0)

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