Fred Thompson Says He Would Sign FairTax Bill
UPDATE: In response to Fred Johnson’s comment, below...
Thanks for the heads-up. I was unaware that AFFT had ever “made a big deal about it” or that Thompson’s campaign had responded.
Regarding the clip being “obviously edited”... the unedited clip is publicly available from ABC News. Whatever editing took place seems to have consisted of simply splicing together footage from two on-location video cameras in order to make the question more audible.
So to the extent that it was “edited” it’s clearly not a case of dishonest or spin-oriented editing. The senator was asked a question and he responded to it in the affirmative.
Take it for what it’s worth, then. If nothing else, it shows that Thompson had a favorable opinion of the FairTax at some point.
Thompson is clearly familiar with the bill, and is not much of a panderer. (As one item of evidence, consider his “won’t raise my hand” performance in the recent Republican debate in Iowa.) I strongly doubt he would instinctively say that he’d sign a bill he disapproves of or disagrees with on principle.
I do not fault his campaign for saying, under pressure from AFFT, that he has not yet taken a pledge about the FairTax. Politically, it is one thing to reveal that you are in favor of something, and another thing entirely to make a public pledge about whether you would sign a bill. The latter takes far more political care and analysis.
In the ABC News article to which you linked, it’s interesting to me how eagerly the liberals seized upon Thompson’s supposed inconsistency. I think most politically-savvy liberals would not like to see Thompson win the Republican primary.
I am personally a Thompson supporter whether he supports the FairTax or not, and I’ve wondered many times whether supporting the FairTax would be more of an asset or a liability in the general election.
There are a lot of FairTax supporters out there, but it’s also quite a lightening-rod issue in terms of the number of detractors and the extent to which some people viscerally Hayd hate it.
I’m actually surprised you put this up. This (obviously edited) video is from July and after the AFT made a big deal about it, Thompson’s campaign said he didn’t make any pledge.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3428541&page=1
The AFT’s scorecard page had to change him from “Yes” to “Noncommittal.”
Fred -
I thought it looked familiar! Do you think the wheels are starting to come off this wagon?
Regards,
John
[Ed: I wondered myself about the wheels coming off a few months ago. But the FairTax now has more political support than ever in congress.]
Well, it seems obvious to me that the question was “re-shot.” It may have been the exact same question, but you just don’t do that.
Ah, I think you’re that it was re-shot.
*shrug* Since his answer was quite significant, and the question was difficult to hear clearly in the original footage, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me. Politically aggressive? Yes. Dishonest? Nah.
Whether or not this is a “do over” on the original attempt - doesn’t matter, except that if it is, it shows some anxiety on the part of the AFFT folks concerning the state of the political support for the FT.
Assuming this is current and authentic, it just shows the Ol’ Fred is smarter than Mr. Huckabee. He spent enough time working on Capitol Hill to know that whatever comes out of Congress, if anything does, will probably not be recognizable to the FT folks, anyway. So, saying he will sign the FairTax if it reaches his desk would be a very safe statement on his part.
Bottom line - Whoever is elected President - That person by him or herself will not be able to get the FairTax enacted.
Merry Christmas -
John