Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, took aim at the Democratic Party during a Monday campaign stop at the NC A&T University Alumni Events Center in Greensboro, befitting a Republican contender leading in a recent poll of voters in the Southeastern Atlantic seaboard region.
Addressing a crowd estimated at about 750, mostly women — the event was sponsored by a group called North Carolina women for Rudy — Giuliani opened his speech with his signature theme of pursuing a muscular deployment of American military power abroad.
“We have to keep ourselves on the offensive to face the challenge of Islamic terrorism,” he said, adding an endorsement of President Bush’s policy in Iraq: “The surge is working. This is what a lot of people thought was impossible five or six months ago. It now seems possible. Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, isn’t that good for the ultimate goal, which is to protect ourselves from Islamic terrorism?”
Without mentioning the sitting president by name, Giuliani embraced several of Bush’s more controversial initiatives.
“We should have a strong military,” he said. “We should have a strong intelligence where we have the Patriot Act, we have surveillance, we have aggressive questioning of terrorist detainees — not torture.”
It was Giuliani’s domestic platform that garnered most of the applause amongst the well-heeled women who paid for the honor of listening to the former New York mayor and eating plates of quiche and fresh fruit.
“What country has more social mobility than America?” Giuliani asked. “How have we done that? We’ve done that not because we have this great big central government. It isn’t the central government that does that. It’s the people. That’s why I believe in lower taxes.”
The candidate accused his Democratic rivals of favoring a massive tax increase, which they describe as “discontinuing the Bush tax cuts.”
With the Democrats in power, Giuliani said, “you’re looking at a tax rate — federal, estate and local taxes — at 52 to 58 percent. That means you become the junior partner and the government becomes the senior partner in your success.” He added, “The only way you get people out of poverty is you help them to help themselves, help them get a good education, help them get a good job, not a welfare handout to the poor and middle class.”
Giuliani said he advocates repealing the estate tax, another sentiment that drew an appreciative response. “We should give the death penalty to the death tax,” he said. “The inheritance tax is a double tax.”
He said he is in favor of simplifying the tax code, but would not support a flat tax. He went on to say he believes some deductions, such as those for home mortgages and charitable giving, are good, and could not be disentangled from the tax code.
Giuliani built a case for the government providing education vouchers allowing parents to shop around for the school of their choice.
“American higher education is, I think, the best in the world,” he said. “The place where we’re struggling more, where we’re deteriorating — not completely deteriorating — is at K through twelve. How can one be so good and the other one have so many problems?
“One you pick and one is chosen for you,” he said in answer to his question. “Nobody forces you to go to a college that everybody thinks is terrible. Nobody forces you to go to a college where nobody’s graduated in five years. Nobody forces you to go to a college where there’s violence. What if we used that same principle for K through twelve?... Don’t you think this might be the single greatest civil rights issue of the moment?”
On the subject of healthcare, Giuliani took another swipe at the Democrats candidates, many of whom favor universal healthcare.
“Healthcare should be provided through private options, by giving people more choices, not by more government intervention,” he said. “We don’t want to go on a road that leads us inexorably towards socialized healthcare.”
Giuliani said he favors introducing a health savings account.
“The less you use the plan the more you save,” he said. “What you do is exercise more, improve your diet, and get your annual checkups.”
A poll published by Elon University in November found that Giuliani leads the pack among voters in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia who said they are likely to support the Republican candidate in the general election. Giuliani took 24.6 percent of the vote, followed by Fred Thompson with 16.2 percent and Mitt Romney with 11.6 percent. A large portion, 28.7 percent, indicated their votes were up for grabs.
An earlier poll conducted specifically for North Carolina ranked Giuliani second among likely Republican voters in the Old North State, with 21.0 percent, behind Thompson.
Many of those in the audience at A&T wanted to know the Giuliani’s stance on immigration.
The candidate’s response was concise: “We should end illegal immigration and expand legal immigration. We have to do the first before we can do the second.”
His specific plan involves implementing a BorderStat program modeled after the New York Police Department’s CompStat program to impose accountability at the border. He would also issue a biometric identification card for non-citizen workers and students, and create a foreign resident database.
“In the era of the war on terror and the drug dealing, we have the technology to do it,” he said. “We’re gonna be a better, more healthy country for it.” He added that he has the experience to manage “big programs.”
Giuliani was introduced by Aldona Wos, the former ambassador to Estonia and the wife of Louis DeJoy. Wos’ husband is the chairman and CEO of Greensboro’s New Breed Logistics and reportedly the vice-chair of Giuliani’s North Carolina campaign committee. As has been previously reported, DeJoy and Wos hosted President Bush at a fundraiser at their Irving Park house in October 2006.
“We all envision peace, prosperity and freedom for all,” Wos said, introducing Giuliani. “Today we have with us a former US attorney and mayor who has the proven experience to champion these goals.”
Giuliani, in turn, described Wos as “a major supporter and a really good friend.”
According to this Washington Post blog post, DeJoy is one of Giuliani’s “bundlers,” fundraisers who have committed to raising between $50,000 and $1 million for the campaign. Federal Election Commissions records show that Wos has donated a total of $4,600 to the Giuliani campaign, $9,600 to committees affiliated with North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole, and $28,500 to the Republican National Committee in 2007, while her husband has donated $4,600 each to the Giuliani and Dole campaigns, and $1,000 to North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment