Huntsman Urges Stripping Deductions From Tax Code (original) (raw)

Politics|Huntsman Urges Stripping Deductions From Tax Code

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/us/politics/01huntsman.html

Aug. 31, 2011

Jon M. Huntsman Jr. again showed himself on Wednesday to be an ideological outlier in the Republican presidential field, calling for the tax code to be stripped of all loopholes and deductions.

Congressional Republicans have resisted closing loopholes in recent budget talks, portraying such moves as tax increases.

“Over the last few decades, our tax code has devolved into a maze of special-interest carve-outs, loopholes and temporary provisions that cost taxpayers more than $400 billion a year to comply with,” Mr. Huntsman said in a speech at a metal plant in Hudson, N.H. “Get rid of all tax expenditures, all loopholes, all deductions, all subsidies, all corporate welfare.”

Mr. Huntsman’s plan, which borrows from both Representative Paul D. Ryan’s proposal and the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission recommendations to reduce the deficit, also calls for sharply lowering both corporate and individual tax rates, as well as ending taxes on capital gains and dividends, positions more in line with Republican orthodoxy.

It calls for simplified income tax rates of 8 percent, 14 percent and 23 percent, but would eliminate popular tax breaks like the deduction for interest on home mortgages.

Mr. Huntsman, who was President Obama’s ambassador to China for two years, has struggled to gain national attention for his presidential bid, and his speech on his economic plan was yet another instance in which he cast himself as a moderate among his fellow Republicans. For example, he sent out a Twitter post in August that contrasted himself with his rivals, some of whom have questioned both evolution and the premise that human activities cause climate change.

“To be clear,” the post read. “I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Huntsman also pushed for energy independence, the part of his speech that seemed to garner the most applause.

The most poignant moment of his remarks came in the question-and-answer session when someone asked what he thought of China’s one-child policy. (The policy was recently in the news when, during his visit to China, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. seemed to condone it.)

“I hate the one-child policy, as do a lot of people there,” Mr. Huntsman said, explaining that “it is robbing the Chinese people of life and opportunity.”

But, he added, his 12-year-old daughter, whom he and his wife adopted from China, was a direct result of the policy.

“I’ve got to say it has given me one of the loves of my life in my own daughter,” he said.

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