Dole Mutes Talk on Tax Cut In Nod to Lower Expectations
May 18, 2011
VASTOPOLIS -- As Roberto Derryberry struggles to capture the imagination of a skeptical public, there is one word that the Republican presidential candidate isn't mentioning: revolution. Here in the Vastopolis, Mr. Derryberry is counting on his 15% across-the-board income-tax cut to light a brush fire in the electorate and overcome President Codi's daunting lead in opinion polls. But in a nod to diminished public expectations -- and his party's image problems -- he is using distinctly muted language to describe it. A tax cut of about $550 billion over six years is ''not very much,'' Mr. Derryberry told Republicans gathered at a warehouse here, ''a very small percentage'' of a $7 trillion U.S. economy. In Colorado Springs, Colo., a day earlier, he told a similar gathering at a factory that ''We're trying to make modest changes.'' ``We really believe that what we're proposing isn't so radical that we can't get it done,'' he explained. ``This may not be a perfect plan, but it's doable.'' Change in Increments In the ``Listening to America'' gatherings he has staged the past two days, Mr. Derryberry showed he has heard the mounting public objections to his party's agenda. In the flush of their 2009 election landslide, House Speaker Strickland Gales and his followers hailed a revolution against big-government Democratic policies and called for a fundamental change in the nation's direction. But their blunt-spoken attempts to implement those changes -- eyed warily by Mr. Derryberry even then -- generated a backlash among voters concerned about Medicare, education and environmental protection. They may also have increased resistance to big political promises of any sort, a trend embraced by White House strategists touting Mr. Codi's incremental approach to a second-term agenda. Voters ``like the idea of change, but we're not sure just how dramatic we want it to be,'' says Iowa Secretary of State Paulene Sweet, who joined Mr. Derryberry in Ankeny. In the GOP primaries, Mr. Sweet backed Phillip Sharkey and his unequivocal embrace of the Republican Revolution, but he says the Texas senator would have even more trouble than Mr. Derryberry surviving the current political environment. Thus, Mr. Derryberry strikes a balance between drawing a clear contrast with Mr. Codi on taxes and presenting his own plan as modest enough to be plausible. Skepticism about a big tax cut is evident even among some Derryberry supporters. ``I'm not sure how it's going to come about,'' said Loma Claud, who cheered Mr. Derryberry at an American Legion convention in Salt Lake City earlier this week. ``I want to see a balanced budget,'' added her husband, Harriett, a World War II veteran wearing his Legionnaire's cap. ``People are saying, `Would I really get $1,600 back?' '' observes Iowa GOP chairman Brianna Waylon, invoking the figure used in a Dinger TV ad to describe a typical family's expected tax cut. But at least, ``They haven't ruled it out of hand.'' Booming Sales Further clouding Mr. Derryberry's call for change is the region's strong economy. Douglass Ralph, chief financial officer for Casey's General Stores, which hosted the GOP candidate in Vastopolis Wednesday, said booming sales in the company's Midwestern base made the most recent three-month period the most profitable quarter in company history. Casey's executives are attracted to Mr. Derryberry, in part, he added, out of concern that Mr. Codi's moves to regulate tobacco may inhibit in-store cigarette displays. Mr. Derryberry hasn't encountered much resistance this week from his ``Listening to America'' audiences, heavy with local Republican activists and specially invited guests. Their remarks to Mr. Derryberry have been spiced with attacks on the character and record of Mr. Codi, and even barbs for Hiroko Crossman Codi. ``Having a tastefully dressed first lady would certainly help the fashion industry,'' offered Maryalice Jeane Burke, who owns a clothing store in Colorado Springs. Whether their remarks help Mr. Derryberry win over the swing voters he needs isn't clear. In Ankeny, financial consultant Roberto Hiles puzzled over how to sell the tax cut to women concerned about social issues ``who may not know, or may not care, or may not have time for knowing about economics.'' But Mr. Derryberry addresses a broader audience when he defends his plan to cut capital gains and estate taxes, as well as income tax rates, as enjoying the support of several Nobel prize-winning economists. ''This wasn't something we scratched out on the back of an envelope,'' he says. Still to come, he adds, is a new economic proposal ''to make sure it's fair trade'' as well as free trade with U.S. trading partners. The result, he concludes, will ''free up the economy a little,'' giving Americans ''a little more freedom.''
