During his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney has signed American’s for Tax Reform’s “Taxpayer Protection Pledge’’ and the “Cut, Cap, and Balance’’ pledge.
But as The Boston Globe reports, during his 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign, Romney held a decidedly different position regarding Grover Norquist’s controversial anti-tax pledge:
“I’m not intending to, at this stage, sign a document which would prevent me from being able to look specifically at the revenue needs of the Commonwealth,’’ he said. Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney’s spokesman, went further, calling such pledges “government by gimmickry.’’
Romney’s rationale for eschewing pledges was probably summed up best by this statement (also from The Globe in 2002): “I’m going to fight taxes … [But] I can’t give you a guarantee. We could have a monster come out of the deep and grab Beacon Hill.”
I’m, of course, SHOCKED to discover that Romney has changed his mind on pledges …