Romney Record a Hit in Michigan

Jonathan Martin, The Politico notes McCain mailer in Michigan goes negative. It tries to hit Romney on taxes, as most recent polls show Romney's record and message on the economy are a hit in Michigan.

HT Mitt backers David and Devon via email:

Here are the approximate numbers:

$240 million -- Romney's fee hikes on targeted services like highway billboards, multiple copies of driver's licenses, bar exams, etc
$260 million -- Fee hikes that were passed prior to Romney's first year in office, yet did not take effect until Romney was IN office
$150 million -- Romney closed corporate tax loopholes

Add all three up, and there's your $650 million, which usually gets rounded to $700 million. Of course, Romney's contribution is only $400 million. Closing the corporate tax loopholes are simply enforcing existing tax code as it was intended...to call this a tax hike is like calling it a sentencing when you send an escaped convict back to prison.

And the $240 million of fee hikes that Romney approved were more than offset by various TAX CUTS he implemented...in other words, better than a "revenue neutral" shift of taxes to service fees, which any conservative should like. The service fees were generally in line with national and local inflationary trends, as well as making the prices more reflective of the actual costs. Fees generally make accounting in government more transparent, as you can see where the money is going...and there's really no good reason to subsidize a service cost below its market value anyway.

Here's the link for a whole litany of Romney's tax cuts, the biggest of which was his reversal of the $250 million retroactive capital gains tax in 2005.

Mitt Romney is pro-growth-- for making the Bush tax cuts permanent, across the board tax cuts, making middle class savings tax free, cutting the corporate tax rate, killing the death tax, and making qualified medical expenses tax-deductible.

Latest RCP poll average here, which shows Romney in the lead after the latest polls go his way. It's clear Mitt's can-do, turnaround record in both the public and private sector is a hit in Michigan.

UPDATE: Romney closes with McCain on Intrade quotes. (Scroll down from RCP Michigan poll averages.)

UPDATE: Mitt makes a personal connection in Michigan:

For a Harvard Business School grad who swears by statistics and sometimes seems to lack a personal touch, it’s a striking appeal, based more on human emotion than empirical data.

“I make you this commitment: If I’m president of the United States, I will not rest until Michigan has come back,” Romney pledged to loud applause at his final rally here in the western part of the state on Lake Michigan.

Earlier in the day, not far from his childhood home outside Detroit, Romney slung his arm around the shoulder of his first-grade teacher and walked her outside after a speech to introduce her to the press corps.

A little quip on that here.

UPDATE: Just saw Mitt on CBS Face the Nation--he had a great line in reference to his record of turning around companies, some who had been written off, and creating jobs--"lots of people know how Washington works, I'm the only one running who knows how America works".

UPDATE: Mitt on CNN with Blitzer. Makes a great point that the first thing he would do for short-term economic stimulus is to cut middle class taxes, for Americans earning under $200,000 a year--put dollars back in the pockets of Americans at home, which would help small businesses and consumers. The second thing to do is work to limit housing foreclosures to keep the market from dropping further.

UPDATE: "I will not rest as president until Michigan's economy has turned the corner".--Michigan is a bellwether for competing around the world, with China.

UPDATE: Liberal WaPo lauds the story that a dinosaur liberal, not even deserving of the title RINO, does not support Mitt.

UPDATE: Henry Payne at NRO The Corner:

But McCain’s rhetoric masks Big Government instincts that may not play well if Mitt Romney continues to hammer McCain on economic themes. Long a national anomaly with its one-state recession, Michigan is suddenly on the cutting edge of economic concerns that have now grown national.

UDPATE: The Swamp covers the Sunday shows "Romney's got a Rambler in his veins", ending with another great Mitt quote:

"It would be nice if Gov. Huckabee would stick to the things he knows about," Romney said, noting as an example that his firm was an early investor in Staples office supply stores. And, borrowing a Biblical tone from Huckabee, a Baptist minister, Romney said, "Don't cast rocks at people who are trying to create jobs and turn around businesses. We need people who know how to do that."

UPDATE: Mark Steyn, "Primary Capitalism":

...Thursday night’s debate he was attacked for raising taxes in Arkansas. “What I raised,” riposted the Huckster, “was hope.”

Terrific. In a Huckabee administration, nothing is certain but hope and taxes. Did he poll-test the line? Was it originally “What I didn’t raise was tobacco”? Or did he misread the line? Did he mean to say “hogs”? Is there any correlation between taxes and hope? If you cut taxes by 20 percent, does hope nosedive off the cliff? Not for those of us who were hoping for a tax cut. And is there any evidence that he “raised hope”? Hope of what? Huck’s line is a degradation of FDR: We have nothing to hope for but hope itself.

Related posts: Smugglers for Huckabee, The Ultimate Con, Huckabee's Catholic Problem, Update on NH, Hope is not enough, Wide Open Race