Among the GOP presidential candidates who have signed the pledge not to raise taxes in the past, all of them kept it, contrary to claims made at second debate.
The two South Carolinians running for the Republican presidential nomination, former Governor Nikki Haley and Senator Tim Scott, got into a heated exchange at the second Republican primary debate on September 27, which has since generated numerous headlines. During the debate held at the Reagan Library, Senator Scott went at the candidate who has leapfrogged him in polls, criticizing Haley for drapes purchased by the Obama administration and repeatedly accusing her of proposing a gas tax increase during her time as governor.
A review of the historical record, however, shows Senator Scott’s accusations against Haley incomplete and misleading. Nikki Haley did not champion a gas tax hike during any of her six years in the South Carolina governor’s mansion. It was Republican state lawmakers at the time who first proposed and drove the push for a gas tax hike.
In response to the effort to raise South Carolina’s gas tax, then-Governor Haley countered by telling state legislators she would only consider a gas tax increase if it were tied to an income tax cut of greater size. Underscoring how misleading it is to brand Haley as a tax hiker is a 2015 letter sent from Americans For Tax Reform president Grover Norquist to South Carolina legislators, urging them to support then-Governor Haley’s proposed income tax cut, noting that its benefits would outweigh the costs of any gas tax hike tied to it.
