In an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star, economic writer Stephen Moore, a campaign adviser to President Trump and Heritage Foundation fellow, tells why he has joined FreedomWorks to bring its “Axes to Taxes” tour to Tennessee.
The event, hosted by the Tennessee Republican Assembly, will be held at the Dairy King in Nashville a week from Saturday, August 5, at 8:30 am.
“The idea behind the tour is that FreedomWorks has about 6 million grassroots activists around the country, many of them Tea Party activists, many of them Donald Trump and Ted Cruz supporters from the past presidential race. Our concern is the left is making all the noise. It’s not our side that’s really activated the way liberals are,” Moore said.
In order to counter balance that, “we need to get our side fired up again,” he added. “So that’s our real goal is to have this tour around the country.”
Moore pointed out the practical impact of the noise from the left.
“When these members in Congress go home for the recess, all they hear from is liberals. We want to get our side really ginned up again,” Moore said.
Moore praised his friend, former Nashville talk radio host Steve Gill, for his role in stopping the state income tax plan proposed by Governor Don Sundquist from 2000 to 2002.
“That was a helluva of a fight. Imagine if Tennesse had an income tax now!” Moore said.
Because the state has no state income tax, “Tennessee is one of the three fastest growing states in the country,” Moore noted.
Moore compared Tennessee which successfully fended off a state income tax, with Connecticut, where a state income tax was passed just a few years earlier in the 1990s.
“Connecticut is a disaster!” Moore pointed out.
Gill will be introducing Moore at the August 5Â Axes to Taxes event in Nashville, which Moore says will focus on tax reform.
“There’s no issue that’s more exciting to our side than fixing the tax system,” Moore notes.
Moore said that at the event, “we really debate the flat tax, the fair tax, the Trump plan, to get the grassroots activated and educate.”
“We’ve got to get this tax stuff done,” in order to keep the economy growing, Moore said.
Moore noted that the Axes to Taxes tour has been very well received.
“We started about a month ago. We’ve done about five events, from Myrtle Beach South Carolina to Atlanta. We did one in North Carolina, Â We did one in Charleston.”
Last week, the tour hit the west coast, going to Orange County, California.
Each tour event, Moore said, “lasts about two hours.”
“People get really fired up, We also talk about getting a tax bill done this year.”
Speaking of getting a tax bill done, Moore said, “it’s really a two step process.”
“This is really not just to educate, but also to energize the grassroots activists. We want to get them engaged in the fight.”
“We want to Make America Great Again through tax reform. That means a complete overhaul of the tax system, just ripping it up and starting over,” he added.
Moore noted that there is no specific Trump tax plan bill for consideration, but such a plan will be coming soon.
“There’s no bill yet. There will be a bill soon that we will be promoting,” he said.
No mention of the gas tax increase. Strange….