Former Vice President Mike Pence visits Fort Wayne
Former Vice President Mike Pence said if elected president he’d make permanent the tax cuts created under his former boss’ administration and would roll back regulations during his stop at Allen County Republican Party Headquarters.
“I’m running for president because I think this country is in a lot of trouble,” Pence told a few dozen supporters gathered late afternoon June 21 at county GOP headquarters, 135 W. Main St., Fort Wayne.
Pence credited his four years with President Donald Trump — who is among Pence’s challengers in running for a shot at the GOP nomination and is seeing to get a second term, despite numerous legal challenges — with rebuilding the U.S. military and “we stood up to our enemies as never before. We secured our border. We revived our economy. We achieved energy independence for the first time in 75 years and we appointed three of the justices to the Supreme Court that gave America a new beginning for the right to life.”
He was referencing the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision to overturn Roe v Wade, the 1973 court decision affirming the constitutional right to abortion.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic struck the U.S. in early 2020, the last year of Republican leadership in the White House, “America was more prosperous and more secure than any time in my lifetime.”
Pence said the administration of Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, has created “devastation” on the national economy.
Speaking to Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly, Pence said if elected, “First thing we’re going to do is make the Trump-Pence tax cuts permanent. They’re due to expire in 2025, and we need a Republican president and a Republican Congress to continue those tax (cuts). The last thing we need in the face of the disastrous economic policies of the Biden administration is to raise taxes on the American people.”
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 that went into effect in 2018 overhauled the U.S. Tax Code and cut individual, corporate and estate tax rates. Meanwhile, Biden asserts that the very wealthy must pay their “fair share” of taxes.
“Beyond that, it will be about getting us back to let’s end the war on energy. Let’s get back to energy independence. And then getting back to cutting two regulations for every new federal rule that goes on the books. The way we saw 7 million jobs created in just three short years was that we cut taxes and rolled back regulations in equal measure and that unleashed incredible economic growth and it will again.”
Biden has focused on renewable energy sources and limited pipeline development. One of his first actions as president was to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline, a 1,200-mile pipeline designed to carry crude oil from Hardisty, Alberta, Canada, through Montana and South Dakota to Steele City, Nebraska. A report later found the action caused the loss of billions of dollars to the economy.
Pence, who started his presidential campaign in Iowa a few weeks ago, got in a pitch for 40,000 Hoosier donors needed for him to join August’s debates through his online site, MikePence2024.com.
“I promise you, you put us on that debate stage, we’re going to make the case for conservative values all the way to the finish line,” Pence said.
Allen County GOP Chairman Steve Shine made the case for bringing Pence into the Oval Office.
“People all around the United States are saying that Mike Pence is the right person at the right time for the right office,” Shine said. “He’s a great gentleman. And he is a rock-solid conservative. He’s a conservative on military issues. He’s a conservative on economic issues. He’s a conservative on taxation. He’s a conservative on social issues. And he’s a decent man. He will engage people without degrading them. And that is the way you get things done.”
Shine also likened the former Indiana governor — who previously served portions of Allen County in the U.S. Congress — to a conservative previous Republican president.
“Look at one of the greatest presidents in the history of this country: Ronald Reagan,” Shine said. “Everyone had respected Ronald Reagan, because he had the same qualities of Mike Pence.”
Pence, who has set up residence with his wife, Karen, in Carmel since his ticket’s defeat to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, was in the area for a dinner and decided to stop by the GOP HQ.
“I said I can not come to Allen County without taking the opportunity to say thank you for your support through all our years for service. I’m Mike Pence and I’m running for president of the United States,” he said.
If elected president, “we’re going to take Hoosier values back to the White House,” he said.