Steve Forbes
Steve Forbes | |
|---|---|
| File:Steve forbes foxnews.png Steve Forbes | |
| Born | July 18, 1947 |
| Occupation | Publisher |
Malcolm Stevenson "Steve" Forbes Jr. (born July 18, 1947), is the son of Malcolm Forbes and the editor-in-chief of business magazine Forbes as well as president and chief executive officer of its publisher, Forbes Inc. He was a candidate in the U.S. Presidential primaries in 1996[1] and 2000 and is currently National Co-Chair and a Senior Policy Advisor to Rudolph Giuliani's 2008 campaign.
Earlier, he was publicly known as Malcolm Forbes Jr. However, during his run for the presidency, he expressed a preference to be known as Steve Forbes.
Personal life and education
Forbes was born in Morristown, New Jersey to Malcolm Forbes and Roberta Remsen Laidlaw.[2] He has a wife, Sabina Beekman, and five daughters: Sabina, Roberta, Catherine, Moira and Elizabeth. Daughter Moira was named Publisher of ForbesLife Executive Women in 2007. Just as his children would do, Forbes attended Far Hills Country Day School. He was Princeton class of 1970.
In 1996, years after the death of his father, he changed the name credited to him on the Forbes magazine masthead from Malcolm S. Forbes Jr. to the name he had been known as throughout childhood, Steve Forbes.
Political career and views
In 1993, Steve Forbes was an adviser to the campaign of his childhood friend, Christine Todd Whitman, the Republican candidate for governor of New Jersey. [1] He helped craft Whitman's plan for a 30 percent cut in New Jersey's income tax over three years, and this plan proved to be a major factor in her defeat of incumbent Governor James Florio. [2] [3] After her election, Whitman proposed these tax cuts and they were enacted into law. Forbes made an issue of his role in these New Jersey tax cuts in his subsequent campaigns for the presidency.
Forbes entered the Republican primaries for President of the United States in 1996 and 2000, primarily running on a campaign to establish a flat income tax. He also supported the ideas of re-introducing 4 1/2% mortgages and term limits in 1996, but dropped both in 2000 (as they were minor planks in his overall platform).
Forbes' 1996 presidential campaign was based in Bedminster, NJ. His staff included several former Jack Kemp staffers and supporters who had been lined up to work for Kemp's own aborted 1996 presidential campaign. These included campaign manager Bill Dal Col, finance director Linda Pell, general counsel Paul Sullivan and deputy general counsel Jim Riley.
When Forbes ran for president in 1996 and 2000, he sold some of his Forbes Inc. voting shares to other family members to help finance his run. He did not come close to securing the Republican nomination, despite winning the Arizona and Delaware Primaries in 1996 and getting some significant shares of the vote in other primaries. In polls, voters were attracted to his passion to simplify the tax code, but found his idiosyncratic personal manner unbecoming a president. After dropping out early in the 2000 primary season, he returned to heading the magazine and company.
Major issues Forbes supports include free trade, health savings accounts, and allowing people to opt out 75% of Social Security payroll taxes into Personal Retirement Accounts (PRAs). He supports traditional Republican Party policies such as downsizing government agencies to balance the budget, opposition to pollution control, opposition to gun control and drug legalization, tough crime laws and support for the death penalty, and school vouchers. In terms of foreign policy, he called for a "US not UN foreign policy" (which is composed of anti-IMF sentiments, pro-Israeli sentiment, opposition to MFN with China, and anti-UN sentiment.) He also supports SDI and tougher immigration laws. [citation needed]
His flat tax plan has changed slightly. In 1996 he supported a flat tax of 17% on all personal and corporate earned income (unearned income such as capital gains, pensions, inheritance, and savings would be exempt.) However, he supported keeping the first $33,000 of income exempt. In 2000 he maintained the same plan, but instead of each person receiving an exemption of $33,000, it more closely resembled the Armey Plan (Forbes's version called for a $13,000 per adult and $5,000 per dependent deduction). Technically, however, this is not a flat tax, according to economic writer and lecturer Douglas Dunn, who in his paper "flat tax fiasco" points out a true flat tax has no zero bracket. Observers noted that Forbes stood to save substantial amounts in taxes if such a proposal was enacted.[citation needed] Forbes himself is quite wealthy, with a net worth upwards of $430 million.[1] In response to this criticism, Forbes promised in his 2000 campaign to exempt himself from the benefits of the flat tax.
In his 2000 campaign, Forbes professed his support for social conservatism along with his supply-side economics. Despite holding opposite positions in 1996, for the 2000 campaign, Forbes announced he was adamantly opposed to abortion and supported prayer in public schools. The previous year Forbes had issued a statement saying he would no longer donate money to Princeton University due to its hiring of philosopher Peter Singer, who favors euthanasia in certain circumstances [3].
Steve Forbes was one of the signers of the Statement of Principles of Project for the New American Century (PNAC) on June 3, 1997.
In December 2006, he joined the board of directors of the grassroots advocacy organization FreedomWorks.
On March 28, 2007, Forbes joined Rudolph Giuliani's campaign for the 2008 presidential election, serving as a National Co-Chair and Senior Policy Advisor.[4]
He is a frequent panelist on the television program Forbes on Fox, which also features members of the Forbes magazine staff, and is shown Saturday mornings on Fox News Channel at 11:00 AM EST.
Political donations
Examining donations from 1999 to 2006, the website campaignmoney.com lists Forbes as the 4th most important contributor of political funds in America, with 15 donations totalling $7,055,000.
Footnotes
External links
- Steve Forbes at Forbes
- http://www.4president.org/brochures/steveforbes1996brochure.htm
- http://www.4president.tv/
- http://www.wordwiz72.com/flattax.html
- Forbes throws weight behind Giuliani
- Steve Forbes Joins Team Rudy as National Co-Chair and Senior Policy Advisor
- RightWeb profile of Steve Forbes
- SourceWatch profile of Steve Forbes
- Profile: Steve Forbes, Center for Cooperative Research.
- "Capitalist Tool II: Defending Dynamism", interview with Reason by Virginia Postrel and Charles Oliver
- "Confront Iran to bring oil prices down" April 2006 from $70+ to $15 per barrel