Forbes: Only Tax Cut Can Save Dole

The “only way” that Bob Dole can defeat President Clinton is by proposing a major cut in taxes, says flat-tax champion and former Republican presidential aspirant Malcolm S. “Steve” Forbes Jr. Without an agenda that includes a large tax cut and massive simplification of the tax code, Dole has no chance, Forbes told a breakfast meeting of reporters Friday.

“Colin Powell is not going to save him. Mother Teresa is not going to save him,” said the magazine publisher who spent more than $36 million to finance a failed run for the presidency built around the purportedly salvific power of a single-rate income tax.

Forbes dismissed any possibility he would be Dole’s running mate, “given the nature of the primary” in which Forbes used television ads to attack Dole as a tax-raising Washington insider. Asked if it was a good investment of his family’s fortune to run for president, Forbes said yes, it had pushed the GOP “in a positive direction” on taxes. But he added, “maybe my kids would disagree.”