Governor Bobby Jindal (R-La.), a candidate for the presidency of the United States, has signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge to the American people. The pledge is a written commitment to the American people to “oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes.”
“I commend Governor Jindal for signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge to the hard working taxpayers of this country,” said Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform. “Governor Jindal understands that government should be reformed so that it takes and spends less of the taxpayers’ money, and will oppose tax increases that paper over and continue the failures of the past.”
Of the 17 GOP Presidential candidates, nine have experience serving as chief executive of a state. A study by Dan Clifton, head of policy research at Strategas Research Partners, provides an apples-to-apples comparison of their record on government spending. The chart below compares the average annual increase in general fund spending during each Governor’s term. During his time in office, Gov. Jindal has the most aggressive anti-spending record:
ATR has shared the Pledge with all candidates for federal office since 1986. In the 114th Congress, 49 U.S. Senators and 218 members of the U.S. House of Representatives have signed the Pledge. Pledge signers include Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, and GOP Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan are also pledge signers. On the state level, 13 incumbent governors and approximately 1,000 incumbent state legislators have signed the Pledge.
Though it is still early in the 2016 nominating process, most of the GOP candidates have already made a written commitment to the American people that they will oppose and veto any tax increase in the event they are elected to the White House. Along with Jindal, these candidates include Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, Rick Perry, Carly Fiorina, Dr. Ben Carson, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, and Jim Gilmore.
In 2012, all candidates for the Republican nomination for president signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, with the lone exception of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman. Huntsman finished seventh in Iowa and third in New Hampshire before dropping out of the race.