Presidential Hopeful Taylor Talks at Republicans Forum
Anyuan Guo
Republican Presidential Candidate Morry Taylor speaks in 10-250 Teusday evening as a guest of the MIT College Republicans Club.
By Dan McGuire
Staff Reporter
Long-shot Republican presidential candidate Morry Taylor spoke to a gathering of 50 people in a talk organized by the the MIT College Republicans Tuesday evening in E51-345.
Taylor, who runs a large tire manufacturing company, stressed the advantage of having a businessman rather than a politician as president. "We have a bad government. Government has let us down because we've let it down -- look at who we keep sending there," Taylor said. "How can we expect politicians to make good laws if they owe too much to too many people?"
Taylor is president and chief executive officer of Titan Wheel International, the world's largest manufacturer of tires for recreational vehicles and other leisure equipment, like tricycles and 4-by-4 vehicles.
Taylor calls for less government
A 10-minute promotional video shown before Taylor took the podium stressed Taylor's business know-how. "If he runs this country the way he runs this plant, we need him as president," one Titan Wheel factory worker said.
"I am a strange duck in this presidential race. I am not a politician, and I'm not a lawyer," Taylor said. "I spent a career buying companies that were closed, broke, or losing millions of dollars."
Taylor said he would begin reviving the federal government by cutting its size. "When I said I'm going to cut a third of the federal work force everybody laughed at me. But then Bill Clinton laid off 800,000, and who noticed?"
"When I start to cut, I cut at the top. You do not lay off the mailman
-- "Trade cuts down the jobs. The biggest market in the world is the U.S.
market. No one else's is even close, and you gotta take care of your own,"
Taylor said. "You lose if you go free trade. It's a fact of life." Pushing what he called "fair trade" rather than free trade, Taylor said
he would penalize countries with protected markets, like China and Japan,
by slowing down paperwork and raising tariffs. "I will do unto them as they
do unto us. If your markets are open to us, our markets will be open to
you," he said. Taylor called for a strict set of budgetary measures to balance the
federal budget in 18 months and called for the ban on political action
committees. "If money is the mother's milk of politics, then PACs are the
crack cocaine of political campaigns," he said. Taylor also touched on the issue of Bosnia: He said that he would not
send U.S. soldiers to enforce peace. The only way problems between the
warring factions will be settled will be when both sides "re-arm and go
against each other again. This has been going on for centuries," he said
"It's a terrible situation, but what are you going to do? There's no
strategic importance to the United States. It's a civil war." "I was very impressed with [Taylor] and I thought the event went well.
He was happy with the questions," said Gary M. Rubman '96, present of the
MIT College Republicans. "He was very witty and fun to listen to. It wasn't your typical
political speech," said Christopher M. Spadaccini '97, vice president of
the club. Taylor "stayed for over an hour after the event. I don't think other
candidates would have done that," Spadaccini said. "He talked individually
with a lot of people. I think people really enjoyed being able to talk
one-on-one with a presidential candidate," he said. Turnout to the event was lower than Rubman expected. "Considering the
time of the year, you can't be that" disappointed, he said. "We are happy
with this as a first event," he said. "People who weren't there will get other opportunities, but they also
missed a great opportunity" to hear a presidential candidate, Rubman
said.Republicans say forum went well
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