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Steve Forbes
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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 Republican candidate in the U.S. Presidential primaries in 1996 and 2000. He is the grandson of B.C. Forbes, founder of Forbes magazine.
es was born in Morristown, New Jersey, the son of Roberta Remsen (née Laidlaw) and Malcolm Forbes.
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Encyclopedia
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 Republican candidate in the U.S. Presidential primaries in 1996 and 2000. He is the grandson of B.C. Forbes, founder of Forbes magazine.
Biography
Personal life and education
Forbes was born in Morristown, New Jersey, the son of Roberta Remsen (née Laidlaw) and Malcolm Forbes. He is married to Sabina Beekman, and they have five daughters. 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 graduated cum laude in 1966 from Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts, and was in the Princeton class of 1970. While at Princeton, Forbes founded his first magazine, Business Today, with three other students. Business Today is currently the largest student-run magazine in the world.
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.
He served as an occasional guest host on the show History's Business on History.
Forbes has been a resident of Far Hills, New Jersey, but is currently residing in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Political career and views
Early political career
In 1985, President Ronald Reagan appointed Forbes as head the Board of International Broadcasting (BIB), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
He helped craft Christine Todd 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. 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.
Campaigns for President and major issues
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).
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. After dropping out early in the 2000 primary season, he returned to heading the magazine and company.
Major issues Forbes has supported 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 Most Favored Nation status for the People's Republic of China, and anti-UN sentiment.)
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). Observers noted that Forbes stood to save substantial amounts in taxes if such a proposal was enacted. Forbes himself is quite wealthy, with a net worth upwards of $430 million. In response to this criticism, Forbes promised in his 2000 campaign to exempt himself from the benefits of the flat tax, although he did support the repeal of the 16th Amendment in a debate with Alan Keyes the previous year.
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 views personhood as being limited to 'sentient' beings and therefore considers some disabled people and all infants to lack this status. Steve Forbes was one of the signers of the Statement of Principles of Project for the New American Century (PNAC) on June 3, 1997.
Recent political career
In December 2006, Forbes joined the board of directors of the grassroots advocacy organization FreedomWorks. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the Heritage Foundation, an influential Washington, D.C.-based public policy research institute. 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.
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. Later in the 2008 presidential campaign, Forbes served as John McCain's Economic Adviser on Taxes, Energy and the Budget during McCain's bid for the 2008 Presidential election.
Political donations
For donations from 1999 to 2006, Forbes was the tenth most important contributor of political funds in America, with 15 donations totalling over $7 Million.
External links
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