By any measure, this coming presidential election will be a dramatic turning point for our country. And as ours is a nation that best functions with a steady, disciplined, and practiced hand at the helm, it is my firm belief that Rudy Giuliani is the man we need in the White House.

The reality is that we live in a time of unparalleled competition, with future economic powerhouses like China and India growing by leaps and bounds daily. We simply will not maintain our competitive advantage if we continue to pass bloated budgets that invite massive deficits and tax our people and corporations at higher rates than other nations. Fiscal discipline and lower taxes are no longer a luxury, but undeniable necessities. And Rudy Giuliani is the only candidate in the race, Republican or Democrat, who has inherited a government in dire fiscal straits and successfully turned it around using free-market solutions.

The New York City Rudy Giuliani inherited in 1994 was a city in rapid decay, as anyone who visited the city during that time can attest. At the very heart of this decay was a pervasive lack of responsibility that started at the very top of the city leadership. That all changed when Rudy Giuliani took over city hall.

Faced with a $2.3 billion deficit and a city council dominated by tax-and-spend liberals, Rudy executed a culture shift in New York so powerful it led George Will to tag his tenure as the “most successful episode of conservative governance in this country in the last 50 years.”

Rudy started by cutting taxes — which he did 23 times — in the face of the vocal opposition of the entrenched liberal establishment and the New York media, and the economy flourished. Over 400,000 new private-sector jobs were created, cutting unemployment in half. Growth in real GDP far outpaced the national average. And New Yorkers’ personal income increased over 40 percent — as they simultaneously enjoyed the lowest tax burden in three decades.

It was not just the deeply seeded notion of “tax first, tax often” that fell to the wayside in Rudy’s New York. His annual demands that agency heads submit budget cuts helped to keep government spending at an all-time low — in fact, New York’s economy grew nearly twice as fast as spending did. And Rudy attacked the culture of dependency that had enabled the city’s welfare rolls to balloon to more than 1.1 million, replacing it with a city that emphasized personal responsibility. Again, amidst the loud protests of the city’s liberal elites, he implemented a workfare program that helped to remove an astounding 640,000 New Yorkers off of welfare.

Some have interpreted my support for the mayor to be a direct and deliberate slight to the man who recently held my former job, Mitt Romney. But, in truth, I am simply supporting the candidate who has the vision we require and the record to back it up. There is no denying that Rudy’s accomplishments as mayor far outstrip Mitt’s as governor — Rudy led a larger government for a longer time, faced tougher challenges, and, by almost every measure, achieved better results.

It is that record and that vision, a combination unmatched amongst those running for president, which leaves me no doubt that Rudy Giuliani is the right man — and the true fiscal conservative — for our nation and our time.

— Former Massachusetts Governor Paul Cellucci is a senior adviser to the Giuliani campaign.