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A Crowded Field.

by Kelly on October 9th, 2007

No, I’m not talking about the Chicago Bears (”13 men on the field”) during their impressive comeback at Green Bay on Sunday night. I’m talking about the GOP presidential primary - nine candidates participated in the most recent debate.

Nothing confuses potential voters more than hearing candidates argue about prospective tax plans and disjointed and irrelevant references to past tax and spending history (we all know that the presidency is worlds apart from state and local politics). Nonetheless, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani were happy to exchange barbs while their colleagues looked on.

Giuliani claimed, “I cut taxes 23 times. I believe in tax cuts.”

Romney countered by claiming that he exercised the line item veto 844 times while Governor of Massachusetts.

The sparring continued with Romney pointing fingers at Giuliani’s support of the New York commuter tax. Giuliani, in turn, pointed at New York City’s healthy economy and said, “The point is that you’ve got to control taxes. I did it, he didn’t. … I led, he lagged.” Romney’s response? “I did not increase taxes in Massachusetts. I lowered taxes.”

And so it went, largely, with confusing statistics and rhetoric. All candidates seemed to agree on only one thing: that spending in Washington has become unmanageable.

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POSTED IN: politics