Allen told voters he would "trust the people" as he pushed for an across-the-board tax cut.

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When 72 percent say the budget surplus should first be used to strengthen Social Security and Medicare, it's impossible to make a case for giving all the surplus away in a giant, unnecessary, unwanted, across-the-board tax cut.

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Mr Bush may be willing to privatise Social Security by introducing individual retirement accounts (as The Economist would like) but he may well succumb instead to an across-the-board tax cut.

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Republicans get their desired across-the-board tax cut extension, albeit for at least two years.

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You may be calling for an across-the-board tax cut for the banking industry right now.

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With many companies understandably angry over the loss of their favored treatment, they could likely be placated by an across-the-board cut in corporate income tax rates.

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When Reagan took office in 1981, he proposed a 10 percent across-the-board personal income tax cut each year for three years.

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Some of these ideas have been modest, but plans such as Bush's call for a sweeping across-the-board cut in income tax rates, a massive national missile defense effort and fundamental restructuring of Social Security and Medicare represent the sort of bold departures from which his father recoiled.

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And they asked a basic question: What are the pros and cons of using a VAT to cut the deficit compared to an across-the-board hike in income tax rates.

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On the tax side, Romney promises to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, then cut individual rates by 20 percent across the board, repeal the estate tax and the Alternative Minimum Tax, and repeal the tax hikes in the 2010 health law.

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