He's a fellow Vietnam veteran who led Pennsylvania with an impressive record of tax cuts and budget restraints.

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The 2003 tax cuts have produced record receipts for the government.

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In the Senate, with its 60-vote requirement, two of the 42 Republicans have come out against the compromise and eight Democrats are on record favoring extending all the Bush tax cuts.

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Some have suggested that we go back to the tired economics of the past that got us into this mess in the first place, like making budget-busting tax cuts, turning record surpluses into record debts, and squandering assets abroad instead of investing in nation building here at home.

WHITEHOUSE: A Conversation on Rebuilding the Economy at the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce��s Annual Convention | The White House

In the hustle to make sense of the conflicting messages from Virginia and New Jersey, campaign consultants may conclude that the promise of tax cuts does seduce voters, while a record of tax-cutting leaves them cold.

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Record job losses, lower incomes, and the extension of the Bush tax cuts has been a drain on US government revenues since the crisis of 2008.

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Now, with the states running record deficits, state politicians are threatening to make a hash of any new federal tax cuts.

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European governments large and small are imposing austerity measures (pay and pension cuts, cuts in government spending, tax increases, etc.) to tackle record budget deficits, the timing questionable when their economic recoveries are so fragile.

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One more example of how congressional Republicans have lost their political moorings--look at their spending record and their inability, so far, to extend or make permanent the prosperity-producing tax cuts of 2003--was the recent vote by the House of Representatives to severely restrict so-called 527 groups (so named for the section of the tax code under which they are incorporated).

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