“We wanted to reduce taxes and be able to accomplish some of that with the Democratic City Council, overwhelmingly Democratic. We ended up reducing taxes … 23 times successfully …” (Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Interview With WOKQ Radio’s Don Brian, Portsmouth, NH, 3/12/07)
You can always tell when a candidate is rising in popularity by the growth in the number of negative news stories and, if you’re in political circles and on everybody’s email list like we are here at the ‘Grok, the number of "urgent" correspondences detailing how really awful and wrong he/she is.
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So it goes right now with Rudy Giuliani. Often stating his support and promotion of tax cuts while Mayor of NYC, citing numerous examples, Rudy makes the case that he has a true record of accomplishment in this area that is unmatched by any of his competitors in the primary race. This week, certain media have started to take issue with some of his claims.
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What separates the proverbial "men from the boys" in politics is the ability to deal with negativity and tough, persistant lines of questioning. Rudy is definitely NOT a "boy" when it comes to dealing with media, often stating that the New York press is the toughest anywhere. Here is a YouTube featuring a brief exchange following the town hall style meeting Rudy conducted last night here in Gilford. The reporter engaged Rudy about his tax cut claims. Rudy didn’t shirk from answering and stuck by his claims…
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The following is a list, provided by the campaign, of the twenty-three tax cuts Rudy Giuliani spoke about in the quote at the top of this post:
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