Giuliani’s Record as Tax Cutter Questioned

Many conservatives are backing Rudy Giuliani because they believe he is generally with him, even if they shudder at the pictures of him in drag. Among other attributes, they think Giuliani will cut their taxes–which is a big thing among Republicans who would let the whole country fall apart if it meant a two percent reduction in their tax rate. They believe Giuliani is a tax cutter because he claims to be one. The New York Daily News says it isn’t so:

It is Rudy Giuliani’s favorite boast on the presidential campaign trail: “I cut taxes 23 times” as mayor of New York, he says, a claim inevitably met by applause.

The impressive-sounding stat stars in radio ads this week in New Hampshire and Iowa, where the voiceover asserts that Giuliani “cut or eliminated 23 taxes.”

Trouble is, it’s not really true, say tax-cutting allies of the former mayor, as well as experts at the city’s Independent Budget Office and elsewhere.

A close examination of the tax-slashing claims from a list provided by his campaign show that in at least four cases, the former mayor is seizing credit for cuts initiated by others and, in one case, for a tax reduction he fought.

This revelation might hurt Giuliani’s campaign, but it won’t be fatal. There’s a big demand for authoritarian war mongers among Republican primary voters.

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