2012 Virginia Senate Debates: on Tax Reform


George Allen: Letting Bush tax cuts expire is a tax hike

Allen called Kaine's plan to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for those making $500,000 or more is a tax hike, and added that hiking taxes is a bad idea in a struggling economy. Allen promoted growing the economy through shrinking the corporate tax level to 20% for most businesses, which should allow them to hire more workers, and increase the tax base. Allen also proposed eliminating tax loopholes, and to reform the entire tax code.

Kaine promoted his compromise proposal of keeping the Bush tax cut levels for those who make less than $500,000 a year, and allowing them to expire for people with higher incomes. Kaine said doing so will add up to about half of the money needed to balance the budget, and help make it easier to find other targeted cuts to avoid the mandatory spending cuts. Kaine believes Allen's plan of not allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire for those who make $500,000 or more, will not work, and possibly add to the deficit.

Source: WSLS-TV-10 on 2012 Virginia Senate debate Oct 18, 2012

Tim Kaine: Keep Bush tax cuts except for the wealthy

Allen called Kaine's plan to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for those making $500,000 or more is a tax hike, and added that hiking taxes is a bad idea in a struggling economy. Allen promoted growing the economy through shrinking the corporate tax level to 20% for most businesses, which should allow them to hire more workers, and increase the tax base. Allen also proposed eliminating tax loopholes, and to reform the entire tax code.

Kaine promoted his compromise proposal of keeping the Bush tax cut levels for those who make less than $500,000 a year, and allowing them to expire for people with higher incomes. Kaine said doing so will add up to about half of the money needed to balance the budget, and help make it easier to find other targeted cuts to avoid the mandatory spending cuts. Kaine believes Allen's plan of not allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire for those who make $500,000 or more, will not work, and possibly add to the deficit.

Source: WSLS-TV-10 on 2012 Virginia Senate debate Oct 18, 2012

George Allen: No tax increases; no defense cuts; no bargaining

Both candidates railed against automatic defense cuts scheduled to begin in January unless Congress intervenes. Kaine laid out a list of alternatives, including allowing Bush-era tax cuts to expire on households earning at least $500,000.

Allen, who has made those defense cuts the centerpiece of his campaign of late, offered only vague solutions. He said repealing President Obama's health care law would help; and he proposed a flat tax that households could voluntarily choose over the existing tax code.

What he said repeatedly was that he would not entertain any tax increases to solve nation's budget morass or keep the government from heading off a "fiscal cliff" in January, when all Bush-era tax cuts expire and across-the-board spending cuts go into force. He accused Democrats of using the pending defense cuts to force Republicans to bargain over taxes. "The men and women in our armed forces should never be used as bargaining chips to raise taxes on job-creating small businesses," he said.

Source: New York Times on 2012 Virginia Senate debate Sep 20, 2012

Tim Kaine: Open to some minimum income tax level for everyone

Q: Please comment on Mitt Romney's contention that only 47% of Americans pay taxes?

KAINE: Well, everyone pays taxes; the statistics that have come out.

Q: I'm asking about federal income taxes.

KAINE: I would be open to a proposal that would have some minimum tax level for everyone.

ALLEN: It is typical of Tim Kaine. His record is one of always looking to raise taxes.

Kaine argued that he wasn't calling for a minimum across the board tax, but rather showing that he is open to any suggestions.

Source: 2012 Virginia Senate Debate coverage by NBC-12 Sep 20, 2012

George Allen: Freedom-to-choose flat tax: present tax code or flat rate

On one early question about energy development in the state, Allen said, "We are blessed to be Number 1 in the world when it comes to energy resources--Russia's Number 2. But the sanctimonious social engineers up in Washington, they look at our energy resources as a curse."

He further added: "Now the folks who are hurt by this are not the folks who may be at a U.N. climate change conference, flying off to

Source: Eric Kleefeld reporting on 2012 Virginia Senate debate Dec 7, 2011

Tim Kaine: Balance taxes: let Bush tax cuts expire at the top end

them, and voting for these big tax increases, the deficit has ballooned because of policies that George Allen pursued when he was a Senator. The right strategy on the Bush tax cuts, is to let them expire at the top end, over $500k. and the reason you do that is because we should also be making a lot of cuts in the budget, and those cuts are gonna fall hardest on middle and lower income people. it's balance; you cut tax rates, eliminate exclusions, let some of the tax cuts expire--that's balance." Kaine did part with national Democrats on a key tactical matter in the current debate: "You've got Democrats in the senate right now who are doing something I don't like, which is saying we want to fund something with a millionaire's tax. I think that is used because millionaires don't poll well--that is a bad way to do tax policy. All we've got to do is deal with the Bush tax cuts.
Source: Eric Kleefeld reporting on 2012 Virginia Senate debate Dec 7, 2011

Tim Kaine: No need for millionaire's tax: just let Bush cuts expire

It's $4 trillion of potential deficit reduction, depending on how we deal with that. And again, George and his colleagues promised that these were going to be temporary tax cuts. If you let them expire at the top end, you get hundreds of billions of dollars that you can use to then combine with spending cuts to make things happen. And that's the approach we need." Allen criticized Kaine for accepting the role of chairman of the Democratic National Committee, saying he should have spent his final year as governor on state priorities, "not the national partisan role of advocating for the likes of, not only President Obama's policies, but those of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid."

"The likes of President Obama?" Kaine responded.

"Well, the policies and agenda of President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid," said

Source: Eric Kleefeld reporting on 2012 Virginia Senate debate Dec 7, 2011

  • The above quotations are from 2012 Virginia Senate Debate.
  • Click here for definitions & background information on Tax Reform.
  • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
  • Click here for more quotes by Tim Kaine on Tax Reform.
  • Click here for more quotes by George Allen on Tax Reform.
Candidates and political leaders on Tax Reform:

Retired Senate as of Jan. 2015:
GA:Chambliss(R)
IA:Harkin(D)
MI:Levin(D)
MT:Baucus(D)
NE:Johanns(R)
OK:Coburn(R)
SD:Johnson(D)
WV:Rockefeller(D)

Resigned from 113th House:
AL-1:Jo Bonner(R)
FL-19:Trey Radel(R)
LA-5:Rod Alexander(R)
MA-5:Ed Markey(D)
MO-9:Jo Ann Emerson(R)
NC-12:Melvin Watt(D)
SC-1:Tim Scott(R) 		Retired House to run for Senate or Governor:
AR-4:Tom Cotton(R)
GA-1:Jack Kingston(R)
GA-10:Paul Broun(R)
GA-11:Phil Gingrey(R)
HI-1:Colleen Hanabusa(D)
IA-1:Bruce Braley(D)
LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R)
ME-2:Mike Michaud(D)
MI-14:Gary Peters(D)
MT-0:Steve Daines(R)
OK-5:James Lankford(R)
PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D)
TX-36:Steve Stockman(R)
WV-2:Shelley Capito(R) 		Retired House as of Jan. 2015:
AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R)
AR-2:Tim Griffin(R)
CA-11:George Miller(D)
CA-25:Howard McKeon(R)
CA-33:Henry Waxman(D)
CA-45:John Campbell(R)
IA-3:Tom Latham(R)
MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R)
NC-6:Howard Coble(R)
NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D)
NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R)
NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D)
NY-21:Bill Owens(D)
PA-6:Jim Gerlach(R)
UT-4:Jim Matheson(D)
VA-8:Jim Moran(D)
VA-10:Frank Wolf(R)
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Page last updated: Dec 05, 2018