Yesterday, Democrat Tim Kaine asked his Republican opponent to join him in taking a “balanced” approach to avoiding the looming sequestration cuts. Unfortunately Tim Kaine seems to suffer amnesia on his attempt to implement the same kind of “balanced” approach while he served as Virginia’s Governor. Such an approach included billions of dollars in new and higher taxes.

Kaine called on George Allen to “set aside his Pledge,” and work for a “responsible path forward.”

Translated, what Tim Kaine means is that he’s asking Allen to break his written commitment to Virginia taxpayers and join with him in an approach that raises taxes.

When George Allen signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, he made a promise to Virginia taxpayers to get serious about reining in Washington’s out of control spending. He promised to do this by focusing on spending cuts instead of tax hikes. If Tim Kaine read the Pledge, he would know that.

Unfortunately, Virginians know too-well the dangers of sharing the same tax policy as Tim Kaine. As Governor, he proposed around $4 billion in new or higher taxes. Fortunately for Virginians, Pledge-signers and conservatives in the Virginia state legislature prevented such tax hikes from being enacted.

“As Governor, Tim Kaine proposed billions of dollars in higher taxes. He left Virginia nearly 2 billion dollars in debt. He is now asking for Virginians to forget about his fiscal irresponsibility as Governor and put him in the U.S. Senate to enact what he calls ‘responsible” policies,” “said Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform. “When Tim Kaine suggests that George Allen should set aside his Pledge, he’s really asking George Allen to disregard his conservative principles.”

“The recent success of the Virginia economy is largely attributable to the success of conservative pro-growth policies that came out of Richmond once Tim Kaine left. If anyone needs to evolve on the tax policy front, it is certainly Tim Kaine."

[PDF of Press Release]

Posted by Paul Blair on Thursday, August 9, 2012 3:16 PM EDT

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