Every single candidate publicly stated that he or she would not support any repeat of 1982 and 1990 — a trade of permanent tax hikes for promised spending cuts.
After several months of the establishment press trashing House and Senate Republicans for staking out the “no tax hike” position in the debt-ceiling fight it is good to see that not one of the presidential candidates thinks it is a winning move to “triangulate” against congressional Republicans. (This contrasts with Bush 43′s decisions to run away from the “harshness” of congressional Republicans in 2000. How wise that was can be seen in the fact that in 2000 congressional Republicans won more votes than the “kinder, gentler” “compassionate conservative” George W. Bush.)