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| | Boston.com / Business / Schroeder pledges to push through tax cut |
 | | Both sides staked out their positions as the complex bargaining began, with the government arguing for the tax cut and the opposition insisting that it should not rip to large a hole in Germany's already soaring budget deficit. |
 | | "The way I see it, we won't finish up today," said Henning Scherf, a member of the governing Social Democrats who chairs the 32-member panel of opposition and government lawmakers seeking a compromise. |
 | | Angela Merkel, head of the main opposition Christian Democratic party, and Edmund Stoiber, the defeated challenger in last year's German election, have threatened to block the tax cut, saying it would run up the national debt -- though killing a deal that would put more money into people's pockets could backfire with voters. |
| www.boston.com /business/articles/2003/12/10/schroeder_pledges_to_push_through_tax_cut (614 words) |
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