Kerry Assails Dean by Name Over Tax Cuts

[Noordam]

AP NEWS

Kerry Assails Dean by Name Over Tax Cuts
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Filed at 6:34 p.m. ET

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Presidential hopeful John Kerry on Monday criticized his Democratic rivals who favor repealing President Bush's tax cuts -- and this time, he named names.

The Massachusetts senator has assailed primary foes such as Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt for favoring a rollback of Bush's tax cuts from 2001 and this year, but as recently as Friday in South Carolina, Kerry declined to single them out.

<more at article>

maybe this is why his press person quit. he wants most of the Bush Tax Cuts.

[ixion]

1. way to support the Bush junta, Kerry...

might get flamed for thinking this, but it really irks me when any democrat supports anything done by the Bush cabal. All it does it make their draconian policies appear more credible.

[AP]

2. That's the problem with Anger Campaign Management--you lose sight of

what's really liberal (and progressive taxation is the central liberal issue here) because you're so caught up in being angry and anti-everything.

[Bandit]

4. Are you implying Bush* tax cuts are progressive?

I would say that Kerry is making a huge mistake here. Liberals are all for Progressive Taxes but what we have witnessed of Bush*'s tax cut are nothing but Regressive and if Kerry backs them he is not much of a Liberal or a Democrat for that matter.

[w4rma]

5. Sen. Kerry is muddying the water. He's making it tougher to make the case

that the Bush tax cuts are bad for America.

While I agree with his position, he puts his emphasis on the smallest part of the Bush tax cuts (the middle class part).

He's not winning any kudos from me while he attacks Dems harder than he attacks Bush*.

[Jim Sagle]

6. SOMEBODY'S gotta do it now that Lieby tubed.

DLC (Dead Losers Committee) sent JFK in to sub.

Lieby's campaign is dead and Kerry's a dead guy. Ya gotta love it. ;-)

[blm]

12. Not at all.

Cutting them equally is not progressive. Raising them equally is not progressive. The GOP has always sold them as equal, but they always hurt the working class the most.

Cancelling the taxcuts for only the wealthiest is exactly how you demonstrate the Democratic value of progressive taxation.

[AP]

14. Exactly. If the Democrats can't sell this message to the public, they

might as well pack it in.

[AP]

13. Hello. Raising taxes on top quintiles and retaining breaks on middle is...

...progressive.

You should be embarassed to have asked this asked this question.

[leesa]

19. But he's making a lot of cash!

Don't touch HIS government loot.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

20. It's not the first time Kerry has supported the Cabal.... PNAC LINKS!!!!!

In a 1999 Letter to the Editor of Foreign Affairs, Wolfowitz and Solarz hold Kerry and Lieberman up as prime examples of bipartisan PNAC policy supporters.

http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraq_pdf_01.pdf

If this link doesnt work, go here: http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqmiddleeast2000-1997.htm
and click on "Letter to the Editor" fourth from the top.

[w13rd0]

3. The Bush regimes economic "vision" must be repealed...

...it's not structured in a way that it can be adequately patched. Let's bring it back to reality, and then we can discuss some of the targetted solutions that actually could do working people some good...

[Rowdyboy]

7. Kerry is simply differentiating between....

tax cuts that benefit the wealthy and tax cuts that benefit the middle class. There's nothing wrong with that. But it requires that you take the time to think about who really is affected. Do you want to return the "marriage penalty"? I'm gay and can't get married, but I don't think my straight, married friends should have to pay a higher tax rate than I do.

[Larkspur]

18. Yes, I want the marriage penalty tax credit repealed. It's a sham

I paid $500 more in taxes as a single person than a married filing jointly. Marital status has NO PLACE being in the tax code.

As a child-free person, I will grudgingly support a child tax credit, but only if parents do their duty and raise children to be responsible adults and productive members of society. If they can't they should be required to repay the tax system.

[clar]

8. Dean is not against middle class tax cuts

and anyone who read the op/ed piece Dean wrote for the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago, knows this. He does believe that first we need to repeal the whole Bush mess first, and then reassess.

[Rowdyboy]

9. This would be EXTREMELY unpopular....

Don't know if you want to try to explain that to middle class voters.

I agree in principle; I just think it'll be a helluva hard sell.

[JNelson6563]

10. I'm a middle class voter

and we keep $28 a month more now than we used to. Our country is in deep deficit spending and state and local taxes will go up more than what I now keep due to the cuts. I'd rather not have the extra $28 a month and have peace and prosperity again. Lastly, I know many families in the same exact bracket with same cuts as us--they feel the same as I do.

Julie

[Rowdyboy]

11. Oh I understand....

With no kids, I basically get nothing for a tax cut. I'm just afraid the media/Republican consortium will use it to beat us over the head and middle Arerica will once again buy it.

[Demobrat]

17. Dean himself has said

that he thinks that most middle class Americans would gladly give up the pittance their "tax cut" amounted to in exchange for health care. I think he's right. Everybody knows what they got. Or more to the point didn't get. And everybody knows what health care costs. I for one can't wait. $7.50 a week in exchange for knowing that if I lose my job and insurance, I won't do without healthcare? Sure. When do we start?

[AP]

15. Wrong. Someone posted details of a Dean fundraiser at a Philly law firm

and said that Dean didn't want to leave in place the middle class tax breaks because they didn't want to be accused of helping the "upper" middle class.

He doesn't want to fight a battle which would require him to defend the middle class and ask the rich to pull more weight.

[Rose Siding]

16. Maybe it just has more to do with

balancing the budget. Dean does want all the tax cuts repealed but has spoken of subsequent restructuring.

Of the importance of dumping this Bush travesty, Noah at Slate says:

...if we cancel all Bush's tax cuts, we can maybe, using the rosiest possible assumptions, balance the budget within five years. If we don't cancel Bush's tax cuts, the budget deficit will remain in three digits through the end of this decade. (For Citizens for Tax Justice's more pessimistic—and probably more accurate—picture of what Bush's tax cuts will cost, click here.)

http://slate.msn.com/id/2088237/

[sangh0]

21. Dean is against middle-class tax cuts

and I don't know of any world or dimension where eliminating middle class tax cuts is considered a way to support them.

[CounterCoulter]

22. THANK YOU JOHN

While I don't agree with John's position here, at least he is trying to make the campaign about the economy. All you monkey nutz clamoring for McGovern II have forgotten what brought our nation the 8 fattest years in a half century:

Are you better off now than you were four years ago?

Why is no one asking this question?