Treasury Studies Democratic Tax Proposals (Kerry's)

[seasat]

From AP article (Link):

WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department (news - web sites) directed career employees to analyze tax ideas proposed by presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) and other Democrats after a request from House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, officials said Wednesday.

The Treasury Department posted the analysis on its Web site March 22, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. On the same day, the Republican National Committee (news - web sites) posted an interactive feature on its Web site that attaches the largest of those cost estimates to Kerry's plan to raise taxes paid by the wealthiest taxpayers.

Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said Wednesday he was not aware of anyone at the White House approving the Treasury's decision to analyze Kerry's tax plan.

Although federal law prohibits civil servants from working on political campaigns while on duty, Treasury Department attorneys concluded the work was appropriate, Treasury spokesman Rob Nichols said.

We have the Shrubs suing Move On for soft money but now have our tax dollars paying for a critique of a candidates plan?!?! :mad:

(Edited to make note that it is Kerry's tax plan)

Has this ever been done in previous elections? I can see think tanks doing comparisons but using Government resources for this? This should warrant a lawsuit and outrage by any taxpaying citzen.

[htuttle]

1. How could this possibly be considered 'appropriate'?

John Kerry won't have a chance to even officially submit his plan until he's elected. How can the Treasury Department justify using tax dollars to do this?

CIA working on the Bush campaign (story a few days ago about Bush telling them to comb through Clarke's classified statements for 'contradictions')

Now Treasury working on the Bush campaign.

Makes all that hooha about Nixon using government resources for his 1972 campaign seem pretty minor in comparison, doesn't it?

[On the Road]

2. I'm Not a Fan of Kerry's Business Tax Cut

but one advantage of it is that, if the administration attempts to discredit it, it will discredit their own approach as well.

[maddezmom]

3. a DU'er posted about this very thing this am

thanks for the link, more tax payer dollars working to re-select bush*.:grr:

[w4rma]

4. Kerry's tax proposal is a good plan, imho. But, the GOP will twist it and

then make their spin out as if it were a non-partisan treasury department overview.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. OMG what next!

And the vast majority of the public neither understands, nor cares, about this kind of thing being outside the parameters of our system -- and the press won't try to help them understand it, or why it's such an outrage.

[MO_Dem]

6. Surely, this is not legal??

Imagine if Bill Clinton had done something like this!!

[salin]

7. Meanwhile the Treasury Dept buries their own studies

when the results don't match what the administration story line tries to portray.

[MO_Dem]

11. Excellent point,

salin!! Everybody should be aware that their analysis of Kerry's plan is probably even more flawed than if it were an analysis of their own plan.

[Bandit]

8. Is this the same Treasury Dept that has given us record debt and deficits?

Their word is good on this subject? I respectfully disagree. They have proved beyond any shadow of doubt that they don't have a clue about taxation and keeping a sound economy.

[seasat]

10. I agree their word is bunk.

I trust the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities more than I ever would Shrub's Treasury Dept. The CBPP pointed out how the Treasuries projections are bunk and the CBPP has been proven right throughout this administration.

One of the things that burns me so much about this is that while flying around the country on the tax payer's dime, Shrub has raised record amounts of campaign funds doing more fund raisers than any president in history yet the corrupted ones use my tax dollars to attack my candidate.

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

[Hobarticus]

9. If not illegal, it's utterly shameless

Where's the outrage in the media?

[SoCalDem]

12. Gee... who thinks they will decide that Kerry's plan is "swell"??

If they have all that extra time, maybe they could outsource some bureaucrats..They must not have enough work to keep them all busy..:eyes:

[snippy]

13. Another day, another felony. How very republican.

[Just Me]

14. The "envelope" of corruption is,...worse than outrageous.

I am so sick of this shit. I am so sick of this shit.

I do not understand how this perpetual and blatant corruption is tolerated. I guess the whole country has to hit bottom before the choice for change will be exercised. Oh, well,...next to the overwhelming apparition of greed/gluttony, humanity's other weakness is apparently laziness/denial. I just hope that, this time, we will demand the imposition of as strong of punishments upon the greed/gluttony which has destroyed this earth as we do upon the laziness/denial which neither contributes nor destroys.

[revcarol]

15. I'm calling my Senator.

Using civil servants for partisan activities is ILLEGAL.

[seasat]

16. This really bothers me so I'll bump it one more time.

This didn't get much play at all in the news.

Our scum bag pResident has spent more the time my tax dollars pay him to campaign using Airforce One and other tax resources to raise record amounts of campaign fund but still has the gall to further use my tax dollars to get the treasury department to criticize Kerry! They've used my tax dollars to send out campaign letters with the first round of tax reimbursements. They've used my tax dollars to come up with medicare drug commercials, phoney medicare news stories, and pr for cutting down forests but still that wasn't enough?!?! They get Tom Delay, who is under investigation for campaign finance violations in Texas, to have a study done of Kerry's tax plan by the US Treasury Department. The Radical Right has think tanks like the Heritage Foundation that are funded to the gills but they still have to use my tax dollars to do this questionable study of a candidate.
:mad: :kick:

[leQ]

22. well said

really.

[DeepModem Mom]

17. kick

[dweller]

18. one more

:kick:

dp

[Judi Lynn]

19. During his own campaign in 2000, Dubya babbled on about

"Making the pie higher," and "putting food on your family," etc. Wasn't that what was happening?

I don't recall he offered any detailed plan to be examined at that time.

In fact, didn't he start repeating things Al Gore said during the campaign, at some point? I seem to remember he started claiming he would be putting things in "the lockbox" as well.

This is absolutely wrong. Why should John Kerry present them with a plan they can examine, and rip to shreds. Shouldn't it remain a work in progress at this stage?

[Redleg]

20. This needs another BUMP

What the hell can we do about this outrage? Bush, Inc. are getting some damned arrogant they think they can do everything with impunity.

[54anickel]

21. King and Snow touched on this last night on Lou Dobbs. Wish Lou

was around for Snow's appearance last night. I didn't get to watch it, but just finished reading the transcript. Lou's replacement anchors just don't do a very good job.


http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0404/02/ldt.00.html

KING: As you also know, we are in the middle of a political campaign and there are some Democrats questioning why your department did an analysis of Senator Kerry's proposal or analysis of a proposal very similar to Senator Kerry's anyway but if you took away the Bush tax cut for the upper bracket what effect that would have. Then the Republican National Committee began using those figures. Some questioning whether the government is involved in politics, political campaigns here?

SNOW: John, nothing could be further from the truth on that score. The Treasury Department conducts analysis of tax proposals. We got a request for analysis of a proposal. We conducted the request. And everything was done in accordance with standard procedures.

Nothing about where the request came from, no discussion of the results of the analysis - nothing to see here. :eyes:

[NewYorkerfromMass]

23. HA HA! The results probabl y FAVOR Kerry's plan!

In fact I am sure they do. It's a good plan. It helps small businesses- those who need it most- and who will hire people more readily.
Fuckers. Screwed themselves. Glad they are debating the merits of Kerry's very well thought out policy.