Kerry's Economic Remedy Won't Be Revealed Before Election

So what exactly is the poodle trying to hide? For all his talk of honesty and openness, why hide this? He shoukld reveal his economic plan and the sooner the better. - Sailor



Kerry's Economic Remedy Won't Be Revealed Before Election
By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com Correspondent
July 30, 2004

(CNSNews.com) - A top economic advisor to Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry said the public won't hear Kerry's financial plans until after he's elected - if he's elected.

In the Aug. 2 cover story of "Business Week," former Clinton administration treasury secretary Robert Rubin said, "I don't think you can make proposals to try to dig out of this hole until you've gotten elected ... If you start to put out proposals now, they would be vigorously attacked and they would in effect become tainted so they couldn't be used."

The conservative group Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) stated that Kerry is trying to avoid revealing his plan to increase taxes on the middle-class because it would create a campaign liability if he did.

In a release, the group stated that Kerry's plan to roll back President Bush's tax cuts for the top earners "will yield him only $40 to $60 billion per year, far below the more than $200 billion of new spending commitments he has promised to special interests who feed off of American taxpayers."

"In other words," ATR stated, "if Kerry is elected, middle-class tax increases are coming."

Dan Clifton, chief economist for ATR, said the Kerry strategy relies on deception. "The idea is just say, 'Only the rich are going to get taxed,' [and] run out the clock on the campaign. Once they get in, they'll develop a crisis and say 'we've got to raise taxes on everybody.'"

If, as a presidential candidate, "you have something up your sleeve, you should let us know," Clifton said. Rubin's comments, furthermore, "made it very clear that they (the Kerry campaign) have something up their sleeve."

According to Clifton, Kerry's plan could include raising the gasoline tax which the Democrat has proposed in the past, raising the tax rates on the top one, two or three tax brackets, raising the capital gains tax and more.

"There are a number of things that they can do once they get in," Clifton said. "They're just not giving an indication to any of us what they're doing."

Clifton said Kerry's campaign promise not to raise taxes on the middle-class echoes the promises former president Bill Clinton made in his first Democratic National Convention speech as a presidential hopeful in 1992..

Clinton promised that "the wealthy" would be asked to pay their "fair share" and the taxes on middle-class families would not increase, but "Clinton and Kerry imposed the largest tax increase on middle class families," ATR stated.

The group pointed out that Kerry voted in favor of Clinton's tax increases while he served in the U.S. Senate.

Repeated calls to the Kerry campaign office seeking comment for this article were not answered.