Talk Elections

Bush campaign: Kerry proposals would cost taxpayers $1 trillion
Candidate's aide says GOP wants to 'mislead'
 
 
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's re-election campaign is boosting its estimate, to more than $1 trillion, of the amount it claims taxpayers would be billed over 10 years if Democratic rival John Kerry's spending proposals became a reality.

The new figure is about $100 billion higher than a recently released Bush TV commercial accused the Massachusetts senator of eyeing in terms of new programs.

"The president has put out a budget," Bush's campaign manager, Ken Mehlman, said Sunday. "We have not seen a budget from Senator Kerry."

Mehlman said the Republican National Committee would unveil on Monday "a 'spendometer' which will be a tool which will allow a continuing update of the spending that Senator Kerry has proposed."

In the commercial, Bush claimed Kerry has proposed programs that would amount to a $900 billion tax increase. Kerry immediately rejected that as bogus.

On Sunday, the president's camp countered with a compendium of proposals it said it culled from, among other things, news accounts of Kerry's campaign. It tallied the bill at $1.017 trillion over 10 years.

Kerry has said he wants to extend health insurance to millions of uninsured people and cut costs for those who already have coverage, rolling back tax breaks for wealthier Americans as part of a plan to offset those expenses.

Bush's campaign asserted that 28 of Kerry's campaign promises would cost $1.7 trillion over 10 years and said the specific proposals he has offered to pay for that would generate only about $700 billion in new government revenue, leaving the more than $1 trillion "tax gap."

"George Bush's tax policies have cost America's workers 3 million jobs and driven us into the largest budget deficit in the nation's history," Kerry spokesman David Wade replied.

"Despite their credibility gap, the Bush team wants to mislead America about John Kerry's economic policies," he said. "John Kerry will cut taxes on the middle class, roll back the Bush tax cut for the wealthiest Americans and cut the budget deficit in half. That's the kind of change that Americans want and they won't be diverted from voting for it by Republican scare attacks."

The Kerry campaign had said earlier, however, that in light of changing economic conditions, it is reviewing its own proposals. "We will put out a detailed budget sometime in the future that shows how to get us back on track," campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said.

Various estimates have indicated that Kerry's plan to repeal tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans would save about $250 billion over 10 years. The Bush campaign estimated that Kerry's revenue-raising proposals would total around $700 billion, effectively leaving the country with a more than $1 trillion tax increase.

Mehlman, the Bush campaign manager, maintained that Kerry's spending plan "will cost each household an average of $15,500 over 15 years."

Because the Bush campaign is an unbiased judge of their challenger's policies.

How much has Bush's little adventure in Iraq cost the average taxpayer?

How much will the deficit cost our children... in fact how much will it cost us after November when we have to have either massive cuts in spending on federal programs or alternativly higer taxes....

...and Wakie right to piont out, i wouldnt trust either campaign to acuratly represent the other candidates positions...  

Bush and Kerry. What a choice.