Candidate Review
Tax
Reform
General
Wesley Clark
I always seem to want to through an extra E into Clark's name.
Anyway today we are looking at what the Democratic Candidates plan to do about
the Bush tax Cuts.
This is from a
speech Clark gave in Nashua, NH on January 5, 2004.
"The week I announced my candidacy, I said that
reforming America's tax system would be one of my top priorities. And I
promised that I would create a new system with real tax reform that was
simpler, fairer, more progressive, and more pro-growth and I'd do it all
without increasing the deficit one dime.
My sweeping tax reform plan meets every one of these
values. It's called "Families First." Because that's exactly what it
does. It will overhaul our tax system so that all Americans pay their fair
share. It will reduce poverty. It will encourage families to work and save, so
we can be a richer, more prosperous nation. And it will do all this while
protecting our most pressing priorities - education, health care, and national
security.
First, as I said before, families of four making under
$50,000 a year will stop paying income taxes altogether. They will literally
not owe a single penny in income taxes to the United States government.
. . . Second, my tax reform plan will give a tax cut to all
taxpaying families with children making under $100,000, because all working
families are being squeezed by George W. Bush's economy.
Third, my tax reform plan will reward work by building on
the Earned Income Tax Credit -- helping millions of America's hardest-pressed
families. It will help these families go to work by paying for childcare,
transportation, and other work-related expenses. As a result, hundreds of
thousands of children will be lifted out of poverty.
Finally, my plan will simplify the tax process, eliminating
dozens of pages of forms and boiling hundreds of pages of the tax code down to
one easy-to-use form. With this new system, you can figure out whether or not
you need to pay taxes just by filling out three lines."
Former
Governor Howard Dean
This is from Howard Dean's big
economic speech given at Georgetown University, Washington DC on October
16, 2003.
"Balanced budgets matter. They should matter not
just to economists who say they lead to economic growth. They should matter to
social progressives who should be fiscal conservatives, because only fiscal
responsibility guarantees that the American people will have the government
they need when they truly need it.
Repealing the Bush tax cuts is a good first step in
restoring fiscal responsibility. But we can’t bring the budget into balance
without controlling government spending. Under this president, non-defense
spending has skyrocketed by over 20%. To restore fiscal discipline, I’ll work
to bring back the pay-as-you-go rule that forces Washington to pay for new
spending rather than borrowing for it. And we’ll root out waste and
inefficiency in the way that the federal bureaucracy does business by
re-instituting the National Performance Review that Al Gore started and which
saved over $20 billion a year.
Once we have repealed the President’s reckless tax cuts, we
will set about making the tax system fairer and simpler. We’ll end corporate
welfare as we know it, eliminating up to $100 billion dollars in tax breaks and
subsidies that benefit special interests and large contributors to both
political parties.
And we’ll crack down on tax shelters that allow American
companies to hide their profits offshore and not pay any taxes while enjoying
all of the benefits that the American taxpayer provides to them.
Consider this — from the 1930s through the 1960s,
corporations paid 30 to 40 percent of the taxes, and the rest of us paid 6070.
Today, corporations pay about 13 percent of taxes. It’s time to move the
balance back and take some of the burden off the individual taxpayer who’s
trying to make ends meet.
And as a final goal, we’ll simplify the tax system so that
a majority of Americans can pay their income taxes without wasting hours
filling out forms."
Senator
John Edwards
This is from a speech at
Georgetown University, Washington D.C., on June 17, 2003. Georgetown is
apparently the "it" place to reveal your economic plan.
"As President, I will put the government, the
economy, and the tax code back in line with our values. No more tax breaks for
corporations that move their headquarters overseas or buy life insurance on
janitors and make themselves the beneficiaries. No more tax breaks for CEOs who
give themselves millions in top-hat pensions while giving no pensions at all to
ordinary workers. No more playing games with the budget and driving up
deficits. And no more of the Bush administration’s war on work.
First, I will ask Congress to cancel the 2001 and 2003
income, dividend, and estate tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans in the
upper two brackets. In these times of national sacrifice, we should not be
asking less of the most fortunate. I agree with Bill Gates, Sr., the father of
the richest man in America, that in a world where taxes must be paid, the
people who inherit massive estates ought to pay taxes too. I agree with Warren
Buffett, the shrewd investor and another of America’s richest men, who said
that something is deeply wrong when a billionaire has a lower tax rate than his
secretary.
Second, I will give America a tax code that rewards work,
not wealth. Today, middle-class families pay income tax on their earnings at a
rate of up to 25%, plus another 7.65% in payroll tax. Yet under the law President
Bush just signed, a CEO who pays himself whatever he wants can sell millions of
dollars in stock and pay tax at a total rate of 15%.
. . . Under my plan, the wealthiest one-third of one
percent of taxpayers – those who claim capital gains and have annual incomes
over $350,000 -- will pay the same rate on capital gains – 25% -- that two
teachers who earn $35,000 pay on their incomes. In turn, we’ll use the money
not for new programs, but to restore fiscal discipline and to give tax cuts to
middle-class Americans who live from paycheck to paycheck.
Third, I will cut taxes to encourage savings and wealth
creation for the middle class and working poor, not take away their tax cuts. I
believe ordinary Americans are taxed too much, not too little. As a direct
result of this President’s policies, all across this country people are seeing
their property taxes, their sales taxes, their state and local income taxes,
and their college tuition bills go up. Now some in my party want to take away
their federal income tax cuts, too. That’s wrong. The answer to Republicans who
have made middle-class incomes and nest eggs go down should not be Democrats
who make middle-class taxes go up."
Representative
Dick Gephardt
This is from a speech
on August 4, 2003. It's important to know that Gephardt believes that his plans
to create a National Health Care Plan will stimulate the economy.
"In 1993, as House Democratic Leader, I led the
fight to pass the Clinton-Gore economic plan – a plan designed to slash the
deficit, invest in education, cut taxes for working families, and ask the
wealthy among us to pay their fair share. We took the political heat and paid
the political price. But it was the right thing to do.
Not one Republican voted for that plan. They said it was a
job killer. Instead it led to the single largest economic expansion in history.
It resulted in the highest home ownership ever. It forged the lowest inflation
in a generation and it created over twenty two million new jobs. Turns out we
were right and the Republicans were wrong.
. . . As president, my first act would be to submit to
Congress legislation to repeal the Bush tax cuts and replace them with health
care for all Americans that can never be taken away. Senator Wagner started the
fight 70 years ago, and I’m determined to finish it."
And this is from a speech
on November 23, 2003.
"Fiscal responsibility is not amputation. It's
finding the right balance of optimism, incentive, fairness, and opportunity.
It's rising to a fiscal challenge with imagination and compassion, not clinical
detachment and disdain for the unfortunate. It's asking the most fortunate to
do their part so we can invest in everyone's ability to succeed."
Senator
John Kerry
This is from a speech
on January 14, 2004 (so Wednesday), in Davenport Iowa.
"And while we must repeal the Bush tax cuts for the
wealthy, I will fight - and I ask you to join me in fighting against -
proposals to increase taxes on the middle class. I disagree with those in my
own party who are so mad at George Bush that they want to take it out on
working families in Iowa by raising their taxes an average of $2,000 a year. To
me, this is a matter of principle: Democrats should stand up for everyday
Americans who work hard, hope for the future, and face extraordinary challenges
everyday.
A government on their side will know when to take sides. So
as President, I will scrub the tax code, which has grown from 14 pages to
17,000 pages, to remove every single loophole, every single incentive, every
single provision that rewards Benedict Arnold CEOs and corporations for moving
profits and American jobs overseas. And we'll stop giving government contracts
for companies who do wrong by their workers.
We will put an end to tax giveaways for corporations who
cut back on their workers while they lavish millions on CEOs. And corporations
won't get tax breaks for CEOs million dollar retirement windfalls while they
cut back on worker pension plans. We need a President who fights for a fair
retirement for every family not Paradise Island for millionaires."
Senator
Dennis Kucinich
For Dennis Kucinich something a bit different. Apparently he has
already proposed his plan to improve our tax plan, in "The
Progressive Tax Act of 2003." Commenting
on the proposal, Kucinich said, "Our tax system is in need of
desperate repair. Tax cuts to the wealthiest one percent of Americans do not
create jobs and do not increase wages for working people. The only way to real
economic strength and security is to provide real tax relief to those who need
it most, workers and families. This bill enables real economic growth and
progressive tax reform while providing fiscal responsibility."
Here is a summary of the bill.
The Progressive Tax Act of 2003
To resolve the impending crisis, action must be taken now
to protect the progressive tax system, provide transparency, and ensure
adequate funds for the federal government to meet its obligations. This can
only be accomplished by shifting tax burden from work to accumulated wealth,
from the working poor to the wealthiest, and from children to
corporations.
In Title I, the bill provides tax relief for workers and
families:
1. $1530 Payroll Tax Credit: A refundable tax credit for
people who work, linked to what they paid in payroll taxes and phased out at
higher incomes. This tax credit is simple, targeted to relieve a high tax
burden, provides a stimulus effect, and encourages work.
2. $2000 Simplified Family Credit: A refundable tax credit
that simplifies the tax code by consolidating the EITC, Child Tax Credit, Additional
Child Credit, and exemption for children into one Simplified Family Credit.
This tax credit will simplify the tax code, provide greater transparency,
provide extra work incentives, and a stimulus effect.
In Title II and Title II, the bill closes corporate
loopholes and restores the federal budget:
1. Restore integrity to the tax system by closing corporate
loopholes and setting tough penalties to prevent corporate tax shelter abuse.
2. Repeal most of the erroneous Bush tax cuts in the past
three years that benefited the wealthy. Repeal other tax benefits that provide
benefits only to the wealthy and have no stimulus effect.
The Progressive Tax Act of 2003 will provide a positive
impact on the federal budget and deficit. It gives $87 billion per year to
people with modest income and families in the middle class. The bill collects
an additional $107 billion per year from the unfair Bush tax cuts, corporate
tax loopholes, and other inappropriate tax giveaways. The bill therefore raises
a sum total of $20 billion per year that remains available for deficit
reduction or new spending.
Senator
Joe Lieberman
From a Op-Ed
he wrote in the Greenville News, January 12, 2004.
"I'm the only Democrat in this race to offer a
broad middle-class tax cut -- for 98 percent of taxpayers. In South Carolina,
that would mean a tax cut for more than 1.3 million middle-class families --
and the vast majority of the state's small businesses.
The difference between Howard Dean's tax hikes and my tax
cuts adds up to more than $2,200 a year for the average South Carolina family
of four. That's $800 more than the average annual family health insurance
premium."
Second the specifics of his plan from his
website.
First, he will keep in place the middle class tax cuts
included in the Bush tax cuts some of which were included only because
Democrats fought for them--such as the increase in the child tax credit and the
elimination of the marriage penalty.
Second, to make the system better balanced, he will:
- Restructure the income tax brackets in a systematic way
- Reset the top two income tax rates that George W. Bush
decreased
- Lower the middle two rates for middle class families
- Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income
families
- Repeal the dividend tax cut that Bush pushed for
- Reform the estate tax that Bush repealed
- Eliminate wasteful corporate loopholes and subsidies that
Bush has protected
- Add a special "recapture" bracket for the highest
income taxpayers that will recoup the benefits of the lower rates.
As a result, about 98 percent of all taxpayers will get a
tax cut as well three-quarters of all small business owners.