Kerry Camp Hits Bush for 'Drunken Sailor' Spending

[papau]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&ncid=716&e=15&u=/n...

Kerry Camp Hits Bush for 'Drunken Sailor' Spending
By Patricia Wilson

BOSTON (Reuters) - Democrat John Kerry, back in full campaign mode after shoulder surgery and a vacation, opened a new front on Sunday in his election-year battle with President Bush over the U.S. economy and soaring federal budget deficits.

Branded by Republicans as a classic tax-and-spend liberal, the Massachusetts senator's campaign tried to turn the tables with a report -- to be released on Monday -- accusing Bush of "empty rhetoric and political posturing" by claiming to be a fiscal conservative. <snip>

Relying on Bush's specific proposals and official cost estimates, the Kerry campaign computed the figure as follows:


- $2,227 billion in enacted tax cuts


- $243 billion in other tax cuts


- $1,427 billion for Social Security (news - web sites) privatization.


- $887 billion in other mandatory spending such as the Medicare prescription drug benefit.


- $1,642 billion in interest on the national debt.


<snip>

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&ncid=716&e=5&u=/ap...

Kerry: Bush Plan Would Cost $6 Trillion
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer

BOSTON - Trying to reverse partisan stereotypes, Democrat John Kerry is launching a campaign to portray himself as a fiscal conservative, comparing his economic strategy with the $6 trillion in unpaid spending that he says President Bush has proposed over the next 10 years.

For weeks, Bush's campaign has been saying Kerry would raise taxes $900 billion over 10 years. Kerry is striking back with a report to be released Monday that says the president would increase the deficit with his unfunded spending proposals and tax cuts.

"We intend to run to President Bush's right on this," said Roger Altman, who was deputy treasury secretary under President Clinton and is advising Kerry's campaign. <snip>

Kerry's advisers said the $6 trillion estimate is conservative and does not include the cost of tax cuts that were given in Bush's first term or spending on defense and homeland security. The total includes $4.8 trillion worth of entitlements and tax cuts either passed or proposed by the president and an additional $1.6 trillion in debt service. <snip>