Can Someone PLEASE Tell Kerry to Stop Talking About Taxes

[JCMach1]

Mr. Kerry's Deficiency

Thursday, April 8, 2004; Page A26

RUNAWAY DEFICITS, says Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), are a "fiscal cancer" that threatens the nation's prosperity. He accuses the Bush administration of reckless and dishonest budgeting. We agree with both assertions -- which is why we were disappointed by the alternative the Democratic presidential nominee set out in a speech at Georgetown University yesterday. A Kerry budget would make far better use of the resources available, but it wouldn't do much more to tackle the deficit than the Bush budget. And Mr. Kerry's contention that he would cut the deficit in half in four years is subject to the same criticisms of unrealistic expectations and avoidance of known costs that we have so often leveled at the Bush administration...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59706-2004Apr7.html

THIS ISN'T JUST THE MOONIE TIMES THOUGH... MOST NEWSPAPERS RAN WITH A KERRY SPEECH STORY

Kerry puts forth deficit reduction plan
By Andrew Balls and Christopher Swann in Washington
Published: April 7 2004 23:45 | Last Updated: April 8 2004 0:21

John Kerry, the Democrat presidential candidate, yesterday set out proposals that he said would halve the US budget deficit in four years, even while retaining the bulk of President George W. Bush's tax cuts.

In a speech at Georgetown University in Washington, the Massachusetts senator said he would roll back tax cuts for those earning more than $200,000 a year, but preserve the tax cuts for 98 per cent of Americans. The proceeds would pay for increased health and education spending.

"From missions to Mars, to tax cuts for the wealthy, to a Medicare bill that benefits drug companies and burdens senior citizens, the Bush administration has failed to pay for what it has proposed," Mr Kerry said on Wednesday...http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1079420227092


I REALLY THINK THAT WE LOSE IS WE TRY TO MAKE THE TAXES ISSUE BIG, ESPECIALLY WITH EVERYTHING ELSE THAT IS GOING ON. IT'S GREAT TO HAVE A PLAN AND HAVE IT OUT THERE... JUST PLEASE, NO MORE.

:(

[Jeebo]

1. BUSH has raised taxes on the poor and middle class...

...and THAT'S the label Kerry should be attaching to Bush when he talks about taxes. I'm not talking just about income taxes, now; I'm talking about by the time you take everything into consideration, income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes ... and not just taxes, either, but all of the other components of economic security, such as Medicare, Social Security, unemployment benefits, overtime pay ... by the time you take all of that into account, the poor and middle class are MUCH worse off economically than they will be under a John Kerry administration. And THAT'S the message I think Kerry should be getting out there when he talks about taxes. That message will steal the Bushies' thunder. I'd even like to start drumming this into the public consciousness like a mantra:

REPEAL THE BUSH TAX INCREASES
on the poor and middle class

I'm thinking of making a bumper sticker that says this.

All right everybody, repeat after me:

REPEAL THE BUSH TAX INCREASES
on the poor and middle class

REPEAL THE BUSH TAX INCREASES
on the poor and middle class

REPEAL THE BUSH TAX INCREASES
on the poor and middle class

Let's make this one of our campaign mantras, okay?

Ron

[sandnsea]

2. I need an aspirin

Last week everybody was screaming that Kerry needed to rebut the tax hiker ads. Now he should shut up about taxes?

I don't drink... so have my share and chill.

[JCMach1]

3. Seriously-- I hope this doesn't become a pattern

He is reacting to the Rovean bait instead of throwing his own punches.

[PsN2Wind]

4. I agree with you that

Kerry seems to be trying the rope-a-dope rather than counter-punching against the Bush machine. He's seems to be giving tedious speeches that get little coverage rather than speaking truisms about the Bushies that would demand coverage. Where is his rapid response team? The current Bush ad about Kerry's support of a $.50 gas tax could be so easily countered by just pointing out that the cost of gasoline has increased by 60 or 70 cents(more in some places) since Bush was appointed. He should point out that the Bushies seem able to find surrogates that question Kerry's service, because they were there and knew, but have yet to find anyone who saw Bush in 1971.
Kerry is going to have a helluva time winning if he allows them to get in the big hits on him without striking back, HARD. Why do the Dems always campaign as if they are afraid they will hurt their opponents feelings?

[bryant69]

7. Actually Kerry responded to the tax accusation

almost immediately. His issued a press release correcting the deciet of the Bush ad.

Unfortunately Kerry is going to be outspent, we know this; which is why it's incomubent on us to refute these ads on a grass roots level.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Adelante]

6. I drink

I drink a lot.

:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:

Everytime I open one of these threads. Kerry is bad if he does and worse if he doesn't.

Kerry is the very devil. We might as well re-elect Bushco. :wtf:

[Killarney]

5. I think it's good

It gets the truth out there.

If you ask most people what Kerry will do with taxes, right now they say he will raise them... on everyone. Bush's ads have worked that way. He needs to get his message out and I think he did it well in his speech... the top 2% will pay what they paid under Clinton, the other 98% will get a tax CUT.

People are concerned about the deficit. That's what helped do Bush Sr in. Kerry is saying that he's going to half the deficit in 4 years just like we did under Clinton. That's good stuff.

[XanaDUer]

8. NO, "tax-and-spend Dems" is one of the biggest...

most-used canards Conservs use. Kerry needs to keep talking about taxes, in plain language, over and over again, until the mods and independents who may fall for the tax-and-spend bull get it.

Kerry did great yesterday at his Georgetown speech.

[w4rma]

9. I'm going to disagree here. Imho, he needs to get his POV on this out

Before the GOP has more time to distort it.

[dolstein]

10. Ok, but first you tell voters to stop caring about taxes

NT

[Nicholas_J]

11. What do you expect him to talk about..Iraq?

Without talking about taxes and clearly dispelling the Bush Administrations continual attempts to try to peg Kerry as someone who is going to increase income taxes by 900 billion dollars (by which they insinuate that it will be increases to small businesses and the middle class, and not just the wealthy)Kerry have absolutely zero chance of winning in November. Zero. The only thing that made it possible for Bush to manuver an election so close to Gore in some states in 2000 was the issue of his tax plan, which was the most popular campaign issue of 2000 bar anything else. Gore had to come up with his own tax cut plan in 2000 in response to Bush's platform, as he ha no plans for one to begin with. Kerry must repeat over and over and over and over again that he is going to cut taxes for the middle class and small businesses and return the tax rates to the wealthy that they paid under Clinton. Repeat and repeat and repeat until the average schmoe does not beleive the Bush lies by omission that Kerry is going to raise taxes by 900 billlion, He may actually be doing so, but he must make it clear that he is going to raise taxes on the wealthy top 2 percent in order to increase funding to education, and to reduce the cost of health insurance to the average worker, to those without insurance at all, and expecially for small businesses. It was clever of him to compare the cost of prodicing a car in Canada to the U.S. and state that the reason it is cheaper by 1700 dollrs in Canada is because the Canadian company does not have the health care expenses that american auto companies do. Very clever.

All politics is economics. Fix the economic, fix the taxation, and you are on the road to fixing everything else. Even the war in Iraq, as everyone makes the claim that the very root cause of the war was economic...OIL.