Burnt Orange Report

Blatant Lies (Otherwise Known as Bush's Latest Ad)

By Byron LaMasters

The latest George W. Bush ad goes beyond the earlier Bush campaign distortions of the Kerry record. They've now resorted to blatant lies:

George W. Bush's campaign ad says that "John Kerry's plan will raise taxes by at least $900 Billion his first 100 days in office".

John Kerry hasn't proposed $900 Billion in new taxes. The Boston Globe responds to the Bush lie:

Kerry has never proposed a $900 billion tax increase, as the ad suggests. The Bush administration, which has overseen the loss of government surpluses and an explosion of deficits, comes up with the $900 billion figure by calculating the cost of Kerry's programs. Kerry left himself open to criticism by failing to detail the cost of his promises.

While slapping price tags on Kerry's policies, the White House hasn't explained gaps in its own fiscal 2005 budget, including the cost of war in Iraq and Afghanistan next year. Bush also hasn't accounted for the $1 trillion in transition costs of his proposal for partial privatization of Social Security.

First of all, the Bush folks are the last people any American should trust in calculating a budget, and how much various programs will cost. They have failed time and time again to grasping the costs of their programs, and turned a budget surplus into the largest deficits in history in only three years. Second, if we added up the difference between Bush's spending and Bush's current taxes (the logic the Bush administration uses for calculating the Kerry taxes), we could conclude that the Bush administration would raise taxes significantly in their first 100 days. Finally, how can anyone raise taxes by $900 Billion in 100 days? Any tax increases would be spread out over a period of years. The Bush campaign makes it appear as if the tax boogeyman will come and rob Americans of $900 Billion in 100 days. When it comes to Social Security, the Bush ad attacks Kerry for voting to raise taxes on Social Security benefits, but as is typical of Bush, he has not accounted for the $1 Trillion in transition costs to partial privatization. Can we assume that George W. Bush wants to raise taxes by $1 Trillion (using the Bush campaign logic) to cover it? No, probably not. He'll just continue the standard Republican borrow-and-spend economics, and make our generation pay it off in a few decades.

Next, the Bush campaign says that "Kerry even supported to raise taxes on gasoline by $.50 / gallon. Kerry voted for a $.043 / gallon tax increase on gas. Less than ten times less than the tax Bush suggests he supported. Kerry never sponsored a bill or voted for anything to increase gas taxes by $.50. The Boston Globe continues:

Kerry voted for a 4.3-cent increase in the per-gallon gas tax in 1993, defending it as a way to reduce the deficit. In 1994, he referred to his ''support for a 50-cent increase in the gas tax'' in a comment to the Boston Globe. He later said he no longer held that view, and he noted that he had never proposed or voted for it.

What will be next?

Posted by Byron LaMasters at March 25, 2004 02:48 PM | TrackBack