Can Kerry Stay Out Of Bush's Trap?

[SoCalDem]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34784-2004May17.html

Can Kerry Stay Out Of Bush's Trap?

By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Tuesday, May 18, 2004; Page A19


In his first two years as president, George W. Bush set a trap. He pushed through tax cuts so big that they would inevitably force Democrats into a series of no-win arguments during this election year. Democrats could dedicate themselves to undoing the budget damage Bush had caused by favoring tax increases and spending restraint. Or they could ignore the issue of fiscal balance and propose popular programs.


Either way, Democrats risked getting trashed and tearing each other apart. The first option offers voters little to cheer (tax increases and fewer programs) while the second opens the party to charges that it's engaging in its own form of fiscal irresponsibility.

The trap is working marvelously, even if the bad news in Iraq has pushed the budget mess off the front pages. True, competing Democratic factions are so eager to defeat Bush that they are largely holding their tongues. But the party's deficit hawks and its advocates of new programs are not happy with each other, and both are trying to pull Sen. John Kerry in their direction. Kerry has no choice but to finesse the problem. With an eye to fiscal balance, Kerry has proposed taking back Bush's tax cuts for Americans earning more than $200,000 a year, while leaving the rest in place. He has also scaled back some of his own proposals, notably (and unfortunately) a plan that would pay the college costs, pegged at state university levels, for young Americans who gave at least two years of military or civilian service to the country.

But Kerry has not abandoned all of his initiatives. He is still committed to his program to expand health care coverage, which he estimates will cost $650 billion over 10 years. Kerry is expected to make a big push on health care over the next month. The issue speaks to the economic anxieties of a broad swath of Americans who feel their incomes are being cut by stagnating wages, shrinking benefit packages and rising medical costs.


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[izzie]

1. Who knows as no one has had to give up a thing for this war but....

about 700 parents, 4000 hurt men and maybe 20000 Iraq people who do not vote. Every one loves tax cuts even if you do not see it hit you in town taxes, and higher cost to live. No one has put it together yet.Be sure to keep the body bags from showing up.

[Mechatanketra]

2. How tough is this?

"The Republicans say I'm going to raise your taxes, and that's a lie. I don't want to raise your taxes -- I want to raise Ken Lay's taxes."

I've never understood, especially after the massive corporate corruption exposure, how raising taxes on the wealthy is going to be an unpopular program. Make "L-curve" and "personal inflation" the buzzwords of your campaign, and let people's natural to-hell-with-anyone-else-but-me tendencies work for you.

[uncertainty1999]

3. Let's call them "spend and spend" Republicans!

I long for the day of "tax and spend" -- it is sooo much more responsible than spending $$$ we don't have!