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Mon 5 Apr, 2004 06:23 pm
By James Kuhnhenn
Knight Ridder Newspapers
April 5, 2004
WASHINGTON - Looking to claim the mantle of fiscal probity, Sen. John Kerry's campaign on Sunday accused President Bush of recommending or enacting tax cuts and spending proposals that would cost more than $6 trillion over the next 10 years.
The critique came as Kerry himself, conceding that some of his own proposals were running over budget, was rolling back some of his spending recommendations. Kerry is scheduled to give a speech Wednesday outlining his budget priorities.
"President Bush has literally the worst budget record in history," former Clinton administration Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman said in an interview Sunday. Altman is advising Kerry on fiscal policy.
Steve Schmidt, spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign, would have none of it. "This is an absurd tactic by the Kerry campaign and is designed to obscure their admission that Sen. Kerry's rhetoric for the past year doesn't add up," he said.
The $6 trillion figure encompasses both tax cuts that President Bush succeeded in pushing through Congress as well as a prescription drug plan for seniors that administration actuaries have priced at more than $500 billion over the next decade. It also includes $82 billion in farm subsidies and other agriculture assistance.
But the numbers also take into account Bush administration proposals that Congress has not considered, including a Social Security privatization plan, a missile defense system and a mission to Mars. As a result, the $6 trillion number is theoretical in large part, but designed to argue that Bush is not the fiscal disciplinarian he claims to be.
Kerry officials did not specifically criticize the substance of the proposals, but said by not suggesting how to offset those costs with either cuts in other spending or new revenue, the president was irresponsibly contributing to record high deficits.
The Kerry campaign has been trying to portray Kerry as a more prudent fiscal manager than Bush. That would counter the image that the Bush campaign has been promoting, through ads and speeches, that the Massachusetts senator has been a tax-and-spend liberal.
Lastt week in California, Kerry said he was "relooking" at some of his spending plans in order to meet his pledge to cut the deficit in half in four years. Among the programs he's reconsidering, he said, is an early childhood education proposal. He's weighing a much less expensive demonstration project rather than a full-fledged national commitment.
Kerry also has endorsed efforts in the Senate that would enforce pay-as-you-go rules where new spending or tax cuts have to be balanced with spending cuts or new sources of revenue.
The biggest items in the Kerry camp's calculation are the Bush-inspired tax cuts that Congress passed in 2001 and 2003. The tax cuts are designed to expire beginning in 2011, but Bush has recommended they be made permanent. If extended over the next 10 years, those cuts alone would amount to $2.27 trillion, according to Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation.
Kerry, however, has proposed retaining those cuts, except for taxpayers with incomes over $200,000.
Schmidt, of the Bush campaign, said rolling back the tax cut for the wealthy would still not pay for all the proposals Kerry has made. By their count, Kerry has recommended 73 spending initiatives, 28 of which would amount to $1.7 trillion.
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