Economists: Kerry's promises don't add up
By Ann E. Donlan
Saturday, July 31, 2004
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Fuzzy math is making a comeback in Sen. John F. Kerry's campaign as he tries to promise voters better health-care coverage and education - all while reducing the federal deficit, economists said.
Under either President Bush's plan or Kerry's blueprint, the deficit is expected to be cut in half over four years, from $477 billion this year to $235 billion in 2008, said University of Michigan economist Don Grimes.
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``Bush has claimed the same thing Kerry is trying to claim: He is going to do something that already is going to happen,''<font color=black> Grimes said, adding the deficit will decrease as the economy improves.
Added University of Massachusetts at Boston professor of public policy Alan Clayton-Matthews, <font color=blue>``It is possible to cut the deficit in half, (and) it's going to come largely through economic growth. It's not all up to John Kerry [related, bio] whether this happens.''<font color=black>
Although both candidates' plans differ, the outcome is potentially the same - adding to the nation's debt, Grimes said.
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``Kerry's proposal is to make the Bush tax cuts permanent for people that make less than $200,000 and . . . increases government spending, particularly on health care, and Bush gives a tax cut to the people making $200,000 or more, but he doesn't have the increased spending that Kerry has,''<font color=black> Grimes said.
Grimes and Clayton-Matthews agree that Kerry's suggestions that he will seek to close corporate tax loopholes and end corporate welfare are political pandering with little chance of success.
More troubling is Kerry's pronouncement that he will not privatize or cut Social Security benefits for retirees - without detailing how to pay for the explosion of costs associated with retiring baby boomers. |
