Pat, I want a picture of George W. Bush, Michael Dell and Kemble at the White House. I think that Kemble would be an asset to the Bush Campaign. :)Leigh
quote.bloomberg.com
Technology Executives Help Bush Attack McCain Tax-Cut Proposal
Technology Executives Help Bush Attack McCain Tax-Cut Proposal
Washington, Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Texas Governor George W.
Bush enlisted the support of prominent Internet, computer and
venture capital company executives to attack rival Senator John
McCain's tax plan.
The group, headed by E. Floyd Kvamme of the venture capital
firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, said parts of McCain's
$240 billion tax cut plan ``harms the Internet.'
Besides Kvamme, other executives campaigning for Bush on
Thursday included Bill Coleman, chief executive of BEA Systems
Inc.; Jon Edwards, president of Mediaplex Inc.; David Hanna,
chief executive of Sage U.S.; and Greg Slayton, chief executive
of ClickAction Inc.
Bush, the leading contender for the Republican presidential
nomination, and McCain, his chief rival, have been battling in
New Hampshire, site of the first U.S. presidential primary, over
the merits of competing tax reduction plans.
Both candidates have used the tax issue to highlight their
allegiance to technology issues. McCain held news events this
week to repeat his vow to ban new Internet taxes, and lambasted
Bush for failing to support a permanent moratorium.
Bush is pushing a $483 billion, five-year tax cut proposal
along the lines of the tax reduction plan congressional
Republicans pushed without success last year. McCain has proposed
a $240 billion, five-year plan, the smallest tax cut proposal of
a major Republican candidate.
Bush has attacked McCain's plan as insufficient and
criticized parts of McCain's $150 billion plan to finance his tax
proposal by closing dozens of corporate tax loopholes.
Conference Call
The executives held a conference call yesterday in which
they attacked one of McCain's corporate loophole closers, a plan
to limit a more favorable immediate deduction of advertising and
instead extend the deduction over time.
Bush contends the plan, while reducing a favorable tax
treatment for advertising in general, would harm Internet
advertising, which is in its infancy. After the call, Bush's
campaign staff issued a statement from other executives backing
the Texas governor, including Dell Computer founder Michael Dell.
``This is a very bad idea,' Dell said. ``For many Internet
companies, advertising is their store because they have no bricks
and mortar retail locations.' The Bush campaign also issued a
similarly critical statement from Bob Herbold, chief operating
officer for Microsoft Corp.
McCain Defends Change
McCain responded saying Bush's criticism is driven by the
Texas Republican's closeness to special interests that financed
his record campaign fundraising.
``Governor Bush has decided yet again to fight for the
interests of the special interests and lobbyists over the need
for tax relief for working Americans,' the McCain campaign said
in a statement.
Through Sept. 30, the most recent data on file with the
Federal Election Commission, Bush had collected about twice as
much as McCain from executives and other employees of computer
companies. Microsoft employees, however, gave a total of $13,000
to the McCain campaign, compared to $12,300 to the Bush campaign.
McCain's campaign defended the advertising change, saying
that 80 percent of advertising costs would be deductible in the
year they are incurred. ``This will in no way adversely effect
the e-commerce revolution,' McCain's staff said in a statement
to reporters. The plan applies the same principle to advertising
costs that's applied to other business expenses that have benefit
stretching more than a year, the staff members said.
``If a company can amortize the cost of a new software
system, or other products that provide a benefit of more than one
year, we believe that the same principle should be applied to the
cost of advertising their products,' the McCain campaign said.
Internet Tax Pledge
McCain earlier this week signed a pledge pushed by the
Citizens for a Sound Economy for a permanent extension on the
current federal ban on new taxes that target the Internet and
Internet access. Bush has said he supports a temporary extension
of the Internet tax ban for several years, saying the issue
should be researched further.
McCain's campaign said Bush ``refuses to rule out a
moratorium on Internet taxes, which could lead to hundreds of
millions of dollars of additional sales taxes imposed on American
families.'
Bush also is airing a television ad critical of the McCain
tax plan. The ad charges that one element in McCain's tax plan
would raise $40 billion over five years by taxing employee fringe
benefits such as group term life insurance and educational
assistance. McCain's campaign says the plan doesn't specifically
mention taxing the educational assistance and group term life
insurance. |
