Gephardt hints at increase in taxes
> House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt suggested over the weekend
> that he will push to raise taxes if the Democrats win control of the House
> next year and the budget deficits return.
>
> Mr. Gephardt's call for income-tax increases, reported in the Des
> Moines Register on Sunday, triggered a volley of criticism from Republican
> Party officials, who warned yesterday that the Democrats were plotting to
> repeal President Bush's tax cuts as soon as they returned to power.
> "The message is clear: Republicans giveth and Democrats taketh away.
> Americans are just now receiving their tax-refund checks, and Democrats
> are already trying to yank it back so they can spend more on wasteful
> Washington programs," said Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III, chairman of
> the Republican National Committee.
> "The ink isn't even dry on the tax-rebate checks, yet the leader of
> the Democrats in the House of Representatives is already plotting ways to
> raise taxes," said House Republican Conference Committee Chairman J.C.
> Watts Jr. of Oklahoma.
> Mr. Gephardt's remarks came just as the first of nearly $40 billion
> in tax rebates were mailed, and as the economy continued to show weakness
> amid rising unemployment.
> Less than 48 hours after the Register story hit the news wires, Mr.
> Gephardt's office issued a statement flatly denying the newspaper report.
> Speaking at a Democratic congressional fund-raising event in Des
> Moines on Saturday, Mr. Gephardt said Democrats "did what was right" when
> Congress raised income and gas taxes in 1993 under President Clinton,
> adding "I'll do it again" if the Democrats win control of the House in
> next year's midterm congressional elections.
> Mr. Gephardt prefaced his remarks about raising taxes by predicting
> that the Congressional Budget Office would soon issue a report forecasting
> that the budget would fall back into a deficit within six months. If that
> happens, the Bush administration will attempt to dip into funds set aside
> for Social Security and Medicare, he said.
> "Let me tell you something. I'm glad we did what was right in 1993,
> and I'll do it again because I believe in being fiscally responsible with
> the taxpayers' money," he said.
> The Des Moines newspaper published his remarks in a story under the
> headline "Tax Increase Possible, Gephardt Says." But the Democratic
> leader, who is considering another campaign for president, released a
> statement yesterday morning saying that story's "assumption [that House
> Democrats would raise taxes] could not be further from the truth."
> "I never addressed the future of taxes in my remarks because I don't
> believe they need to be raised. I believe that the Bush administration
> must work to keep this budget in the black despite an overzealous tax cut
> that threatens our prosperity," he said.
> GOP officials were not buying Mr. Gephardt's sudden backpedaling.
> They noted that he was a fierce opponent of Mr. Bush's 10-year, $1.35
> trillion tax cut package and tried to scale it back considerably.
> "It's clear that Gephardt proposed an idea that will hurt his
> presidential aspirations and now is backtracking. He's out holding
> fund-raisers with Jane Fonda and proposing tax increases, and that's not
> good for your image," said Carl Forti, spokesman for the National
> Republican Congressional Committee.
> "It seems to me that the Des Moines Register probably had it right
> and they were quoting him accurately," Mr. Forti said.
> House Republican leaders saw Mr. Gephardt's remarks as a political
> blunder and pummeled him in a flurry of statements.
> "The Democratic leadership in Congress is so out of touch with
> American taxpayers, they actually are promoting new tax hikes before
> families can even make it to Wal-Mart to cash their tax rebate checks,"
> Mr. Watts said.
> "The differences between the two political parties couldn't be more
> clear: Republican passes the largest tax relief package in 20 years. And
> Democrats are still talking about their handiwork in 1993 the largest tax
> increase in American history," he said.
> House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert also sharply attacked Mr. Gephardt
> and his party, saying "we need to find ways to get money back to the
> people, not back to the federal government."
> "As the American people get their first dollars from the tax-relief
> legislation enacted into law by the Congress and President Bush, they
> should realize that under a Democrat Congress, such tax relief would be
> short-lived," Mr. Hastert said.
> "Mr. Gepardt is wrong to want to raise taxes on the American people.
> The federal government already takes too many dollars from the budget of
> American families," he said.
> At a forum on tax-cut policy yesterday, House Majority Leader Dick
> Armey also raised Mr. Gephardt's weekend remarks and cracked, "I heard
> that Dick Gephardt has just declared that he wants to retain his current
> title of minority leader."
> "The suggestion that we raise taxes in tough economic times is
> ridiculous," said a spokesman for the Texas Republican.
> House Republican Whip Tom DeLay, also a Texas Republican, said that
> "Dick Gephardt's campaign commitments to higher taxes is a vivid reminder
> of the Democrats' two-step solution to any problem. They expand the
> government and shrink your wallet."
> Mr. Gephardt's latest call for higher taxes, just before midterm
> elections, was similar to remarks he made in June 1999, when he told
> Democrats in Philadelphia that if they won control of the House in 2000,
> he would push for higher taxes for education and deeper defense cuts.
> "You've got to have a combination of taking it out of the defense
> budget and raising revenue," Mr. Gephardt was quoted by the Philadelphia
> Inquirer as saying. "I'd be proud to vote for tax increases for schools.
> You bet I would." |
