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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (19271)	12/10/2003 2:03:26 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793656

Now that Dean is the "Tall Poppy," we can expect a lot of attempts to "Lop" him for his positions. REVIEW & OUTLOOK Howard Dean Live Yeah, raise taxes, that's the ticket! WSJ.com Al Gore's endorsement yesterday is a coup for Howard Dean and has pundits proclaiming that the former Vermont Governor has sewn up the Democratic nomination. We'd prefer to give the voters a say first, and before they vote they deserve to know more about this political unknown boasting that he'll topple a popular incumbent President. For example, Democrats who actually want to win next year might consider the possibility that proposing a huge tax increase might not be popular. We know many Democrats don't want to believe this, but millions of voters prefer to keep the money they earn. Really. We're not making this up. As historical evidence, we suggest that Democrats--and the Dean campaign, for that matter--consult the archive for NBC's "Saturday Night Live." Specifically, the show from 1988 featuring Jon Lovitz as the defeated Democratic presidential nominee in a skit called "Dukakis After Dark." The setting is election eve, and even before the polls are closed it's already clear--as Mr. Lovitz's Dukakis candidly admits--that he doesn't stand a "chance of winning this election." But he goes through with his party anyway, and Lloyd Bentsen walks up with a question. "Mike!" says his running mate. "Now that it's all over, you can tell me. You were gonna raise taxes, weren't you?" Martini in hand, clad in a burgundy smoking jacket, Mr. Lovitz doesn't even blink: "Through the roof!" Talk about life imitating comedy. On the eve of nominating battles in Iowa and New Hampshire, the GOP-leaning Club for Growth has begun airing an ad linking Mr. Dean to Mr. Dukakis, George McGovern and Walter Mondale. "For three decades," runs the ad, "Democratic presidential candidates have supported huge tax increases. This year they're back. Howard Dean says he'll raise taxes on the average family by more than $1,900 a year." The reference is to Mr. Dean's repeated and vociferous pledge to repeal every last dime of the Bush tax cuts. As even Democratic opponents John Kerry and Joe Lieberman note, such a repeal would be a huge tax hike on the middle class. And the Club for Growth spot has hit a nerve: Campaign Manager Joe Trippi denounced it as a "bald-faced lie," and the Dean campaign quickly released its own counter-spot. What makes the Dean response so interesting is what its rejoinder leaves out. Far from denying the substance of the Club for Growth charges, the Dean campaign changes the subject. The former Vermont governor, runs his defense, is a "fiscal conservative who cut state income taxes--twice." As it happens, even this claim has come under fire. To begin with, at least one of those Vermont state tax cuts--the largest of the two--was signed into law by his Republican predecessor. Then, too, while the Dean folks like to talk about how they got rid of the sales tax on clothing, the Boston Globe notes that under his administration the overall sales tax actually went up. The real issue now is not whether Mr. Dean allowed some taxes to be trimmed at a time when the 50 states were rolling in revenue but what he'll do to the national economy if he becomes President. And proposing to repeal the tax cuts that are spurring the current economic recovery strikes us as a losing platform. All the more so because Mr. Dean is proposing to raise other taxes too. He's on record this year as saying that the way to "fix" Social Security is to raise the payroll tax. Wage earners currently stop paying Social Security levies at $87,000 in income. But Mr. Dean would eliminate that ceiling--adding one more huge (6.2%) marginal tax rate increase on millions of middle-class earners. In his counter TV ad, Mr. Dean touts his 11 balanced budgets as evidence of his fiscal conservatism. But we've also been here before. Do the Dean folks even remember Governor Dukakis? He also ran as a frugal New England Governor who'd balanced 10 budgets and was so tight with a buck he cut his lawn with a manual mower. As usual, the merrymakers at SNL saw through the spin. "You know," said Mr. Lovitz's Dukakis, "I think the one thing that really hurt us is that Reaganomics works. It really does." Democrats might want to get hold of that video, because Mr. Dean doesn't seem to realize he's already reading from the script. opinionjournal.com