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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (14968)	4/15/2004 1:34:49 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

TERESA FIGHTS TO KEEP HER TAX RETURNS PRIVATE XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX THU APRIL 15, 2004 11:04:27 ET XXXXX Exclusive Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, who has called for full-disclosure of rivals' tax returns, now faces growing pressure to release his wife's records. But in a Tax Day controversy, Teresa Heinz Kerry is personally determined to keep her returns out of public view -- at any cost! "This is my life, my business, not John's," Mrs. Kerry recently explained to a campaign staffer, a top source tells the DRUDGE REPORT. "I think it is very important to keep the privacy zone. There is a tradition of this." GHOST OF FERRARO Top Kerry campaign staffers fear Heinz Kerry will not be able to hold back calls for a public release, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. Staffers have been studying the '84 presidential campaign, when former Dem VP Candidate Geraldine Ferraro conceded release of her husband's tax returns, but only after an excruciating media fight! Ferraro said that when she asked her husband, John Zaccaro, to release the returns his reaction was, "I won't tell you how to run the country and don't you tell me how to run my business." Asked by reporters why Zaccaro was opposed to releasing his tax return, she said, "He feels his business interests would be affected." That summer, a NEW YORK TIMES editorial hit Ferraro for refusing to disclose her husband's returns: "Disclosing tax returns, as originally promised, would not amount to telling Mr. Zaccaro how to run his business." HEINZ ASSETS USED TO BOOST CAMPAIGN In December '03, Kerry announced that he loaned his campaign $6.4 Million by mortgaging a share of a Boston home he jointly owns with his wife. Teresa Heinz Kerry paid cash for the Beacon Hill mansion in January 1995. But according To Kerry's own 1994 senate personal financial disclosure [signed May, 15, 1995], Kerry's own personal net worth was somewhere between a negative $130,000 to positive $34,995. The current loan on the house carries an annual interest payment of $200,000, records show, more than Kerry's $158,000 Senate salary. Kerry's campaign insists he intends to pay off the 30-year mortgage himself. "Sen. Kerry is a man who has considerable assets," spokesman Michael Meehan explains. But Kerry's own financial disclosures show no assets sufficient to pay the loan -- or even a way to keep up with the interest payments! KERRY: CLEAR THE AIR Besides a blurring of Heinz-Kerry assets, the campaign is also wresting with past quotes made by Kerry himself. In his 1990 Senate race, Kerry asked his challenger to "clear the air" by releasing tax returns. "I think people want to know whether someone they possibly might send to Washington to represent them in the Senate is someone who pays their fair share of taxes,'" Kerry said. "Why is James Rappaport hiding his tax returns?" Kerry asked. "Why is it some people can live up to that standard and he can't? It seems to me that he ought to be able to release those returns and clear the air... "Why doesn't he just release them? What is he hiding?" And at the height of last year's primary race, Kerry vowed that "openness" would be the "hallmark" of his administration. "As president, openness will be the hallmark of my administration, not some talking point... The highest office in the land requires the highest level of openness for the American people." Developing... ----------------------------------------------------------- Filed By Matt Drudge Reports are moved when circumstances warrant drudgereport.com for updates (c)DRUDGE REPORT 2004 Not for reproduction without permission of the author

To: American Spirit who wrote (14968)	4/15/2004 5:26:01 PM
From: Ann Corrigan	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 81568

Wrong again. Take note that GW Bush is not a millionaire while Kerry/Heinz are raking in so much that journalists cannot ascertain their exact worth--most reports place their fortune somewhere between $400 million to $800M. Pres Bush's income corresponds much more closely with average American voter's income than does bizillionaire John Kerry's vast fortune. Here are the tax cut facts: Bush: Tax Cuts Boosting Economic Growth Thursday, 15-Apr-2004 11:20AM PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- As millions of Americans filed their tax returns Thursday, President Bush told hundreds of Midwesterners that his tax cuts are boosting economic growth. "Tax relief we passed is helping to drive the economy forward ... just at the right time" following recession and the Sept. 11 attacks, said Bush, headlining a two-day symposium on rural America. He said the economy lost 1 million jobs in just three months after Sept. 11. This year is "a little better" because of his administration's tax cuts, the president said, and credited them with helping to create 308,000 jobs last month and 750,000 jobs since August. Bush said the American people expect the government to keep the taxpayers' burden as low as possible and "I take that responsibility seriously." Before Bush spoke, the White House issued a "fact sheet" stating that 109 million American taxpayers will see their taxes decline this year by an average of $1,544. Sponsored by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, the symposium was led by Sen. Charles Grassley, head of Bush's re-election campaign in the state, and Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat whom Bush helped try to oust in 2002. Though Iowa carries only seven electoral votes, Bush and Kerry are battling hard for the state. Both men and their aligned interest groups are airing TV ads there. Bush lost the state in 2000 by fewer than 5,000 votes. Bush and his wife, Laura, paid $227,490 in federal income taxes last year-- or about 28 percent of their adjusted gross income of $822,126. In 2002, about 31 percent of their adjusted gross income of $856,056 went to federal taxes.