Kerry Slams Bush Economic Record; Will Meet with Dean

[UpInArms]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=4538909§ion=news

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Democratic White House candidate John Kerry on Wednesday slammed George W. Bush for giving average Americans "the short end of the stick" and said the Republican president's tax cuts were digging the U.S. economy into a deeper hole.

Before heading to Washington for talks with former rival Howard Dean, Kerry told the AFL-CIO labor federation's winter meeting that Republicans would run a campaign of "fear and blame" but that he was ready for it.

"It must be getting lonely for George Bush. It seems he's the last person in America who actually believes his failed policies will ever work," Kerry told the umbrella group of more than 60 unions representing 13 million workers. He spoke by satellite from a factory in Chicago to the meeting in Bal Harbour, Florida.

Borrowing from Dean's rhetoric, Kerry argued that there really was no middle class tax cut under Bush. When the president's economic policies were added up then the burden on the middle class was effectively increased by a "Bush tax."

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looks like the meeting with Dean is to get him to endorse Kerry and get the Dean supporters

[yardwork]

1. State and local governments are raising taxes.

I hope that Kerry mentions how state and local tax rates are increasing due to the budget shortfalls caused by the economic disaster that Bush caused.

When we balance a piddling federal tax cut against sharply increasing state and local taxes, oh and the fact that we lost our jobs too, the net result is a huge loss for everyone except the very wealthiest people in the country.

[Ganja Ninja]

2. Bush is taking our payroll taxes and giving them to the rich.

That is what his tax cut for the middle class amounts to.

[BlueEyedSon]

3. Freakin' ay!

Redistribution of wealth in the wrong direction.

[RobertSeattle]

5. That's been the trend for 20 years. Using SS to help reduce Income Taxes

The other spin is that during deficits, any federal tax cut without a corresponding decrease in spending, is not a tax cut at all - it is just a tax shift to to future generations - effectively RAISING taxes for them since they have to pay OUR debts.
So much for "we won't pass problems on to future administrations".

[w4rma]

4. He's right on target. Fantastic job, Sen. Kerry! (n/t)