Specter of tax man haunts Democrats

The Next Congress

Third of five parts

Repealing President Bush’s tax cuts and boosting social-welfare spending have been the meat and potatoes of the Democrats’ campaigns since the 2002 election, and they would be in a position to attempt both if they win control of Congress next week.

Mr. Bush has been warning in campaign speeches across the country that the Democrats “will raise your taxes” if voters put them in power, and Republican leaders have been making similar charges as Election Day draws closer.

Democrats have an outside chance of taking complete control of Congress, but a better chance of winning one chamber, and in this series, The Washington Times will look at how such a transfer of power will affect U.S. policy and politics.

House Minority Leader “Nancy Pelosi and congressional Democrats want the president’s tax-relief measures to expire, raising taxes on millions of Americans,” House Republican Whip Roy Blunt said last week.

Fearing Mr. Bush’s warnings about higher taxes could drive more people to vote Republican next week, Rep. Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat, released a statement Friday saying: “Nothing could be further from the truth. Democrats have a long history of supporting targeted relief for middle-income families.”

Mr. Rangel would be in line to run the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee if Democrats win a majority in the House.

Recent polls show that most Americans expect Democrats to raise their taxes and increase spending for new big-ticket programs such as health care for the uninsured.

A USA Today/Gallup Poll reported last week that 63 percent of Americans surveyed think Democrats are likely to “increase federal income taxes” if they win control of Congress — though 74 percent said they disapprove of it.

Past the rhetoric

Mr. Rangel, a fierce critic of the Bush tax cuts, said one of his priorities will be “to close tax shelters and eliminate benefits for companies that move jobs overseas,” moves that businesses fear would raise their taxes and reduce profits.

He also said that 2010, when the bulk of the tax cuts expire, is “light-years away from the debate before us, and we have no way of knowing what the economy or even our country’s leadership will look like at that time.”

Despite Mr. Rangel’s promise that Democrats would reach out to Republicans and the White House “to find common ground,” Republican tax-cutters point out that he told Bloomberg News several weeks ago that he could not think of one of Mr. Bush’s tax cuts that deserved to be extended

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